First of all, sorry this has taken so long to publish.
Welcome back to all who played in 2008 and to those joining the league in 2009. It is my sincere hope that your participation and experiences in this league keep you coming back year after year.
Thank you to all of the businesses that support our league and teams. It's a great partnership we value very much.
I would like to give a special thank you to our league sponsor of several years, Bud Light and K & L Distributors. Your generous support keeps our league affordable and allows us to run our Emerald City Classic tournament.
The ECSA Open Division is growing. Our league is fielding 32 teams in 2009. I believe this league can easily grow to 40 teams. This presents some logistical challenges for us but we have been able to find solutions to this point and will continue to encourage league growth.
An organization of this size (480+) does not function without participation from it's members. The core group of our volunteers are our coaches and managers. Thanks so much for giving your time and passion to the league. Our goal is to structure the league so anyone who is willing to organize a team will have the tools to field a team. The board conducted a ratings meeting with our "D" Division coaches and managers early in 2009 to facilitate a common understanding of ratings in relation to the "D" Division. A How To document was created to help managers organize their teams on our website. Our goal is to create "How To" documents for Players and future Board members.
For teams without a coach we are looking for alternatives. To this end, a Mentor page has been created on our league web site. Coaching is a huge commitment, especially when playing on another team. There are players in the league willing to help run a practice or give managers ideas for how to organize their teams. The Mentor page is an attempt to match league members with teams looking for a few pointers, without having to commit to a full season. The Mentor page is located below the "Info" tab on the website at http://www.seattlegaysoftball.com/mentors.cfm.
Our league gained 501c3 Non-Profit status in 2008. Thanks to our league Treasurer, Tom McDole, for all your work completing this task. Non-Profit status allows us to fund raise for tax deductible contributions. The board is starting discussions to look at areas where we can help our league and community. Some ideas include building a fourth field at North SeaTac and providing a scholarship. Having a Non-Profit status has made us also take a look at how our league is structured. Currently our Non-Profit status is for the league, not individual teams. We are looking ways to extend Non-Profit status to our teams. Until then it is important there be a clear division between league and teams. League activities include Skills Clinics, Team/Player Registration, League Kickoff Party, Hall of Fame, ECC (Emerald City Classic), Pride and league awards. More to come...
Although this is a softball league we are part of a bigger community. Our first food drive was held at the league kickoff party. Donations went to support Lifelong Aids Alliance. Thanks to all who donated, it really did help. A second food drive is scheduled for the awards ceremony at the end of the year.
We held our Hall of Fame ceremony in May. We did things a little different this year and made it a separate event. The comments and reaction to this new event have been very positive. Around 50 people attended. I'm hoping this event grows in size to two thirds or three quarters of our league in the years to come. It was great to hear stories about our league history and get a perspective of the our inductees, Fred Parham and Gerry Barton, who have contributed to this league for so many years. Thanks to Cookie Fields for directing this event. Our ECC (Emerald City Classic) is back this year on the 4th of July weekend. Thanks to Denny Krantz, Tournament Director, for organizing the tournament this year. We are hoping for 50 teams and have reduced the team fee to $50 to encourage teams to come to Seattle for the 4th of July.
We are also doing something different this year for Pride. Thanks to Todd Bullock, Pride Director, for stepping up to increase the league presence at Pride. The league will have a float this year. A big float, 12 feet wide by 25 feet long. We would like to see everyone in the league march with us on June 28th.
Last year our league Secretary, Josh Wojcik, took on the task of developing a Fall Ball league. There were six teams and the feedback was all about how much fun it was. Josh is going one step further this year by getting a Fall Ball page added to the league website. Thanks Josh for a great job. He's also a pretty good Secretary and the very best friend you could ever have!
If you're reading this letter then you are on the ECSA Open Division website. Damon "Peanut" Schmidt is our webmaster. He has created an awesome place to communicate and administer our league. Thanks Peanut for all the great coding you do for us!
Our league has four divisions, A through D. Organizing and communicating with teams in each Division is the responsibility of the league Assistant Commissioners. Thanks to Chris Larson (A/B Asst. Commissioner), Jeff Card (C Asst. Commissioner) and Holden Knecht (D Asst. Commissioner) for all your time and effort.
Helping determine who belongs in which division is one of the really big jobs of the Director of Competition. If all of the rating questions we used to place players in their proper division were black and white this job would be fairly straight forward. The problem is very few of the questions are black and white. Thanks to Frank Pichinini for helping move the league forward on figuring out who should play in what division.
Our Membership Director for the last 2 years has really done an awesome job of making the league skills clinic a streamlined and an efficient use of everyone's time. Dan has worked with our webmaster to provide an easy way to let us know when someone is looking to play in our league. We have been able to grow the league by 2 or 3 teams each of the past two years. Thank you Dan Cross, you've made a big contribution to this league.
We've got a lot going on in the ECSA Open Division. There's a lot of great people contributing time and effort to make sure these activities are successful and enjoyable for our league members, fans and sponsors. Let's keep growing!
Good Luck to the teams who represent our league at the 2009 Gay Softball World Series in Milwaukee!
Sincerely,
Brian Craft
2008-2009
ECSA Open Division Commissioner