All,
The date of the next President's Meeting is October 21st at the Hampton Inn
Airport in Spokane. The meeting starts at 10:00 AM and will have lunch
provided. We will most likely go until about 3:00PM.
ALL Presidents need to attend and you may also bring ANY board members that
wish to attend as well. Please read this entire email!!
We changed up the District President's meeting at the District Tournament to
include some of the regular "business" items we would normally do at the
Fall meeting. This means we will have a new agenda for the October meeting.
The new agenda will include:
1. Boundary Changes, how, why and when?
2. Redrawing league boundaries to better meet the needs of your players
and families, league growth
3. Managing your board better, and understanding the legal organization
of Little League
4. Team development
5. Umpire development, District Efforts to recruit more umpires
6. Coaching Clinic firm schedules
7. Grant writing for larger funding needs
8. Field Construction for those leagues that are thinking about an
attempt to build their own fields
9. Voting on new budget and league assessment strategy
10. How to structure the divisions in your league to maximize player
enjoyment and retention
11. Better ways to organize your season
12. Meet the team night
13. Why volunteers aren't flocking to your league, and how to get them
flocked.
14. Rules updates for 2024
Also, it's time to start thinking about your league general meetings and
elections.
In the State of Washington, each year, Little League Boards are required to
vote on the Board of Directors and organize themselves along the lines of
state law. In addition to that, each league that is Chartered with Little
League International (that's whose charter you all are formed under)
requires your league to have a CONSTITUTION and By-laws by which you are
formed. These documents govern how you can operate legally and effectively.
These constitutions are on file with Little League International, and I have
read most of the ones you are covered under. Most of them are standard, and
only one or two have any modification from the standard Little League
requires. SO there are TWO governing guidelines for your operations 1) The
State of Washington and 2) Little League International. Both have to be
complied with and Little League International policies, procedures, and
guidelines.
The Little League operational year runs from Oct 1, to Sep 30 each year, and
you should align your elections to coincide with this date for a variety of
reasons. This means your elections should be held in September each year to
line up with this over-arching infrastructure. Although you can vary from
this, it makes it difficult to line up with things at Williamsport if you
don't.
So, how do you vote for a "board" ? What are the "general elections"? Why
are they important? Well, it's not complicated and it's very important, and
it's key to helping you get and retain volunteers.
First EVERY LEAGUE MUST HAVE MEMBERS!!!! How do you become a "member" of
Little League? EACH LEAGUE NO MATTER WHAT is required to have members.
Furthermore to become a member of Little League you MUST have a signature on
an application or form that indicates that person wishes to become a member
of Little League.
Is this a Little League rule or is it a State of Washington rule? It's both!
Both entities require the membership. Part of it has to do with corporate or
entity / organization LAW, and each governing body (the state and LL)
require the practice of SIGNING UP MEMBERS. This has implications we will
discuss at the President's meeting.BUT you MUST HAVE A MEMBERSHIP ROLE with
supporting documentation before YOU HAVE YOUR ELECTIONS.
The MEMBERS VOTE on things about the League operations, the Board, etc. Not
just parents of players, but VOTING members. Parents are NOT automatically
"members"!!! (Legally and in terms of implementation of policy!!) Coaches
are not automatically members, volunteers are not automatically members. Get
the idea? They can all be members but there has to be a form or application
that says "I want to be a member of XYZ Little League and their name has to
be on the League Membership roles when it comes time to vote). Why the
bureaucratic hassle? Has to do with LAW and LIABILITY.
If you seat your board without due process you open up the "board members"
to individual liabilities, and you are not a legally formed institution. So
take the time to get the membership roles in order. How many people
constitute membership? That's up to your constitution. But here is a secret,
the MORE MEMBERS YOU HAVE, the MORE CANDIDATES FOR VOLUNTEERING YOU HAVE.
Can parents be members? Absolutely! So can "interested parties" from around
town, like the banker, butcher, and candlestick maker.
I recommend getting county commissioners, city employees, business leaders
etc to be "Little League Members" then get them voted on to the board.
Once you have your membership established, hold a "general meeting" (in
Sept) and vote in a Board. Your constitution defines how many Board members
need to be seated. At a minimum you need President, Vice President,
Secretary, and Treasurer. (this is state law too!) Then you can add as many
as are defined in your constitution. The "general membership" does not vote
on the officers or director specific positions, they only vote on the
"Board" in general. After the general membership has seated the board, then
the Board meets and elects officers afterwards. So if the constitution says
you have 9 positions on the Board of your local Little League, then you
elect 9 people to the Board. Those 9 people meet later and decide who will
be president, VP, etc.
I suggest STARTING NOW to be prepared for Sept Elections. Get your
"membership roles" in order, and publish your general meeting via EMAIL,
FACEBOOK, and maybe invite everyone to become a member in your local
newspaper or weekly "shopper" publications. This actually becomes the
foundation for volunteers. And don't worry about the first time you try to
get membership roles built. Everyone has to develop that skill if they
haven't done it before. BUT WHAT YOUR ARE TRYING TO ACHIEVE IS A BROAD AND
GENERAL MEMBERSHIP ACROSS THE COMMUNITIES YOU SERVE. This gives you contact
with people.
Hold your general meetings with transparency. Talk about Budget, Player
numbers, goals for the future. EXPRESS YOUR VISION!!. If you do this you
will begin to build trust, and people who "catch the vision". It takes time
but do it over and over and know your messaging. I will publish a Zoom date
in AUGUST where we talk about this specifically so you can help build your
leagues the right way.
Thanks for all you do!
JP
DA WA5/13
