Hingham Little League-Annual Meeting-10/25/05


· On behalf of the HLL Board of Directors Welcome to Our Third Annual Meeting of Hingham Little League

· Call To Order

· Confirmation of Quorum

o 43 Members Paid for 2005
o 23 Members Present for meeting

· Review of Tonight’s Agenda

· Introduction of HLL Board Members

· Review of 2004/2005 Financials (Bob Keyes-Treasurer)

o Current Balance 20,223
o Significant expenditures have been put back into the program and for field improvements (Hersey Dugouts, dry roller, South Schoool, equipment, etc.)

· Review of HLL 2004/2005 Season (Rob Blomberg-President)

o Generally very successful
o 812 boys and girls in the program
o 203 managers and coaches
o After a wet first two weeks we had successful, competitive and fun seasons for all the Divisions-12 Major teams, 18 Minor teams, 16 Farm League teams and 14 T Ball teams
o Continued success by our Summer Travel teams. The Williamsport made the District Semi-Finals. Two of the four Suburban teams made the playoffs. One championship team in South River with most other teams having success and fun summer seasons.
o Field improvements to Haley, Hersey and PAL. If you haven’t noticed the Haley dugouts have been demolished and will be reconfigured to look like the Hersey dugouts.
o We put money back into the fields and equipment (i.e. the drying roller, etc).
o Excellent umpiring and development of our younger umpires
o Fun days and events (Opening Day and Closing Day with the Major and Minor All Star games, HR Contest and Road Runner Contest) including hot dogs and snacks on both days
o Fourth of July Float for Majors champions, Minors champions and all 12 year olds no matter what team (a special treat)
o Summer Sandlot program now under HLL and enjoyed by 65 players
o Excellent sponsor support-ongoing recognition throughout the year
o Finally we are very up front in all our meetings posting Meeting Minutes (yes people actually do read them), being open with our financials and attempting to be proactive with all communication (HLL web site, email, etc.) with all our decisions and rationale for getting to those decisions

· Preview of 2005/2006 Season (Rob Blomberg-President)

o Build upon what we have done well while continuing to look for new ideas and better ways to administer the program.
o Address the issue of needing fields. We used South and HHS in 2005. Whether the changes to PAL are made or aren’t made we need additional fields and are working with Hingham Rec and will be working with the Hingham Schools to get more fields for use by baseball.
o The impact of the age change in all youth baseball programs. Starting with this upcoming season the baseball age at all levels was changed from 9/1/xx to 5/1/xx which puts 18 of last year’s Major’s players back in Little League for an additional year if their birthdays were between 5/1/03 and 8/31/03.
o Challenger Division for children from ages 5-18 with significant physical disabilities-we had sponsor interest, Board interest and mentoring interest. What we lacked were the players. We will move forward with the development of this program in 2005/2006.
o Continue to improve the working relationship with the Hingham High School Baseball Program. Coach Dan McHugh and his players (both Varsity and Junior Varsity) have helped us with the past two tryouts. We will build on that relationship through additional clinics, programs and other opportunities.
o Opportunity with the new 2005/2006 HLL Board Members. We have a number of HLL Board members who have been on the Board either for one year or both years and who won’t be returning. We thank them for all their efforts and look forward to the creation of the new HLL Board and the ideas the new Board will bring to the organization.
One comment for those who are considering running for a position on the Board. Those of us that have served on this Board have received much enjoyment out of our tenure and have enjoyed the experience but also acknowledge that these are very much “working positions” which require substantial effort and time commitment performing a variety of duties.

· HLL Proposed Constitutional Changes
o Review of proposals
o Discussion
o Voting
§ Both Amendments were Passed by Unanimous vote of the members
Item 1 – Article VII, Section 3 re: Summer Baseball
Recommendation: 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.

Motion: That an amendment be made to the Constitution that the provision in paragraph c of ARTICLE VII, SECTION 3 entitled Vice President be stricken 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.

Item 2 – Re: Number of members of the Board of Directors.
Recommendation: This year the number of members of the Board of Directors 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. The Board recommends decreasing the number of members of the Board of Directors to 15.
Motion: 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.

· Nomination of Candidates for the 2005/2006 HLL Board of Directors
o Candidate presentations
o Additional nominations
o Explanation of the ballot. There must be greater than 50% who are non-managing BOD members.
§ Vote taken to select 7 Non Coaching Members, 6 Coaching Members, for a total Board of 13 members
o Voting (Rick West and his team will be in charge of the tabulations)
o Announcement of the new 2005/2006 Board
§ The new Board Members voted as follows:

Elected as Non-Manager/Non-Coaching Members: Melissa Flanagan, Joe
Granatino, Rich Magner, Owen McConville, Elliot Sherman, Steve White and
Tim Zyrkowski
Elected as Manager/Coaching Members: Rob Blomberg, Joe Craven, Tim
Driscoll, Skip Jenkins, Rick Linehan and Bob Madden

o Establish first meeting date, time and place for the 2005/2006 HLL BOD
§ Meeting Scheduled for Monday, November 7th 7:30 pm Hingham Recreation Center.