Thursday, October 13, 2005
Gavin Anderson
Fellow NBUA Umpires,
I have had the honor and pleasure to represent the membership on the NBUA Board of Directors for the past two years. Today, I ask for your vote so I may retain that position as your representative in NBUA business.
I am nearing my eleventh season as an NBUA umpire and I am happy to say that this association is in a strong and healthy state. Our business continues to increase, our recruiting the past two years has been outstanding, and what we offer our members in terms of evaluations and training continues to grow.
I was very humbled to be named the director of training when I was first elected, and I hope to continue in that capacity. I promised that the membership would see consistency in the way that we train our umpires from the college tier to our first year umpires. We have accomplished that, through our manuals and curriculum, by being able to ensure that the same message is presented in each classroom, on every field and by each evaluator.
Training, however, is an ever-evolving process. I think NBUA Training is the best program at a local association-level anywhere. But, I think we can make it even better. The way we make it better is by making it a team effort--an association effort--to work together, and raise everyone's level of performance on the field. It's not about instructors and students in training NBUA umpires. Rather, it's about a partnership between those umpires given the responsibility to train and the membership.
Other accomplishments during my term as director include a complete overhaul of the election process. In running 2004's election, the election committee created guidelines to attain an accurate count and a procedure to make all elections in future years the same. I am very proud to have been a part of this process in making our NBUA elections seamless.
I find it hard to believe that I've been a part of this organization for ten years. I started off when I was fifteen, and I want to be a part of this organization into my sixties. I have gained so much experience as an umpire and now as a director, and I wish to continue in contributing to this great association.
This is an association of many different people, with different umpiring goals and varying life experience. But we all share one goal...and that is to get the call right--and have fun while doing it. I want to help make everyone's experience with NBUA a positive and rewarding one, and that is why I ask for your vote.