IMPORTANT ASAP SAFETY PLAN DEADLINES

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1 February 2014 Volume 21/Number 1 Continuing the Little League tradition of making it "safer for the kids." IMPORTANT ASAP SAFETY PLAN DEADLINES While some areas of the country have players already lacing up their cleats for Little League Baseball and Softball, and some are just starting registrations, deadlines to report league information are looming. There are a couple key dates you should keep in mind when preparing for the season and chartering your teams with Little League International. Putting together the data about your league and facilities helps you to organize the season before it starts. Information reported to Little League helps to create a database of registered individuals and surveyed facilities, which is a key step in making the game safer for the kids and adults. Plus, getting an early start can lead to a number of attractive incentives including the cash award from Little League AIG Insurance and entrance into drawings for a chance at additional prizes. The first date to note is March 13, which is the last day for early-bird financial incentives for districts. To receive a $350 credit for your District, at least 87 percent of leagues within a District need to have their information in and approved on, or, before this date. This means completing the league registration form available on the Little League website at LittleLeague. org/asap, facility surveys at facilitysurvey.musco.com, and Safety Plans including the 15 required criteria also available on the Little League website. A District participation ranging from percent awards a $150 bonus to the District. It s important to note that coaches, managers and player registration data information from last season submitted electronically through the Little League Data Center can be updated online, making the process easier. If your league misses the early-bird incentive cutoff, you have until April 1st to submit your safety plan and coaches, managers, and player registration information. This is the absolute final date in which a league can submit its safety plan for full credit. Be sure to have your information postmarked by this time to participate and enjoy the benefits associated with the A Safety Awareness Program (ASAP). You can register your Training and Development (TAD) Program and Big League programs at a later date. This information needs to be submitted through the data center as well. Because of the large volume of data collected, Little League and ASAP appreciate early participation. Not only will early birds receive financial credit, they ll also be entered in several drawings. Entering your facility survey online is easy and convenient, and leagues that file this information online will be entered into a weekly drawing for a Musco Safety-Pak. This award includes a safety green t-shirt, baseball stress ball, lighted pen, and other items to help your league operate more safely. Leagues completing their survey online will also be awarded with entrance into a drawing for a $500 cash prize. In some parts of the country it might seem a bit early to think about baseball and softball, but it s never too early to get a start on filing your safety plan and league information. A safety plan does not need to, and should not, wait for games to start before being put together and submitted. A plan to create a safer atmosphere for activities, equipment and facilities in your league should not be the last thing your league prepares each year. A number of resources exist on the Little League website, LittleLeague.org/ASAP, to help you get started or to answer any questions you might have. Making the game safer for the kids and adults starts with logistics, and it helps to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. For articles and instructions on filing ASAP information, visit LittleLeague.org/ ASAP. To contact ASAP directly, call tollfree or asap@musco. com. Be sure to include your name and postal address if ing. ATTENTION: DA REMINDER ASAP plans MUST be received and approved by Little League International on or before March 13th to receive the district incentive. Also - ANY leagues that want to host tournaments above the district level MUST have an approved ASAP Plan. All 15 requirements must be met including submitting coach, managers, and player registration data electronically through the Little League Data Center.

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3 REPORTING COACHES, MANAGERS, AND PLAYER REGISTRATIONS ONLINE Safety is an ongoing process, and Little League and ASAP are continuously updating protocol to help make the game safer for all players and adults. In order to make the process for leagues complete, while also keeping it convenient, Little League is taking initiatives to make reporting information more streamlined via electronic submission. One of the new requirements for this year s safety plans is that leagues report coaches, managers, and player registration data online via the Little League Data Center. In order to be covered by Little League insurance in case of an injury, a player must be registered. Information about date of birth, how to contact a guardian, and team coaches and managers are to be included. It s essential that Little League have knowledge of every player for each year they participate. In the past, leagues have waited until they could report which teams the players would be on; this meant many leagues were almost to the point of playing games, or later, before they reported who their players were. Injury claims were often delayed in processing, as Little League had no record of an injured player being part of a given league. It may seem daunting, but many leagues already have the registration process complete. If you ve submitted previous years registration data, information about new or existing players, coaches, and managers, can be easily updated through the Little League Data Center. Using the Data Center, you can file your charter, view you officer information and tournament information online. You can also monitor the process of background checks. The Data Center is a great place to manage almost all of your league information, and it can help streamline the registration process. When dealing with information about children, privacy is of the upmost importance, and Little League International and ASAP both recognize this. Physical, electronic, and managerial measures are taken to safeguard data against unauthorized access. Any collected information is used for the purpose of furthering the organization s mission. If you have any questions about filing information, go to Littleleague.org/ privacypolicy or feel free to contact ASAP via the ASAP Hotline. Taking the time to file coaches, managers, and player information electronically isn t just suggested; it s a regulation IV(g), and it s been a regulation for decades. Still, as our lives become more digitized, Little League and ASAP are taking measures to utilize technology to improve safety. Resources exist online to help you get started, and, once the first steps have been taken, using technology can actually help to make the process easier for your league. The deadline to register your coaches, managers, and players registration data is April 1st. The deadline for the districts is in and approved by March 13th. For an introduction on the Little League Data Center, log onto LittleLeague.org/datacenter. To contact ASAP directly, call toll-free or asap@musco. com. Be sure to include your name and postal address if ing. 13

4 Doing Your Background Checks A MANDATORY REQUIREMENT! There are a lot of logistical steps that go into preparing for a season, and taking the time to conduct appropriate volunteer background checks is definitely one you should make a top priority each year. It s a sad fact of life, but, without fail, each year sees a number of crimes relating to abduction and sexual predators. And the more worrisome situations are those where abuse happens not by a stranger, but by a person well known to the victim. This is why background checking is so important for leagues. In order to help streamline the process while making it as complete as possible, Little League has continued its partnership with First Advantage Screening Solutions to provide some of the most comprehensive background checking available. Obviously, running background checks can t prevent accidents, but it can help move your league away from risk. Should something unfortunate happen, you don t want to live with the knowledge that you didn t do everything in your power to prevent it. ABOUT FIRST ADVANTAGE First Advantage Screening Solutions offers comprehensive info on over 350 million individual criminal records. This number is staggeringly more complete than the 751,538 available through the National Sex Offender Registry. That s one of the key reasons why Little League trusts First Advantage for volunteer background checks; They carry much, much more information about sexual offenses. Another important reason why Little League suggests background checking through First Advantage is that their database provides information not only on sexual offender registries, but also criminal records, too. It does this by using more complete information about an individual like their date of birth and Social Security number. Ten states do limit information to only an individual s name, like the National Sex Offender Registry, but the huge range of information provided through First Advantage still greatly trumps that of the NSOR. Finally, to help make the process easier and more complete, First Advantage Screening Solutions will record entries to help with searches in later seasons. Last year s data is already in the system. This means that you can more easily run a background check on a volunteer who is returning from a previous season. The NSOR does not remember searches from year to year. First Advantage is more complete than a search on the National Registry, and it may actually make the process easier. SERVICES PROVIDED TO LEAGUES Helping keep the game more safe comes at a price, and Little League recognizes that not every league can afford to pay for all the background checks their league may require. That s why the first 125 searches through First Advantage are provided free to leagues paid for by Little League International. For many, this number will encompass most, if not all, volunteers. Larger leagues have been conducting additional searches for just $1.00 per additional individual check. You no longer have to provide credit card data after each additional check. Instead, leagues expecting to search more than 125 volunteers can enter credit card information to complete an entire batch of background checks. Plus, you only have to enter payment info after exceeding the 125 mark; however, Little League recommends leagues expecting to conduct more searches should enter payment info before starting, to help make the process run more smoothly. Another important note is that the 125 free background searches paid for by Little League International reset on November 1st of each year. THE REAL COST OF BACKGROUND CHECKS It might seem like a lot of work and, potentially, a lot of money, but background checks are becoming more essential as the years go on. An afternoon of background checking can help to prevent issues down the road traumatic and terrifying issues you never want to see in your league. Little League and First Advantage Screening Solutions want to make the process as easy and complete for you as possible. It s important to do your part in keeping your league participants safe. The Little League website has requirements as to who you need to check. This is an annual requirement of all leagues. Be sure to include all volunteers, coaches, umpires, hired workers, and those who provide regular service and/ or have repetitive access to players and teams. At the minimum, you must conduct checks through the National Sex Offender Registry, but Little League and ASAP can t stress enough, the thorough nature of First Advantage. We re all in this together to make it safer for the kids. For information on background checking through First Advantage Screening Solutions, LittleLeague.org/background. 14

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6 CheckingYour Facilities In some parts of the country, the snow is starting to clear away as things warm up and we move closer to the baseball and softball season. So why not get an early start on checking to see if your facilities are operational? At the very least, you can take the small amount of time to prepare a list to know what to look for when you do get a chance, making the whole process run more smoothly. Listed below are a number of suggestions for things to check when the time comes and you re ready to go out and have a look. RESTROOMS While it s not the most glamorous part of maintaining good facilities, checking your restrooms is something you have to do to make sure things stay clean and your players and spectators can fully enjoy the game. Be sure to check that any faucets, toilets, and sinks are working properly once you turn the water back on. The inner workings of restrooms are very important. Also be sure to check for cracked walls or peeling paint as these can be signs of developing problems. THE FIELD Walk the field before the season starts. Clear any debris and check for new or worsening divots or holes. This is an area that requires lots of bodies to accomplish, or it may not get the attention it deserves. Small holes or sharp/hard items lodged in the dirt may be overlooked if a single person surveys from several yards away. Rocks, broken glass, metal objects, and holes all pose very real and potentially serious risks to your players. Take the time before play begins to have the entire field walked by volunteers to look for these items. Be sure the area around home plate isn t too compressed or dug out by batter s feet clearing the material from last season. The black edges of home plate should be completely under the surface, with only the white part showing. This will help to provide a smooth sliding surface, rather than a protruding edge that will catch rubber cleats as they go past. Also, be sure that pitching mounds are in good, solid condition. Ruts in front of the rubber should be filled, and if necessary, dug down to have additional clay or compacting material placed deeply, with infield material placed on top, so pitchers can t dig below the surface of the infield. A hole in front of the pitcher s rubber is a hole all the same, and where one pitcher desires that extra push, another may twist their ankle in trying to use it the next half inning. The areas around the field are equally important. Dugouts should be clean and well-constructed to be made safer, especially for young children. Look for exposed nails, sharp edges on corners or benches, and tripping hazards in and around the dugout. Children will not recognize the risks, and can easily be injured running into any of these. Bleachers should be sturdy, clean, and examined for stability. Bleachers that sit out all winter may have degraded and now have unsafe seating. In addition, consider putting back rests and side rails on any bleachers that are taller than three seats. While older bleachers were not required to have these items, newer codes call for them, and the safety of your spectators shouldn t rely on the excuse it wasn t required when we bought them. CONCESSIONS Your cooking appliances, hopefully, haven t spent the winter out in the cold, but they need to be checked to ensure they are in proper working order. Most concessions stands aren t heated during the off-season, so items left in there all winter will have contracted with the cold and re-expanded with the warming weather, causing potential risks of failure in critical junctions, especially if not properly winterized. Also be sure to check outlets, sinks, and especially any pest control issues. Any food not cleaned out of the stand could have attracted rodents or insects, and created a path from outside to inside for an on-going concern. Not only do you want to save your concession stand workers 16

7 from the surprise of finding bugs or mice in the spring, but they also create health concerns. A good step in ongoing safety preparation for concessions would be to ensure all concession stand volunteers are given proper training before the season starts. FINAL NOTES These are just a few suggestions to help spark ideas of how you can get your facilities running before the season starts. It s important to ensure that all bases are detachable. Don t allow the loss of a detachable base in the off-season to compromise your safety standard by putting a handy standard base back in its place. Not only is it a rule of Little League to use bases that disengage from their bases, it s also a good way to help prevent shoulder, arm, collarbone, and wrist injuries in older players, and leg, ankle, and foot injuries for all players. Little League is looking for when it comes to safer facilities. Submitting new ideas to ASAP is always appreciated, and it might even land you in a future issue of ASAP News! Also, be sure to check to see that parking lots are in good condition, and that you have correct signs posted around your facilities. For a complete list of suggestions, explore the 2014 Facility Survey. Every listed point includes what 71

8 Common Sense from the Field Each team must choose a team safety player and a team safety parent who have passed their background checks, to police for violations to safety rules and regulations. Pawcatuck LL, Connecticut Managers are responsible for having at least one other adult present, who has passed a background check, at all practices to assist in an emergency. Should an accident occur, one adult could provide assistance to the injured person while the other contacts emergency medical personnel. Daniel Boone LL, Missouri Included in our safety plan is a map of our entire complex, specifically showing emergency access, first aid, and fire extinguishers. Jamul LL, California We have made our entire Safety Manual available on CD for free, for all participants in our program. Pembroke Pines LL, Florida A maintenance and safety checklist has been adopted for a weekly inspection of each field. Robbinsdale Youth Baseball, Minnesota To submit ideas for Common Sense, us at asap@musco.com. A mid-season equipment inspection will be conducted. International LL, California We will teach each ballplayer how to care for and inspect their personal equipment. Parkchester LL, New York We create new safety signs each year. Also, we give a copy of game schedules to police and fire department. Huntington Tri-Village LL, New York 539 US Highway 15 South Williamsport, PA ASAP News is a service of Little League Baseball and Softball facilitated and published by Musco Lighting January/February 2014 Little League Baseball, Incorporated and Musco Sports Lighting, LLC. All rights reserved. ASAP Hotline: 800/ Fax: asap@musco.com All materials in the ASAP News may be reprinted by chartered Little Leagues without prior permission.