September 4, 2019

CLIPPERS BASEBALL CLUB MEETING

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Opening:

Clippers Baseball Club meeting was held on Wednesday, September 4, 2019 at Tiffin City Hall in Tiffin, IA at 6:05pm.

Board Members Present: Golda Monohon (Secretary), Nick Pfeiffer, Kelly Weber, Matt Carlson, Sarah Seidl, Ethan Smith, Bridgette Schares, Jamie Etscheidt, Jeremiah Herdliska, and April Schmitz (left at 6:35pm)

Others Present: Brandon Schrock

Officer Positions:

At 6:05pm, Nick started the meeting by discussing the need to fill the open officer positions beginning with the President position. Sarah nominated Nick as President and Nick accepted. Golda nominated Kelly as Treasurer and Kelly accepted. Matt volunteered to become the Secretary. Jeremiah volunteered to become the Vice-President. Golda accepted to assume the role as Debt Specialist as long as it is not a 3-year term. No one volunteered to accept the position as Clipper Classic Leader/Tournament Director. Jeremiah stated that this position/topic should be postponed for now.

Therefore, the new board members include:

Nick Pfeiffer – President

Jeremiah Herdliska – Vice-President

Matt Carlson – Secretary

Kelly Weber – Treasurer

Nick Berning

Jamie Etscheidt

Bridgette Schares

April Schmitz

Sarah Seidl

Ethan Smith

Members that will continue to provide special support to the board include:

Golda Monohon – Debt Specialist

Brandon Schrock – Legal Advisor

Bank Account/PO Box/Social Media Accounts:

Golda brought the 2 new keys to the PO Box as well as the most recent contents that contained many initial membership payments. One PO Box key was given to Kelly since the Treasurer should have access to the PO Box to receive all bank statements, income, and invoices for expenses. In addition, the checkbook and the debit card to the new bank account was given to Kelly. Nick stated that the President should not have access to any financials, therefore Jeremiah accepted the second key to the PO Box as well as the responsibility as the second person with access to the MidWestOne bank account. Nick and Golda will be removed from the bank account once Kelly and Jeremiah are added. Nick will set up online viewing for the rest of the board members.

Nick will have primary responsibility of managing Facebook posts. Jamie will have access to the Facebook account for the club and provide backup to managing posts.

Nick will answer emails to the club’s gmail account. Matt will have access to the gmail account as well to send updates and reminder emails to the rest of the club.

Nick and Matt will both have access to the website and update the information posted when needed.

*Please see board to view additional meeting minutes due to the sensitivity of the information.

New Rosters/Payment Tracking:

Golda stated that she has a spreadsheet of all the rosters as well as contact information that she would email to Kelly to help track membership payments. Golda also provided a quick summary of the number of players that evaluated for each of the age groups in July/August.

*Please see board to view additional meeting minutes due to the sensitivity of the information.

Golda stated that the City of North Liberty also needs a point of contact to represent the Clippers Baseball Club. Wade Good was that contact, but now that he is no longer on the board, we need someone new as point of contact. Bridgette Schares volunteered to be that person. Golda stated that she would contact Brian Motley with the updated information.

Evaluation Registration Fee Refund:

Nick stated that Tamra Watkinson requested a refund of her $20 evaluation registration fee since the 13U White team decided to go independent before our evaluations were complete. Other board members agreed. Golda stated that she would get Kelly the mailing address for her to send a check.

Upcoming Timeline:

Nick proposed the following timeline for important items of business for the club/board:

  1. Uniforms (early January)
    • Nick and Kelly both have good working relationships with Niki Frese.
  2. February 1 – second payment due
    • Jamie asked, how do we make sure we collect everyone’s payments? The board will send reminders and track individuals that have not paid. The board will contact those parents and when they still have not paid, the board will reach out to coaches for assistance in collecting the membership dues.
  3. Club pays out to each team once all members of team have paid
    • Members will need to be prompt with their payments so that the board can disperse team budgets as soon as possible. The lump sum for each team will not be dispersed until all payments are received for the team’s players.
  4. May 2-3 – Clipper Classic?
    • Golda has reached out to Brian Motley (City of North Liberty) and Jonas Zimmerman (City of Tiffin) to find out if the club needs to have their bills paid in full before we can reserve field usage for the Clipper Classic. Furthermore, the May 2-3 weekend may already be reserved.
  5. NLYBS open dates for tournaments?
    • We could use the 2 rainout dates donated from the NLYBS league as additional tournaments for fundraising or for our Clipper Classic if the City of North Liberty approves the donation at their board meeting in November. Golda stated that Trent DeKoter also suggested that we make the Clipper Classic a one-day tournament since the majority of our board is new to running a tournament. A one-day tournament does run cheaper than a two-day tournament, for example $450 vs. $250.
  6. Future Board Meetings:
    • September 12
    • October 17? (no school Oct. 17-18 due to PLPs)
    • November 21 – set dates for 2021 tryouts
    • December 19
    • January 16
    • February 20? (no school Feb. 20-21 due to PLPs)
    • February ? – Tiffin field reservations
    • March 19? (spring break)
    • April 16
    • May 21
    • June 18
    • July 16

Nick stated that he was concerned about some of the scheduled board meeting dates since they conflict with school closings. In addition, Kelly’s schedule does not accommodate Thursday meetings very well. It was suggested that we move the monthly meetings to the second Monday of each month instead. Golda stated that she would call the City of Tiffin to reschedule.

Fundraising:

Nick already set up a fundraising event with Panchero’s in North Liberty for September 24, 2019. “Queso for a Cause” will last from 5-8pm that day. The club benefits from sales of add-ons such as chips and queso, chips and salsa, extra meat or guacamole on a burrito/taco, etc. No parents or players need to work at Panchero’s. Instead the club just needs to promote the event to friends, family, and co-workers to eat at Panchero’s that evening. The board voted to give 50% of the money raised from “Queso for a Cause” to the 2020 season and 50% of the money toward outstanding debts.

Nick also reached out to Sean Keller from Mosley’s to try to set up another fundraiser, but Nick has not heard back from Sean yet. We would like to set up/organize a garage sale in conjunction with Mosley’s, but that may not happen now since we may not have enough time. Other suggestions included the soup n’ supper with the North Liberty Fire Department. They could pull out a fire truck and we could set up the garage sale in its stall. It was thought this event occurred before Halloween in the past, but when Kelly looked this up for last year it was done in February.

It has not been announced yet who will be replacing Coach Henry as the CCA High School Baseball head coach, but we would like to set up a winter break baseball camp/clinic in conjunction with the new coach and the high school baseball team.

Bridgette mentioned that another club fundraiser could be ran during the Vendor Fair at Bella Sala in Tiffin. Melissa Fontanini is the point of contact. We could sell baked goods at a table, but we need to find out how much it would cost to set up a table during the vendor sale.

Open Discussion:

Nick stated that the club should suggest that teams have a team treasurer to manage a team account and share financials with the team and the club. Ideally a parent that is not a coach would be the team treasurer. At the end of the season, any funds remaining in the team account should be divided equally among the team. Kelly stated that she was worried about closing the account at the end of the season, only to reopen another account for the next season. Nick clarified that the account would not be closed, but the account emptied out to have a balance of 0. In the past, teams have rolled over money from one season to the next. There was an unwritten rule that any accounts above $500 needed to be given back to the club. This could discourage teams from fundraising if they don’t get to keep the money they earned. It was decided to decrease the threshold to $250 instead of $500. Kelly stated that she was worried about any excess remaining funds that were donated by sponsors. Nick and Golda stated the sponsor money can still be dispersed among the players. Therefore, the sponsorship money helps pay the players’ membership dues. Kelly then stated that money from the club versus money from sponsors could be segregated and therefore treated differently on how it is used and what is returned to the club, but Jeremiah and others stated this would be difficult to manage and enforce. Therefore, teams will be encouraged to hold a team meeting at the end of their season to decide what to do with excess money in their account. It can be used to purchase additional equipment, pay for state gift bags, pay for end of the year party, etc.

Matt discussed registration on the USSSA site. Coaches will have to register their rosters on the USSSA site. This typically costs $55. The club will need to reimburse each coach for this fee. The coaches will also need to report the “G” number back to the club so that we can set up insurance for the teams.

Golda will send an update email to the club:

  • Announce board members and officer positions
  • Reminder to send 1st payment for membership dues
  • Reminder that membership dues will only be used for the 2020 season
  • Reminder that no one is required to work/fundraise for past debt
  • The usage of fundraising profits will be announced before fundraisers occur, for example the September 24th fundraiser will have 50% of money used for the 2020 season and 50% used for past debts.

*Please see board to view additional meeting minutes due to the sensitivity of the information.

Action Items:

  • Golda
    • Call City of Tiffin to move monthly meetings to second Monday of each month starting in October
    • Email Brian Motley with Bridgette’s information for point of contact for the club
    • Email roster and contact information to Kelly to track membership payments
    • Update the bylaws with the new board officers
    • *Please see board to view additional meeting minutes due to the sensitivity of the information.
    • Send email to coaches to return equipment (7U, 13U, and 14U)
  • Nick
    • Set up online viewing for MidWestOne bank account for everyone on the board
    • Remove himself and Golda from the MidWestOne bank account’s access
  • Kelly
    • Add herself to the MidWestOne bank account’s access
    • *Please see board to view additional meeting minutes due to the sensitivity of the information.
  • Bridgette
    • *Please see board to view additional meeting minutes due to the sensitivity of the information.
  • Jeremiah
    • Add himself to the MidWestOne bank account’s access

Adjournment

Meeting was adjourned at 8:03pm. The next meeting will be Thursday, September 12th at 6pm at Tiffin City Hall.

Minutes submitted by: Golda Monohon, Former Secretary