Forestville Little League (FLL) Special Board Meeting
Forestville Little League (FLL) Special Board Meeting February 28, 2017 – 6:30 pm Eastern Regional Dining Hall Present: Bryan Brelsford, Gary Curran, Amy Deprey, Jeremy Deprey, Christine Harkey, Steve Joclyn, Scott Lodge, Caren Maglio, Rick Maglio, Joe Philippon, Clayton Roberts, Gordon Schenck, Corey Simard, Vicky Sirica, , Courtney Wilson, Tracy Koscho Excused: John Deveau, Dean Varano
Meeting Minutes
I. II. III.
Call to Order a. Motion by Scott / seconded by Steve / approved Public Comment - none Discuss Registration a. Discuss 2017 Registration Numbers vs. 2016 i. Jeremy – we are ahead of where we were last year by 3 for majors and and 8 for minors if you combine AA and AAA numbers. ii. Numbers are low for T-ball and Instructional registrations but they always are at this time – parents are thinking baseball yet. iii. Attached is a Registration chart as of 3/1/2015, 3/1/2016 and 3/1/2017. It shows the registration trends over the last three years. b. Discuss Current Registration’s Impact on Divisions i. Majors: 1. Gordon – a lot of age eligible kids 2. Scott – looking at bringing up 20 kids from minors in order to fill 3 Majors teams 3. Vicky – is this a safety issue – are these kids ready? 4. Jeremy – this same number of players were brought up last year – not sure why this is such an issue this year. 5. Joe – the caliber of players moving up this year is not the same as it has been in the past. Many of the kids are young and not experienced. Would love to reevaluate the kids that we on his team last year. 6. If league brings up 20 kids – there will be 3 Major teams; if league brings up 28 kids there could be 4 major teams 7. Does it make sense to rebuild at this time and bring up 28 players and go with the 4 majors teams or bring up the 20 players now and then have to rebuild again next year since numbers indicate we may need to go to 4 teams anyways?
8. Does it make sense to drop to two teams since we need to bring up so many kids this year and we are draining our minors pool by bringing up the 20? 9. Does it make sense to bring up the 20 players now and keep the status quo? 10. Won’t have the answers to these questions until we see what talent there is that is looking to move up after tryouts – therefore need to wait and see what happens at tryouts and then readdress. ii. Minors 1. Need to have all 1st year players that have signed up for transitional or minors tryout. 2. Need to evaluate all the transitional and minors again to determine where the kids should really be placed. a. Maybe players that parents think need to be or were signed up for transitional who are really ready for minors and vice versa. iii. Rick - to be honest as player agent there is so much data this year it is hard to know how to proceed in breaking down the players into teams in the new divisions and knowing it is the best decision for the growth and maintenance of the league and more importantly for the kids and their growth and learning of the game. This meeting is helpful – Thank you to everyone for coming and your input c. Discuss Possible Scenarios to Maintain Competitive Balance in Divisions i. Scott – Concern is that we were not competitive last year – need to make sure that doesn’t happen again. It’s true a couple of teams did ok last year but on the whole as a league we were not competitive at the minors level. ii. Corey – Kids aren’t having fun when they are constantly losing and the games aren’t even close. iii. Bryon – It is also a matter of coaching and understanding the team that you are playing and making the best use of the kids and their strengths. 1. Always need to start with the basics iv. Steve – continuously hearing about “maintaining competitiveness” – who exactly is the “competitiveness for? Parents, Coaches, Kids? d. Uniforms i. Gary needs to order uniforms by March 8th. ii. Won’t have solid numbers regarding teams until after tryouts. iii. Will need to blanket order with varying sizes and whatever we don’t use this year will be put aside for next year. e. Put potential post-tryout plan(s) in place to maintain growth, retention of membership and competitive balance within our league. i. Need to make sure we aren’t moving up kids that aren’t ready ii. All kids need to tryout – transitional, minors and majors. iii. Grading of players at beginning and end of season
IV.
V.
iv. Put an expectation list together / guide list for the managers v. Future changes that may help to be discussed later in the year 1. Move up registration to end of Fall ball or beginning of January 2. Institute a cutoff date 3. Hold tryouts in early to mid-February Next Board Meeting – a. It is scheduled the day of the first tryouts. Jeremy will send an email with an alternate date to the Board. Close Meeting
Meeting Minutes
I. II. III.
Call to Order a. Motion by Scott / seconded by Steve / approved Public Comment - none Discuss Registration a. Discuss 2017 Registration Numbers vs. 2016 i. Jeremy – we are ahead of where we were last year by 3 for majors and and 8 for minors if you combine AA and AAA numbers. ii. Numbers are low for T-ball and Instructional registrations but they always are at this time – parents are thinking baseball yet. iii. Attached is a Registration chart as of 3/1/2015, 3/1/2016 and 3/1/2017. It shows the registration trends over the last three years. b. Discuss Current Registration’s Impact on Divisions i. Majors: 1. Gordon – a lot of age eligible kids 2. Scott – looking at bringing up 20 kids from minors in order to fill 3 Majors teams 3. Vicky – is this a safety issue – are these kids ready? 4. Jeremy – this same number of players were brought up last year – not sure why this is such an issue this year. 5. Joe – the caliber of players moving up this year is not the same as it has been in the past. Many of the kids are young and not experienced. Would love to reevaluate the kids that we on his team last year. 6. If league brings up 20 kids – there will be 3 Major teams; if league brings up 28 kids there could be 4 major teams 7. Does it make sense to rebuild at this time and bring up 28 players and go with the 4 majors teams or bring up the 20 players now and then have to rebuild again next year since numbers indicate we may need to go to 4 teams anyways?
8. Does it make sense to drop to two teams since we need to bring up so many kids this year and we are draining our minors pool by bringing up the 20? 9. Does it make sense to bring up the 20 players now and keep the status quo? 10. Won’t have the answers to these questions until we see what talent there is that is looking to move up after tryouts – therefore need to wait and see what happens at tryouts and then readdress. ii. Minors 1. Need to have all 1st year players that have signed up for transitional or minors tryout. 2. Need to evaluate all the transitional and minors again to determine where the kids should really be placed. a. Maybe players that parents think need to be or were signed up for transitional who are really ready for minors and vice versa. iii. Rick - to be honest as player agent there is so much data this year it is hard to know how to proceed in breaking down the players into teams in the new divisions and knowing it is the best decision for the growth and maintenance of the league and more importantly for the kids and their growth and learning of the game. This meeting is helpful – Thank you to everyone for coming and your input c. Discuss Possible Scenarios to Maintain Competitive Balance in Divisions i. Scott – Concern is that we were not competitive last year – need to make sure that doesn’t happen again. It’s true a couple of teams did ok last year but on the whole as a league we were not competitive at the minors level. ii. Corey – Kids aren’t having fun when they are constantly losing and the games aren’t even close. iii. Bryon – It is also a matter of coaching and understanding the team that you are playing and making the best use of the kids and their strengths. 1. Always need to start with the basics iv. Steve – continuously hearing about “maintaining competitiveness” – who exactly is the “competitiveness for? Parents, Coaches, Kids? d. Uniforms i. Gary needs to order uniforms by March 8th. ii. Won’t have solid numbers regarding teams until after tryouts. iii. Will need to blanket order with varying sizes and whatever we don’t use this year will be put aside for next year. e. Put potential post-tryout plan(s) in place to maintain growth, retention of membership and competitive balance within our league. i. Need to make sure we aren’t moving up kids that aren’t ready ii. All kids need to tryout – transitional, minors and majors. iii. Grading of players at beginning and end of season
IV.
V.
iv. Put an expectation list together / guide list for the managers v. Future changes that may help to be discussed later in the year 1. Move up registration to end of Fall ball or beginning of January 2. Institute a cutoff date 3. Hold tryouts in early to mid-February Next Board Meeting – a. It is scheduled the day of the first tryouts. Jeremy will send an email with an alternate date to the Board. Close Meeting
