Derry Little League
Board of Directors Monthly Meeting

MeetingMinutes January 6, 2016

Attendees

Board Members
Ray Feoli / Tom Vallone / Heather Zikmanis / Don Kirkland / A.J. Giammichele
Sue McGill / Tom Torres / Bobby Jones / Keith Schroder / John Petralis
Jeff Kattar / Jim Kane / Jim Walsh / Karen Clark / Susan Cerri
Brian Diperri / Tim Dineen / Dave Zimmerle
Guests
Mark Grabowski / Kristin Dineen

Guest Comments / Opening Comments

Mark Grabowski, offers comments on his perception as a manager and member of the community of how the league is doing. …What we did well, what could be improved. Pre-season planning could be better. He observes that we should be ready to go before opening day. …Also advocates making Senior team more competitive (perhaps having a Senior tournament team). Finally, he comments that if we want to become more competitive at the tournament level, we should consider eliminate kids picking their own teams.

Discussion: Responses from various Board members explained some of the issues we faced last year that impacted our ability to be 100% up-to-speed by opening day.

Mark also very generously provided an authenticated baseball memento (bat signed by Robinson Cano) to be used as a fund-raising item (to be determined). He also provided laminated cards of “Baseball Golden Rules.” …Suggesting that we incorporate more baseball talk in our Board Meetings… and not just business!

Treasurer’sReport

Heather suggests closing building account – reason being that we are paying fees for a below-minimum balance. Either close the account or beef it up.

MOTION: Close account 4451 (building account) and move to 0615 (field account). Seconded. APPROVED.

MOTION: To beefup account 8193(from 8184) and keep it at a $2500 balance. Seconded. APPROVED.

Secretary’s Report

MOTION: To approve Secretary’s report. Seconded. APPROVED.

President’s report

Charter – need to do that in the next couple of weeks.

Marketing – it’s one thing to put out information… But when we execute our programs it’s also a marketing effort. We need to get better at marketing ourselves and collecting information on what the community likes and strive to address those points. We need to “sell” Derry Little League… Early-bird registration is just one of the many things we can do.

EVP report:

Manchester is going through a change… Divisions within the city have moved their boundaries and the Little League program overall is going through a difficult transition.

Safety Report / Field Update

Safety plan is in development. First aid kits are complete. No issues.

Old Business

Coaches Committee

Need to meet… (Tim, Tom, and John) to start identifying candidates.

Parade

Seeking a volunteer… Bueller? Bueller?
Heather volunteers.

ACTION: Heather to manage Opening Day parade.

CPR Classes

Still being offered by Derry FD. Tom T will confirm details. Need to get as many coaches certified as possible.

Baseball 101 with Senior Girls

Ray discusses free program to be promoted through Derry Parks & Rec… Could be done during Girls Senior Winter Workout… targeted to kids who haven’t played. (7-ish years old) Must be a free clinic.

Babe Ruth

Two age 13-15 and 16 – 18 for boys. Bobby identifies Babe Ruth leaders. Describes NH league. We can play in Londonderry. If we want to charter teams (4-team minimum) in Derry, we would not play on Londonderry team. Games are against our own teams as well as other towns. Games played count toward Tourney eligibility. Chartering a team is a pretty straight-forward process. One issue is insurance. Can we add Babe Ruth teams to our policy?

Sue to meet with Windham Babe Ruth organizer … Bobby to join.

Spring Registration

Will be turned on this weekend! One change is annotation that payment must be received for registration to be effective / valid.

New Business

Umpire School

Umpire clinic (January 23) – in Bristol. $50. Ray has sent out communique.

Kevin O’Brien Approval

Suggested having him come in to coach the coach.

Suggest that we ask if we can record him. Ray will ask.

MOTION: To approve O’Brien ($299) to coach at Winter Workout coach meeting. Seconded. APPROVED.

Hitting Clinic (Jim Bail Discussion and Vote)

Jim is interested in running clinic this year. Instead of having it on basketball, have it on field. …two sessions concurrently. $135/kid (we get $15/kid). Jim takes care of acquiring field and running program. 8 weeks starting January 31… one hour. Ages 10+.

Concern is whether time slot is conducive to participation. Suggestion is for Sunday.

Value for Derry LL is having another offering to develop skills. Also promotes Derry LL branding.

He will need 6 volunteers. Program is also good for coaches to learn how to teach good hitting techniques.

MOTION: To approve Jim Bail ($135/kid) to conduct hitting course. Seconded. APPROVED.

Training Effects-Strength

Ray was solicited by them… Are we interested in offering their program as part of our program? E.g. $10/kid/session… We could offer a 10-week session… At Sportzone. Tabled until next meeting.

Scheduling (Dave Z)

  • Ray to ask if he can segment the week by division. Could help with organizing schedules to know (for example) that majors are playing on Wednesdays and Thursdays…

Advertising Registration

  • Check our sponsors out-reach. Can we leverage our sponsor relationships to promote and advertise registration for the Spring season?
  • Suggest decals for vehicles to promote Derry Little League. Question about vehicle liability.

Miscellaneous

  • Going to have a larger fund-raising committee this year.
  • Sue says we need to get busy on our sponsor assignments.
  • Sue discusses field improvement committee. First meeting January 14th MGCC. All welcome. Sue solicits any “visions” for field improvement.
  • A.J. suggests graffiti artists to paint building, fence at O’Hara.
  • Need new scoreboard. (Can Sue get Coke and Pepsi to compete?)
  • Sue to compile list of improvements
  • Jeff reminds new board members that mileage for DLL-related travel is tax deductible.
  • Positive Coaching Alliance – Double Gold… Jeff to send out link for Board review.
  • Equipment is organized and ready to go. Keith needs to know what we still need. He will also have sign out sheet to track items that are used to replace consumed items.
  • We did get allocation from Chevy. Money was used for miscellaneous support items.
  • Website registration needs to be reviewed for problems with

MOTION: To approve contract for Sportzone for Winter Workout. Seconded. APPROVED.

ACTION: Sue to contact Eric about improvement / permission to paint graffiti at O’Hara.

Meeting Adjournment and Move to Closed Session

MOTION: That next BoD meeting is January 20, 2016 at 7:00 p.m., at MGCC. Seconded. APPROVED.

MOTION: To adjourn Public meeting and go to Closed Session at 9:30. Seconded. APPROVED

MOTION: To adjourn closed session at 9:30. Seconded. APPROVED

Action Items
Closed
In progress with no issues or dependencies or ongoing
Open, in progress, issues being resolved, action(s) being worked
Risk, issue, or critical deadline
AI
# / Date Opened / Action Item / Who / Due Date / Status
Previous closed Actions archived in previous meeting minutes
1 / Nov 3 / Tom to put 2015 calendar on shared Google Drive / Tom / Dec 15 / Pending
2 / Nov 3 / A.J. to send Heather a preliminary budget / A.J / Dec 15 / Closed
3 / Dec 2 / Investigate hit-a-thon… ref “99 pledges.” / Sue / Jan 15 / Pending
4 / Dec 2 / Tim to send details of Winter Workout to Ray. / Tim / Dec 20 / Closed
5 / Dec 2 / Open registration for Winter Workoutwith advance for coaches. / Ray / Dec 20 / Closed

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