MEETINGS

Offseason Meetings Will Be Earlier In 2012

A significant shift in the timing of our offseason league meetings will take place next season in hopes of improving our preparation for the new season.  The first meeting, previously held in early March, will now be scheduled for late January, soon after the NDASA Winter Meeting.  Likewise, the final meeting, which has generally been planned for early to Mid-April, will be moved up to late-March or early-April.

Our "Winter Meeting" on Sunday, January 29th (3:00 p.m. at IDK Bar & Grill) will be used to vote on vacant board positions.  This will afford new board members the opportunity to contribute in the four months preceding the beginning of the season  Additionally, we will discuss issues related to the Park & Recreation Department that can be submitted to them early enough in the offseason to (hopefully) get the ball rolling on some necessary improvements.  ASA & NDASA mandated rule changes coming out of the state's own Winter Meeting will be detailed.  We will also use this meeting to begin the process of aligning the league nights.

On that topic, clearly the alignment of the league nights in 2011 was awkward.  With the significant increase in teams, the problems we faced in organizing the nights were two-fold:

1. We were facing uncertainty in the number of umpires we would have and, therefore, were unsure if we could handle using a fourth diamond on nights the women also played.   We are very encouraged with all those who stepped up to umpire this season and are cautiously optimistic that this will not be a problem going forward.

2. With our final meeting having been scheduled, as usual, just a few weeks before the beginning of the season compounded by the delay in trying to resolve the umpires situation, we felt it was too close to the beginning of the season to force teams to move and risk them not having enough players to participate on their new night.  This is, in part, where the new meeting dates come into play.

The "Spring Meeting" on Sunday, April 1st (3:00 p.m. at IDK Bar & Grill) will be utilized to finalize the league night alignment.  This will give teams 5-6 weeks to adjust their roster as necessary should they be moved to a new league night, which will prove to be very useful to minimize or eliminate league nights with an odd number of teams or to cap league nights at a much-more-manageable 8 teams.

We will also use this meeting to address our own league rules - i.e. start times, players fees, the pickup rule - and vote on changes as necessary.  Any remaining issues that need to be discussed will be handled as well.

So, managers, please be looking for updates on these new dates for our league meetings once we reach the new year and plan to attend or have a representative of your team present.  It is through these meetings that we hope to improve the future of our association.