All, Every 4 years, Little League holds a "Congress" that is designed to get all the organization "in sync" with all the International Organization (Little League Baseball Inc), new rules, input from DAs (District Administrators) and you the League Boards. All the DAs from all over the world descend on one location and meet for 4 days to outline new policies, understand the direction LL International wants to move in, and to give feedback from Local Leagues. That is coming up June 9-14 this year. I will be attending as will an ADA from District 5 and an ADA from District 13. (Brennan Moore and Stacy Ashcroft respectively). There are several items that are on the agenda that I would like to get your feedback and carry your votes to the Congress to represent the views of Leagues here in Washington State. There are some MAJOR changes they would like the DAs to vote on. I will summarize those here, and for those of you that have an opinion, just reply to this email and everyone can see your thoughts on the matter(s).(These are summarized for sake of brevity and to encapsulate the general thought of the proposed rule change). 1. Remove league boundaries. This is a major change in Little League. The new rule would allow any player anywhere to start with any league they choose. The "boundary" idea for a league would be done away with for the most part. Players could pick and choose which league they wanted to play in - THE FIRST TIME. so where a person started with Little League would become their home league. There would be a process to change leagues after starting in one and wishing to transfer to another. This could also cross district lines. This would also do away with residency requirements at tournament time, IId/School waivers, etc. The only requirement by the league for qualification of the player would be age verification. Players could even cross league boundaries between districts. There are lots of questions about this one. what do you think? 2. Change the way the teenage divisions are played - This would create a more "tournament" style of play for the Jr, Sr, and possibly intermediate divisions. Playing schedules would be more like travel ball and focusing on tournament play, or games in groups. The state DA group would be responsible for reorganizing the structure and schedule of these divisions 3. Appointment of DAs vs Election of DAs. Currently DAs are elected by the leagues in the district. The problem is many districts underperform on many levels because the DA is not active with the District. Little League would like to impose a "selection process" in conjunction with the State DA group. So the State Director/DA would nominate someone, then Williamsport would appoint after reviewing the nomination. Your thoughts? 4. Permit 3 and 4 year olds in T-Ball -They want to drop the age down to 3 for T-ball. Your thoughts? 5. Require attendance of at least 1 tryout for Minors (8-10) and above. All leagues should be holding tryouts. the language is currently "50%" of the tryout scheduled must be attended by the player. The proposed change would say "At least 1". Comments? 6. Change to the "Mercy Rule" - LLI would like to change the Mercy Rule to the following: Proposed Change: Expand the current "mercy" run-rule into the 5th or 6th Innings based upon division: * 15 after 3 Innings * 10 after 4 Innings * 8 after 5 Innings 7. Intentional Walk - the proposed rule change is to allow an "Intentional Walk" any time - even after pitches are thrown. 8. Leaving base too soon - Majors, Minors - Call the runner out if they leave too soon, instead of "no-pitch". 9. Managers/Coaches in the Dugout - Allow up to 3 managers/coaches in the dugout regardless of how many players a team brings to a tournament game. Currently the rule says that if you bring less than 12 players to a tournament, you can only have 2 managers/coaches in the dugout. The new rule would do away with that and allow up to 3 properly vetted coaches/managers in the dugout regardless of how many players on a team. 10. Change the announcement date of the All Star teams - Currently there is a fixed date (this year May 15) for announcement of All Stars. For several reasons this is an "artificial date" - in otherwords, it doesn't depend on much to meet this date. No insurance is impacted, no schedules, etc. However, the new rule being voted on would say that All-Star teams could be announced when "All appropriate conditions for qualifications to the All-Stars have been met by the league". Which means when they have all the games played in a regular season to meet qualifification, when the players have all reached 60% participation in those games, when the coaches have all been vetted and approved through the background check process, when all league fees are paid, etc. then you can announce all-stars. If that happens all on June 1, then great, or if it happens on April 15th, great. it's more of meeting all the qualifications to field an all-star team rather than a fixed date. Please take the time to respond to this as it's my job to gather as much input from the leagues and be able to discuss, ask questions, or make comments on YOUR behalf. Regards JP DA WA5/13