Eastern Women s Baseball Conference March 4, 2018 @ 4:00pm // South Paws (Fairfax, VA) Meeting Minutes Welcome: a. Attendees: Jackie Greco, Jan Strevig, Bonnie Hoffman (phone), Beth Woerner, Mary Kmiecinski, Marie Potter, Jen O Keefe, Jennifer Hammond, Cindy Monohan (via Skype), Monica Gonzalez, Margery Gehan Umpires/Fields/Schedule 2018 o Schedule/Fields Only one outstanding invoice for a field permit due to issues with the County s payment system. Jackie is working with the POC to resolve. Otherwise, all fields are secured in accordance with the current schedule. About 80% sure the Barncats will be using Nats academy field for the July 22, 2018 game against the Flames if the field at Kelley is unavailable. The Board is exploring the possibility of Nats academy more in the future. More details regarding potential costs and availability are being collected. o Umpires Jackie is investigating the possibility of paying lower umpire fees if paid in cash by the teams on game day. She is currently awaiting a response from the umpire association and will provide updates. The fees will either remain the same as last season, or will be lower due to paying in cash. Indoor Workouts o Blues are practicing every Saturday in March from 1030 1200 at BASES. Events are listed on the EWBC website calendar. o All players are welcome to attend the practices. o BASES fee will be divided by number of people present: the more, the better!
Team Counts o Teams will use the same roster format this season and templates have been sent to team managers. o Names and addresses required at a minimum to meet County field permit allocation requirements. Some counties require a certain percentage of players to reside in that county for a discount on permit fees. Bachmann needs more than 50% Anne Arundel county residents to realize savings. o Need team counts to ensure we have enough players to field teams. Deposits / Finances o Team deposits of $500 required by April 1, 2018 to ensure funds available to start paying fees (fields, balls, etc.) when season starts. o Standard player fee will remain Continuing $200 per player. Monthly payment plans are allowed for players who can t pay entire fee up-front. Fee structure for part-time/new players: If a new player wants to try playing for 1 or 2 games, here is no fee If playing 3-4 games, the fee is $100 If playing 5 or more, the full $200 fee is required o Exception if playing 5 or more games, but not the playoffs, then the fee is $100 o Total team fee is based on the rosters provided by April 1. Teams can have overall responsibility to pay the total team fee and determine how to divvy up fees between player fees and fundraisers. o Each team is encouraged to have at least 1 fundraiser. o Venmo is the preferred method of submitting payments. If using PayPal, be sure to mark payment as family or friend to avoid the league being charged for the transaction. Storefront o Squadlocker Jen Hammond is working with Squadlocker representative to have EWBC storefront set up in April. All teams can order through the main league store. League and teamspecific items will be available. Prices will likely be a little higher than last year s store, but orders sent directly to player ordering and will be shipped within 8-12 days. Proceeds will be divided among the teams based on how much each
team orders (i.e. if Barncats accounted for 25% of all orders, they receive 25% of proceeds). Events Recap / Upcoming Events o Orioles advocate event was very productive. Jackie has several contacts from the Virginia area that she ll follow up with. Orioles advocate will try to make some EWBC games. o Adaptive clinic: Approximately 40-45 kids with wide range of ages and physical or mental challenges. Orioles advocate very appreciative of EWBC participation. Thanks to Michaela Reardon, Jennifer Lewis, Alice Slisher, Heather Miller, Jo Kruger, Jackie Greco and Beth Woerner for participating! O s have a few more events scheduled and will contact EWBC EWBC invited to participate in Team DC SportsFest Expo at Room & Board (1840 14 th St NW Washington DC.) on March 22, 2018 from 6:30-8:00PM. Team DC is LGBTQ organization that holds the expo as an outreach event and location to promote and recruit for teams events. Participants are asked to arrive between 5:30 6:30PM. Please let Jackie know if you re interested in participating. Nationals Academy o Offered to let EWBC use field for $100 an hour, which is not too much more than $250 total fee for Bachmann. o Potential for reduced fee of $40 an hour if we can help with their Play Ball clinic (showing kids hitting/fielding, etc). The clinics are held Mondays & Wednesdays/Tuesdays & Thursdays at Watkins Recreational & Trinidad Recreational Ward. The Play Ball leagues run from June 18 to August 3 from 6:00 7:30 PM. Nats academy s main concern is having consistency with people/ attendance to build the kid s trust. Would have to commit to 5-10 total participants from EWBC for 1 day a week or 1 week at a time. Jackie can tentatively be there from 6:30 to 7:30, and Bonnie is currently participating. EWBC needs to commit soon to realize savings Jackie asked team managers to share this information with their teams and solicit volunteers. Fundraising / Donations o Blues discussed gift card fundraisers using ShopWithScrip. Gift cards can be purchased at discount, and then sold at face value with the seller keeping
the profit. Multiple retailer s gift cards available for pre-purchase (grocery stores, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Walmart, Kohl s, Staples, Cabela's, Under Armor, etc.). Each team participates separately, so the profits are not diluted. Accounts can be set up so anyone can purchase and the profits would credit towards account, i.e. a family member can purchase a gift card separately and the credit would go the team s account. League does not have to provide money up-front o Jackie wrote large companies asking for donations (Nike, Adidas, etc.). Several responded that they are already committed to sponsoring leagues, and others can provide gear discounts. Jackie will provide additional information. Dick s has fundraising per dollar program where certain number of purchases during particular time periods goes to organization. Jackie will provide additional information. Jackie also reached out to MLB about getting logo on items for player bags and balls, and is awaiting a response. o Game nights or team nights at local restaurants should be considered for potential fundraisers. o Businesses can volunteer for tournaments. o Jackie can provide IRS letter and thank you letters for people/businesses that have donated. Tournament Update o EWBC signed the contract with the Town of Purcellville for Diamond Classic. An email will go out to Tournament contacts (teams and separately vendors/venues we traditionally have used in Baltimore) to announce change in location and the details. EWBC will follow up with the potential host hotel site this week to reserve our room block. o Coordination of a date for Thunder practices and draft email invitation to the league is forthcoming in the next couple of weeks. DC Thunder tryouts need to be scheduled with practices starting in April. The Blues have Bachmann the weekend of April 28 at noon and it will be open league-wide for a scrimmage if enough players attend. o Working on scheduling team practices once fields open up in April. DCGB expressed interest in sharing field space before or after EWBC events. Can do 8-10, 10-12, 12-2 or rotate. DCGB is entering a team in the Diamond Classic.
Rules / Waivers Discussion o Revised rules will be published in April. o Bonnie brought concerns about the current run rule and balancing playing time with parity. The current run rule may limit players getting at bats and suggested modifying the rule or eliminating the run rule and just using the mercy rule. Board discussion ensued with other viewpoints that the run rule also ensures team on losing end gets at bats, whereas the mercy rule may limit the losing team s opportunities since the total game time would be shortened. Other members commented that the current run rule allows the game to move at a decent pace, and umpires provided positive feedback that the run rule helps keep games from getting out of hand early. Discussion ensued about possibility of increase run rule to 6 runs per innings. The Board ultimately voted to keep the current run rule in place. o Board will re-vote and finalize wording of proposed rule changes at the next meeting. o Proposed courtesy runner rule: Players that will need courtesy runners must have their manager notify the opposing manager prior to the start of the game. If not so notified, the opposing manager may deny the request. Each team will be allowed a maximum of 2 players per game who can be run for each time that they reach base. The individual who runs for these player(s) needing a courtesy runner is not determined ahead of time; it is always the next available player who must run for the person needing the courtesy runner. Once the game begins and the full complement of 2 courtesy runners has not been used, if a player sustains an injury, an additional courtesy runner may be used. In the event a player becomes injured during the game and the maximum number of courtesy runners (2) have already been designated, a pinch runner must be used and no courtesy runner will be allowed. If a batter (designated as needing a courtesy runner) opts to run, or forgets to get a courtesy runner and subsequently runs, she will lose her courtesy runner for the remaining portion of the game. The offensive team that is replacing the courtesy runner has 30 seconds to make the runner change*. If the runner is not replaced within this time period, the original runner must run and the right to use the courtesy runner for this particular batter will be forfeited for the balance of the game. The 30-second time limit will begin at the time the umpire calls for time to allow replacement for the runner. *the 30-second limit will be discussed/refined at the next board meeting.
o Separate Offensive and Defensive lineups Board expressed general agreement with the idea of separate lineups similar to the current tournament set up, with the exception of pitcher (pitcher may come back in after being replaced). Bonnie will provide the tournament rules for review, discussion, and vote at the next Board meeting. o Player Pool: The Board voted to eliminate the current player pool structure and replace it with a league-side substitution arrangement. Under the new rules, managers needing players will send an email to the pool administrator with their request for number of players and/or specific positions needed. The Pool administrator will email the entire league to solicit volunteers to play for the requesting team. Pool players will be assigned on first response basis. Remainder of Player Pool rules remain regarding maximum times a team may request/use pool players before affecting the team s playoff seeding, number of players for a legal roster, etc. o Jackie will check with Liz on most recent legal bat rules to keep EWBC current. Outstanding Items: o Bonnie will send tournament lineup rules to the board for review/discussion/vote at the next Board meeting o Board will discuss/finalize rainout contingency plans o Team managers will submit initial rosters to the Board by April 1. o Next Board meeting is Sunday, April 29, 2018, tentatively at Jackie Greco s residence in DC.