New Mexico District 5 Little League

District 5 League President’s Meeting October 22, 2008      6:03 pm Held at Road Runner Little League

Attending:

Bill Hendrick Chris Hughes Mike Royce Antoinette Sabedra Camilla Serrano Altamont - Kim Kerschen, Monica Otero Danny Schaefer, Sharon Walton East Mountain - Karen Demarest Lobo - Mel Martinez Roadrunner - Wally Romero, John Dellalonga Suzanne Beck Thunderbird - Valerie Sisneros, Jeff Velasquez Zia - Jay Straub

Absent: Atrisco Valley Kirtland AFB Mile High

This is our first meeting of the new season and we are welcoming 2 new leagues to District 5.  Welcome Altamont and Roadrunner and we look forward to playing and working with you!!

Introductions were held so that way we can meet everyone who is there.

Roadrunner and Altamont were once a member of District 5.  Once upon a time there was only 1 district in Albuquerque.  It was eventually split and Roadrunner and Altamont were moved to district 8.  Recently Roadrunner and Altamont requested from the Charter Committee Little League International to move from District 8 to District 5.  The charter committee met on October 9 and approved their request to move.  Once approved Camilla reviewed our district and offered Atrisco Valley the opportunity to request a move to a District closer to their location.  The board met and voted to stay in District 5.   Camilla is happy to keep everyone in her district; however, there will be some interleague challenges.  Chris and Camilla will work through these challenges.  On the positive side we now have 8 leagues and that is a nice round balance for us.  Our district has a lot of history, Altamont used to be the powerhouse before East dale Mile High just celebrated 50 years and Lobo has kids that just want to have fun.  All you have to do is beat Jerry’s team.  Lots of unique qualities within each league.  East Mountain has had to overcome many challenges and they play at the base of the mountain and it is beautiful.  Atrisco worked hard on the field and put in a lot of work to improve their fields.  There is also a lot of culture at Atrisco that you have to embrace.  You can’t think of softball without thinking of Val from Thunderbird.  Softball is lost at so many leagues except thunderbird.  Jennifer Burns is head of our challenger program.  She has done a fabulous job in increasing her numbers and she wanted to make sure to convey to Altamont and Roadrunner know she will be working with you to increase the numbers in the challenger program.  So now that we know where we have been and where we are today, we have lots of things to look forward too!!

District Staff - Bill Hendrick does a great job, he is very professional and umpired a few regional tournaments and those appointments don’t come lightly, there is a lot of peoples names that get thrown into a hat.  I am desperately in need of another ADA and in need of a person to work on the website.  I would like to fill those positions and get them rolling, so if you know people that can work on the district 5 staff let Camilla know.

Year End - the new season begins on October 1.  Everyone needs to think about closing out the financials and turning in a form 990 to the IRS.  Note:  If you are league that had less than $25000 at the end of last year you now have to file a 990N at the very least.  Everyone has to file something.  You also need to file your annual report with the Public Regulation Commission.  You need to maintain your non-profit status.  If your league is not in good standing we have some great resources available.

Please everyone send in electronic format your board list to Camilla.  This is great if she has a safety question or player agent question, she can just contact that person directly.  This is good information for her to have.

Presidents List was handed out; we have added Vice Presidents to the list.  If you are missing some information please send to Antoinette and she can update for the next meeting.  Camilla decided to add VP’s to list because she would like to add to her mass email list for notices and stuff.  Sometime Presidents can’t make it and it is very important to have each league represented at every meeting and it is always good to have more than 1 person from each so they both know what is going on.

Abbreviated Road Show - Every year little league put on a road show.  This year there is going to be one in Roswell.   Mike Witherwax would like one to be hosted in Albuquerque.  Camilla agreed to do an abbreviated session (Sunday afternoon following Roswell’s on Friday and Saturday).  Camilla wants input from everyone on what topics (problem areas) to cover.  Jim Ferguson is probably coming to cover Safety and they are probably also going to cover Player Agent.  They also may cover other things of their own and if you think of something else, you can send Camilla an email.  Suggestions so far are Umpires and Volunteers.  Roswell may be first part of January.  As soon as the date is announce Camilla will let everyone know.

Softball Survey - It went to the District Administrators.  Camilla wants input from the leagues before she answers.  The leagues did not support the change in softball size from 11″ to 12″ in 10-11 tournament play.

Camilla will be in Waco the first week of December.  They will have the regional meeting followed by the NM State meeting.  You need to go back and think about regional issues or state tournament issues.  Camilla needs to know what they are so she can address them at the meetings.  Shoot her an email with the information.  It was suggested that too many double headers are too hard especially in the losers bracket.  Some things can’t be avoided due to dates.  Tournaments are all scheduled after the World Series is scheduled.

Where do we go from here - Lets talk outside of the box, new leagues, more teams, and interleague structures.  What are some things we want to do?  We can’t do everything in one year but we can take 3 things and go from there.  What do you want to have happen?  What kind of things do you want to see?

Preseason tournament means a bunch of teams from each district but will this work?  Camilla would like to get everyone excited at the beginning of the season.   Maybe a Jamboree on Opening day of the season is a better idea.  Everyone plays on that day.  This would be a one day or weekend thing.  The winners don’t advance or go any further.

How do we re-energize softball?  Can we get someone to come in and do a softball clinic?  It is hard to set up a clinic and not get players from little league to show up.  Can we get Michelle Smith to come back again?  She said she would come to do a pitchers clinic.  When girls are playing softball it is the pitching that is important.  There would be a limit to 20 girls per session and she could do 2 sessions.  The sessions need to be filled so they are not opened up to ASA.

Preseason Scrimmage Games - can we scrimmage other leagues in the district?  Maybe games can be played every weekend in March to opening day.  If you would like to scrimmage a team in another district, Camilla does not have a problem with that, but you have to get permission from the District Administrator for that league.

General membership meetings for parent education.  The challenge is getting the parents to go.  If you can get them at the t-ball level then it is much easier.  Once we get them there how do we continue to keep them playing nice in the sandbox?  Lobo doesn’t have problems with parents.  Altamont makes it clear that they have zero tolerance for problems with parents, kids, volunteers, etc.  Can we come up with something that is district wide?  We have to support each other as leaders in our district. Best Business Practices for the leagues.  Set up some Saturday and go over certain topics where everyone shares ideas and what works for some leagues. District Round Table Session.

We have an interleague book that has all the information and each league has the same information so there is no confusion.

Roadrunner and Altamont volunteered to host the Jamboree/Scrimmage games and will put in the games request.  They will also come up with a game plan and bring to the district to see if it will work.

Chris Hughes will contact Michelle Smith and possibly UNM to see what we can set up for softball.

Camilla will set up the District Round Table for the board members to attend.  The parent education is a good round table thing but we need to go further.  Sharon Walton will look into the Coaching Alliance to see what other information she can get.  Parents are a liability and we need to take care of this.

Meeting adjourned at 7:34 pm.