HERMANTOWN LITTLE LEAGUE MONTHLY MEETING MINUTES
Meeting Logistics Nov 8, 2016 7:00 pm @ Skyline Lanes Bowling Alley ______
Attendees: Ted Kiefat, Jay Juusola, Lana Arro, Alex Rodriguez
Members Absent: Denny LeGarde, Jeff Ruprecht
Others Present: Mark Lau, Jessica Thayer, Scott Lau, Troy Ter Meer, Dan Summers
Call to order: 7:04pm
Approve the Agenda: Motion made by Alex R. Seconded by Jay J. Motion passed unanimously.
Review of Previous Minutes: Motion made by Jay & seconded by Alex to accept Oct 11, 2015 minutes. Motion passed unanimously with the exception of changing Troy Ter Meer’s name.
Public Discussion: None
- By-laws Committee Reports: Lana did add the objective from the Hermantown Little League Website in Section 2 of Article II and the board decided to put a cap of $200 for Article XI in Section 4.
- Treasurer’s Report: Ted prepared the report. Total funds are $24,964.43. Concessions $3778.24, Money Market $13,206.19, Booster Club $620.36, and Checking $7,359.64. Troy made a motion to pass the report and Alex seconded. Motion passed.
- Old Business: Jay made a motion to spend the extra $350 to have Sport Ngin design the baseball website with Alex seconding it. Motion passed. Total cost to switch to Sport Ngin for the 2 year plan with the web page design will be around $1400.
Quad Cities will be tabled until next month. Jay reported that they have changed the
birthdates.
Ted made a motion to have those that put their name in as new board members to be voted
in and bring on the board tonight. Lana and Jay motioned to see them join the board at the
table and the motion passes unanimously. The new Board members are Mark Lau, Jessica
Thayer, Jeff Laspi, Dan Summers, and Troy Ter Meer.
There are 2 open executive positions on the board. With the new board members added, Ted
opened up the 2 spots to the new members of the board. Dan and Jessica said they would be
interested in the Vice President and Treasurer positions. Alex made a motion to accept Dan
Summers as the Vice President with Jessica seconding it. Motion passed unanimously. Jay
made a motion to accept Jessica Thayer as the Treasurer with Lana seconding it. Motion
passed unanimously. Jay also proposed to have the interim taken off Ted’s title to make
him the President and Dan seconded it. Motion passed unanimously.
Concessions were also tabled until next month but Derek Narloch’s name was brought up by
Scott Lau as a possible vendor to have around for any baseball activities or festivities the
league might be having.
When the website is up and running an email will be sent out asking parents to register their
son/daughter for the season. There was some talk about having CSS and UMD baseball
students helping run a 2 day assessment to rank the players. This discussion led into Alex
asking the board to really think about whether we as a board are going to separate kids based
on talent or age. Alex was saying that he feels that skills diminish if we don’t challenge
athletes. Last VFW season Dan Beck and Jim Karnas set up a tryout and asked Alex to ask
some Juniors to come and tryout, after that tryout 4 juniors were pulled up to play VFW.
Next meeting the board will be deciding with a vote on talent vs. age. Lana told the board
thatKoleZuildmulder would like to coach VFW this season and the board asked her to have
him email a letter of intent with his coaching philosophy. This led into a discussion about
developing a handbook for all parents, coaches, and players that talks about the
responsibilities of everyone.
- New Business: Ted wanted to remind the new and old members on the board that even though this is a volunteer position that we should be attending 80% of functions and meetings. If a board member can not make a meeting they need to email Lana or Ted ASAP. Ted also talked about accountability with the board members and getting something done within a week of being asked and if you can’t get it done by then to ask for help from another board member. The 3 days that board members should be at are set up in March, April, or May, baseball day in June, and clean-up in September or October.
Ted had a meeting with the city and they would like to work with us to make the fields look
better. Some of the possible things that could get fixed are the lights on field 2. Have the
home plates by the concessions stand, scoreboards on fields #2,3,4, a new batting cage on
the majors field, fix concession stand and bathrooms. Fixing the t-ball field and the drainage on field1. Advertizing was also talked about being put up around the fences of the fields with
sponsors.
There was a closed session by the board that ended at 9:12 pm.
- Regular Meeting Closed: 7:52 pm
Next meeting Sunday, December 18, 2015 at 7:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by Lana Arro