American Legion Post #24

The Officers and Managers/Assistant Managers met on DEC 3 at 9:00 am in the Ocean View Town Hall on West Street Ocean View. A brief report follows. 1. The fund raising Spaghetti Dinner will be held on April 16 2004 at the VFW Post in Ocean View, the same location as last year. The cost is $8.00 for adults and $3.00 for children under 12. It begins at 4:30 goes on until 7:00pm. Each OTS member will be provided with four tickets to sell. OTS members will be asked to serve on the organizing committee and at the dinner. Members are asked to let Sal Corrallo know of your availability. Tickets and flyers are being prepared. They will be sent out with the 2004 registration materials in January. Vicki York of Remax Realtors will again have the tickets printed and donated to OTS. All monies raised will go into the OTS General Fund for use as necessary. More later. 2. 2004 registration letters will be sent in January to all 2002 and 2003 registered athletes. The fee will remain at $45.00. Players are asked to return their forms by February 15, 2004. There will be a general meeting of all players on Feburary 18 in the Bethany Beach Town Hall beginning at 7:00 pm to go over plans for the 2004 season. 3. The league will again be play by the rules of and be insured by the American Softball Association. Gary Meredeth will file the papers for 2004. As a result the balls to be used for 2004 will have a core of .44 instead of .47. The color of the ball will be optic yellow. The remaining unused .47 balls will be used in practice. Only ASA approved bats will be allowed. ((Note see the latest information on approved and disapproved bats in another news item.) 4. A report on the work to be done on the M&T Field was presented by Ron Weber. He said the contractor has promised the work will be done by February 1, 2004. The contract for $1200 has been signed by all parties. New bases will be installed and a plywood board will be made for home plate extended. Ron is also planning on doing some work in the outfield once the infield is resurfaced. Players will be asked to assist him. Players are asked to let him know if they are willing to help. (Call him at 537-2004.) 5. Archie Alexander again noted the sponsors are needed at $300.00 per team. One day league team, the Grey team, is sponsored by the VFW. In addition to placing their name on the Jersey, they will be cited on the web pages with their business information and address, phone number and web site. Players are encouraged to let Archie know of interested sponsors. (Phone number 226-8381). 6. A brief discussion was held on the number and make up of teams for 2004. No decision has been made as the process for organizing teams. A final decision will probably not be made until mid-April when the number of returning and new players can be determined. A brief discussion was also held on the use of playing fields. The M&T Field is the only field available that meets the tournament playing field standards, for example to the Delaware Senior Olympics. No decision was made on fields for 2004. 7. The next meeting of the Officers and Managers will be held on January 14, 2004 at 9:00 am in the Ocean View Town Hall. Player ratings and playing rules will be discussed.

The Officers/Managers in their meeting of October 22 agreed to follow ASA rules for 2004. This includes the use of equipment (bats and balls) and rules of play unless amended for OTS Play. A copy of the 2003 OTS Rules and Regulations is available for printout in the Handouts Section of this web page. The Rules and Regulations for 2004 will be considered in future meetings of the group. Comments from all are welcome. Give them to your manager or one of the officers. Managers (first)and Assistants(second) for 2004 are as follows: Blue Team: Bo Wood and John Bokop Gold Team: Don Clements and Ron Weber Green: Jim Stradley and George Towsen Grey: Pete Rendina and Neil Fleming Orange: Ray Myers Sr and Dick Bowman Maroon: George Slack and Wayne Smith Red: Bob Schaeffer and Joe Cavalluzzo New Team?: Richard Berry Tournament managers will be named later. Player ranking by managers were distributed for review to all in attendance and will be finalized at a later meeting. Draft rules for the 2004 team formations (including the drafting of players) will be developed and made available for discussion at a later meeting. It was also agreed that OTS will accept sponsorship for a team for a fee of $300.00. Sponsors will be given recognition on the players jersey and on the web site for 2004. It was also agreed that the very successful fund raising spaghetti dinner held in April 2003 should be continued. Pete Rendina was asked to get approval from the VFW Post to again host the event. Pete will work on the dinner but would prefer another person be appointed chairperson. Anyone wishing to serve should be a member of the VFW Post.