North Star Classic Baseball League
Meetings

League Meeting
8/30/2010

7:00pm Meeting called to order by President Kent Rogers
Board Members in attendance:
Kent Rogers  President (Woodbury)
Myron Carlson  Vice President (Crosstown Traffic)
Rich Ellis  Treasurer (Loretto Sox)
Scott Gatzke  Secretary (Minnetonka Saints)
John “JJ” Jensen  Untitled Advisor (Minnetonka Lakers)

Teams in attendance:

Teams not in attendance:
Becker
Rosetown

15 of 18 teams or 83% were in attendance so we had a quorum according to the bylaws requiring at least 70%.

A brief statement was read by Scott Gatzke.  It is included here:

When Kent was asked to take over as president of The Classic League he was taking over for a guy for whom I had great respect.  Alan Arthur of the Lakers was a great ballplayer and a great man.  He ran the league with authority but never got in the way.  He was well respected by the managers and players in the league and he always had the best interest of the league in mind.  Kent has continued to run both The Classic League and the Northstar Classic Leagues with the same principals and has always put the league ahead of his own interests.  This is a crucial trait in a leader.  There is no place on the board for anyone who would influence people or rules to do anything that is not in the best interest of the league.  Kent has always worked long and hard to try to do what he thought was right.  In disputes, he would always get all of the facts, confer with the other board members, offer possible solutions and then make a well informed, well thought-out ruling based on fact, not gut reaction.  I’ve always thought that Kent ‘s management style was the equivalent of counting to ten before speaking when you’re angry.  He never lashed out like I’m prone to do.  Kent has been the epitome of a leader in his time at the helm of this league.  It was my pleasure to work alongside him and I thank him for his service and leadership.

Almost immediately after becoming the president of The Classic League, Kent called me up and asked me to join him on the board.  Exactly why he asked me or, more importantly, why I said yes, I’ll never know.  We both shared the same vision of trying to expand the league with the ultimate goal of bringing all of the over 35 leagues under one umbrella organization.  I also wanted to bring the league into the 21st century technologically and try to add some fun for the players.  That’s why I created the website and began shooting pictures during the tournament.  I was also hopeful that the website could be used as an advertising and recruiting tool by showing prospective players that there is still a lot of great baseball to be played after you turn 35.  Thanks to Kent and his hard work and perseverance, we’ve made great progress on our original goals.  Now it’s time, actually it’s way past time, for someone else to step up and take the reins. 

From what I’ve seen and heard, we have the best and most democratic ruling body in Minnesota over 35 baseball.  I think it’s imperative that we continue in that tradition and find leadership that is strong, yet resilient.  That will listen to the players and managers and continue to grow our league, not just in the number and quality of teams but also in the quality and character of the individuals that makeup our league.  One of the benefits of being on this board, though it’s subtle, is knowing that you’re helping to provide the opportunity for hundreds of guys to participate in the great game of baseball and, hopefully, in the best over 35 league in the state.

I would like to thank the other members of the board with whom I have worked over the years.  Myron Carlson from Crosstown Traffic, Rich Ellis from Loretto, John “JJ” Jensen from the Lakers and Tim Doboszenski of Loretto.  I’ve learned a great deal from all of you through this experience and I thank you for your friendship.

Make no mistake.  This job is not easy.  It’s pretty much a thankless job but it’s a critical job not to be taken lightly.  It takes a lot of time and patience and it takes a leader with the wisdom to know when to kick someone in the ass and when to pat them on the back.  Kent Rogers was just such a leader and should be commended for the effort he put in and the job he’s done.  His legacy as a leader in this league is assured.
The initial discussion revolved around finding replacements for the retiring board members.  No one volunteered to seek the presidency.  Rich Ellis volunteered to stay on as Treasurer and this was agreed to unanimously.

The next topic was finances.  Rich reported that we do not have a final bill from Apple Valley for tournament expenses but estimated there would be about $800 remaining in the account after all tournament expenses.  It was agreed that the league would purchase T-Shirts for both the A and AA bracket winners, 20 per team, any quantity over that the team has to pay for.  Whether or not to purchase a booth at TwinsFest for about $450 was discussed.  What, exactly to put in the booth was also discussed.  Jersey’s from several teams, some kind of handout and a signup sheet were mentioned.  The possibility of splitting the booth with the Federal League was raised and discussion was essentially tabled until after speaking with the Federal League.

The idea of offering a discount on 2011 fees to the four teams that went two games and out in the tournament was discussed.  Most of those teams were in attendance and none felt that they should receive a discount.  Woodbury motioned that those teams should receive a $65 discount on 2011 fees and Traffic seconded the motion.  The motion was defeated 13-2 with only Mill City and the Lakers voting in favor.

A lengthy and boisterous discussion on roster sizes and limits then ensued.  Eventually, Woodbury motioned to eliminate the roster limit (currently 25) entirely.  The motion was seconded by Dassel and defeated 9-5 with the Bulldogs abstaining.  The roster limit will remain.

The next topic was the six game minimum for tournament eligibility and the due date for final rosters.  Monticello motioned to change the due date for final rosters to August 1st and keep the six game minimum.  Woodbury seconded the motion and it carried with only the Saints opposing.

The Flexible schedule was discussed and found to be an overwhelming success.

The next topic covered was umpires for the tournament.  Specifically whether we should get two umps for each and every game.  A few teams felt that you get better calls with two umpires but most teams seemed to believe that having two umps makes very little difference in the end and would cost an additional $2,700.00 for the tournament which works out to about $150 per team.  In the end, Monticello motioned to hire two umps for all tournament games and Miesville seconded the motion.  The motion was defeated 12-3 with only Loretto, Miesville and Monticello in favor.  We will retain single umpires for each game until the semifinal and final rounds.

Next we talked about the overall poor officiating during the tournament.  We used an association this year so we had no input on who would be used and many of them had never umpped our league before.  The consensus was that we were better off when we used umpires that we know and when teams suggest umps that they feel do a good job.  The problem with this is that someone has to coordinate it and it’s more of a hassle.  Woodbury motioned to have teams suggest umpires for the tournament and Monticello seconded the motion.  Joe Perzel of the Saints offered to coordinate the umps.  The motion passed 11-4 with Apple Valley, Burnsville, Cold Spring and Dassel dissenting.

A unanimous decision was made to add a rule that only Diamond D1-Pro baseballs will be used in league and tournament games.  Rule 3p now reads:  “Baseballs:  The only baseball approved for regular season and tournament play is the Diamond D1-PRO baseball.  Teams may purchase them on their own or as part of a league-wide order prior to each season.  The home team will supply four (4) new D1-PRO baseballs for each game and will be responsible for replacing lost or damaged balls with suitable new or used D1-PRO baseballs when necessary".

Finally the topic turned back to new members for the board.  President Kent Rogers, Vice President Myron Carlson and Secretary Scott Gatzke all stepped down after a lengthy term of service.  Several names were thrown in the hat like John Jensen but he declined to increase his presence on the board citing illness to his wife.  He will, however, remain in his advisory role.  Matt Barbatsis was also mentioned but declined stating that the return of his team next year was questionable.  In the end the Saints made a motion to nominate Joe Kounkel from Monticello for President, Dan Gilbertson of Burnsville for Vice President and Brian Betts of Apple Valley for Secretary.  Loretto seconded the motion and it carried unanimously.

Shortly before 10:00pm, for the last time, President Kent Rogers adjourned the meeting.

League Meeting
4/16/2010

7:15pm Meeting called to order by President Kent Rogers
Board Members in attendance:
Kent Rogers  President (Woodbury)
Myron Carlson  Vice President (Crosstown Traffic)
Rich Ellis  Treasurer (Loretto Sox)
Scott Gatzke  Secretary (Minnetonka Saints)
John “JJ” Jensen  Untitled Advisor (Minnetonka Lakers)

Teams in attendance:

Teams not in attendance:
Delano
Freeport Grey Sox
Mounds View

16 of 19 teams or 84% were in attendance so we had a quorum according to the bylaws requiring at least 70%.

The initial discussion revolved around the tournament and whether or not to have play-in games as discussed in the last meeting.  There was a lot of talk around when/where we might play the play-in games.  Some of the options were:
- play them the weekend prior to tourney (would require moving up the season)
- play them the week prior to tourney (created logistical issues with scheduling)
- include the play-in games as part of the tourney win or lose.
At 7:45 Kent called for a simple majority vote on play-in games or just cutting the tournament in half and having A and AA brackets based on winning percentage.  Five teams, Traffic, Saints, Cold Spring, Mill City and Miesville voted YES to play-in games.  Eight teams, Burnsville, AV, Becker, Mayer, Dassel, JT's, Lakers, Loretto and Woodbury voted NO to play-in games.  There will be no play-in games and the tournament will consist of an A and a AA double elimination brackets.

Immediately after that vote another vote was held to have the top 10 teams go into the AA bracket and the remaining nine teams to the A bracket.  The vote was unanimous.

Discussion then moved on to the number of games a player needs to participate in to be tournament eligible.  In the end it was decided to leave the rule as it is at six (6) games.

Next the discussion revolved around the tie breaker situation since not all teams will be playing the same number of games during the regular season and many teams will not play each other at all.  It was agreed by all to add a strength of schedule criterion between Head to Head competition and Runs allowed per game.

Some teams were not present and had not paid their full dues.  We talked about the possibility of levying a fine against teams that do not have a representative at league meetings.  We decided to pass on this for now.  AV made a motion to have all teams that have not paid yet get their dues in by April 30th or be dropped from the league.  The motion was seconded by Traffic and passed unanimously.

There was some discussion on rules such as the Shared Position, uniforms, code of conduct, roster size and baseballs used.  Clarifications were made but no rules were changed.

8:32 Kent declared the meeting adjourned

League Meeting
2/11/2010

7:05pm Meeting called to order by President Kent Rogers
Board Members in attendance:
Kent Rogers  President (Woodbury)
Myron Carlson  Vice President (Crosstown Traffic)
Rich Ellis  Treasurer (Loretto Sox)
Scott Gatzke  Secretary (Minnetonka Saints)
John “JJ” Jensen  Untitled Advisor (Minnetonka Lakers)

Teams in attendance:
Apple Valley A’s
Burnsville Bulldogs
Cold Spring Silver Springers
Edina Crosstown Traffic
Freeport Grey Sox
Loretto Sox
Miesville Groupers
Mill City Blue
Minnetonka Lakers
Minnetonka Saints
Monticello Ol’ Cats
Mounds View Mustangs
Rosetown Rockets
St. Paul JT’s
Woodbury Warriors

Potential new teams in attendance:
Becker Buzzards
Dassel Dukes

Teams not in attendance:
Mayer Mudcatz

Potential new teams in not attendance:
Delano

15 of 16 teams, or 94%, were in attendance so we had a quorum according to the bylaws requiring at least 70%.

7:06pm  The initial discussion was about allowing Dassel and Becker to participate in the league as full members.  The discussion was generally very favorable and a motion was made by Crosstown to allow both teams into the league.  The motion was seconded by Loretto and passed unanimously.

We then talked briefly about the regular season schedule and the proposal that Kent had sent out.  All teams were generally happy with the flex-schedule though some teams wanted to adjust their number of games slightly and Kent will work on that.  Depending on what happens with Mayer and Delano there may need to be some slight adjustments to the schedule.  Kent hopes to have a list of each team’s opponents by 2/19/2010 and then it will be up to the teams to schedule their games with each other.

The next topic of discussion was what to do about Mayer and Delano not attending the meeting.  Kent had stated in an earlier email that he wanted to drop teams from the schedule if they did not attend the meeting or at least have their $100 deposit submitted by the date of the meeting.  It was agreed by all to give each team one week, or until 2/18/2010, to commit to playing in the league and submitting their deposit.  All teams agreed to this.

Rich Ellis then gave an overview of the recent Federal League meeting and how that might affect the NSCBL.  The FL moved their post season tournament to the last two weekends of August and proposed that the NSCBL move our tournament to the first two weekends of August.  That would allow a number of FL teams and, potentially, some MSMABA (a.k.a. Gaulke League) teams to participate in a broader tournament.  The general consensus seemed to be that we, as a league, were unwilling to lose two weeks of the season and some of the best weather of the year for the tournament in the hope that some other teams might join our tournament.  We also discussed that there would still be a number of hurdles to overcome with regard to seeding etc with such a tournament.  Kent asked for a show of hands in favor of keeping our tournament the last two weekends of August and it was unanimous.

The next discussion was about the league tournament and the format that was discussed at the fall meeting.  All teams agreed that a two weekend, two tier tournament was the best option.  It was generally agreed that the top four teams from the regular season would advance directly to the top tier with the next eight or nine teams playing to get into the top tier and the bottom teams would remain in the bottom tier.  A tournament committee consisting of Freeport, Loretto, Burnsville, Miesville and Apple Valley were selected to look at options and finalize the tournament plans.  Apple Valley mentioned that they have a new field available this year and that field, along with Legion Field could be available for use during the tournament.  Both of these fields are very near Alimagnet and could provide three or four fields in close proximity.

The final topic of discussion was board members.  Many board members have been in place for a number of years and have a desire to retire.  A call went out asking all managers to consider themselves or teammates as possible replacements.  The response was underwhelming.

At 8:08pm the Saints moved to adjourn the meeting.  The motion was seconded by everyone and the meeting was declared adjourned by President Rogers.

League Meeting
10/6/2009

NSCBL Fall Meeting / Tuesday, October 6 / Majors in Golden Valley

Teams in attendance (12): Apple Valley, Burnsville, Cold Spring, Crosstown, Freeport, Loretto,
Mayer, Miesville, Mill City, Minnetonka Lakers, Minnetonka Saints, Woodbury

Teams NOT in attendance (4): JT's, Monticello, Mounds View, Rosetown

Prospective teams in attendance (1): Becker

It should be noted that the entire meeting took place during the Twins game, and we got as much done as we ever do!

1. 2009 review: trophy presentation / finances
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- 2009 Traveling trophy was presented to Burnsville - Congratulations!
- 2009 Finances: Rich stated that there is roughly $750 in the checking account, with some ad money still to collect from Mounds View.

2. 2010 schedule: number of games / divisions
---------------------------------------------
- After a fair amount of discussion regarding flex scheduling and how it might work, the following motion was made:

   - Each team will be allowed to schedule a flexible number of games, with 12 being the minimum, no maximum; generally teams should
     fall in the ranges: 12-16, 17-21, 22+
   - The opponents will be set by the league, not picked by the teams, although some consideration should be given to proximity.
   - Once the schedule is agreed to by the teams and set on the league web site, all games must be played as in the past.

- Motion was seconded and all teams but Miesville were in favor.

- Seeding for the tournament was discussed but not formally voted on.  Basing seeds on winning% is the most obvious, with a possible Strength
  of Schedule factor.

- With flex scheduling, it was determined that there was no need for divisions

3. Relationship with Federal League: crossover games / All-Star game / tourney
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Most of the discussion around a relationship with the Federal League focused on the tournament.  A few teams have some reservations about the current 3-tiered   counter-proposal that has been returned to theFL (sent out earlier), but after a fair amount of discussion, it was motioned and agreed to leave the counter-proposal   as-is and wait for the FL's response.

  The 3-tiered tournament has the following benefits:
  1. It makes the regular season much more meaningful
  2. It gives all teams something to play for
  3. It allows the tournament to be shortened to 2 weekends
  4. It is hopefully more attractive to the FL

- Most teams sounded interested in some cross-over games, but no formal proposals were made for how to schedule them (as a league) or if they should count in the   standings.  We will wait to see if there is interest from the FL before pursuing further.

- A brief discussion regarding a joint NSCBL-FL All Star event took place, but there was very little interest.

4. Miscellaneous rules (number of umpires, 9-inning games, etc.)
----------------------------------------------------------------
The following miscellaneous rules were discussed and voted on:

- It was unanimously decided that there will be 2 umpires for the championship game of all tiers in the state tournament.

- It was unanimously decided that any league game can be played as a 9 inning game, if both managers agree, either when the game is scheduled or immediately prior   to the game.

- It was unanimously decided to NOT change the league's age requirements.

- It was unanimously decided that each team must pay a $100 deposit to the league by January 15 in order to remain a member of the league.

- It was unanimously decided that each 2009 board members (Kent Rogers, Tim Doboszenski, Rich Ellis, Scott Gatzke) be paid $100 for their
  services in 2009.

- It was decided (can't remember if it was unanimous) that the NSCBL would pursue a booth at Twins fest ($450), to try to raise awareness of 35-over baseball and   do some recruiting of new players/teams.  Rich will see if the FL is interested in sharing the booth.

5. Board elections
------------------
- As usual, there was NO interest by anyone in becoming a board member.

- Rich Ellis volunteered to remain as treasurer and was unanimously accepted.  Since the by-laws state that no team can have more than one board member, Tim   Doboszenski needed to be replaced on the board.

- Rich motioned that Kent remain as president and Scott remain as secretary, and that Myron Carlson assume the role of vice-president.
  Motioned carried unanimously.

Meeting adjourned as Gomez scored the winning run!

League Meeting
4/16/2009

6:45pm Meeting called to order by Vice-President Kent Rogers
Board Members in attendance:
Kent Rogers  Vice President (Woodbury)
Scott Gatzke  Secretary (Minnetonka Saints)
Myron Carlson  Untitled advisor (Crosstown Traffic)
Late Arrival - Tim Doboszenski  President (Loretto)

6:45pm roll call taken
Teams in attendance:
Apple Valley A’s
Burnsville Bulldogs
Cold Spring
Edina Crosstown Traffic
Freeport Grey Sox
Miesville Groupers
Mill City Blue
Minnetonka Lakers
Minnetonka Saints
Monticello Ol’ Cats
Mounds View
Rosetown Rockets
St. Paul JT’s
Woodbury Warriors
Arrived Late
Loretto Sox
Mayer Mudcatz

17 of 17 teams, or 100%, were in attendance so we had a quorum according to the bylaws requiring at least 70%.

6:50pm  The initial discussion was about allowing the St. Paul Expos to participate in the league.  Ron Connor, the manager of the Expos was in attendance to give his side of the story involving the Billy’s team from 2008 as the Expos are an offshoot of that team.  Ron assured the league that he was a new manager and the old manager had nothing to do with the new team and that the Expos wanted to make restitution for any of Billy’s debts.  One of the debts that Billy’s incurred was with the city of St. Paul for field costs.  This was going to keep them from getting a field in St. Paul this year.  One of the offers that Kent made was to have the Expos play all away games to save costs.  After hearing Ron, the managers talked amongst themselves and came up with an offer for the Expos.  The Expos would pay a total of $1,070.00 for their league fee and the league would pay the city of St. Paul the $600 that Billy’s still owed  The Expos would also put in two game balls for each game they play at another team’s park.  The motion carried on a verbal vote.

The discussion then turned to the fact the President Doboszenski has been pretty much unavailable through email and Kent felt that he did not have the authority to do the things that needed to get done.  A motion was made by the A’s at 8:10 to make Kent a Co-President along with Tim.  The motion passed with only Kent dissenting.  ;-)

A motion was made to make the final date for playing make-up games August 12th.  The motion carried with only Crosstown dissenting.

Kent then asked each team to list what they were looking for in the league.  Each team had two minutes to list their favorite or least favorite things about the league and what they were hoping to see in the future or expected from the board and the league as an entity.  Kent marked many of these on the white board and you can see it here.

The next discussion was about the league tournament and what format it should take.  At 9:12pm a motion was made by Mayer to adopt a double elimination tournament with five games added in the final two weekends to keep more teams involved.  The motion carried with only Cold Spring and Freeport dissenting.

At 9:15pm  resident Doboszenski moved to adjourn the meeting.
Seconded by everyone
Meeting adjourned and teams commenced scheduling games with each other.

League Meeting
3/19/2009

Minutes:
6:45pm Meeting called to order by Vice-President Kent Rogers
Board Members in attendance:
Kent Rogers  Vice President (Woodbury)
Rich Ellis  Treasurer (Loretto)
Scott Gatzke  Secretary (Minnetonka Saints)
Myron Carlson  Untitled advisor (Crosstown Traffic)
Late Arrival - Tim Doboszenski  President (Loretto)

6:45pm roll call taken
Teams in attendance:
Apple Valley A’s
Burnsville Bulldogs
Cold Spring
Edina Crosstown Traffic
Freeport Grey Sox
Loretto Sox
Miesville Groupers
Mill City Blue
Minnetonka Lakers
Minnetonka Saints
Monticello Ol’ Cats
Arrived at 7:05 Mounds View Mustangs
Rosetown Rockets
Woodbury Warriors

Teams NOT in attendance:
Mayer Mudcatz
Shoreview Hawks
St. Paul JT’s

14 of 17 teams, or 82.4%, were in attendance so we had a quorum according to the bylaws requiring 70%.

6:50pm  The initial discussion was about the number of games to be played during the regular season, and the format.  The league currently has 17 teams with the possibility of adding two more, The Grays and the team from St. Paul.  Playing a “round-robin” style season would then have each team playing 16-18 regular season games.  Freeport motioned a “round-robin” format, the motion was seconded by Crosstown and carried unanimously.

The discussion then turned to the post-season tournament and the format.  The board came prepared with two options that would facilitate the two weekend, Friday through Sunday only format that had been agreed upon at the last meeting.  Most teams seemed to discount these options as not giving all teams a chance to play for the championship and the possibility that a high seed could be knocked out early and not have a chance to come back.  Most teams seemed to prefer the full double elimination format which kind of makes the regular season less important.  Stressing the importance of the regular season is another ideal that had been favored at the previous meeting.

A motion was made by the Saints to extend the tournament to a three weekend tournament.  The motion was seconded by Loretto and carried with only the Lakers and, oddly, Loretto dissenting.

Another motion to adopt a 16 team double elimination tournament, with play-in games for the final seeds, regardless of the number, was almost immediately forthcoming by Monticello and seconded by Rosetown.  The motion carried unanimously.

Talk then turned to where, and how, to play all of the tournament games.  A motion was made by the Bulldogs to play the first weekend at Cold Spring, Freeport and other fields they can provide on Saturday and Sunday only.  The motion was seconded by Monticello and carried with only the Saints dissenting.  The assumption is that the second weekend will take place at Burnsville and the final weekend in Loretto.

The next discussion was about the league website and who would build and maintain it.  No one stepped forward to offer any help.  Woodbury motioned that Scott Gatzke should continue to manage it and be paid $25 per team this year in addition to what board members might be paid at the end of the year.  The $25 would be added to each team’s league fee.  Rosetown seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously.

A discussion about holding a mid-season All Star game contest with the Federal League was kicked around without much enthusiasm.  A motion to hold talks with the Federal League about having such a contest with two games, a 35-49 year old game and then a 50+ game was put forth by Loretto and seconded by the Lakers.  The motion carried on a verbal vote but only to enter discussions with the Federal League.

After a lot of debating, the next league meeting was finally scheduled for Thursday, April 16th at an, as yet, undetermined location.  This will be the scheduling meeting.

8:10pm  President Doboszenski moved to adjourn the meeting.
Seconded by everyone
Meeting adjourned.

League Meeting
2/11/2009

Minutes:
6:40pm Meeting called to order by President Tim Doboszenski
Board Members in attendance:
Tim Doboszenski  President (Loretto)
Kent Rogers  Vice President (Woodbury)
Rich Ellis  Treasurer (Loretto)
Scott Gatzke  Secretary (Minnetonka Saints)
Myron Carlson  Untitled advisor (Crosstown Traffic)

6:41pm roll call taken
Teams in attendance:
Apple Valley A’s
Becker Buzzards
Burnsville Bulldogs
Cold Spring (Pending acceptance into the league)
Eden Prairie Lions Tap
Edina Crosstown Traffic
Freeport Grey Sox
Loretto Sox
Mayer Mudcatz
Miesville Groupers
Mill City Blue
Minnetonka Lakers
Minnetonka Saints
Monticello Ol’ Cats
Mounds View Mustangs
Rosetown Rockets
St. Louis Park Cardinals
St. Paul JT’s
Woodbury Warriors

Teams NOT in attendance:
Dassel Dukes
Edina Grays
Northfield Millers
Shoreview Hawks
The New Hope Bandits notified the league earlier in the day via email that they were leaving the league to play in the elsewhere.
18 of 22 teams, or 81.81%, were in attendance so we had a quorum.

6:45pm  There was initially a lengthy discussion about the number of games to be played during the regular season, the dates for the end of season tournament, the location(s) for the tournament and the availability of league liability insurance.  Freeport offered the possibility of using their field along with Cold Spring, Avon, New Munich and possibly St. Martin to host the tournament without charging a fee for use of the field.  A “straw vote” on the number of games each team would like to play yielded inconclusive results.  Eight teams voted to play 18 games, eight teams voted to play 23 games, two voted for 20 and one voted for 21 leaving an average of 20.32 games.

No decisions were made regarding the number of regular season games to be played or the tournament were made at this point, however, the motion to purchase league wide insurance was overwhelmingly defeated.

7:30pm – 9:30pm
Motion by the Lakers to dissolve both the Classic League and the North Star League and create one, new, unified league.
Seconded by Freeport
Motion carried 17-1 with only Eden Prairie Lions Tap dissenting

Motion by Monticello to accept Cold Spring into the league as a full member.
Seconded by Rosetown
Motion carried 18-0  Cold spring is now a full member and will be voting in other league matters

Motion by the Lakers to play the league tournament the last two weekends prior to the Labor Day weekend.
Seconded by Apple Valley
Motion carried by a simple verbal vote

Motion by Woodbury to set a league fee, including non-refundable tournament fee, of $350
Seconded by Mill City
Motion carried 11-8

Motion by Monticello to change Article 6 of Bylaws to read 70% of the teams need to be present to have a quorum.
Seconded by Cold Spring
Motion carried by a simple verbal vote

Verbal discussion to change the wording of Article 8 of the Bylaws to read “Elect” rather than “Appoint” board members and “by the end of the year” rather than “during the winter or early spring”.  All teams agreed to the changes.

Motion by Cold Spring to accept the Bylaws with the above changes.
Seconded by Freeport
Motion carried by a simple verbal vote

Motion by Lions Tap to change Rule 3c to read that a missing ninth batter is NOT an out.
Seconded by ?
Motion defeated 12-6

A general discussion occurred concerning what happens if a team is batting all of their players and someone is injured and unable to bat.  It was agreed that the batting slot in question is to be considered an out even though this specific situation was not covered in the rules.  Rule 3e has been altered to clarify this situation.

Motion by Lions Tap to change Rule 3g to include pitchers as well as catchers
Seconded by the Lakers
Motion carried by a simple verbal vote

Motion by Freeport to allow a batting spot vacated by an injured player where no eligible batter is available to NOT be counted as an out.
Seconded by Woodbury
Motion defeated 11-7

Motion by Cold Spring to accept the rules as amended.
Seconded by Crosstown
Motion carried by a simple verbal vote

General discussion regarding the name for the new league.  Several were thrown about and a vote was taken to reduce the number to two.  The final two choices were “North Star Classic Baseball League” and “Northland Baseball League”.  “North Star Classic League” won the second round of voting 12-5.

Motion by Crosstown for the league membership to vote on payment to the board members at the end of the season.
Seconded by Freeport
Motion carried by a simple verbal vote

9:30pm  President Doboszenski declared that all teams must notify the league of their intention to participate, or not, in The North Star Classic Baseball League no later than Tuesday, March 10th 2009.

Topics for the next meeting:  Number of regular season games and what to do about the website along with continued discussion about the tournament.

9:34pm  President Doboszenski moved to adjourn the meeting.
Seconded by everyone
Meeting adjourned.