| Author | Post |
|---|
Hairbrush
Member
| Joined: | Jan 6th, 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 120 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: |    |
|
Posted: Jun 24th, 2006 01:04 am |
|
| Well said Lacka.
|
Lacka
Member
| Joined: | Dec 27th, 2005 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 664 |
| Status: |
Online
|
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Jun 24th, 2006 01:06 am |
|
| Thank you HB, I know it was a long post, but I just got started and well.......
____________________
The views/opinions in this post are mine.Do not copy,or distribute without my consent.
Copied with Crackah's consent.
|
FatPappy
Member
| Joined: | Oct 25th, 2005 |
| Location: | Summerfield, USA |
| Posts: | 3245 |
| Status: |
Online
|
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Jun 24th, 2006 01:44 am |
|
| Home run, Lacka! Well said!
____________________
How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four; calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.
--Abraham Lincoln
|
Starcatchr
Member
| Joined: | Nov 3rd, 2005 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 205 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Jun 24th, 2006 11:49 am |
|
| Wow, Lacka!!!
|
S. Smith
Moderator
|
Posted: Jun 24th, 2006 12:59 pm |
|
| April, Since Cracker Jax is not on here to do her unofficial duties, I wanted to say welcome to the forum. I see you're new, and hope you'll continue to post. We're glad to see different points of view on here, although it's obvious that our participants often have strong opinions. Feel free to jump in on any of our threads.
|
EditorPS
Administrator
| Joined: | Oct 2nd, 2005 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 242 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Jun 24th, 2006 01:17 pm |
|
April wrote:
I didn't attend the meeting last night, but I do know that there is a rumor floating around Guilford county about the SRA considering hiring coaches because some parents would rather watch from the bleachers instead of volunteering to coach a team. If this is not true, then we should be finding out who got the rumor going, where they got the information and get it stopped.
Good morning April,
I also want to welcome you to our forum! As a follow-up to your comments above, I emailed Joe Plante last evening. You may know Joe, and if not, he has been a longtime and very active member of the SRA, a former SRA president, and someone I respect very highly for both his integrity and his commitment to the kids of Summerfield. Here's what he had to say regarding the rumor about the SRA paying their coaches:
There is no truth to the rumor of paid coaches. MaryAnn and I attend all of the meetings and the subject has never come up. It would have to approved by the executive board. Perhaps a renegade disgruntled parent has started the rumor. Who knows? We have over 50 head coaches and over 100m assistant coaches. How do you decide who to pay?
I know GYSA, AAU,a nd USSA have some paid coaches, but they are not associated with SRA.
I will be happy to check into this further, as I realize that, rumor or not, this could taint a lot of people's view about the town commiting funds to purchase and develop land for ball fields. I also realize that rumors are very powerful, and spread much quicker than truth.
As for who started the rumor and how it continued to spread, I'm not sure that I'll be able to find that out -- usually rumors start because one person innocently extracts a portion of information, unknowingly confuses facts and then passes it along. The result can be as deadly as a wildfire.
|
Lacka
Member
| Joined: | Dec 27th, 2005 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 664 |
| Status: |
Online
|
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Jun 24th, 2006 02:16 pm |
|
April wrote:
I didn't attend the meeting last night, but I do know that there is a rumor floating around Guilford county about the SRA considering hiring coaches because some parents would rather watch from the bleachers instead of volunteering to coach a team.
April
I am one of the "some parents" I would much rather watch the game from the bleachers. Guilty as charged. I am not qualified to coach a team. Well not a winning team anyway. I did years ago help coach a t-ball team, and I have been the helment mom many seasons and have even been known to play the part of the bat boy. I have chillied many hotdogs and popped lots of popcorn. However I do not think I am qualified to coach a team. My Husband does coach a softball team and dedicates many hours to his team.
The coaches that I have seen with SRA, are volunteers that are dedicated to our children. They obviously do not do this for the pay. It is the love of baseball and the kids. Last year there was a first base coach for one of the teams that I never heard say a negative word to a child. Didn't matter if the kid was out or safe, didn't matter if they had a god hit, didn't matter if they had a bad "at bat". He never failed. When that child got to first base he had a reason to want to make it to second. He wanted Coach Palmer to be proud of him. You can't pay a coach to make a kid feel that way.
I would much rather have volunteers than paid coaches. It is the difference of being there because you have to vs wanting to be there.
Patti thanks for getting with Mr. Plante and clearing up the rumor.
____________________
The views/opinions in this post are mine.Do not copy,or distribute without my consent.
Copied with Crackah's consent.
|
Lacka
Member
| Joined: | Dec 27th, 2005 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 664 |
| Status: |
Online
|
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Jun 25th, 2006 01:27 am |
|
zippitydoodah wrote:
I personally would be insulted if Dwayne's proposal was okayed. Parents already pay a fee (although it is low) to be on a team (I don't know exactly how much, so maybe somebody can tell me. When my kid played, it was something like $70 for the season). If you charged all SRA participants $25 a month, that would be $300 a year. What about parents who have 2 or 3 children participating in SRA sports. If I had 3 kids and had to pay $900 per year for them to play ball, unfortunately they wouldn't be playing.
Zip it is about 100.00 per sport not per year (you didn't confuse that I just wanted to clarify for others) for a kid to just sign up. That is no other frills. OK the kid is pretty much half naked at the 100.00 point. He doesn't have shoes, pants, team colored socks, (must have more than 1 pair, the dryer gets hungry) a cup, or a bat. Sometimes they need a helment. Hopefully he will still be able to use his bat from last season. That will save us 100.00-200.00. I don't know about all sports, but that is what I understand was payed recently for summer baseball. There are three baseball seasons. Spring, Fall and Summer. Don't know about Basketball, or Cheerleading or any of that stuff. At one time I had 4 kids playing at one time. Thank goodness they found other stuff to do.
____________________
The views/opinions in this post are mine.Do not copy,or distribute without my consent.
Copied with Crackah's consent.
|
S. Smith
Moderator
|
Posted: Jun 25th, 2006 12:13 pm |
|
Lacka, It sounds like there is more expense involved with boys than girls. For the girls, they pay the sign-up fee and for that they get a team T-shirt. They wear whatever shorts/pants and socks they want. In fact, Summerfield teams (the older girls at least) sometimes try to use as much imagination in putting their uniforms together as possible. They might have red team jerseys and one girl might have on green shorts and yellow socks and another might wear tie-dyed pink shorts and blue socks. Sometimes they even wear two different colored socks.
Back to expenses, girls have to have some shoes to wear. I've seen some wear tennis shoes, but probably 95% purchase their own cleats. They also need a glove, which can cost anywhere from probably $25-30 at WalMart to probably $200 for the really serious player. You're right about bats -- they can be quite pricey and kids do outgrow them. Again though, we're talking in the $30-40 range at WalMart to about $300 for a really incredible softball bat (this is for teenagers who are serious about softball and they'd be able to use this bat for years and years). You do not have to have your own bat -- they are supplied by the team, as are helmets, although many girls purchase their own and often "decorate" them.
So if you really wanted to get "down and dirty," a girl could participate in softball for whatever the SRA fee is (I'm guessing $70 to $100) and the price of a glove ($25-30 minimum). I guess what I'm getting at is that it can be very affordable, especially compared to other activities, if you really want to get out for as little money as possible. As one of the SRA people said the other night, although not many people request it, it is possible to get them to waive the fee if you aren't able to pay it, making it available to anyone who wants to play.
|
zippitydoodah
Member
| Joined: | Oct 7th, 2005 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 223 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Jun 25th, 2006 12:38 pm |
|
Sandra --
SRA doesn't make money on those fees. I have got the impression from some council members that they think SRA has tons of money. Those youth assns pretty much operate on a shoestring bugdet. For what they get from every kid for a sign-up fee, they supply a team jersey. Then they have to pay umps, and buy team equipment like bats, balls, helmets, catcher's equipment. They buy stuff to line the fields and take care of the fields (drag them before the day's games, fill in holes and stuff like that). Somebody has to mow the fields (I don't know if they have their own equipment for that or they pay somebody or if its a volunteer job). They have to buy and repair fences, lights, dugouts, bathrooms, concession stands, bleachers, bases, etc. etc. Theirs probably lots of other stuff I didn't even think about.
After all that, IF there's any money left over, it goes to back into the program. Yea, you can make some money on concessions and running tournements, but it doesn't compare to what it takes to run a first rate program.
|
zippitydoodah
Member
| Joined: | Oct 7th, 2005 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 223 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Jun 25th, 2006 12:51 pm |
|
April wrote:
I didn't attend the meeting last night, but I do know that there is a rumor floating around Guilford county about the SRA considering hiring coaches because some parents would rather watch from the bleachers instead of volunteering to coach a team.
Not everybody can coach. If you had 12-14 kids on a team, you don't want that many coachs. But there is still lots to do. Somebody has to set up schedules, drag the fields and line them, run the concession stand (including mopping the water out cause it flooded), clean the bathrooms. Sometimes they need somebody to help at practice, coach a base during a game, keep score, or be helmet mom or keep the little kids lined up because they can't remember who they bat after. If you're not the athletic type, you can organise bringing team drinks or type the team roster or set up a phone tree so the coach doesn't have to call every kid on the team if a game or practice is rained out or cancelled......
Even though some parents don't do anything, MOST of them do SOMETHING and if nothing else, they show up at games and give the kids morale support.......
|
Cracker Jax
Member
| Joined: | Oct 23rd, 2005 |
| Location: | Summerfield, USA |
| Posts: | 4722 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Jun 25th, 2006 03:18 pm |
|
S. Smith wrote: April, Since Cracker Jax is not on here to do her unofficial duties, I wanted to say welcome to the forum. I see you're new, and hope you'll continue to post. We're glad to see different points of view on here, although it's obvious that our participants often have strong opinions. Feel free to jump in on any of our threads.
Thanks Sandra! Sorry it's taken me so long to do this April. I was on Safari and it's taking me a while to get caught up  .
WELCOME to the forum April!
Glad you are taking advantage of gathering information from a variety of sources. We (the forum participants) appreciate all opinions and realize that we can all learn from one another.
Keep posting!
____________________
Opinions in this post are mine. Do not copy, distribute, mass mail or quote out of context without my consent.
|
Cracker Jax
Member
| Joined: | Oct 23rd, 2005 |
| Location: | Summerfield, USA |
| Posts: | 4722 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Jun 25th, 2006 03:36 pm |
|
I'd like to thank everyone for the PM's and posts that kept me updated while I was out of commission. I appreciate the time it took to post so many details. It was almost like being there!!!
I heard that EditorPS "rocked the house" with her speech at council as did StewartM several others. Thanks to all of you who spoke out for our community and our children.
Most of all, I'd like to thank the 3 council members (Dena Barnes, Bob Williams, and Carolyn Collins) who continually vote in favor of Summerfield.
____________________
Opinions in this post are mine. Do not copy, distribute, mass mail or quote out of context without my consent.
|
Steve Adkins
Member
| Joined: | Oct 14th, 2005 |
| Location: | Summerfield |
| Posts: | 1669 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
|
Posted: Jun 25th, 2006 10:11 pm |
|
I see what I've been missing.
Lightning took out the cable Fri night, just got it repaired awhile ago.
Lacka - If you wanted an OT sign, sorry I gotta disappoint you, I think an AMEN sign would be more appropriate. Great words......and all from your heart !!
Kudos to all those who spoke, Patti took the words out of my mouth, then Mike Stewart did it again, I didn't say it there, but will say it here.......my kids are grown, my family won't benefit from these ballfields, but I will GLADLY pay the taxes for them, and think there's no better investment for our youth. It's the right thing to do.
Dwayne & Becky have brought up "vandalism" in the past......seems like if youth are busy playing organized sports, they have less time to get into mischief.
|
Baseball Buddy
Member
|
Posted: Jun 26th, 2006 12:27 pm |
|
Hello to all,
Just got back from vacation in Florida. I got about 20 phone calls Thursday night letting me know what was going on at the "public hearing". Just need to set one thing straight about SRA. We are a non profit organization. We are a all volunteer group and this means coaches are not paid! We do pay umpires and for all the upkeep of the Guilford County School's property we use. Any capital upgrades we do to this property becomes Guilford Countys own. SRA does not own anything! SRA does not have the revenue to purchase land in Summerfield, only enough to maintain our current facility that is owned by Guilford County Schools.
Thanks to the TC members who did the right thing.
Thanks to the speakers who spoke on my behalf.
I wished I could have made the meeting but, I was with my family vacationing.
____________________
The views/opinions expressed in this post are personal and belong to Baseball Buddy. Please do not duplicate, distribute, BCC, or mass mail my comments without my written consent.
|
|
|
|
|
