Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2005

Board Announces 2-Man JV Ball for 2005

By Rich Connors

More than 115 enthusiastic umpires attended the NBUA General meeting Monday night at Renton Technical College auditorium. There were lots of smiles and handshakes shared between old friends and new friends as members gathered in 2005's first Membership Meeting.

The announcement from Tim Stevens that WIAA supports 2-man umpire crews for all school baseball and new Board Member Rich Johnson confirming that the NBUA Board had voted unanimously last month to approve a motion saying NBUA would supply two umpires for all school ball in 2005 when possible were enthusiastically received.  This will make it much easier for our first-year umpires and it will allow for a much improved experience for our customers.

Some of the other meeting highlights:

• NBUA is in strong financial condition after record 2004 season. $489,798 paid to umpires last year.
• Umpire draw policy liberalized for 2005
• With new incentive program for 2005, withholding from umpire pay will be reduced on average from 11% to 6%.
• Scott Johnson announced we have 36 new members already from our successful recruitment program this year.
• Gavin Anderson announced that training got off to a successful start last Saturday.
• Leslie Fitzpatrick announced that a number of enhancements have been made to our assigning program. If you enter the text messaging address for your cell phone as your secondary email address in your profile, you will automatically receive a text message of game cancellations right on your phone. You can also upload a photo for the directory.
• Gary Coy explained that the evaluation process will be pretty the same for 2005, but he said one of the goals was to emphasize 2-way communication with umpires at the training for evaluators. Gary stressed listening to member concerns.

Mike Muchlinski excited the crowd when he announced he would be umpiring Major League spring training for the second year in a row. Mike told the story of his first discussion with Jack Miller nine years ago when he first joined NBUA.   He said he really appreciates all the support he receives from our group.