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posted 07/20/2010 Dear LV Baseball Family,
As the 2010 season winds down, I just wanted to send out a note of thanks to everyone that made this a great year. Incredibly, we still have teams active in tournaments and playoffs as we prepare for Fall Ball registration. Congrats to Chris Mason’s Diamondbacks for winning a Championship Saturday thriller over Pat Doyle’s Mets in the majors division, and to John McSweeney’s AAA Yankees for defeating Chris DiLissio’s Tigers in a two game battle. In the Juniors division Pat DiGangi’s LV-Green team won the Inter-Township League championship going UNDEFEATED in a league of 33 teams! This is the second year in a row that LV has won this championship! And in Connie Mack, Bob Lewis’ A-team assured itself a spot in the State tournament by clinching second place in the Bux-Mont League.
68 Teams took the field under the LVBA umbrella, that’s almost 600 kids and 900 roster positions!
Before I continue, however, please mark down Thursday evening November 4, 2010 on your calendars. This is the LVBA Annual General Meeting, (Moved from the normal last Thursday of the month date: October 28). This is your opportunity to voice your concerns or expectations and become part of the process of running our league. While many kids and families participate only from April to June, running the league is a twelve-month process, and the more people active in the process the better it is for all the kids. I encourage everyone to attend this meeting. Please keep an eye out for the time and location in follow up emails.
First I want to thank the LVBA Board for a great job this year. It was clear from day one as president that our board is passionate about the league, and about getting kids on the fields to play baseball.
As a first year president of LVBA, there’s a steep learning curve and I want to thank everyone that made my job easier. It’s not a hard job, but it can be incredibly time consuming, and when people step up to help, things get done faster, and more importantly, better!
Next I want to thank all the managers and coaches that led our teams through the season. These parents gave countless hours of their time to organize and run their teams and games. I would encourage anyone with a knowledge of, or interest in the game, to please get involved in the future. I travel extensively for work, and stayed out of coaching for a long time so as not to have my schedule interfere with a team. Once I got involved I found it much easier to schedule around games than I thought….the reasons and ploys I have come up with to make some of my games are truly shameless!!
I must take time to point out a few people that are crucial to the running of our league and whose extra efforts this year deserve special recognition.
First, I (and every other dad out there) cannot do this without the support (and implied permission) of my family: my wife Amy, and my sons Aaron and Xander. All the time spent on LVBA is time not spent at home, and everyone involved has a family that sacrifices on some level to make LVBA work. On top of hours of listening to and debating league issues with me, Amy also stepped up and helped run the closing ceremonies. I could not have made it through this year without her patience and advice. Every president should be married to a therapist!!!
I would not have taken this job had it not been for VP Tom Donahue’s counsel and advice before and after the election. Tom is in many ways part of the backbone of LVBA, managing multiple teams, coaching others, creating and managing the entire schedule, and always ready with a solution to a problem.
Nick Montana became the Player Agent this year. The PA is the board member responsible looking out for the best interests of the players; and the kids could not have had a better voice than Nick. Fair and thorough, Nick was a great source of solid advice all year.
As many of you noticed our website was redone this year. Ron Covey took over the site and just ran with the change, spending countless hours setting up and making changes to the site. It’s still a work in progress, but the potential for even more growth in the site’s use exists.
Scott Baker was my go-to guy when it came to all the nuts and bolts of running LVBA. Sometimes stuff just has to get done, and Scott was always there to bail me out when I ran out of time. His ability to just take over a project in midstream and complete it was crucial this year.
And last, every division has a commissioner that oversees the play of their age group, and deals with the daily issues. This year Chris Moore of the AA Division (7-8) and Chris DiLissio of AAA (9-10) both dealt with some difficult situations and showed great skill taking ownership of situations and resolving issues.
This email could go on forever if I pointed out every individual that made a difference for the kids of LVBA. There are dozens of hard working, committed people that keep the league humming along and solved the problems that arose; many did not hold board positions but stepped up when asked. I am truly appreciative of all the hard work and commitment I see from so many parents.
But ,the reality is, we need more help. Several board positions were vacant this year, and their jobs were filled as the need arose. I now see the importance of having a full board in place, and will be more adamant that these positions are filled. The kids deserve every detail addressed. The bottom line is that everything works better when there is full cooperation for every issue that potentially turns up…and they all turn up!!
Where today’s LVBA is most vulnerable is that our board leadership is skewed heavily towards the parents of older players, (majors division and up). We desperately need parents of the younger divisions to become involved and become a voice for the future of LVBA.
None of the board positions, even the presidency, should overwhelm anyone if all the members do their part.
LVBA has, unfortunately fallen into a pattern where far too few people do far too much of the work, and this undermines the strength of the organization…it takes valuable time away from the kids, and reduces the effectiveness of those carrying the brunt of the workload. I feel we must get back to a more equitable distribution of the responsibilities, to make board positions less overwhelming, even desirable.
Please try and come to the General Meeting November 4, and keep an eye out for emails about open board positions. LVBA needs creative, ambitious thinkers on the board that are willing to, literally and figuratively, get their hands dirty.
Thanks again to everyone that made this past season a success!
Sincerely,
Al Tielemans
President
Lenape Valley Baseball Association
917.679.7327
