Hello [NAME],

February 12, 2009

CPYL Nation, 

Welcome to Spring 2009 season! 

First, we have done a lot of work and spent a lot of money on the fields this off season to get them to the best possible playing shape for your children.  Unfortunately, that means that the fields must remain CLOSED until the season starts.  We recently finished some irrigation projects and have over seeded the grass areas, allowing teams on the field for practice would cause much damage to the fields at this point.

Let me start off with a quick list of upcoming spring activities:

§         Skills Assessment- 2/14 (10-2:00)

§         Teams will be drafted 2/15- you should hear from your coach by 2/18

§         Parent’s meeting- 2/17 (Faubian Elem @ 6:30)

§         Pre-season tournament- 2/27-3/1

§         Opening day- 3/3 (first game of the season)

§         Spring Fling- 3/29 (Team picture day)

§         Mid-season tournament- 4/4-4/5

§         RR Express Night for CPYL- 4/11

§         CPYL Annual Golf Tournament – 4/20

§         Annual MVP games – 4/19

§         Post season tournaments (May 4 – May 17)

§         Post Season play in CenTex All Star Tournament - Month of June

We will discuss league policies, rules, functions, etc at the parent meeting as well as answer any questions you may have, please plan to attend.

We are continuing our Pluckers Restaurant promotion this season, with a twist.  This year, your manager will be give (2) CPYL Pluckers cards per child.  Present these when you and your family eat at Pluckers to receive a 10% discount on your meal.  In addition, 10% of your meal total will come back to the league as fundraising dollars.

§         We are specifically targeting April 11 as a ‘Take your Team to Pluckers Day’; please go as a team to eat at Pluckers prior to heading to The Dell Diamond for CPYL night.

CPYL night at Dell Diamond.  We are in our 6^th year of partnering with the Round Rock Express to provide a fun filled night for our league.  We set the central Texas league record for ticket sales last year.  I would like to again set this record and would like to sell at least 3,000 tickets.  Tickets are provided to you at a discounted price, and a portion of ticket sales comes back as a fundraiser for the league.  All the kids get to wear their uniforms and participate in a pre game parade around the field.  In addition, the team that raises the most money this year will get to be the Baseball Buddies (the kids will get to go onto the field with the players for the National Anthem; this is a great opportunity for the kids to get autographs from their favorite Express players). 

§         Your manager has the form to complete for this great event; we need to get (1) form per team (and preferably 1 check per team); forms and money must be turned into the concession stand no later than March 15^th)

Please be sure to sign the ‘No Tolerance Policy’ that your manager will talk to you about, if you have any questions about it, please feel free to contact a board member.  It is a requirement that all teams have this completed prior to the first game of the season; failure to review and sign on time could result in forfeit of a game(s) for your team.

I start of each season listing a few things that you, as parents, and owners of this park, can do to help us out as board members:

• Self policing of trash; as we add more families each year, it becomes ever more important for each family to help keep our park clean. PLEASE dispose of your trash properly, and if you are leaving a game, and see trash in the bleachers, please pick it up and throw it away.
• Maintaining the park, please help us keep the park safe and operational; we have some rules about use of the batting cages (everyone in the cage under the age of 18 MUST be wearing a helmet) and we really need to try and keep younger siblings from ‘playing’ in the cages (too much wear and tear from kids climbing on the nets and pads)
• Bathroom maintenance; we have encountered several experiences lately where kids have come into the bathrooms and blocked up the toilets with rocks, sticks, paper towels, etc.  This is very costly for the league as we have to pay for a plumber to come out in several instances to help clear the blockage. Please help make sure your children understand that they need to respect our facility just as they do their own house.
• Parking issues.  We are attempting to set up ‘parking lanes’ in our main lot (by Sandlot and Fenway).  Please be mindful to not block any of there parking lanes so we can best optimize our parking lot.  We do have a towing company on call and they will tow cars that are illegally parked (especially in our handicapped parking spaces).

Please make sure to login to our website and check it out.  This contains all the news relevant to the league.

www.cpyl.org

Baseball/Softball Operations News

Ron Huntington, Vice President of Operations

What to expect for this season

§   2 games per week- American League play- 1 weeknight and 1 weekend game, and this season National level will play 2 week night games each week (only Saturdays will be for possible 1-2 interlock games)- except in the case of rainouts, make-ups, TAKS testing, or tournament weeks. The National level typically plays on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while the American division usually holds its week night games on Monday, Wed., and Fridays. There may be, however, occasions for scheduling purposes where we will need to change the nights for some teams in a given week. Please be flexible.

§   The new fields will be open this spring. The 7/8U division will now be playing on its regular field (Ebbets) as well as the old 9/10U field (Wrigley). The 9/10U division will be playing its games on the 2 new fields (Veterans & Volunteer) located behind the 11/12U field at the back of the complex.

§   1-3 practices per week. The amount, length, times, and site of your team practices are entirely up to your manager. Each coach varies on these details and CPYL leaves the decisions to the manager’s discretion.

§   Each team will be assigned at least 1 concession stand volunteer duty (6-8 parents) for a 2-hour time slot.  There may be a case where some teams are given 2 concession duties based on the number of teams and slots that need to be covered.  We may also try something new this year where we ask (2) teams to provide volunteers for concession duty.  This will decrease the number of volunteers you need for each session, but would require at least (2) sessions per team.

§   Each team will be required to provide volunteers (usually 2) for the spring fundraiser (Spring Fling) CPYL is an all-volunteer non-profit organization, which relies heavily on fundraising in order to pay bills and repair the facility.

§   CPYL holds monthly board meetings and all parents are invited to attend. Check the calendar on the league website for dates and times.

§   The skills assessment will be on a first come first serve basis. The players will need to check in at the registration tables and then get in line at their field for their turn. We will take them 5 at a time and run them through hitting and fielding drills. 

League Financials

Kristy Fariss, Treasurer

• We continue to closely budget, and operate within the budget each year.  This is a delicate balancing act of keeping fees affordable with ensuring we have money available to run the league (and maintain an ‘emergency fund’ if ever needed).
• Over the last year, we have been focusing on lowering operating costs, we have done a good job watching water bills and we were able to reduce league insurance rates by ~$3,000 dollars.
• Here is a report of actual budget vs. actual spent for 2008:

Finance report

Natalie Catalina, VP of Finance:

• We need more cup sponsors for our plastic cups.  It's $425 to have their company name put on 10,000 cups.  If interested, please contact Natalie at: vp.finance@cpyl.org
• We finished 2008 $10,000 under budget in the concessions budget.  Malisa McCown has done a GREAT job stepping in and helping to ensure our concessions operation runs smoothly. 

Parent Auxiliary News

Kristi Lankford, Parent Auxiliary Director

We are still looking for parent volunteers to help out this season, if you are interested, please contact parent.auxiliary@cpyl.org

Website News

Shawn Spradling, Website Director

We began our change to our new website last Spring and work continues, if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact Shawn at: webmaster@cpyl.org

Facilities News

Russell Warren, Vice President Facilities

Recent additions to the park; first and foremost, as you will see, the (2) new fields that we added will be operational this spring.  As a result, we have (2) fields for 7/8U coach pitch and the (2) new fields will be utilized for 9/10U kid pitch; please see a map at the end of the newsletter for the new field layout (and new field names).

§         Fields are closed other than cages until notified

§         Need continued support from parents to help maintain the fields.  The league can always use volunteers; if you are interested in helping, please contact our Parent Auxiliary Director (Kristi Lankford) at: parent.auxiliary@cpyl.org

§         Please be aware of the new fields and using the turn around.  This area should not be used as a turn around/drop off area due to additional pedestrian traffic.

Thank you and I look forward to seeing you at the park this spring!

Sincerely,

Brian P. Naab

CPYL President

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