Tara Doswell sent her apologies that she was not able to attend the meeting.

KS read a statement from Nigel Sheppard in which he resigned all of his official club duties.
Nigel explained that he resigned because of personal comments made within the papers relating to a complaint to the BBF from which he was exonerated.

RH expressed his disappointed that both Andy Simmons and Nigel Sheppard had not waited until the official conclusion of the BBF investigation prior to giving up their club committee positions.

DOS said that she was unhappy that Nigel was no longer on the committee.

RN spoke for all the remaining committee members when he said it is always a shame when a volunteer feels they are no longer able to help.

RH said having reviewed Nigels final accounts he was still unsure how Nigels accounting cost centres would allow for year-on-year like-for-like comparisons.

DOS said that she believed that a volunteer treasurer should be able to provide accounts in any format they wished and as they saw fit. She then added that RH was being unfair suggesting that any treasurer should produce accounts that met his requirements if he was unwilling to do the job himself.

KS then said that he was happy using Nigels spreadsheet as the agreed finalised accounts for 2006.

NR suggested that the accounts should only be available at the AGM if a specific member requested them.

The committee then voted that Nigels spreadsheet would be the official accounts and the official accounts would be available at the AGM upon request but not officially published on the web for public inspection.

KS then spoke about his desire for next years accounts to be managed using SAGE accounting software.

RH proposed that the projections for next year now be delayed until after the next AGM where a new treasurer would be elected.

RN explained he was planning to begin pre-season training in January 2006. RN continued that he had not been able to find a suitable venue to date. He then agreed that he would need to liaise with each teams head coach to agree a practice structure. RN/0508-01

RN also spoke about the need to arrange pre-season friendly games prior to the season, with teams not allocated so that same division as BaseballMK. KS/0508-01

All committee members agreed that the event was an outstanding success and had been very well organised by DOS.
The committee also expressed their gratitude to Tom Gillespie for presenting the awards at the event.
DOS said that she estimated that the club had made a profit in excess of 150.

DOS then offered to arrange a pre season Quiz Night as the next club social event. DOS/0508-01

KS asked whether the travel costs to the meetings was a club expense as the attendance at this meeting was compulsory for every team.
The committee agreed to cover KS travel costs to the meetings.

The committee then reviewed a number of documents distributed by BSUK prior to the league meeting. KS was then expected to relay the information at the league meetings as he saw appropriate. KS/0508-02

RH expressed that this was a good idea in principle, however the suggestion that teams would be able to reschedule fixtures without BSUK intervention did not match the BaseballMK 2006 experience.
RH cited the problems with Burgess Hill Pony that required BSUK intervention.
RN said he agreed and highlighted the problems the senior team had with a Bucks fixture.

RH also pointed out that if the web was going to become the central repository for fixture information then both BSUK & every team would have to make more effort to keep it up to date than they had in previous seasons.

RH explained why he believed this was reducing the National League to another Play Ball style league.

RN said that he thought the promotion of local leagues was a good idea providing that clubs could recruit enough players to make it viable.

DOS expressed some concern that the proposal would lead to a reduction in the number of competitive fixtures played by our youth teams which may result in the club having problem justifying value for money when combined with our need to increase subscription fees.

RH expressed that he was disappointed that a GB Academy coach would make a proposal to add a new rule when, in fact, if that coach had read the existing rules they would have found that BBF byelaw 1.13 covers that exact situation.

RH also explained that he was unhappy that a team, and therefore the children, would be penalised by having a win removed, for the unacceptable behaviour of their coach.
RH then suggested that perhaps it would be a better proposal to ban all mid season youth transfers unless there is a change of address or a club explicitly releases a player in writing to BSUK.

KS suggested that this should be extended to off-season transfers for children registered with the GB Academy, to stop GB coaches approaching players while they are on international duty.

DOS repeated the same concerns that she had last year. She believes that increasing the size of the diamond is not in the best interest of the developing players and will make Pony baseball even less appealing to those with little baseball experience.

RH recounted the only time this season when the must slide rule had caused an issue was when a coach from another team had requested the rule was ignored because he had not had time to coach his time on how to avoid a collision at the plate and he did not want to be penalised according to the rules.
RH also expressed some concerns that removal of a rule which is clearly used universally to some degree in America could open UK coaches to legal action should a serious incident occur which would have been made illegal if we still had the rule.

KS then told how one of our players had broken his leg when he failed to slide while playing for the GB national team this summer.

RN exclaimed anything that reduced the requirement to coach good sliding technique was bad for the whole sport.

The committee tasked KS & RH to finish tidying the draft constitution without making further changes and make it available to the membership. RH/0505-02

KS then queried whether it was possible for the current executive committee to provisionally adopt the constitution as had happened in the past. RH pointed out this was completely unacceptable.

RH pointed out that we need to agree the current club membership so we can be sure a clear majority adopt the first official club constitution.
RH suggested that the constitution be adopted using an electronic ballot.

RH explained that he was still waiting for the official statement from the BBF board.

RH then requested that the statement be published along with the results for the questionable fixtures on the BaseballMK web site.
KS suggested that we should wait until the statement was checked by the committee.

KS repeated that this matter should be delayed until the official BBF statement. DOS/0506-02

RH was allowed to point out that Darrin Muller was accusing him of a personal vendetta while Vince Garcia was accusing him a victimising Bracknell and RH was unsure how both could be true at the same time. RH also continued to state that he did not believe either are true, as he believes his complaint to the BBF was completely correct and appropriate.

RH also made the committee aware of an email he had received that suggested that Darik Miles, like Nigel Sheppard, was suggesting that he had no case to answer relating to RHs complaint.
RH once again pointed out this was premature considering the BBF statement had not been released.

KS confirmed it would be held at Bow Brickhill Pavilion in January. KS also added that he had spoken with BSUK and they were happy to advertise the available places on the course. KS/0507-03

KS then suggested that BaseballMK should be holding copies of CRB documentation for every registered member of the club who works with minors.

RH pointed out that this had now been added to the youth league meeting agenda.

DOS said she was concerned that the Pony team may not have an official scorer next season. RH explained that a scorer was probably going to be a mandatory requirement for league registration next season.

KS explained he had no had any contact with the council since the last meeting.
RH repeated that he thought BaseballMK should be finding out whether we have the right to build our own diamond on the site.

NR said that he may be able to source the required construction materials.

RN suggested the AGM should be combined with the Quiz Night.
KS agreed and suggested a date in January.
DOS said this was too close to Christmas and suggested March.
The committee agreed DOS should arrange the event for Febuary.

RH asked whether having the AGM so close to the start of the season would be a problem for the incoming committee.
KS said he did not expect that to be a problem with over half of the committee suggesting they would return for another term.
DOS said that she believed it would be easier to fill all of the 7 proposed committee positions next season as the club was more settled and stable.

RH made it clear that he would not be standing for re-election at the next AGM.

KS requested a BaseballMK logo without the diamond from RH. RH/0508-01
The committee then agreed for KS to get sample items using the new club logo.

RH then asked if this cost would appear in this or next years account.
KS & RN said either account would be equally valid.

DOS as the temporary treasurer then said she was unsure how to amend Nigels current spreadsheet but Nigel had offered to help her make changes. KS suggested that when Nigel Sheppard heard that RH was not planning to stand for re-election he may return as treasurer for next season.

KS suggested players should have the opportunity to reserve their club shirt number.
RN suggested that they could be auctioned at the AGM.
NR said this was a good idea and the committee agreed.

RN started the annual search to find a collection of associated names that could be used for each of the BaseballMK teams.

KS requested 7 names to cover all eventualities and suggested an Indian theme.

RN agreed to organise a search and report back at the next meeting. RN/0508-02