July 19, 2018

CLIPPERS BASEBALL CLUB MEETING

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Opening:

Clipper Baseball Club meeting was held on Thursday, June 19, 2018 at Tiffin City Hall in Tiffin, IA at 6:04pm.

Club Members Present: Adam Henderson (President), Darci Roehler (Director of Operations and Interim Treasurer), Golda Monohon (Secretary), and Nick Pfeiffer (Alternate)

14U and Evaluations;

Adam started the meeting by discussing the topic of 14U and evaluations.

  1. Is it fair to allow a player that has left the club at an earlier age to come back and bump another player from the team at evaluations?
  2. Is it necessary to have 14U evaluations since the players will play a partial season?

Golda stated that previous rules have stated that if a non-CCA student has completed a year with the club, then their second year they should be considered with the same advantages as a CCA student.  This means that a non-CCA student is only eligible to play on the white team their first year; however, the same students is eligible to play on the blue team their second year.  That said, if a coach is comparing two players of equal ability, they should choose the CCA student.  If non-CCA students help the club to fill out team rosters when in need, then they should not be punished if they would like to return to the club.  However, the CCA Baseball Club is still a feeder program into the CCA High School baseball program with the goal to improve players’ abilities for the school district.

That said, the player in question is a CCA student, but left the club to play on another team/club.  He is now wishing to return to the team, but this may bump current players on the roster.

The board decided that 14U should still have evaluations and a player that has left the club is still eligible for a position on the team, however, the coach should give preference to the players that played on the previous 13U team to reward loyalty.

2018 11U Blue Team Update: 

After the state tournament this month for the 11U Blue team, some parents voiced concerns of an unfavorable record and were not supportive of the AAA/major classification.  After parents confronted head coach Jay Robertson, Jay decided to resign his position as head coach of the team.  Clint Cochran was announced as the interim head coach and a parent meeting was held at the Nash residence.  At the conclusion of the meeting, it was announced that the entire team would stay with the club except Jay and Trace Robertson.  For the 2019 season, Jake Smith will be the head coach with Nick Howell and Clint Cochran as assistant coaches.  At this time, it is unclear if Cal Robertson will be returning to the club with 9U.

Open Board Positions: 

Adam announced that there are 2 open positions on the board, Director of Operations and Treasurer.  Normally individuals are nominated, and a vote is tallied during the parent meeting.  However, in the case that a parent volunteers for the board, but their kid does not make a team after evaluations, that individual should not be expected to fulfill a 3-year term without their player active in the club.  Therefore, Adam suggested that individuals volunteer for nomination during this parent meeting, but a vote to fill the positions will be held during the August board meeting.

2019 Uniforms:

14U will not need new uniforms next year, but the rest of the club will be getting new uniforms.  A committee will need to be formed to help find and create new uniform designs.  The board would like to stay with Ironside Apparel as the vendor.  Since the school district has new logos for the upcoming year, Adam will need to speak with Laurie from the school district to see what logos will be allowed by the CCA school district for ancillary clubs such the CCA Baseball Club.  The club should also purchase extra hats in January when the uniforms are purchased.  This year the club sold out of all the extra hats.

At 6:50pm, the board concluded the closed portion of the meeting.

At 7pm, Adam began the open portion of the board meeting with parents and coaches.

CCA Baseball Club Finances: 

Adam announced that the club checkbook has a current balance of $9,789.05.  Expenses that still need to be paid include City of Tiffin for field usage for practices and games for all teams.  Jonas Zimmerman still needs to send the club the bill.  Another planned expense includes insurance, but an invoice has not been received yet.  The last planned expense includes a deposit for field rental for the 2019 Clipper Classic tournament.  The current balance in the club’s account should cover these 3 expenses.

2019 Uniforms:

14U will not need new uniforms next year, but the rest of the club will be getting new uniforms.  A committee will need to be formed to help find and create new uniform designs.  The board would like to stay with Ironside Apparel as the vendor.

Board Nominations:

Adam announced that there are 2 open positions on the board, Director of Operations and Treasurer.  Normally individuals are nominated, and a vote is tallied during the parent meeting.  However, in the case that a parent volunteers for the board, but their kid does not make a team after evaluations, that individual should not be expected to fulfill a 3-year term without their player active in the club.  Therefore, Adam suggested that individuals volunteer for nomination during this parent meeting, but a vote to fill the positions will be held during the August board meeting.

Adam opened the meeting to questions from the parents.

Parent Questions:

  • How does coach-pick work at evaluations?
    • As an example, Trevor Bollers will choose the 9U Blue roster first.  He will have up to 1 week to choose the roster.  The remaining players will be considered for the 9U White roster.
  • How much does membership fees cost per team and age?  Does the membership fee include the uniform?
    • Membership fees are a total of $300 for 7U-13U.  $150 is due September 1st.  $150 is due March 2nd.
    • Membership fees are a total of $100 for 14U due to the short season in their age group.
    • No, membership fees do not include the uniform.
    • The uniform costs ~$100 and usually includes pants, jersey, and hat.
  • Is there a specific style or color of cleats the players should wear?
    • No.  Families purchase cleats, bats, gloves, bags, on their own.
  • What do the membership fees pay for?
    • Equipment (such as the catcher’s gear that is usually handed out at 7U or 8U), baseballs, practice facility fees, umpire fees, league fees, and tournament fees
    • If a team wants to play more tournaments, they can do fundraising to earn more money for their team
  • What happens when there is a blue and white team?  How many players need to fill a team?  How long does the blue coach have to lock down the blue roster before the white roster can be chosen?
    • Ideally the coaches from both the blue and white teams will be present at evaluations.  The blue team coach announces how many players he would like to complete his team and usually has a week to pick his roster.  Usually teams are comprised of 11 players, but can vary from 10-12 players.
  • How much money was raised for the club during the Pizza Ranch fundraiser in February 2018?
    • ~$350
  • Can the club be more competitive with evaluation dates since Tigers require $100 and their tryouts are so soon in July?  Does the club communicate with the Tigers to coordinate tryout dates?
    • CCA Baseball Club is already flexible with evaluations by providing 2 evaluation dates to accommodate vacations.  The evaluations used to be at the end of August and have been moved up a month to July instead.  Some teams just finished the state tournament 1.5 weeks ago.  Therefore, the current evaluation dates are essentially the soonest we can have them.  Originally the club wanted to plan for July 21 and July 28, but the Tiffin Iowa Creek Fest was already scheduled for the 28th.  Therefore, the club had to schedule the second date for August 4th instead.
    • No, the club does not communicate with the Tigers to coordinate tryout dates.
  • What is the goal of the club?
    • The boys should have fun playing baseball
    • The boys should develop their baseball skills
    • Play competitive baseball
  • How far do teams travel?
    • This is up to the coach.  Usually games are played within an hour of home.  Older teams tend to travel farther.
  • How many nights do the players practice?
    • This is up to the coach.  There is a meeting in February when all the coaches get together and choose their field/gym practice times.
    • Usually practice begins in January and usually hitting practice occurs on Sundays in the white building (batting cage) behind the middle school.  Fielding practice usually occurs during a weekday in one of the school gyms.
    • Coaches should set up a meeting with the families before the season starts to discuss practice frequency, how many tournaments the team will play, and how far the team will travel for tournaments.
    • Coaches should sign up for indoor practice facilities on the CCA School District website.  Adam took on this task by himself last year, but this year the coaches should do this on their own.  Coaches will need to create a login (user name and password).  Coaches will then need to go to the community page -> building use in order to schedule practice times for the team.
    • Adam will have a coaches’ meeting after evaluations and provide a tutorial on how to navigate the school district website for scheduling.
    • During indoor practices, coaches will bring indoor baseballs to use for the gym.  Players should wear tennis shoes on the gym floor.
  • How many players are in the club?
    • ~90-100 players
    • The ultimate goal would be to have two teams for every age group

Board Nominations

Seth Ickowitz (7U assistant coach) volunteered to help on the board.  Adam asked for other volunteers and stated that if anyone else was interested they should email him or ccabaseballclub@gmail.com.  One parent did ask:

  • What is expected of a board member?
    • Monthly meetings (frequency may increase to weekly during the month before the Clipper Classic)
    • Use GroupMe application for communication

Action Items:

  • Adam
    • Meet with the coaches to answer questions regarding evaluations
    • Contact Laurie from the school district regarding logo usage
  • Golda
    • Update Handbook
    • Update Code of Conduct (parent and player)
    • Update the by-laws
    • Bring copies of code of conduct to registration for signatures
    • Bring copies of evaluation template for coaches to registration

Adjournment

Meeting was adjourned at 7:35pm by Adam Henderson.  The next meeting will be Thursday, August 16th at the Tiffin City Hall in Tiffin, IA at 7pm.  

Minutes submitted by: Golda Monohon, Secretary