Hingham Little League Board of Directors Meeting
April 4, 2005
Hingham Recreation Center

Meeting Minutes

The thirtieth meeting of the Hingham Little League Board of Directors was
called to order by President Rob Blomberg at 7:40 pm.

Present: Rob Blomberg, Bruce Corwin, Joe Craven, Tim Driscoll, Melissa Flanagan, Mike Letorney , Mark Igo, Bob Keyes, Rick Linehan, Rick West, Tim Zyrkowski Tia Mastromatteo, Owen McConville, Elliot Sherman,

Absent: Cliff Boyle, Paul LeBlanc, Joe Granatino, Rich Magner, Steve White

Secretary’s Report
• Approval of Meeting Minutes from 3/21/04 Meeting
o Minutes approved, to be posted by Tim Driscoll

Treasurer’s Report
• Current Balance
o Approximately 69,859.48
• Outstanding Expenses
o Equipment, umpires, and uniforms represent the majority of expenses
o Storage shed repair paid, approximately 0

Business Related Issues

• Local Little League Business Filings and Topics
o Articles of Incorporation-Renewal
o Public Charity Filings
o 501 (3) c Form
 In progress. Joe needs an electronic copy of the bylaws as approved from last year, Mark Igo to follow up
o Insurance Fees and Options
 Preliminary version filed
o Population Waiver
 Rob forwarded letter to Don Whitman on 3/10/05
• No response
• National Little League Business Filings
o Charter Application
• Preliminary version filed
o Charter Fees
• Part of insurance application
• Preliminary version filed
• Audit of 2003/2004 HLL Financial Results
o Status of Audit
• Bob will be in contact with Alan Gladstone after tax season.
• HLL Constitution and HLL By-Laws
• Copies to All Board Members (Electronically)
• As above, Mark is going to track them down, distribute, and post to site
• Posted on HLL Web Site

New Business

• Player Registration-Membership Committee Report
o Rick Linehan and Elliot Sherman are Co-Chairpersons
o Establishment of New “Final” Registration Date
• Final date has passed
o Updated Registration Counts
• Breakdown by age groups
• 12-69
• 11-93
• 10 & 9 (combined 237)
• 8 & 7 (Rick didn’t report his numbers...you might want to followup with him)
• 6 & 5 ( combined 191)
• Challenger-2
o HLL Website
• Use of HLL website for registration database
o Update on Schedule for Major’s, Minors, Farm and T Ball
• Update from Rick Linehan
• Majors and Minors schedules are just about completed, Farm and T-Ball on the way. Opening day for Minors will be 4/30, Opening Day Majors is May 1st

• Sponsorships and Donations-Committee Report
o Chairpersons are Melissa Flanagan and Tia Mastromatteo
o Update of 2005 sponsors at all four levels (Major, Minor, Farm and T Ball)
• Just about all are accounted for, checks are in the mail for remaining 4 or 5 in question. Need 2 sponsors for Farm, Melissa will continue to seek other sponsors, can also advertise at Farm Draft if needed. Otherwise, miles ahead of last year on Sponsorship from last year.
o Discuss Other Issues
• 501 (c) (3) form required for Verizon sponsorship remains outstanding

League Rules and Local By-Law Issues

• Player Agent Report
o Mike Letorney is Player Agent
o Status of Tryouts-4/2 and 4/3 at the South Shore Sports Center
• Outstanding Issues?
o Tryouts held as above with very few issues. Terrific job Mike and all the staff.
o Staffing times at tryout table
o Procedures to be followed
• Coordination with Dan McHugh for HHS varsity players
o Rob will send thank you letter to Dan for the players, really helped out a lot, much appreciated.
• Make-up tryout date
o Only a handful expected on April 5th. There are 3 or 4 12 year old players who Mike will contact for final determination as to their commitment (registered but did not show for tryout or notify Board Member). One player is known to be injured.
• Status of Draft
• Outstanding Issues?

• Drafting rule was discussed, change confirmed that Major managers can select ten year olds by the end of the fifth round, as opposed to the fourth round as was originally stated. This makes the rule consistent with the LL rule for manager selection of ten year old children - and is also fairer to those new managers with 11 year old children to select - which must be done by the fourth round. Remember, maximum of two ten year olds per team.

• Lengthy discussion on issue on minimum and maximum of numbers of 12 year old players per team, in light of the unknown ‘final’ numbers of 12’s that need to be drafted as per Little League rules.

A MOTION was made and PASSED that requires all Major teams to carry a minimum of five or six 12 year old players and a maximum of 6. In order to ensure all the twelve year olds eligible are accounted for and selected, a lottery will take place BEFORE THE DRAFT that will require some number of teams to carry a minimum of six 12 year olds to level off the numbers. This will be enforced until all the 12 year olds are selected.

• MINORS: There were a significant number of players that did not try out - approximately 30, and discussion on this issue ensued. Some concern was voiced that this has a remote possibility of trying to hide players in order for protecting them in the draft, clearly against the rules. It was agreed that the best way to handle this issue is that only players who participated in try outs will be drafted, with the remaining players allocated to teams by blind draw. Our goal is to have as balanced a league as possible, and the fastest way for that not to happen is to draft about 15% of the players without having seen them play.

• Draft Meetings will precede each draft
• Draft/Selection Dates
• Majors-4/8 from 7-9 at Hingham Rec
• Minors-4/12 from 7-9:30 at PRS
• Farm/TBall-4/13 from 7-9:30 at PRS
• Draft order at Majors and Minors
• Majors-follow LL rules where last place of last year picks first and continues in reverse order of finish for Majors
o There was some discussion on this issue, and the Board confirmed we will use the serpentine method 1-12, 13-1, etc. as allowed within Little League rules as reviewed and understood during this discussion.
• Minors order to be determined by double draw out of hat

• Major League Committee Report
o Joe Granatino is Chairperson
o Outstanding Issues?
• No report, no known issues at this time
o Age limitations and restrictions
• All 12 year olds automatically in Majors (Little League rule)
• Number of players per Major’s team is 13 per team
• Maximum of two 10 year olds per team can be drafted in Majors
• 10’s must be taken by the 5th round
• Determine minimum number of 12’s required per team
• As above

• Minor League Committee Report
o Paul LeBlanc is the Chairperson
o Outstanding Issues?
• No report, no known issues

• Farm League Committee
o Chairperson is Tim Driscoll
o Outstanding Issues?
• No issues to report.

• TBall Committee
o Chairperson is Mark Igo
o Outstanding Issues?
• Discussed issue of early starting times for Sunday games. Mark will work with Rick for the best possible solutions for scheduling the games. It was noted that not all teams will always be starting before 12:00 pm each week which allows some flexibility. We have a lot teams with a lot of players to support this season (nearly 200 enrolled).

• Manager’s Committee Report
o Joe Craven is Chairperson
o Status of selection of Managers and Coaches at all levels
• Issues on specific coaches
• Nearly complete; Joe will finalize this week
o CORI applications will need to be completed and submitted by all prospective Managers and Coaches
• To be reaffirmed at Drafts
o Dates for intermediate and advanced training for Managers and Coaches
• To be determined, likely to be the week of April 25th as vacation week is expected to limit attendance.
o Practice manual for HLL will be developed
o Communication of HLL’s Coaching and Parental Policy
• Policy to be discussed prior to all Drafts

• Equipment Committee Report
o Rick West is Chairperson
o Outstanding Issues
• Inventory completed in 1/05 of existing equipment and uniforms at all four levels
• Budget for 2005 will be approximately ,000
• Determine what equipment needs to be replaced
• Status of ordering uniforms
• Uniforms and equipment for T-Ball and Farm ordered from Rockland. Purchased additional helmets to be equipped with facemasks (1 per Major and Minor team) as previously voted on. Miscellaneous equipment purchases ongoing.
• Issue of uniforms not being returned
• Managers agreed last year in writing to return all uniforms at risk of losing their ability to manage again. The missing shirts amount to nearly 00 in costs which should have been avoidable. The Equipment Committee will contact last year’s Managers who were responsible for the missing shirts before further determination will be made. How to deal with the Managers who failed to return all shirts will be discussed at next meeting.
• Determine which potential vendor(s) will be used for ordering equipment
• Best prices found by dividing vendors between Rockland and Beacon Sports; will continue to work with both vendors based on price and service.
• Equipment that will be provided
• Majors-hat, shirt, pants and sox
o Question arose regarding ordering of pants and sox at the Majors level. It was determined that most expedient way is to have coaches take pant sizes of players after the draft and contact Mark and Rick for ordering and color coordination with hats. This will ensure the little guys aren’t stuck with big guy pants and vice versa. Pickup will be arranged either by manager or Mark/Rick, to be determined.
• Minors, Farm and T Ball-hat and shirt
o Awaiting finalization of sponsorship and missing shirts prior to final order
• Status of batting cage at Haley/Cronin
o Batting cage has been delivered, is at the Rec.
• Cleaning of Shirts/ Getting LL Patches Sewn Onto Uniforms
o Melissa will followup with Lapels to determine if they have interest in cleaning, packaging, sewing on patches and repairing our uniform inventory

• Umpire Committee Report
o Rich Magner is Chairperson
o Review umpire requirements, rule changes and expectations for 2005
o Rates for umpires remain unchanged
o Completion of CORI form by all umpires
o Rule books need to be ordered
• Rob has ordered necessary copies
o Shirts needs to be ordered for new umpires
• Ordered
o Dates for the two followup training sessions (one session for all umpires and a second session for returning umpires)
• Posted April 7th for first session. Second session to be verified, during the week of April 25th is target.

• Challenger Division Report
o Chairpersons are Rob Blomberg, Joe Granatino and Tia Mastromatteo
o Ongoing problems encountered in getting the Challenger Division started
• Recommendation to table Challenger until Fall, 2005 or Spring, 2006
o Requirements for the Program
• Identification and number of players
• Two registrants thus far
• Update on recruitment
• Communication with Parents Advisory Committee
• Have received two versions of PAC List but cannot use the list due to concerns on how to make contact with the PAC as many names on the PAC List have disabilities that don’t qualify them for Challenger Division
• Need to attend next PAC Meeting to discuss and continue to spread the word about Challenger
o Communication of the Challenger Division Program
• Additional articles in the Hingham Journal, the Patriot Ledger and in the Boston Globe South edition
• No responses
• HLL Website
• Additional Contacts-Dan McHugh
• Hold meeting for parents of potential players
o Change in potential start date of Challenger Division to the fall of 2005 or spring of 2006
• Agreed that this was prudent decision at this time. Noted that the Braintree program took a year or two to get rolling. We will continue to pursue all avenues for publicizing. Discussion ensued regarding allowing Challenger candidates to participate in the other divisions; there is no rule against this and it can be taken up on an individual basis.

• Buildings, Property and Grounds Committee Report
o Cliff Boyle and Tim Zyrkowski-Co-Chairs
o Status of Existing Playing Fields-Haley, Hersey and PAL Fields
o Hingham Rec Permit Requirements
• Permit request for Haley, Hersey and PAL fields filed on 2/27/05
• Some additional information still needs to be provided to Hingham Rec to support the application
• .00 will be charged per player per team
• Await results of Rec meeting 4/6. Rob and Cliff to follow up

o Update on use of Hingham School Department Fields
• Permit filed for use of Hingham School Department Fields
• .00 per player user fee will be imposed by Hingham School Department
• Fields will be used for Minors
• Update on Rob’s phone call with Barbara from Hingham Schools on 2/28
• Still need communication from department and confirmation of availability. Rob to ask Cliff to follow up this week.
o Status of Ordering Portable Rest Rooms
• Need to be ordered from Haley, Hersey and PAL
• Bob to follow up

• Social Committee Report
o Chairpersons are Melissa Flanagan and Tia Mastromatteo
o Identify potential fundraisers
• Golf tournament is 9/21/05
• Other suggestions

• Publicity Committee
o Melissa Flanagan is Chairperson
o Decision made on photo vendor for HLL in 2005


• Safety Committee
o Owen McConville-Chairperson
o Discussion of details of ASAP Program (A Safety Awareness Program)
o Next steps needed to initiate the program
• Owen distributed draft of plan, requires some more information on enrollment.
• First aid equipment received for all teams, additional ice packs etc. for each of the Field boxes

• Concession Committee
o Elliot Sherman is chairperson
o Status of concession stand at PAL Field
• Volunteers are signing up and still being solicited. It was decided to open only on weekends. We have access to the facility. Need to discuss specific logistics at next meeting

• Calendar of Events
o Review HLL Calendar of Events for potential changes to the Calendar
• Opening Day ceremony at Hersey will be between scheduled games for Minor league teams on Saturday, April 30th. It was decided not to host a cookout for this event due to tightness of schedule. Invite for all Minor teams in uniform was an open issue
o Updated Calendar posted on the website

• Hingham Little League Website
o Status of additional content for the HLL Website
o Use of scheduling software
o Use of web banners

• PAL Field Conversion/Tom Hastings land swap
o 4/05 Town Meeting

• Other New Business
o Other fundraising opportunities

• Schedule for Upcoming Meetings
• Meeting scheduled for 4/11 has been moved
o Wednesday 4/27/05
o Monday 5/16/05
o Monday 6/6/05
o Monday 6/20/05
o Monday 7/11/05
o Monday 8/8/05
o Monday 9/12/05
o Monday 10/3/05
o Monday 10/24/05 (Annual Meeting)

Meeting Adjourned at 10:15 pm

Submitted by Tim Driscoll