Willamette Valley Men's Baseball League

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

Dec. 20, 2017, 6:30pm

Attendees:    

• Ben Ward, WVMBL League President
• Andrew Koll, WVMBL Secretary 
• David Winstead, WVMBL Treasurer
• Nick Elliot, 18+ Commissioner
• Louie Banuelos, 30+ Commissioner
• Kevin Palmer, 40+ Commissioner
• Chris McKay, At large board member

Meeting called to order at 6:50pm.

Board Positions

• Bran Holmes has resigned as league vice-president – moved from area.
• Nick Elliot has resigned as 18+ commissioner due to time constraints, but will stay on the board as an at-large member.
• Other existing board members will continue to serve in 2018.  Officers will be elected at the first 2018 board meeting.
• Ben proposed that the league consider a commissioner for the fall league (which had a good inaugural season in 2017).
• A league-wide email will be sent to all league members in early 2018 looking for potential new board members.

Financial Update

• League treasurer David Winstead provided the final 2017 P&L.  The league lost $639.83 on revenues of $57,397.46. 
• Division-wise, the 18+ and 40+ divisions operated with a small profit, with the 30+ division finished the season with a substantial ($1259) loss.  This was primarily due to the extensive use of the Holland and Keizer fields.  Dues for the 30+ division will be adjusted if the field scheduling in similar in 2018.
• Other issues were ~$500 in field cleanup fees in the 18+ division, and ~$350 in umpire fees in the 40+ division for late forfeits. There was discussion of adding a ‘security deposit’ for each team to cover these unnecessary charges.

Alcohol Issue.  Near the end of the 2017 season, there was an issue with players consuming alcohol at a game (and leaving beer cans in the dugout).  This is strictly prohibited by league policy and by all of the venues used by the league.  Chris McKay investigated the incident and was able to positively identify one league member that provided and consumed alcohol at the game.  This league member has so far refused to identify any others that were consuming alcohol at the game, although others have confirmed, but been unable to positively identify, other folks drinking.  Chris and Nick will continue the investigation and issue a report at the next board meeting.  Disciplinary actions will then be evaluated.  As part of the discussion it was determined that there may be a bigger issue with alcohol consumption at games.  This will be addressed prior to the start of the 2018 season.

40+ Underage Players.  During the 2017 season, the Pirates used multiple underage players during some of their games.  These players were not approved as exceptions to the age policy – in fact, there was no exception requested.  It was agreed that going forward, there will be no exceptions to the league age requirements without express consent of the WVMBL Board of Directors.  It was also agreed that the Pirates manager, Ken Guffey, will not be managing teams in this league going forward.

Cancellations and Forfeits.  The 2017 season had a large number of game cancellations and forfeits due to teams being unable to field enough players for their games.  A plan will be put in place to penalize teams for not providing adequate notice of their need to forfeit.

Pointstreak.  The league will continue to use Pointstreak for registration, stats, and website.  David will evaluate other payment processing options due to problems with Pointstreak integration with their payment processor (Beanstream).

Next Board Meeting.   Early 2018. Ben to schedule.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30pm.

Submitted by Andrew Koll, WVMBL Secretary, December 22, 2017.