Hingham Little League Board of Directors Meeting
Meeting Minutes -3/6/2006
Hingham Recreation Center
7:30 PM

Present: Tim Zyrkowski, Owen McConville, Ed Anderson, Skip Jenkins, Rob Blomberg, Elliot Sherman, Steve White, Joe Craven, Rich Magner, Rick Linehan, Bob Madden, Melissa Flanagan, Tim Driscoll

Absent: Joe Granatino, Bruce Corwin

Secretary’s Report-Tim D.
• Approve 2/13/06 Meeting Minutes
o Motion made and approved. To be posted to the site by Tim

Treasurer’s Report-Rick
• Current Balance 62,046
• Outstanding Expenses
o Equipment purchases and field supplies
• Audit of 2003/2004 and 2004/2005 HLL Financial Results
o Status of Audits
 Awaiting return for 04-05 from accountant

Business Related Issues

• Local Little League Business Filings and Topics
o Articles of Incorporation-Renewal
o Insurance Fees and Options
 Preliminary application forwarded & will be completed in 4/06 after teams are selected
• National Little League Business Filings
o Charter Application & Charter Fees
• Charter received
• Rob proudly displayed both the Charter and Insurance Certificates
• Credit of 303.00 from last year’s overpayment of fees received.

New Business

• Player Registration-Membership Committee Report & Team Schedules (Elliot)
o Registration results
• Number of on line registrations received
• Number of manual registrations received
• Summary of registrations received by age group
• 192 Majors / 16 Teams
• Couple of holdouts still
• 80 Twelves, 96 Elevens, 93 Tens, 177 Tball, 113 Nines, 126 Eights, 129 Sevens
o Followup communication for those not yet registered (focus on 11 and 12 year olds)

815 Total Players thru 3/6
Online is now closed off, but we are going to just take them by mail. Absolute last date for Majors has to be before tryouts end 3/19.
1 known Major has dropped out, potentially adding another, numbers are good
Will know the numbers of 10’s available before the draft-likely 15-20 of the 10’s will play Majors in 2006

Number of Teams
• Majors – 16 teams already set, 12 / team
• Minors – Skip has 220, plus. Discussed and decided to go with 18 Teams, 12 to 13 players per team
• Farm -- Discussed numbers – we decided to go with 20 Teams (12-13/team)
• T-Ball – Discussed, we will go with 14 teams (13/team) at this point

• Update on schedules (Rob and Rick)
• Majors/Minors
• Majors’ schedule is approved
o 4 games each field each Sunday (12, 2, 4, 6)
• Minors schedules in progress
• Other Divisions
• South – Tues/Thurs/Sat/Sun
• PR – Wide open, field needs work, no screen so only use for Tball and Farm per LL
• Kress – Mon/Fri/some Saturdays/and Sunday. There is no screen; question – should we move or erect in front of bench? WAG, est 2000 side. This is a Rec field; we can approach Rec to pay for this work. Enough to block the benches, 7 feet high. Motion was made and passed to proceed. Rob will follow up.
• Central Powers – Mon/Fri/Saturday/Sunday – no screen so only use for Tball and Farm
• PAL Fields – work is likely to begin in April, so we’re not counting on it
• HHS – have this for weekends (may be an option)
• Foster – No word
• Derby – Not available for outdoor activities

• Sponsorships and Donations-Committee Report-Bruce and Melissa
o Status of Major’s Sponsors-Complete
o Status of Minors – 12 out of 18. ( 300), Farm 5 out of 20 ( 300) and T Ball 7 out of 14 teams ( 100).
• Mohawk Rubber, Jack’s Café, Steve White/Paragon some potential sponsors noted
• Tim can post a note on the website and HYH website
• Outstanding – Jones Milligan, Bradley, Cruz, others
• Suggestion made to have a sponsorship table at Tryouts, Melissa will follow up
o Outstanding Issues
• Verizon sponsorship (2004-2006) remains outstanding
• Status of “Friends and Patrons” Letter and Agreement
• Minor League Championship Trophy

League Rules and Local By-Law Issues

• Player Agent Report-Skip
o Update on Tryout Process, Dates (3/12 and 3/19) and Location
• Notification and communication details
• Hingham High Baseball-Dan McHugh
• Format for tryouts
• Tryout lists
• Database access for Skip
• Equipment, pins, numbers, etc.
• Skip has an order
• Will need to get soft baseball (Farm League) – probably 3 dozen, Ed will check the space, get buckets, helmets, bat, bases, cones
• Names will be sent to Managers this week
• Volunteers needed from non-coaches
• Mike Letorney will assist at the 3/12 tryout
• Makeup tryout date-3/22 at 5:30 pm at the Rec
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
• Followup with Mike Letorney-laptop, projector, etc.
o Other issues?
• 10 year olds have to declare eligibility at tryouts; there is a form they will need to fill out.
• Decision made that no more than 2 10 year olds per team on the Majors, so agreed


• Major League Committee Report
o Review of Major’s Rules
• Update on rule changes
• Finalize pitching rules
o Do we want to add any pilot program?
 Decided not to follow National program
o Suggestion to count number of batters instead? Some limit, like 4 innings per game?
o Manipulation by pitch counts from defense?
 Still have some time to decide
 Steve / Mgrs committee will take up some options and report back
• Finalize All Star selection process
o Limited to 12’s
o 2 per team, or some reward for top finishers?
 Motion made and passed Majors All Stars, 2 from each team, top 2 teams in each division during the regular season will have 3 selections
• HLL version of Pitch Count Program
• On 2/13 we decided not to use the approved Little League Pitch Count Program in 2006 program
• Resolve whether HLL will use our own version of the Pitch Count Program in 2006

• Minor League Committee Report
o Review of Minor’s Rules
• Update on rule changes
• HLL version of Pitch Count Program
o Other issues?

• Farm League Committee Report
o Review of Farm Rules
• Are any rule changes needed?
• 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
• Projected limitation of team size to no more than 12 to 13 players per team
o Other issues?


• 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?

• 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
• Managers need to be approved by HLL Board on 3/6 meeting.
• 7 12 year olds Candidates
• 6 11 year olds Candidates
• 3 10 year olds needed
• Board voted and approved Major League candidates. Steve will be contacting managers this week.
• Minors – Board voted and approved Minor League candidates. Steve will be contacting managers this week

o Potential training for Managers, Coaches and players
• Pre-season training-3/2 and 3/9 at PRS
• 35 in attendance last week
• Note for 3/9 at PRS to be emailed to coaches (Elliot to take care of this)
• Additional training programs in the spring-likely pitchers and catchers
o Practice manual for HLL
o CORI Process
o Boys of Baseball Training-5/06 and 9/06

• 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
o Use of bag tags to identify equipment by Division and team
• On order
o Use of Lapel’s
• Uniforms due in the next few weeks, cleaned and patches
o Status of Beal Street Field House Pledge
o Assessment of equipment Needs
o Selection of vendors to supply equipment
• Likely will split between Beacon and Rockland for uniforms
• Not all final pricing delivered yet to Ed
• Ed will continue work on getting best price and services
• Also will check with Little League for uniforms for the younger kids
o Other Equipment
• Status of batting cage at Haley/Cronin
• Discussed; reaffirmed that the cage will be erected and in use this year.
• Potential Order of Outstanding Equipment
• Temporary Pitching Mound at South School and other fields
o Ed has contacted a vendor for estimates. Would want the smaller versions - 400-600 estimate. Challenge will be where we store it. Should get a chain for the fence? (South, Kress, High School)
o Issues with moving them around. Maybe go with a smaller model to try, decided to take this direction
• Storage issues at the fields
• Second dry roller – Ed to check with Rec
• Lime and speedy dry will be ordered by Rich
• Port-a-Potties – Bob Madden will contact Bob Keyes for the vendor we used last year.
• Batters box templates – Ed will talk to Rich Magner about idea to have Hingham Lumber make for us at cost.
• Fixed bases


• Umpire Committee Report-Rich
o Review umpire requirements, rules and expectations for 2006
o Equipment inventory
o Schedule for Umpire Meeting and Training Sessions-3/23 & 4/5
• Sign up and training
• Books are ready to go
o 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)
• Update of training plan
• First aid training date
• Field survey for all fields we use
• First aid kits required for each team bags
• Outstanding issues
• Should be right on time with paperwork
• Need to know numbers of Ice Packs – with 68 teams, 2 per Majors/Minors, 1 per Tball/Farm to put into the team bags
• Counts for the First Aid kits
• Owen will put order in for equipment

• Buildings, Property and Grounds Committee Report
o Goals for 2006
o Status of Rec Fields-Haley, Hersey, PAL, Kress and Powers/Central Fields
• Status of Haley Dugouts
• Will be done in 10 days
• Pads should pitch to the back
• Status of Use of PAL Fields in 2006
• Not likely to use the fields this year
• Determine what Divisions will use these fields
• See Schedules section above for details
• Kress and Powers may need fencing to protect players depending on the LL Divisions that will use these fields
o Status of Additional Fields Through Hingham School Department
• Hingham High School and South School were used in 2005
• Other alternatives include Plymouth River, South, Hull Street field, High School etc. or other alternative venues
• Determine what Divisions will use these fields
o Application from Hingham Rec for fields for 2006 was forwarded
• By 5/1 need to forward rosters, schedules, CORI forms, etc.
o Results from 2/23 meeting (Hingham Rec and Hingham School Departments) to discuss potential fields
• Suggestion to write letter to School Committee and DPW to let them know we are willing to put in our labor to fix up the fields. Melissa and Rob will write letter.
• School Committee waiting on Gals Softball scheduling and everyone else to get the applications in.
o Derby is not an option
•

• Social Committee Report
o Goals for 2006 season
o Meeting at Melissa’s
o Identify potential fundraisers
• Progress – talked with a couple of artists to paint pictures to try to raise funds (Theme: Kids in Hingham). A family has agreed to host a party at their home.

• 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
• Led by Joe Craven and Bruce Thompson (Bruce was a guest tonight)
• Confirmed 6 HS players for each tryout sessions
• Dinner moved to Friday May 5th 8;00 to 11:30 pm at BlackRock
• HS parents, Baseball Alumni, HLL Parents etc
• Awards presentation
• Small auction to be held
• Looking for sponsors for First Annual HHS Baseball Yearbook, list available on hinghambaseball.com.
• Motion made and passed for HLL to purchase full page ad, 100 made.
• Would like to send letter to HLL and HBR. Joe distributed copies
• Idea of creating a scholarship from HLL and HBR for outgoing seniors. Criteria and selection would be up to the HLL board, player would have to fill out application, we’d set aside a budget for the fund, etc. We could set up a committee. Motion made and Passed to begin this process, Rick Linehan will be charge. Would like to announce this at the Dinner so will need follow up.
• Discussed also the Cronin Field Batting cage. This is in process; HLL has already donated the footings.

• 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

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

• Other Additional New Business
o Skip and Ed attended Little League meeting in Bristol; distributed materials to Board Members
• Schedule for Upcoming Meetings
o 3/26/06 at 7:00 pm (Sunday) at the Rec due to Major’s draft on 3/27/06
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 at 10:15 pm