Hingham Little League
Board Meeting Agenda
Monday, April 9, 2007
7:00 PM
Meeting Facilitator: Ed Anderson
Invitees:
Board Members: Laurie Berlinguet, Tim Driscoll, Melissa Flanagan, Bill Ford,
Joe Higgins, Skip Jenkins, Patrick McCullom, Elliot Sherman, Tony Viola, Andy Wheeler

I. Call to order – 7:20 pm
II. Approval of minutes from last meeting –Tim Driscoll
• Approved and to be posted
III. President’s Report – Ed Anderson
• Background Checks
o Going well, almost complete. Will have additional ones tomorrow. Over 100 checks completed with no significant issues
• Issue with equipment/uniforms – order was approved electronically by the Board after the last Board Meeting
o Point made to discuss expenditures in future at the Treasurer’s report section of the meetings
o Equipment and uniforms should be in this week
o Questions have arisen about bats; they are not provided as part of the equipment bags.
IV. Treasurer’s Report – Rick Linehan
• Current Balance – No report
• New Revenues – we have several checks to be deposited from Sponsors, to be forwarded to Rick
• Current Expenses –
o Equipment/uniforms invoices to be paid .
o Some field equipment purchases need to be made
o Boxes for fields are still needed. Tony provided some information and pricing (0 - 0 range).
 Motion made to approve expenditure for boxes for Middle School, South School, Plymouth River, and a smaller box for Foster (for bases), plus chains and locks notes 00. Vote taken and PASSED.
o Funds will be needed for Opening Day for hot dogs, rolls, condiments, chips.
 Motion made to approve expenditure for Opening Day festivities not exceed 0 for food, and an additional 0 for P/A system. Vote taken and PASSED
o Additional expenditure needed for field user fees. Motion made approve the expenditure for field fees, in 00 range. Vote taken and PASSED. Final number will be shared at subsequent Board Meeting
o Potentially will need expenditures for fixing fields (ie Plymouth River)
• Finance Subcommittee
V. Equipment and Uniform Update – Bill Ford
• Uniforms – In good shape, can pick up this week. Should be able to hand out Majors and Minors at Thursday Coaches meeting
o Farm and TBall printing to start this week
• Baseballs
• Pitch Counters – are in, to be distributed
• Umpire Gear – order is in, will be a total of 5 sets now.
• Equipment distributed to Majors and Minors, Tball and Farm bags to be distributed at tomorrow’s draft.
• We are in very good shape for equipment!
o We will have managers turn in a sheet with equipment at the end of the year, listing the uniform number of each player and whether received or not.
VI. Playing Schedules – Rick Linehan
• Schedule is complete, but the order/team numbers not decided. Numbers will be decided tonight or tomorrow, alphabetically.
• Practice schedules. Coaches are signing up already for the slots. Some are in the early afternoon anyway.
• School fields are off limits next week except Foster because of treatments.
• Discussed scheduling out only 2 weeks.
• Keeping Haley and Hersey for Majors on Saturdays was proposed, and Minors should use Sundays at the School Fields, Hersey and Haley can be used on Sunday mornings. This was agreed to and Skip will send to coaches.
VII. Opening Day – Sunday, April 29
• Contact Rec for grills; bunting, sponsors, donuts and coffee, additional details, forward for someone to throw out opening day baseball
• Will need volunteers for the festivities
• We have a few raffle items as well if we needed it. 50/50 raffle.
• Ice – will either use a pickup or bring coolers?
• Music – for National Anthem
• Notice on website, in paper, email to list
VIII. Team Photos – Melissa Flanagan/Tony Viola
• Tony discussed Captive Images pitch, regarding Sponsorship Plaques. We signed an agreement last year regarding this. Last year they were there 9 times. Letter sent by Captive and read to the Board. Can buy a la carte. Will provide sponsor packs this year for our business.
• Action – allows for 10% return. They have credit card ability for payment, and images are available online. There is a minimum charge that is being negotiated. Pricing is a little more favorable.
• Discussed pros and cons for each, favoring the new opportunity with Active. A motion was made to go with the package offered with Active, vote taken, PASSED.
IX. Umpires Report
• Umpire Appointment and Approval
o Names were read by Ed. Many returning for Majors, and the younger ones will get Minors
o A motion was made to approve list as read. Vote taken and PASSED to approve all on the list.
• Rules review
o Ed passed out revised rules for Majors
o One suggested change re: 11 year olds playing in Minors
o Item 2 – need to change to 1. have approval by Player Agent and Board, and 2, there is no movement will take place last 2 weeks of season.
o One additional change number 14 , typo from ‘then’
o Item 20, some additional spell checks required
 Motion made to approve the revised rules for Majors with above adjustments. Vote taken and PASSED.
o Distributed Pitch Count rules as well.
• Next umpire meeting scheduled for Wednesday, April 11
X. Managers/Coaches Report - Skip Jenkins
• Coaches Appointment and Approval
o Need 2 new T=Ball Managers
 Names reviewed. Motion made to approve the two names as appointed by Ed . Vote PASSED
o Coaches for other teams were read for appointment recommendations
o No concerns raised about any of the candidates
o Ed made the necessary appointment
o Motion to approve the coaching candidates . Vote taken and PASSED.
• Paperwork for Managers
• Managers Training/Orientation
o South School Thursday, April 12 Coaches meeting 7:00 pm.
o Email invitation sent out
o Frank Niles will review fundamentals
o Owen to speak about ASAP.
o Other – new rules, pitch counts, posting to website, Cori form, Volunteer forms, field cleanup/care, etc.
o Distribute uniforms and baseballs
o Will need to do again for Farm and T-Ball at a later date, week of April 22nd
• Meeting was held last week to discuss formalizing more at the Farm Level, to add some structure and philosophy to the level. Meeting minutes were distributed to the Board. The meeting was well attended and productive.
XI. Player Agent – Kevin McNally
• Farm and tee-ball drafts
o 6:30 pm South School Tuesday April 10th
• Volunteers needed for draft
o Melissa, Skip, Ed, Patrick, Andy, Bill, and Mark Igo will assist
o Registrations forwarded to Skip from Elliot
• Waiver for out-of-town player
o Discussed based on availability.
o We have kids waiting already, now have 12 or 13 per team at TBall
o Discussed waiting. Decided to take all the late ones ‘in town’ before any out of town players.
• There are a couple of kids on wait list for Majors, but nowhere to put them
• Refunds for players who have withdrawn
XII. Playing Fields Update
Should try to get some groups together to prepare the fields
Discussed getting a spray painter for the lines, approved. Will forward to Bob if he can pick it up. Motion made to spend up to 0 on spray liner. Vote taken and PASSED.
• Rec Department Fields – Ed Anderson
o Haley
o Hersey
o Kress
• School Fields – Bob Madden
o South – condition?
o PRS- condition?
o Foster – condition?
• Practice Fields – Ed Anderson
o Bradley Woods
o Middle School
o Central/Powers Field
• Storage for Hersey, Kress, and other fields – Joe Higgins
o Shed for Hersey – Joe Higgins
 Joe forwarded info for Hersey. We can put up a structure. Was forwarded to Rec, will need a followup letter and other incidentals before approvals. Go ahead expected this week. Could use some builders eventually to put up the building!
o Green Metal Box for Kress
• New Signs for Haley/Hersey Field Scoreboards
o Ed suggested get new name plates for teams; will follow up for details
o Haley Field scoreboard needs to be repaired and painted; need to do this through Rec. Dept.
• New PAL/Lynch Fields
o Field House
o Field Update
o Concessions Committee – Ed has had some preliminary discussion with Ted Souther President of HYF
o Joint Planning Committee (with HYF)
o Meeting tomorrow night for Warrant Article to authorize Selectmen to negotiate to lease fields for Town Meeting
XIII. Sponsorship Update – Melissa Flanagan
• All set, one name change from Red Sox to a new team.
• Need to change Hingham Jewelers and Rep Bradley teams (Personeni and Bean) on the website
XIV. ASAP Update – Owen McConville –
• Need to follow up on this with Owen, also first aid kits and ice packs.
XV. Playing Rules Review for Farm – Bill Ford
• Meeting was held to discuss Farm Level system, to turn it from glorified TBall level to a more educational format. A key point was that the kids need more fundamental training for both players and coaches. There is sentiment to improve in this area. Bill distributed the minutes to board earlier. The process to formalize the level is underway!
• Bill proposed some rule changes that were a consensus of those present.
o To amend primary goals to teach to get to next level
o Umpire section – If a player is out, he should be out! It should be mandated.
o Mandate that maximum of 10 in the field at any time, the other kids can be individually coached.
o Motion made to work these rules into the Farm League rules, and we will discuss at next meeting
XVI. Other Topics
• FAQ Section of Web Site
• Summer Baseball
XVII. Adjournment
• Upcoming Board Meetings
o April 23 (needs to be rescheduled)
 Town meeting is 4/23
 Decided Weds 4/25
o May 7
o May 21

Meeting was adjourned at 10:00 pm.