Hingham Little League Board of Directors Meeting
Meeting Minutes -2/13/06
Hingham Recreation Center
8:00 PM


Present: Rob Blomberg, Elliot Sherman, Steve White, Melissa Flanagan, Skip Jenkins, Bruce Corwin, Ed Anderson, Owen McConville, Rich Magner

Absent: Rick Linehan, Joe Granatino, Bob Madden, Tim Zyrkowski, Joe Craven

Meeting called to order by Rob Blomberg at 8:05pm

Secretary’s Report-Tim D.
· Approve 1/30/06 Meeting Minutes
o Accepted. Tim to post
Treasurer’s Report-Rick
· Current Balance
· Outstanding Expenses
o Update on fees to Hingham Rec for Boys of Baseball and meeting room rental
§ No report

Business Related Issues

· Local Little League Business Filings and Topics
o Articles of Incorporation-Renewal
o Public Charity Filings
o Status of 501 (3) (c) Form
o Insurance Fees and Options
§ Application received & will be completed in 4/06 after teams are selected
· Initial paperwork filed
§ National Little League Business Filings
o Charter Application & Charter Fees
· Approved for 2006 season, fees paid
· Audit of 2003/2004 and 2004/2005 HLL Financial Results
o Status of Audits

New Business

· Player Registration-Membership Committee Report & Team Schedules
o Registration results thus far (Elliot)
· Number of on line registrations received?
· Online has worked very well, great call Elliott! 2/3 of the signups this way with only a few reported problems
· Number of manual registrations received?
· Summary of registrations received thus far by age group
· 698 signed up so far thru 2/13
o Need for followup communication for those not yet registered
· Identification of 11 and 12 year olds from 2005 season who have not yet registered
· Most of the 12’s are signed up
o 66 12’s and 79 11’s 85 10’s
o 2 of the 12s not playing this year
· 47 or so outstanding from this group
o Update on schedules (Rob and Rick)
· Majors/Minors
· Majors are approved
· Minors schedules in progress
o Minors Committee needs to work with Rob and Rick Linehan on this
· Other Divisions

· Sponsorships and Donations-Committee Report-Bruce and Melissa
o Status of Major’s Sponsors-Complete
o Status of Minors, Farm and T Ball sponsors
· Rates remain the same as 2005-0 for one year of Majors, 0 for Minors and Farm and 0 for T Ball
· Letters sent to existing sponsors
· Several more have put in applications – pending availability
· Margetts – move to Farm in return for work on the fields
· Steve Jacobs – all set for Minors in return for his assistance with the dugouts.
· Some responses received with checks!
· Additional sponsors on registrations (8 names) – some we already have.
· In good shape for sponsorships
· Ed needs finalization as soon as possible for uniforms.
· Patches – starting with the Majors first, Ed will contact Lapels
o Outstanding Issues
· With 501 (c) (3) approved reimbursement from Verizon sponsorship (2004-2006) remains outstanding
· Forms received by Elliot; in process. Lots of paperwork..
· Status of “Friends and Patrons” Letter and Agreement
· Minor League Championship Trophy
· Voted and agreed last meeting. This item is now under Sponsorship Committee, Melissa will handle.


League Rules and Local By-Law Issues

· Player Agent Report-Skip
o Update on Tryout Process, Dates and Location
· Skip needs access to database for registrations; Elliot can assist
· Notification and communication details
· Hingham High Baseball-Dan McHugh
· Rich Magner met with Dan, we should be all set with High School players to help out at tryouts
· Format for tryouts
· Same as last year, went well
· Tryout lists
· Access to the database for Skip
· Equipment, pins, numbers, etc.
· Available at Beacon – will need 500 numbers (two sets apiece), lots of pins!
· Maybe blue for 11 and 12, red for 9 and 10’s – would be easier to track the kids, sounds like a good idea to institute. Skip please note.
· Makeup tryout date-3/22?
· Not many expected
· Will go for the March 22nd date, 5:30 pm, at the Rec.
· Mike Letorney will assist in the whole process

o Schedule of Draft Dates by Division (all at PRS)
· Draft lists in advance of meeting
· Majors-3/27, Minors-3/28 and Farm/TBall-3/30-6:30 pm each night
· Confirmed at Plymouth River School
· Followup with Mike Letorney-laptop, projector, etc.
· Projector reserved; laptop should be all set

o Other issues?
· Need the registrations to be completed in order for us to finish our work on this front

· Major League Committee Report
o Review of Major’s Rules
· Update on rule changes
· Added that all 11 and 12’s have to tryout
· Pitcher rules / section 12
· All Star selections – with 16 teams, should we allow top teams to send more than 2 players? It is 12 year olds, 32 kids playing already. Discussed possibly 20 per team? Don’t need to make final decision today, further discussion.
· Section 21 for Standings and Playoffs
· Can talk about rule changes at subsequent meeting
· HLL version of Pitch Count Program
· Last meeting we discussed and voted down adopting the program, due to no restriction on number of innings requirements
· Rob wrote back to LL letting them know our decision
· Question – do we want to impose a local rule for pitch count? Question was sent to Majors and Minors Committees.
· Ed suggested we could just collect data for this season for some data. Would it be mandatory? Difficult to enforce.
· Discussed in some detail, both pro’s and cons. There are a lot of issues either way.
· Probably will be mandated by LL by 2008
· Defer further debate on this until another meeting.

· Minor League Committee Report
o Review of Minor’s Rules
· Update on rule changes
· HLL version of Pitch Count Program
o Other issues?
· No report

· Farm League Committee Report
o Review of Farm Rules
· Are any rule changes needed?
o Players who have already played two years in TBall but whose birthdates fall within 5/1/97-7/31/98 can move up to Farm
o Other issues?
· Only item is to try and limit number of kids per team to 12-13 and add more teams (obviously pending field availability).

· TBall Committee report
o Review of T Ball Rules
· Are any rule changes needed?
o Age issue for TBall players
· Little League advice to allow Tball players to register for Tball in 2006 if their birthdays are between 5/1/01-7/31/01
o Other issues?
· No report

· Manager’s Committee Report-Steve
o Goals for 2006
o Create process to Select Managers and Coaches
· Managers need to be selected before the tryouts, need to be approved by HLL Board on 3/6 meeting.
o Potential training for Managers, Coaches and players
· Pre-season-3/2 and 3/9 at PRS
· 7-9 pm
· Minor and Majors nite 1, Farm Tball for 2nd nite
· Has invited speaker for both nights
· Talk about fundamentals and philosophy
· Through 2/13/06 185 potential managers or coaches have submitted Volunteer Applications
· Additional training in the spring-likely pitchers and catchers
· Manager training in Bristol on 3/4
o Practice manual for HLL
o CORI Process

· Equipment Committee Report-Ed
o Status/Inventory of Outstanding Equipment
· Uniforms-missing sponsor names and patches
· Order two sets of shirts for Williamsport teams should be ordered at this time so we don’t have to worry about later
· Use of bag tags to identify equipment by Division and team
o Update on Use of Lapel’s
o Status of Beal Street Field House
· Ready to submit our pledge to Sports Partnership. Rick L. needs to forward check for ,500 to Hingham Sports Partnership
o Assessment of Equipment Needs
o Consideration of various vendors to supply equipment
· Ed Anderson and John Wehner met with Rockland past week.
· Meeting set up also with Beacon this week
o Other Equipment
· Status of batting cage at Haley/Cronin
· Potential Order of Outstanding Equipment
· Temporary Pitching Mound at South School
o Ed has done some investigating on various models and pricing. Not sure at this point how many we would need depending on fields.
o Need to consider storage issues at the fields
· Second dry roller
o May ask Bob and Tim Z to work on this, under fields and facilities committee
· Port a Potties
o Reminder – don’t forget we need these end April!
· Batters box templates – reasonable pricing. Rich offered to make them, Ed will discuss more on options
· Checking out some bases that have set in the ground; will need to check with Rec on this item (Ted Carroll). In general the idea was well accepted
o Other equipment order

· Umpire Committee Report-Rich
o Goals for 2006
o Review umpire requirements, rules and expectations for 2006
o Equipment inventory
o Schedule for First Umpire Meeting and Training Session
· Two 90 minute classes mandatory
· March 23rd - , registration and class 6:30 – 8:00 pm (Tim to check dates for conflict with HYHockey tryout..sent to Rich. Only Bantam Goalies 3/23, and 4/5 is for PeeWees so should be good)..
· April 5th Class – 6:30 – 8:00 pm
· Last class to be set; maybe just set up assignment for first few games.
· Need 30 to 35 umpires – 13 year old and up
· Check on umpire equipment at Castle Storage with Ed.
· Rich has 2006 LL Rule Book and
You Make the Call” book. Rich will follow for additional LL Umpire Manuals.
· Mark Igo has volunteered to help out.
Review of assignment process and payment process for games

· Safety Committee Report-Owen
o Goals for 2006
o Renewal of ASAP Program (A Safety Awareness Program)
o Outstanding issues
· Updated the training plan
· Need first aid training date. Each team needs a representative there. We will schedule these concurrently with Steve’s Manager’s Meeting in 3/06
· Field survey for all fields we use, form needs to be filled out. Bob Madden has details for the fields. Facility survey due May 1st
· First aid kits required for each team bags


· Buildings, Property and Grounds Committee Report
o Goals for 2006
o Status/Changes To Existing Playing Fields-Haley, Hersey and PAL Fields
· Status of Haley Dugouts
· Status of Use of PAL Fields in 2006
o Addition of Kress and Central/Powers Fields
· Determine what Divisions will use these fields
· Kress will need fencing to protect players; required by Little League
· Softball uses Tue-Wed Thurs so we should be good Mon, Fri, Sat, Sun.
o Need To Secure Additional Fields Through Hingham School Department
· Hingham High School and South School were used in 2005
· Other alternatives included repairing back field at Hersey, Plymouth River, South, Hull Street field, High School etc. or other alternative venues
o Field Meeting occurred on 2/1/06 at Town Hall
o Application from Hingham Rec for fields for 2006 has been received and is due by 3/1/06
· Forms completed and sent to Rec by Rob Blomberg
· By 5/1 – need finalized lists, schedules, CORI forms, etc.
o Meeting needs to be scheduled with Hingham Rec and Hingham School Departments to discuss potential fields and field transfers to Hingham Rec
· Bob Madden discussed with representative (Barbara Pye) of School Committee regarding school fields. Agreed we can put in work on the fields. Requests are as follows:
· South (Tues, Thurs Sat Sun)
· Plymouth River (Mon-Sunday)
· Foster (Work around softball)
· High School field (Weekends)
· Don’t know status of the PAL fields
· Is Derby a possibility? Need to follow.
· Discussions continuing, Bob Madden
o Update on Community Preservation Committee meeting-Elliot

· Social Committee Report
o Goals for 2006 season
o Meeting at Melissa’s?
· Melissa has the names of the volunteers
· Will get Melissa access to the database
o Identify potential fundraisers

· Publicity Committee/Opening Day
o Goals for 2006 Season
o Early Planning
· Getting Started for Opening Day festivities (April 23rd).
· First Pitch

· Cross-Hingham Baseball Liasion Committee-Joe C.
o Joe C. outlined the goals and operating guidelines for this committee (proposed number of members, rules, regulations, mission) at the 12/5/05 HLL Board Meeting
o Goal of the committee will be to combine efforts of those promoting Hingham Baseball from T Ball through High School
o Status of Dinner- Scheduled for 3/25
o Update from this committee
· No Report

· Summer Travel Baseball Committee-Elliot
o Goals for 2006
o Status of Elliot’s outline of the goals and operating guidelines for this committee (proposed number of members, rules, regulations, evaluation and tryout process, appointment of managers, schedules, etc.) for discussion and vote by the HLL BOD
o Summer teams will purchase own shirts to minimize confusion with HLL uniforms
§ Will be required to have 2 teams in Suburban as specified by Little League (at all levels)
§ May impact South River teams based on the numbers

· Concession Committee-Joe G. & Elliot
o Status of logistics of van use

· Calendar of Events-Tim D.
o Ensure updated Calendar posted on the website
· Done

· Other Additional New Business
o None

· Schedule for Upcoming Meetings
o 3/6/06 -- 7:30 pm – Appointment of managers, finalize tryouts, etc.
o 3/27/06-Date will be changed due to Major’s Draft
o 4/10/06
o 4/24/06
o 5/8/06
o 5/22/06
o 6/5/06
o 6/26/06
o 7/10/06
o 8/7/06
o 9/11/06
o 10/2/06
o 10/23/06 (Annual Meeting)

Motion to adjourn 9:53 p.m.