1st Executive Meeting of 2013

KICK-OFF!

Maybe I should have said 1st pitch so that it sounded more 'baseballish'.  Oh well, I'm assuming you all know what I mean. 

NEWS AND NOTES:

• New faces in, other faces missing....more on that in another edition.
• Jeff Dancey said that he had seen Wayne Bickford earlier in the day and reported him to be in good spirits (great news)
• Bo Niederhuber showed up with what may be the best mustache I have ever seen.

I like to recount the 1st meeting.  I don't feel bad about giving away any 'inner sanctum' secrets because the meetings are open to all to attend, it just seems that no one other than our captains and elected officials ever do attend.  That's okay, I'm happy to be the conduit to people.  I'm like the C-SPAN of Tottenham that way. 

So let me tell you, this meeting was weird for me.  Primarily, because for the first time in my attendance and for the first time 11 years (or so), Jeff Dancey was not at the head table as a member of the elected executive.  That was really strange to see.  Not that I have anything but complete faith in our current crew (Jamie, Cliff, Steve, Paul and Andy); but its just a slightly different flavour.  It should be noted that Ed Hopkins has also retired from the head table, making way for Cliff. 

Personally, I'd like to thank both Jeff and Ed for their untold hours of effort to help keep this league as effiecient, fun and inclussive as it continues to be.  I know that they both will continue to be champions for the cause in slightly different roles.  One of the many beauties of this league is that people don't retire and take their legacy with them.  The people remain with a willingness to share learnings, knowledge and insight.  Congratulations to you for roles and being active and vibrant leaders in helping make something we can all be very proud of.

 Ed Hopkins

Jeff Dancey

Now onto the meeting. 

First we talked about a few things that are 'off book'.  By off book, I mean that if any non-execs HAD attending the meeting, they would have been asked to leave for a brief time.   Those topics include 2013 _______, the composition of the 2013 ____ and of course the issues surrounding the ___ _____ incident.  Once we were done that, it was onto a few more routine and mundane topics.

• Discussed particulars around the draft.
• Discussed "bat-day"
• Discussed rookie night
• Discussed 1st aid
• Discussed equipment
• Discussed Jersey vendors. 

We got through everything in fairly short order and it was looking like we'd be out early!  WooHoo!!!

Then Jamie said something along the lines of, "that concludes the agenda items, does anyone have any other items they'd like to address."

I held my breath.  This is the key moment.  Like when you're at church and there's that dead stop after the second verse of a dreadful hymnn and in your head you're going, "is it a pause or are they done?"  Please be done, please be done, please be done......FRIG!

5 seconds, 10 seconds, we're almost free and clear......

Tim Shrank:  I've got a request.
Jamie McClean:  The chair acknowledges Tim Shrank, you have the floor.
Tim Shrank:  Yeah, I don't know how you guys feel about this, but I really dig playing ball in this league....
ALL:  [Murmers of general agreement]
Tim Shrank:  But honestly, the antics are getting a little out of hand.
ALL:  [More Murmers of agreement]
Me:  [Under my breath]  Uh-oh, here we go.
Rob Farah:  [Under his breath]  Whats the matter, are you out of beer?
Me:   [Under my breath] What?  Yeah, I'm out of beer, but this is about us, you should be listening.
Rob Farah:  [Under his breath]  I don't think its about us, I didn't hear the word "C-h-a-m-p-i-o-n".
Me:   [Under my breath] We're not champions, the Beer Bros. won last year.  And it is most definitely about us.
Tim Shrank:  We're constrained by the times of the games and adding more to the night that isn't baseball......[Tim continues to state his arguement]
Rob Farah:  [Out loud]  THE BEER BROS.?  Seriously?
Me: [Under my breath] Seriously.
Rob Farah: [Under his breath] Wow.  I did not see that coming.  Do you want a beer?
Me: [Under my breath] No.  I want to hear what they're saying about us.
Rob Farah: [Under his breath] And why do you think its about us?
Me: [Under my breath] Because they're talking about teams and "antics".
Rob Farah: [Under his breath] Well who could that be?  We don't do antics.
Me: [blank stare]
Rob Farah: [Under his breath] We don't!
Me: [Under my breath] Yeah Rob.  We do.  We're pretty much the only ones that do.
Rob Farah: [Under his breath] I don't think so,.  I think its more tomfoolery than antics.
Me;  Same thing Rob. 
Rob:  Not really.  Antics are more attention seekng behaviour while Tomfoolery is more just nonsense or silly behaviour.  We're more silly. 
Me:  I dont' think Tim's getting that granular on his deninitions. 
Rob: Perhaps not. 

[Tim's conversation ends without a motion tabled or vote taken, meeting adjourned]

Rob: So maybe Tim has a point.Clearly he needs work understanding some of the finer point of the English language...
Me:  Clearly
Rob: ....But he maybe he's onto something.
Me:  How do you figure?
Rob: Well, its a baseball league.  Maybe we should just stick to baseball?
Me:  Rob!  You're not thinking of how disappointed guys like Bob and Hugh would be without the side show.
Rob: I know.  But sometimes the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few or the one.
Me:  Okay Spock.
Rob: Hey, I'm no doctor, but I know a jelly bean when I see one.
Me:  No Rob.  Mr Spock.  Star Trek?  Ring a bell?
Rob: No.
Me:  Dr. Spock was a pediatrician?  Anything?
Rob: Well now that you mention it, my feet are KILLING me!  I should go see this Spock.
Me:  Good lord.  And what's with the jelly bean?
Rob: Huh?  I dunno.  Look, All I'm saying is that we need to rethink things.  I think we should look at all the stuff we do during the season and really seriously scale it back.  And not only that, we should tell people what we're doing so the one or two things we do each season can be well communicated. 
Me:  One or two things?  WoW!  This is a complete overhaul.  Okay, you're the boss.  How do you want to go about this?
Rob: Lets meet at my place in a couple weeks.  We'll go over everything we've done the past 3 years and see what, if any, we'll carry forward. 
Me: Okay.
Rob: Then we need some way to communicate it.  If only there was some way to write everything out and post it somewhere where everyone could see it and read it.  You'd think someone would have invented something like that by now.  You know in this age of technology, it would be cool if there was some type weB LOG that just housed random thoughts and the odd bit of humour. 
Me:  Seriously?
Rob: One day Doug.  I feel its around the corner. 

So, between and the draft, the Grisslies will be announcing their significant changes to the upcoming season.  It'll be different.  Hope this works.