Baytown East Little League: ABOUT REGISTRATION

It's that time of year again...time to brush off the bat bag...size in the shoes and hit the diamond!

Registration begins this weekend January 14 at the Baytown Community Center.  The East League Board has been hard at work making a lot of changes this off season.  I hope you, by now, have noticed all the registration signs around our territory.  You also should see a flyer coming home in your child's backpack.  We are really trying to get the word on the street this year and get the season going smoothly.

 There have been alot of questions about registration fees and general accounting questions about the league finances.  First of all, let me say, we are in great financial shape.  Past boards have been diligent at keeping the finances healthy, and the new board intends on continuing that trend while also hopefully improving some things.  There are several projects that we intend to tackle this year.  First and foremost, in an effort to provide you with more games in the season and hopefully a more free-flowing schedule, we are looking to build a nice T-ball facility at ward road.  The little ones are by no means being banished down the street, however.  They will still get the "Big League" experience on opening day and Family Fun Day and certain other times throughout the season.  Moving some of their games down there helps us hopefully fit more games into a slightly more compact season.  We won't be chinching on the fields though...the T-Ballers will have a top notch field to play on, as all of our players should!  We ask that you be patient with us as we make these changes and feel free to pitch in where you can...

Second and third on the list, in no particular order, are a proposed deck on the front of the concession stand and improved batting cages at 10th street.  You have, no doubt, travelled to and around other ball parks and seen the facilities that we compete against.  Tenth street should be at the top of the list!  We will have a couple of sketches at sign ups for you to see what we are planning to do.  A deck on the concession stand would allow spectators to grab their concessions and sit out at a picnic table and view the games...also giving us another place to congregate and enjoy our time at the ballpark.  The batting cages are becoming an eyesore, and we need to fix that.  The plan is to take down the existing one, move it further down toward the light pole, turn it sideways and make it a double cage.  This not only improves the cage, but gives us MUCH needed space for warm ups, team congregation, etc. Again, if you see an area that you can help the league out on this, feel free to jump in!!

Obviously, this all costs money...as does the general day to day running of the league.  We, as a board, have decided that this year, we will be using this website as a vehicle to bring you important league information....and what could be more important than your money.  We will be providing financial breakdowns monthly on this site so that you guys can see where the money goes.  Registration fees are something else we tackled this year.  In 2011, you paid $100 for a child to play and $70 for a sibling.  You then were asked to pay $20 each for concession duty.  This put registration for 1 child at $120.  The candy buyout was $65...if you took the buyout, you paid $185.  If you took candy, you were responsible for an additional $110.  We voted to simplify this.  No more candy sales!  The kids participate in one mandatory fund raiser each year, and this is what we chose...

BBQ plate lunch on opening day!

You still pay your $100 registration fee.  You buy, upfront, 4 BBQ tickets at $8 each...$32.  If you don't need four, you can sell one or all of them and recoup your money.  The concession fee dropped to $18 making a round $150 for registration.  If you are a first time T-Ball player or a sibling, you still get the $30 discount you received last year, but each family only has to buy the 4 BBQ tickets up front.  If you don't want to participate any further with the fund raiser, then you don't have to.  No candy sales, no collections, done.  So if you paid the buyout last year, you paid $185, this year its $35 cheaper.  If you sold candy last year, you paid $120 plus sold and collected $110...this year, if you sell your 4 tickets instead of using them, you pay $118.  Not as big a savings...but still less.  We as a board think this is a win/win situation...and are looking forward to a GREAT opening day and even BETTER 2012 season!!

 Does that mean we don't need more money??  Not exactly.  We were fortunate to have a nice season last year financially and felt like it was a good time to try something new.   We still need funds to operate.  The electricity last year alone ran upwards of $11,000.  If you break that down to a per player cost, that's over $40 per child to maintain the electric bill alone.  Uniform costs, charter fees, tournament fees, maintenance, it adds up quickly.  Insurance for the league, broken down per child, is about $12 per head.  It's not cheap...that being said, the board feels that we owe it to you to be better stewards of your contributions and begin to show you more improvements with what we do have.

We are once again asking for sponsorships.  There will be sponsor forms at registration...if you can help out, or know someone that can, please grab one.  We will once again have Family Fun Day in April.  This was a GREAT day last year, and provided a nice "shot in the arm" to our finances mid season.  It also provided us with a great day of family fun and we intend on expanding that this year. And by the way, No Outback fundraiser this year either.  We heard you...and we've removed it...

 So that's it!!....Opening day fund raiser and Family Fun Day.  To help out this year, we ask that you support our concession stand.   Not mentioned before was the concession stand duty....This year, if you don't want to work in there, don't worry...you don't have to.  The $18 concession fee covers it.  If you're interested in getting that back and possibly more...get with us at registration and see about getting on the "Concession Workers List".  You will be asked to work on a yet to be determined rotation...but you will get paid.  Compensation is still being discussed, but it will provide you the opportunity to get that $18 back and possibly more.  That detail will have to be dependent on the response we receive for the Workers List.  Also, if your child wants to sell additional BBQ tickets, get them at registration.  We will have a contest to see who sells the most tickets.  We are working on the details of the contest as we speak, but there will be multiple winners and prizes and anything sold benefits Baytown East and your experience directly!

 Thank you all for your help, and for reading this.  If you have questions or concerns, feel free to get with any of your board members.  We're here to help.  We don't do this for money....we do it for our kids...that's who this all about anyway!!

GO EAST!!!