Tuesday, October 11, 2005
The State of NBUA
By Dave Natali
President
With the NBUA Annual Meeting several weeks away, it's a great time to look back on NBUA accomplishments over the past year. From our new policies on umpire assessments and two man JV to landmark accomplishments in recruiting and evaluations, its been a great year for NBUA.
Incentive Program. In one of the biggest changes ever instituted by NBUA, the assessment that umpires pay out of their earnings was lowered dramatically. For decades, umpires paid 11 percent of their earnings to pay for the assignor as well as other programs run by NBUA. Due to the success and financial health of the organization, the Board decided to put money back into the pockets of our umpires. Every umpire saw a minimum 2 percent reduction. By attending 80 percent of training and working 70 games, many umpires will only pay 5% back to the association.
Two-Man JV. Another landmark change that occurred in 2005 was the implementation of two man high school JV. The NBUA board changed its policy to read that all games will be assigned two umpires whenever possible. NBUA gave schools a one year grace period to get their budget in line, but many leagues took advantage and hired two umpires for all their JV ball. In 2006, the NBUA's goal will be to have all scholastic games assigned with two umpires.
Recruiting. The 2005 recruiting class was the largest in NBUA history. NBUA welcomed 66 new dues paying members into the association this year swelling the roster to 245 members. Of those, 52 rookies worked games this season, making up 27 percent of our 192 working umpires. First year umpires worked 2,015 assignments this year, 20 percent of all games worked by NBUA. Six first year umpires worked in excess of 90 games, led by Chris Claflin with nearly 150 games. Others working over 90 games were Kerry White, David Chloupek, James Briscoe, Bobby Leon and Tammie La Zure.
Training. NBUA umpires attended more hours of training this year thanks to the new incentive program. Of the 192 umpires who worked a single game this year, 135 attended greater than 80 percent of their schedule training. Seventy percent of working umpires achieved their 1 percent training bonus this year. We are very pleased with this turnout.
The Training Division is continually striving to bring you the latest and greatest methods of how to umpire, and plans on introducing more specialized training involving specific topics in 2006. We will continue to strive at making sure our message is consistent from top to bottom, and continue to evolve our program to reach out to every member so they can attain their personal umpiring goals.
Assigning. With 50 new umpires to start the season our assignor thought this spring's assigning would be a snap. Mother Nature had other thoughts. With one of the wettest springs in memory, many games were rained out five or six times and some were never made up. "But thanks to our dedicated umpires, we got all the reschedules and the rescheduled reschedules covered," said Leslie Fitzpatrick. This year the NBUA worked 5,378 games, up from 5,264 in 2004. "With the new incentive program we had more umpires working more games." According to Leslie:
- 72 umpires worked 50 or more games
- 25 umpires worked more than 100 games
- The assessment paid out of earnings averaged 6-7%, down from 11% throughout NBUA history.
- Gross earnings for 2005 was $506,989, compared to $470,000 last year.
"This was a great season," said Leslie, " Our customers are happy, our reputation is strong, and we continuously get inquires to cover new leagues. Thank you to all of you who carried your gear in your car and constantly surfed the open games list. I am proud to be a part of such a wonderful organization, and am honored to be your assignor. I look forward to 2006. "
Evaluations. The NBUA evaluation staff set a goal this year to give a formal evaluation to every working NBUA member. We nearly reached that goal. "With a staff of 12 evaluators, there were 160 evaluations conducted during the 2005 season," said chairman Gary Coy. "This is almost three times the number that was conducted last year."
The NBUA evaluated 127 different umpires this year. Of those who didn't receive an evaluation, 18 worked less than 20 games.
NBUA promoted 27 umpires in 2004. We also promoted eight umpires midway during the 2005 season. The evaluators and the evaluation committee are committed to carrying out the proscribed duties as directed by the board and as dictated by the NBUA bylaws, policies and procedures and as per our evaluation program.
Treasury. This past term witnessed a few major changes in our financial activities. When Jack Miller was the assignor he was also the treasurer but those positions became too big for a single person. Our former treasurer installed a three-tiered system that involved Leslie invoicing customers and cutting checks, Joe Whitefield making deposits and the Treasurer reconciling the books. With the resignation of the Treasurer, and the naming of Joe as interim Treasurer, he is now performing both duties until a new Treasurer is named following this month's election.
Contract Development. To ensure the financial strength of the association the contracts sent to our clients were restructured. The following policies were put in place this year:
- Two tier contract structure based on payment record
- Contracts revised and restructured
- One half or 100 percent up-front payment/deposit
- Incorporation of late fees for balance due
- Parking provision for fields with paid parking
- Assignor responsibility for distribution and execution
Strategic Planning. The Board is committed to the strategic planning process. The Board met in September for its first ever long range strategic planning session. Strategic areas and objectives were identified and published as well as the established desired criteria/policy direction for each area and objective. Committees will be formed to develop the ideas established at the planning session.
Submitted Respectfully by your 2005 Board of Directors:
David D. Natali, President
Rich Johnson, Vice President
Joe Whitefield, Secretary/Interim Treasurer
Gary Coy
Gavin Anderson
Scott Johnson
Mike Brancheau
Vernon Dahl
Brian Gooch