President’s Message Hello everyone, The 2009 Gordon Head Fastball Season is underway! We had a great opening Ceremonies. Iʼd like to thanks Caroline, Sue, Vicky and their crew or their hard work in setting everything up. A special thanks also goes out to the Bantam B team for leading us through “O Canada”. Iʼd also like to pass on a great thank-you to our Former Executive members on behalf of the club. Randy Johnson has stepped down as President. Heʼll remain on the Executive as Immediate Past President, but can now focus on coaching the Squirt C girls. Randy has also agreed to chair the Pee Wee B District Hosting Committee and to help sort out our equipment holdings. Corrine Phillips has also stepped down as Treasurer, after some years of great support to the Club. Wendy Johnson will be relinquishing her Secretary duties shortly as well. Please remember to pass on a word of thanks when you seen them around the club. The New executive is almost in place! Iʼll do my best to sort through the administration of the club, with Randyʼs help, in the immediate future. Carole Fitterer is our new Treasurer, Anna Canon is the new Umpire in Chief and Swee Lian Whelan will be taking on the job of Secretary. Nicole Parker maintains the Vice President position. Weʼre still looking for a Player Agent. Weʼll focus first on making sure all the teams have everything they need to push through this year. And then shift our focus toward setting up for even greater success in the upcoming years. Iʼve had the Clubʼs constitution transferred to electronic format and posted under our Executive page. Please take a few minutes to read it. As time goes on, Iʼll continue to try and get our administration available to the entire membership through web access. Now for my Plea for help! The club runs on volunteers, the tireless coaches having the principle responsibility to train the kids, schedule the games and concession duties. Parents please help them out as much as you can. Stick around and offer to help out with the practices. When you are scheduled for concession and field preparations, please be on time to get preparations under way. Let the coaches concentrate on getting the girls ready rather than having to worry about the extra stuff! A specific volunteer duty is Web Master. Our current volunteer, unfortunately is moving away. Sheʼs agreed to continue to help, but it would be much better if there was someone local with experience and who help keep this updated. Secondly, with the turnover of the Treasurer, we are required to have an independent audit of our finances. Iʼm looking for three volunteers outside the executive to carry out this function as soon as possible. If we cannot find volunteers, we will need to hire an auditor at the clubʼs expense (and to the detriment of the teamsʼ funding). This is very important - my research shows that our failure to conduct this audit could impact on the gaming grants that we rely so heavily on! The Clubʼs Executive holdʼs similar importance for our funding eligibility. Your current executive is made up of parents from some of the Clubʼs older kids (except Nicole!) We really need newer members to become more involved and take the reigns. Iʼm looking for a nomination Committee to solicit parents (members) for interest in assuming some leadership roles within the Club. Weʼll hold an AGM this fall (date to be confirmed) where weʼll look to vote on nominees from the floor. Please give this your most serious consideration through this season. LEARN TO PLAY is Softball Canadaʼs beginner programme (replacing the white and blue mite levels). Iʼm looking for someone to take on this as a coordinator role. No Experience is necessary! There is a full lesson plan in place. With a promotional push next fall, Iʼd really love to see a brand new group of kids on the field and learning the game next year. Gordon Head is hosting the District Pee Wee B play-offs this year from 24-28 June. Randy is leading the charge on this, but it is an all club event. Anyone available to volunteer are asked to contact the Executive as soon as possible. Finally - We want more kids playing in Gordon Head in upcoming years! Again, No experience necessary! The Club will focus on an advertising campaign with the district and local school outreach, but you are our greatest potential promoters. You parents and players have friends. I hope that you find our Club experience very positive and promote it every chance you get! If you do have an issue with the club, please pass it on to the executive quickly. If change is within our power, weʼll do everything we can to turn it into a positive experience that youʼll want to brag about! (You might even want to join the executive to push for change - Had to get another plug in here!) Thatʼs enough from me for now. Iʼll try to keep you updated with some (much smaller) notices as we progress through the year. Enjoy the 2009 season, have fun and BEST OF LUCK in all of your games! Cheers, Barry Whelan President
Gordon Head Fastball