Board Meeting Minutes: Jan 8, 2018

6:30 PM, Hazen HS Library

2018 Board Member / Position / Present 1-8-18
John Flemming / President / 
Mark Brainard / VP-Baseball / 
Steve Wales / VP-Softball
Tim Siebersma / Secretary / 
Noni Wilson / Treasurer / 
Clayton Carlson / Safety Officer
Charlton Lee / Umpire in Chief / 
Mike Battin / Coaching Coord. / 
Jeff Solam / Publicity / 
Jen Davis Hayes / Sponsorship Fundraising / 
Jacob Hanan / Field Scheduler / 
Jason Jorgenson / Field Maintenance / 
Greg LaMont / Equipment / 
Michael Waiters / Registrar
DelreneFlemming / Uniforms
Amy Brainard / Uniforms / 
Jeremy Wilson / Information Officer / 
Jordan Sieber / Players Agent
Naomi Solam / Players Agent / 
Nick Scappini / Players Agent / 
Jen Waiters / Softball Registrar
Nina Neal / Softball Scheduler
Kyna Lower / Intro to Softball Coordinator
Natalie Ford / Softball Events Coordinator
Jennifer Novak / Softball
Jesse Whiddon / Special Events Coordinator

Quorum present?Yes

Motions Seconded and Passed: none

MotionsVoted Down: none

Other Decisions made:

  1. Evaluations
  2. AAA players can try out at the Majors evaluation if they cannot make the AAA evaluation date
  3. We will continue to look into using an electronic evaluation form, but also prepare a paper form
  4. Mark and John will do some evaluation quality assurance reviews
  1. Draft process
  2. We will spread the 12 yr olds more evenly
  3. The registrar will check eligibility of each player
  4. If a Majors player quits, we can seek an exception to have an 11 player roster rather than disrupting a AAA roster
  1. We will discuss the Majors play-up pool policy at the next meeting
  1. We will try for Dick’s shopping discount weekends on March 3/4 and 10/11
  1. We will try City of Renton for donating our old bats and other equipment
  1. Winter Training is a go if we can get the dates set this week. RLL will collect the money, which will go to Hazen baseball and softball. We will not sell individual sessions, just the whole package.
  1. The Hazen Clinic will be the same day as coaches training, March 10
  1. We will use email for reporting scores and also look into GameChanger as an organization reporting tool
  1. We will discuss possible amendments to the all-star selection process at the next meeting
  1. The field clean-up and field maintenance training committee will be Jacob, Jason, John, Greg & a TBD Softball person
  1. Play Standards
  2. We will increase to 3 innings minimum with 1 at-bat
  3. We will stick with batting 9 in Majors per the LLI rules

Action Item Summary:

  1. Jeremy – email reminder of evaluation dates –done, but we should let AAA players know to come on the 3rd if they are going to be out of town 10/11
  2. Mark / Eval Committee – finalize eval forms – paper and maybe electronic
  3. Mark / Eval Committee – get draft notices out to managers; finalize volunteers
  4. Jen – finalize discount weekend(s) with Dick’s
  5. Greg / others – check with Renton Parks & Rec about donating our old equipment
  6. Greg / Jacob – look into purchasing L-screens and possibly portable mounds
  7. Jeremy / Jeff–add Winter Training option to website when dates are set
  8. Jeremy / Jeff– promote Winter Training through website, Facebook and email
  9. Jesse – contact Scott Ealy (, 206-877-2284) regarding Hazen Clinic
  10. Mike / Charlton / Softball Committee– continue lower level baseball and softball coach recruiting with emails and possibly phone calls
  11. Jeremy / Clayton– update Safety forms to 2018
  12. Jeremy – look into GameChanger and email for score reporting
  13. Jeremy – look into being able to show RLL calendar on IOS and other mobile
  14. Mike – distribute minimum play standards
  15. Field Clean-up committee – organize and find volunteers
  16. Clayton – bring safety forms to next meeting

Discussion Notes:

  • Registration
  • We are slightly ahead of last year; 155 at time of the meeting
  • Last year the end of Jan was big because the late fee kicked in
  • Registration weekend at Dick’s will be Jan 20
  • Our RLL calendar does not work on IOS
  • Evaluation / Draft
  • Feb 3 for Majors with Feb 11 as make-up day
  • Feb 10 will be AAA and softball
  • We will use J.C. to level-set our coaches at a pre-meeting and then supervise during the evaluations
  • We need our AAA coaches to be there
  • Josh is looking into using electronic evaluation forms through Google Docs, but cell and wifi reception may be poor in BLE
  • AAA players can evaluate with Majors on the 3rd if needed
  • If we do paper forms, Mike would enter the data
  • John and Mark will serve as evaluation QA
  • Our goal will be to have more evenly configured AAA teams this year
  • We will try to ensure 1 good catcher per team and evenly divide the pitching
  • We will divide the 12 yr olds more evenly this year
  • It appears that there has not been a change in 12-yr old rules for Majors
  • In addition to manager and assistant coaches kids (2 Auto-pick trades), there will be 1 trade proposal allowed per team, with the trade not guaranteed
  • If a Majors player quits or is out for injury, it will be better to seek an exception for an 11-player roster rather than bring up a AAA player
  • We will discuss the one-time play-up pool policy at the next meeting
  • Sponsor Update
  • Our agreement with Dick’s includes a coupon for 20% off entire purchase
  • We will try for 2 discount weekends, just before the start of practices for upper levels and lower levels – these would be Mar3/4 and 10/11
  • Dick’s will give us 10 baseball kits and 5 softball kits + $500 in coupons
  • Equipment Update
  • The tractor has been purchased
  • We need help with disposing old bats and other equipment – will try Renton Parks & Rec
  • We don’t need more baseballs
  • Buying bats through Baden was a very good deal
  • We will continue to look into purchasing L-screens for each field and also portable mounds, which could be used at Kiwanis if we move it ourselves
  • Winter Training
  • Hopefully dates will be finalized this week – we will likely be at 4 or 5 sessions instead of 6
  • The money will go to Hazen baseball and softball, but we will collect it
  • Participants cannot be above 6th grade
  • We will not sell individual sessions
  • Treasurer Report
  • The tractor check has cleared
  • We have a lot of registration income to come yet
  • The treasurer laptop and software have been purchased and were under budget
  • Advertising is a little under budget so far
  • Coaches update
  • Majors and AAA baseball are fully staffed
  • If we have more than needed, we will use the interview process
  • Softball has 5 committed coaches so far (there were 7 teams last year)
  • AA, A and T-ball have a ways to go, but phone calls will help
  • AAA coaches need to be at the evaluations (Majors and AAA)
  • 2 emails will be coming out shortly
  • Website status
  • We need to update the Safety forms to 2018
  • Schedules/scores/standings process is still in work, but there are good options
  • We could use a specific email address for scores or possibly GameChanger
  • The levels for softball have been fixed
  • All-Stars
  • We will follow essentially the same process as last year, but we will discuss possible amendments at the next meeting
  • Field Clean-Up and Maintenance Training
  • We need to train our coaches on field maintenance so as not to waste material or harm equipment
  • The committee to find volunteers and organize the events is: Jacob, John, Jason, Greg and a TBD softball person
  • We will finalize the dates at the next board meeting
  • Play Standards
  • We will go with 3 innings and 1 at-bat minimum
  • AAA will bat continuous
  • Majors will bat 9 per the LLI rule
  • Mike will distribute the standards and game time rules to everyone
  • Future Meeting Topics
  • All-Star coach and player selection process amendments
  • Field clean-up and maintenance training dates
  • Play-up pool policy details
  • Long term plan for tractor storage
  • Clarification of rain outs and game time limits

The next board meeting will beThursday, Feb. 15 at Hazen HS Library (because of the drafts earlier that week)