Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Annual Meeting Recap
Lower umpire assessment highpoint of evening

By Scott Johnson
Editor

Although the Board of Directors election took the spotlight last night at the NBUA 2004 Annual Meeting (See related article), a lot of other valuable information was presented to the membership, including a plan to lower the assessment umpires pay to the association out of each game worked.

Rich Connors unveiled a program that will see umpires keeping more of their earnings. Although nothing has been finalized Connors discussed lowering the percentage substantially next year as well as possible incentives umpires can earn to lower the percentage even further. The average percentage would go down from 11 percent to 5.5 - 6.0 percent. Incentives, which would earn 1/2 to 1 percent include participating in all required training and reaching various games-worked levels.

"The important thing to note though is the average target withholding percentage is about 5.5%," Connors said. The exact plan should be finalized by the December Board Meeting and an announcement would be made on the web site at that time.

Treasurer Ken Sack said collections for this season is going well. Umpire earnings are over $465,000 so far with over 160 umpires working games this year.

Leslie Fitzpatrick, Assignor, said that things went very well this year in the inaugural year with the new web assigning program and should be even better and more efficient next year as more features are added to the program. Leslie also recognized umpires who worked over 100 games this year, including Ben Fong who worked the most games in the association with 170.

Scott Johnson spoke about last year's rookie class as well as the recruiting effort for 2005. This season the rookie class of 38 worked 1,138 games grossing the association over $52,000. Danny Oliver was recognized for working 163 games in his first season umpiring. Dean Shull and Wyatt Blanchet also worked over 90 games each. Only two rookies didn't work games last year. Johnson and Dave Natali spoke of next year's effort that will include field signs at our most-used fields. The membership was encouraged to send Johnson the names and contact information of possible recruits. (Click here to email Johnson the names of possible recruits).

Erik Nilson spoke briefly on the new NBUA 2-Man Mechanics Manual that he put together with the help of Scott Johnson. (Editor's Note: The manual is availble for download in the "Umpire Info" section of this web site. See related story.)

Gary Coy spoke about the evaluation process this year and said that most but not all who requested evaluations received them in 2004. Coy promised that everyone who wants an evaluation in 2005 will get them, and he will do them personally if necessary. He also said he is looking into having more full-time, non-working umpires to be evaluators. Peers scores are being tabulated and will be sent to members via e-mail by Thanksgiving.

Outgoing Board Member and newly named President Emeritus, Jack Miller spoke briefly on his time with NBUA. He said that although this would likely be his last Annual Meeting, he promised to still be around and available to the membership.

Jay Neff spoke on the Liaison Program. NBUA has received good feedback from our customers regarding this program which will be used in fine-tuning our training for next year.

Gavin Anderson, Election Chairman, introduced Tim Stevens who spoke about the online voting system put in place this year. Seventy-three percent of voters voted online this year while only 16 percent voted in person. Anderson then announced the winners in order of votes received: Steve Hilgendorf, 84; Dave Natali, 77; Rich Connors, 72; Joe Whitefield, 57; and Rich Johnson, 56. (Editor's Note: See related story.)