NHD2 Little League
District Meeting Minutes
November 5, 2023
Present on Zoom: Jon Sebasco [LR; ADA], Craig Houston [LR], Greg Hosey [LR], Derek Mercier [Concord], John Kneeland [NMHLL], Matt Petersons [Suncook], Sarah Trefethen [Somersworth], Mark Hebert [TNLL], Jeff Ross [UIC], Nik Uhlir [Portsmouth], Jenna Raizes [Portsmouth], Kathie Lynch [DA]
Zoom meeting called to order at 8:08 pm.
Minutes:
August meeting: Nik Uhlir moved, Jon Sebasco 2nd to approve the minutes of the August meeting as distributed; no discussion; all approved.
Finances:
1. Kathie reported $2106.94 in district account.
2. District bank account successfully moved from Bank of New Hampshire to TD Bank at the end of September – effective October 1 district checking account held in total at TD.
3. Kathie shared the submitted district financial report for 2023; report uploaded to the district file cabinet on the data center; in addition the 2023 State of NH report has been completed and submitted.
4. If not already sent, leagues asked to send check for $400 made out to NHD2 to Kathie’s address [3 Boyan Place, Portsmouth, NH 03801] no later than December 1, 2023 for the 2024 year [2nd year] of the PCA contract.
5. With leagues’ fiscal year ending September 30 be sure to:
a. File league financial report with LLI using the file cabinet in the data center.
b. File the annual report with State of NH Attorney General’s office along with $75.00 for your league [this can be done online]
c. File tax return [EZ post card or return] with IRS no later than February 15, 2024
PCA Workshops: Consensus of the group is to try and schedule two [2] interactive coaching workshops and one [1] PCA Double Goal coaching workshop as the district workshops for the 2024 season. Kathie will work with PCA to schedule the workshops once the 2nd year contract fee has been paid in December. The Double Goal coaching workshop will have a weekend as the target date and an attempt will be made to have one of the interactive clinics on a weekend. Central locations will be scheduled if possible.
Website Update: The website has been moved to Sports Connect effective October. Cam Bernard is serving as the site administrator and gave Kathie, Jon, and Jeff a primer over Zoom on its use. Kathie has discontinued the google site that was used for the past few years with the IONOS webhost. By consensus an Amazon gift card will be sent to Greg Wainwright for his volunteer work as the webmaster for the last several years. Leagues are asked to 1) visit the site often to raise its profile in search engines [URL: https://leagues.bluesombrero.com/nhlldistrict02
2) craft a league summary including information about the league president for posting sometime after January. There should be a short statement of the league, its boundaries, programs offered, and call for volunteers [along with volunteer requirements – see below in the minutes] and sponsor support. Any changes to the league URL should be included so that the site is current. If you so desire you can include a photo of the league field, Board, yourself to accompany the short bio.
Data Center: Several important updates to the data center were discussed:
1. Chartering is now open for the 2024 season.
2. LLI insurance has changed from Lexington/AIG to Allianz effective 1/1/2024. Leagues with LLI insurance should have received a letter of non-renewal from Lexington/AIG. Note that while the policy will not be renewed it is in effect until 12/31/2023 to provide liability and directors/officers insurance covering the fall month activities. NOTE: to have insurance coverage for any league activity [Board meetings, clinics, workshops, fundraisers, etc.] at/after 1/1/2024 you must charter and renew insurance with the new carrier prior to 1/1/2024 – leagues are NOT covered for liability purposes until the charter is completed and fees paid.
3. Presidents need to sign into the Data Center and confirm Board members for 2024 – even if there are no changes you should review the access given to Board members, update each position, and then CONFIRM the officers.
4. File Cabinet: new to the Data Center this year is the link for the file cabinet in the left-hand menu. This link provides for financial reports to be uploaded, budgets to be uploaded, and minutes to be uploaded for each league. In addition, LLI is requesting that leagues upload their CONSTITUTION to the file cabinet [under other documents].
League Board Meeting Schedule: Kathie would like to attend a Board meeting of each league in the late fall and early winter to get to know the Board members, provide any guidance requested, and review the league Constitution. If not already scheduled, Presidents are asked to send her the dates of planned meetings in November, December, January, and February so she can arrange to visit each league.
2024 Round Table: Any requests for rule or regulation changes for the 2024 season must be received by Kathie no later than 11/8/23 – she has a deadline of the end of the week to submit requests for changes to be sent to LLI for round table consideration.
ASAP Safety Manuals: leagues can start submitting safety manuals 12/1/2023 using the data center. Prior manuals are available online for revision for the upcoming season; be sure to check the requirements for any changes/new areas that must be addressed. December is a great time to get this administrative work done for the 2024 season.
Child Protection Initiative [CPI]: LLI has new additions to the CPI for the 2024 season:
1. New enhanced background checks by JDP [more data bases searched]; still remember to check the NH Sex Offender Registry [SOR] in addition to completing the JDP background check for each volunteer, every year.
2. Leagues continue to receive 125 free background checks: additional checks now $1.50 each.
3. Effective 2024 ALL VOLUNTEERS must complete, EVERY YEAR, a child abuse awareness program.Leagues can determine and state in local rules the programs that will be accepted. Programs must meet the "Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and SafeSport Authorization Act of 2017" generally referred to as the SafeSport law. This national law makes it a crime for an individual involved in a national governing body sports organization, including Little League, to ignore, or not report to law enforcement, any suspicion child abuse, or neglect. In the State of New Hampshire this reporting is governed by RSA 169-C:29, the Child Protection Act.
a. Little League recommends the Adult Abuse Awareness program offered by USA Baseball and available free via the LL website.
b. Other programs meeting the requirements of the law and NH RSA can be approved such as Know and Tell or Profession specific continuing education programs.
c. Each volunteer needs to present a certificate of completion every year; certificates obtained from coaching in other sports, serving as youth activity group leaders, work requirements, etc. are acceptable PROVIDED they are no more than one year old.
d. This means that every person on your Board, all coaches, all team “moms”, all regular concession volunteers, all regular field volunteers – ANYONE who completes a volunteer application MUST ALSO complete Safe Sport Training.
Other Programs Interest: Concord may be adding a softball division to its charter in 2024; all other leagues are encouraged to consider adding softball as a division should an inquiry be made. Epsom is combining with Suncook to enlarge the Suncook program [Matt is working with Epsom Baseball leaders as they transition to LLB], Bow may be reactivating its prior charter or combining with Concord Baseball.
Next Meeting will be a Zoom meeting in January.
Meeting adjourned at 9:30 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathie Lynch