Hi All, In this update: * Training Document and League Organizer * Early Season Tournament * Umpire Training Weekend * Coaching Clinic * ASAP Plans Training Document and League Organizer After meeting with a League in Dist 5 last night via Zoom it was surfaced that a good idea might be to send out a document called "A Year in the Life of A Hometown Little League" - which is a document produced by Little League to help leagues know what to do every month of the year. Please find it attached. It's a great resource for Leagues to plan their year and to get Boards all in "sync" to have a successful season. Please take the time to read, it's extremely valuable. Early Season Tournament Also, an idea popped into my head after the call (naturally I don't get my good ideas until way after I should). BUT, how about we have a tournament in District 13 and District 5 early in the season where all the leagues get together for Minors, Majors, and Intermediate (and Softball)? And have an early season tournament? Asotin County LL used to have a "Spring Classic" that was held early in the year, and I don't know if they still do - BUT, a "Little League Tournament" may be a great way to kick off the season for several reasons. 1) It gets all the leagues to "know one another", 2) It helps with game count. a tournament actually counts as regular season games. 3) It gives the players exposure to other teams and differing skill levels 4) It can be used as a fund raiser for the host league. We could do this in mid-April on a Friday-Sat-Sunday - hold it in BOTH Districts separately, or just make it one huge tournament and both Districts play together. Someplace with lights would be nice as we could hold some night games. or maybe we shrink it down to just 2 divisions? Either way, it gets more games for the kids and maybe an early season trophy or medal? What do you all think? Umpire Training We have an umpire training scheduled for the weekend of March 26th and 27th. These are free to attendees. Our state umpire in chief Dennis Williams and an assistant are coming down for a training day. We will probably do a few hours in the classroom and a few hours on a field. I believe the training is scheduled to be held in Walla Walla at Pacific Little League on the 26th and in Liberty Lake Little League on the 27th. We will publish more details as the time gets closer. Please start lining up your umps to attend this training. Dennis has done one of these before for me and it was a tremendous value. I need to have a head count by March 1 so we know how many to prepare for. Coaches Training Both Districts expressed an interest in having coaches training this next year. Possible dates are just about ANY TIME in February or March. We can even have them the same weekend as the Umpire training if you like. I just need to get some input from you all as to when is best. The coaches training is designed for ALL AGE GROUPS. Each session is about 2 hours long and focuses on a division - by - division format. For the first two hours we will work on T-Ball coaching techniques (yes this is a very important stage of coaching development), then 2 hours on Coach Pitch, 2 hours on minors, 2 hours on majors, and 2 hours on Intermediate. We CAN do a Juniors coaching session if you like. This will focus on Baseball this year, and next year we hope to do baseball AND softball coaching clinics. PLEASE LET ME KNOW ASAP IF YOUR LEAGUE IS INTERESTED IN ATTENDING A COACHING CLINIC AND WHAT TIME FRAME SUITS YOU BEST. ASAP Plans Every League should have a Safety Officer. The role of the Safety Officer is defined on the Little League website https://www.littleleague.org/university/articles/safety-officer-local-league -role/ . It's an incredibly important role. We have a requirement to provide an ASAP safety plan each year. There are templates for this on the Little League Website - https://www.littleleague.org/downloads/creating-safety-plan/ and instructions as what to do. By getting your Safety Plan in place by March 1 each year, the DISTRICT gets a little bonus from Little League ($600) to help offset costs of operating the District, and Little League gets a break on insurance and such. there are also good reasons to go through this process and it is a REQUIREMENT of Little League that each year the ASAP plan is completed, trained, and submitted. (Each coach / manager/ board member are required to understand the contents of the safety plan). Please let me know if you are interested in being an "ADA" - Assistant District Administrator - we have lots of stuff coming up this year like Little League Congress and I'd like to get some of the District Assistants involved with running the District in 2022! Thanks JP District Administrator WA5/13