The minutes from the GLBUA general membership meeting held on April 15thin the lecture hall of the Lowell Technical High School located on Pawtucket Blvd in Tyngsboro

Role call of officers:

President:Mark Wood Present

Vice President:John HansburyPresent

Secretary: John Callery Absent

Treasurer: Dennis Hansbury Absent

Interpreter: Leo Avila Sr. Absent

Clinician:Mark SpearsAbsent

Past President: Mike Hastings Present

At-Large Members:Ray Bellerose Present

Ken JayPresent

Joe SmithPresent

Lucien Tanguay Present

Lenny Tatarouns Present

Sonny RobbinsAbsent

Ray WagnerPresent

1)Mark Wood presided over the meeting which he called to order at 7:10pm. A quorum was ‘barely’established as only 47 of the current 218 registered members were present at this time.

2)Mark opened the meeting by asking all to take a moment of silence for 3 local umpires who have ‘crossed over’ in recent months. Al Lanni and Richard Heos were both long standing members of our local board. Although Ralph Wade was not a member of our board he worked with and helped many on our board over the years. Ralph was present many times in the past as a guest of our annual banquet.

3)Due to the absence of Dennis Hansbury, Mark Wood gave the Treasurer’s reports. No change reported since the last meeting on April 9th. Motion was made to accept and seconded.

4)Mark then notified the group that Sonny Robbins was in the hospital battling pneumonia. Although he cannot accept visitors at this time, any thoughts and prayers as well as ‘well wishes’ sent to his home would be appreciated.

5)John Hansbury gave another quick update on the banquet. He reminded all members present that the banquet will be held on May 18th beginning at 4:30pm at Princeton Station Restaurant located in North Chelmsford. To date there is only about 40 members/guests that have turned in a banquet form.

6)Ray Wagner then addressed those present about the importance of not turning back games to assignors unless for a valid reason (ie: regular job, family issue, asked to work state tournament, etc.). Ray explained that he currently wears ‘three hats’ (E-board member, assignor and umpire) in the association. He emphasized that being a good ‘reliable’ umpire is one of the keys to getting games. One reason he heard about recently from another assignor and personally felt was an unacceptable reason for turning back a game, for which the official working for this assignor had already ‘committed’ to doing, is the official found another better paying game and did not give this assignor a lot of time to refill the game for which he had already committed. In Ray’s opinion, ‘If you accept a $ 45 Little League game, block off this date on your Arbitor account, and DO NOT accept another game for the same time slot’. As an assignor it makes this official look unreliable and may not get as many (if any) games from this assignor in the future should he continue to turn back games in lieu of better paying games. In other words do not ‘accept a game for now until/if something else better comes up’.

7)Mark Wood then asked those umpires present who asked to be evaluated last year thru the new evaluation process to speak about their positive experiences. Vince Kennedy, Michael Stuer and Bob DelPonte all spoke about the many benefits in having the evaluation done by one of our board’s Evaluators. Although all of these members already have many years experience in our association, they all agreed that this process is very beneficial as everyone’s goal should always be to become better umpires. It doesn’t matter how many years of experience one may have. There’s always room for improvement. They encouraged everyone to go thru this process in the future.

8)Fred Simm spoke briefly about the waffle ball fundraiser coming up on June 21st to benefit the Travis Roy foundation and Franciscan Hospital for children. On October 20, 1995 – just eleven seconds into his first-ever shift for Boston University men’s ice hockey team, Roy slid head-first into the boards after University of North Dakota player Mitch Vig avoided Roy's check. The awkward impact with the boards resulted in Roy cracking his fourth and fifth vertebra, leaving him a quadriplegic.The Travis Roy Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the life of individuals with spinal cord injuries and their families by providing adaptive equipment and to finding a cure through increased funding of research, resulting in self-reliance and the ability to be as independent as possible. Members are encouraged to contact Fred for more information.

9)Tom Clews gave another presentation with accompanying hand outs. But before doing so he encouraged everyone to make an effort to attend the banquet on May 18th. He explained the importance of establishing relationships with one another and the camaraderie this event brings amongst all members. Tonight’s presentation emphasized in great detail the ‘balk’ rule and was quite informative. He made it clear that the purpose of this rule is to protect runners and not the batter. Tom then explained all of the various situations and presented many examples when a balk should be and should not be enforced, the procedures that should be followed after a balk violation has been committed, etc.

A motion was made at 8:20 to adjourn and was seconded.

Respectfully submitted,

Ray Wagner

GLBUA –‘Acting’ Secretary