Hingham Little League Board of Directors
Meeting Minutes October 3, 2005
Hingham Recreation Center
7:30 pm

The 38th meeting of the Hingham Little League Board of Directors was called to order by President Rob Blomberg at 7:35 pm.

Present: Rob Blomberg, Steve White, Bob Keyes, Melissa Flanagan, Elliot Sherman, Tim Driscoll, Mark Igo, Rick West, Rich Magner, Joe Granatino, Cliff Boyle. Tia Mastromatteo and Rick Linehan joined late.
Absent: Paul LeBlanc, Mike Letorney, Tim Zyrkowski, Joe Craven, Bruce Corwin, Owen McConville

Secretary’s Report
· Approval of Meeting Minutes from 9/12/05 Meeting
o Motion was made and vote passed to accept minutes of 9/12/05 minutes without changes. Tim Driscoll to post to the website.

Treasurer’s Report
· Current Balance - ,223.
· Outstanding Expenses May be an additional smaller bill for Beacon
· Other Issues? Bob noted that HLL has paid 50 in player user fees and over 00 for field repairs and preservation.

Business Related Issues

· Local Little League Business Filings and Topics
o Public Charity Filings
§ Status of 501(3)c Form
· Just about complete. Joe has some final followup to do with Rob this week. Mark provided copy of website and cd-rom with all its contents for the filing.

· Audit of 2003/2004 HLL Financial Results
o Status of Audit
· No new developments; needs to be filed be end of October. Mr. Gladstone putting on finishing touches

· Annual Meeting- Tuesday October 25, 2005
o Location - Elliot confirmed Plymouth River School
o Time - 7:00pm. Elliot suggested Board please plan to be there at 6:30pm
o Logistics (Pre-Meeting)
· Creation of Announcement
· Elliot provided a copy of last year’s announcement. Rob provided some minor edits.
· Mailing
· Discussed need to mail package; group consensus was this is still a good idea and worth the expense. The packet will also be emailed.
· Initial email notice was sent on Friday, September 30th by Tim Driscoll. We need to send next announcement with more than 10 days advance notice to the membership, along with agenda and membership forms. Tim will coordinate mailing activities.
· Hingham Journal Article
· Melissa will forward notification to Hingham Journal for inclusion two times
· HLL Website – Done, Elliot posted to the site.
· Election committee is comprised of Rob Blomberg (President), Tim Driscoll (Secretary), Rick West and Joe Granatino. As duties of Secretary outline, Tim is responsible for preparing the Annual Meeting and will seek assistance.
o Logistics (At Meeting)
· Membership Fees will remain at .00 (approved on 9/12/05 BOD Meeting)
· Proposed Changes to HLL Constitution
· 2 recommendations for changes to the Constitution to be considered and voted on by the membership were discussed and submitted.
o Melissa Flanagan submitted a motion as below; to change wording in Article VII, Section 3 regarding the role of Vice President as it pertains to all summer travel and/or tournament teams. The wording does not explicitly name a committee to handle this as is the case with most other areas of business and a clarification was requested.
§ A motion was made and a vote passed to recommend to the membership that an amendment be made to the Constitution that the provision in paragraph c of ARTICLE VII, SECTION 3 entitled Vice President be striken from the duties of the Vice President. This paragraph specifies that the Vice President is responsible for the conduct and operation of all summer travel and/or tournament teams, and that a new committee entitled ‘The Summer Travel/Tournament Team Committee’ be added to the constitution, with the Vice President as chair of this committee, and the provisions of ARTICLE VII, SECTION 3, paragraph c regarding the responsibility for conduct and operation of all summer travel and /or tournament teams to be incorporated therein.
o Discussion followed on the issue of the number of members of the Board of Directors. This year the number was increased to 19, and some believe this was too many; we had a couple of issues reaching quorum at our meetings, and the expected benefits of increasing the number were not realized.
§ A motion was made and a vote passed to recommend to the membership that an amendment be made to the Constitution to reduce the number of elected members of the Board of Director from 19 to 15 members for 2006.
· Nominations
· Nominations for all Board Positions to be submitted prior to the meeting and accepted up until the election. Forms will be sent with the meeting notification and are posted on the website. All interested members are encouraged to run, and note that participation as a board member requires a significant time commitment.
· President’s Report
· Treasurer’s Report
· Election of New Board
· Rick West, as a non-running member and part of the Election Committee will manage the counting of ballots. Thank you Rick for your effort and dedication for your 2 years served.
· Schedule First Meeting of the New Board


New Business

· Player Registration-Membership Committee Report & Team Schedules
o Rick Linehan and Elliot Sherman are Co-Chairpersons
o Outstanding Issues?
· Nothing to report

· Sponsorships and Donations-Committee Report
o Chairpersons are Melissa Flanagan and Tia Mastromatteo
o Outstanding Issues
· 501 (c) (3) form required for Verizon sponsorship remains outstanding
· Status of Distribution of Sponsorship Plaques
· Thanks to Melissa, all but 2 of the plaques have been distributed to our sponsors.

League Rules and Local By-Law Issues

· Player Agent Report
o Mike Letorney is Player Agent.
· Outstanding Issues?
· No report


· Major League Committee Report
o Joe Granatino is Chairperson
· Outstanding Issues?
· Nothing to report

· Minor League Committee Report
o Paul LeBlanc is the Chairperson
· Outstanding Issues?
· No report

· Manager’s Committee Report
o Joe Craven is Chairperson
· Outstanding Issues?
· No report

· Equipment Committee Report
o Rick West is Chairperson
· Status of Equipment Return
· There are still over 15 bags awaiting return. Managers were asked to return all equipment on several occasions, and those not doing so would risk their status as eligible coaches in the program. Rob has asked for a list and will personally contact all the managers with equipment bags.
· Outstanding issues involving equipment or other items
· Uniforms-Missing Sponsor Names and Patches
o Awaits return of all equipment as above. The uniforms are going to be cleaned, patched, and boxed by Lapels and we need to do our best to facilitate this.
· Status of Batting Cage at Haley/Cronin-Spring 2006
· Outstanding Issues?
· Rick reports that we need a bigger storage bin in Weymouth and will follow up, the expense is clearly worth it
· Umpire Committee Report
o Rich Magner is Chairperson
· Outstanding issues?
· Nothing to report
· Safety Committee
o Owen McConville-Chairperson
· ASAP Program (A Safety Awareness Program) Approved
· Other outstanding issues?
· No report

· Challenger Division Report
o Chairpersons are Rob Blomberg, Joe Granatino and Tia Mastromatteo
o Tabled until Winter, 2006

· Buildings, Property and Grounds Committee Report
o Cliff Boyle and Tim Zyrkowski-Co-Chairs
o Outstanding Issues?
o Report from Sub Committee (Melissa and Elliot)
· PAL/Lynch Field Status
o Elliot keeping a close eye on developments. There are continuing discussions with the town and the developer regarding clean-up, doesn’t appear likely development will interrupt the start of the season at this time.
· Other alternatives included repairing back field at Hersey, Plymouth River, South, possibly Middle School field, Kress Field, East School, Hull Street field, Notre Dame Academy, High School etc. or other alternative venues
o Rob commented that we were lucky this year to have gotten South School, and we should push to get 1 or 2 new sites next season. Discussed that the School Committee still has control of several of the fields, all of which are lacking in care due to funding, and that we should approach them to discuss possibilities for us to contribute to repair and maintenance of the fields. Issue will be a recommended carry over for the new Board of Directors.
· Status of the dugouts at Haley Field
o Plans being made for Margett’s to demolish and remove debris in return for a sponsorship. Coordinating with carpenter, concrete company, and fencing company on our plans. The footprint is essentially the same as that at Hersey. Comments made that we need to correct the space above the fencing and below the roof at Hersey and to ensure full coverage on the Haley dugouts.
· Elliot and Melissa will take on an action item to facilitate with the Recreation Committee
o Notification has been forwarded to the committee and is an item for agenda for their meeting 10/4. Letter states that all funding for the work is to be contributed by HLL.


· Social Committee Report
o Chairpersons are Melissa Flanagan and Tia Mastromatteo
· Identify potential fundraisers
· Other suggestions?
· Nothing to report

· Publicity Committee/Opening Day/Fourth of July Float
o Melissa Flanagan is Chairperson
· Outstanding Issues?
· Nothing to report

· Calendar of Events
o Post updated Calendar on the website

· Sandlot
o Cliff Boyle is chairperson
· Outstanding Issues?
· Discussed lessons learned, we ended up with an operating loss of a few hundred dollars, and next season will require tighter accountability for the monies. It was noted that the kids had a terrific time and our sponsorship of this program is quite worthwhile.

· Summer Travel Baseball
· Earlier Selection for 2006 Travel Teams
· Topic for the Next BOD

· Hingham Little League-Use of Mailing List
· Hingham High School Baseball Club
· Topic for the Next BOD
· Hingham Hull Babe Ruth
· Topic for the Next BOD

· Fall Baseball League-2006
· Consider Creation of a Fall League
· Topic for the Next BOD
· New Business
· Schedule for Upcoming Meetings
o Tuesday, October 25th 7:00 pm Plymouth River School
o The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 pm.