Friday, October 6, 2006
Joe Whitefield
Ladies and Gentlemen of The Association
For those who are not aware, the Association incorporated in 1969 and I have been a member 31 of those years and a Director for 23. This is my eleventh campaign statement for a Directorship for the Association and using the math, I am batting .909. I have held every office and have been the founder of setting up tiers, helped my friend Brian Gooch in formulating our evaluation system, introduced the computer for assigning and originated QuickBooks for our accounting system. We have a very good assigning system now and our books are under the care of an outside CPA. I was the President and successfully brought the Association into the 21st century. We are in good financial condition and have a well-balanced board of directors led by Rich Johnson.
It is my intention to make this forthcoming term to be my last as one of your directors. I want to see a few items affirmed in the way of Policy. One of these concerns our high school post-season assigning. We have a general idea of the process but too many of us are not sure about when "is it my turn". We are getting top heavy with good umpires but to stay with our present ideas will result in some of you good men being passed over. To send our best umpires every year would only deny many of you the opportunity for a regional or state assignment. It is one of my objectives to define a fair policy to allow more members for post-season assignment. Another program is to have a regular financial report presented for the directors. We are now able to receive monthly reports from our CPA and that is good. We should have a monthly comparative financial report to assure we are operating within our budget. We can utilize our talents of financial management that some of us have and I have that ability with 40 years of commercial financial management.
For the past year, I have created and maintained the records of all pertinent matters of every board meeting since my election in October of 1983. I have it in an Excel spreadsheet format and it tells of the myriad of topics such as uniforms, post-season policies, tiers, evaluations, awards, dues, assets, and "much, much, more" I am making it available to all members who may have a curiosity or desire to learn how we got from there to here. This is backed by actual copies of the board minutes.
I now live on Whidbey Island and my number of games is down somewhat from the past 2 -3 years. I calculate that I have umpired close to three thousand, four hundred games any where from Little League to and including PAC 10 and semi-pro, all with NBUA. I will continue to work as many games as possible and NBUA will always be number one in my heart. As mentioned, I want to be a part of the board just one more two-year term. I will continue to work hard for both the membership and for the board. We all know that I can be counted on for dependability, dedication, a tireless work effort and most of all, a love for the Association. Your support will mean you win and you will continue to have the best training, opportunities for advancement and most of all, you will be the best paid umpires in amateur baseball. Thanking you in advance for your vote, I remain forever indebted to NBUA for what they have done for me.
Joe Whitefield