Little League World Series Umpire Alumni International: President's Page
Message from LLWSUAI President Christopher Thomas, Pennsylvania District 17
Happy New Year to all of my fellow umpires! We are off to a great 2013 season. LLWSUAI promotoes a comraderie in the umpiring ranks of Little League Baseball and Softball and one of our core missions is to promote the Little league experience to cildren and adults. I am proud to say that LLWSUAI is living up to that core mission statement everday.
I had the opportunity, along with fellow LLWSUAI member Daniel Lowe of New York, to travel to Uganda to help promote Little League Baseball and Softball to a group of Ugandan teachers and students. this was the trip of a lifetime; Daniel and I could not be more pleased with the Little League Complex in Uganda nor by the gracious hospitality of Mr. Richard Stanley and all of the hardworking people who helped make our two week experince a success. I am excited for more of our members who will be travelling to Uganda in May, 2013 to help with their national tournament and hope they experience "the pearl of Africa" as much as Daniel and I did.
Our organization will continue to grow as an educational body and as a fraternity of men and women dedicated to Little League International. We again will be prersenting plaques to our newest members this summer at the eight world series sites and will be looking forward to meeting everyone in Williamsport as the International tournement draws to a close in August. i nencourage everyone to come to Williamsport, visit our hospitality to room and join us for our annual luncheon and get involved in the promotion of LLWSUAI to all of your firends and families.
Yours truly in sportsmanship,
Christopher C. Thomas, PA District 17
LLWSUAI president 2012-2014
President's Message, Mark McGill, MA District 4
Dear LLWSUAI Member:
I again bring you greetings from the LLWSUAI Board of Directors and Committee Members.
The board and committee members have had great success this past year for the benefit of the membership. We continue to solicit members input so that the association can broaden our mission throughout Little League Baseball/Softball.
Let me review what has taken place in this past year:
- The membership committee under the direction of Paul Bernor, CT District 2 and he is working very hard to improve our renewal of membership dues. You can now renew your membership online right from our web site at www.eteamz.com/LLWSUAI.
- All of the Little League Baseball and Softball World Series had a formal ceremony to honor the 2012 World Series umpires with their LLWSUAI plaques. A big thanks goes to the Little League Tournament Directors and the LLWSUAI Representatives.
- Ms. Jan Hutchinson, Head Coach Emertius of Bloomsburg University Softball was the guest speaker for the annual luncheon during World Series week in Williamsport.
- The LLWSUAI board continues to emphasize the importance of our purpose, which reads as follows: To encourage all members of the Association to “reach out” into every league and share our expertise and experience. The association supports the training and development of Little League Baseball and Softball volunteers at the local level, through clinics and seminars, to enhance their umpiring skills and to promote the full benefit and enjoyment of the youngsters that play Little League Baseball/Softball.
I cannot emphasize enough how hard the board, hospitality committee, and regional members are working to help enhance the association on the members’ behalf. They are always available for your feedback or your needed information.
Finally, let me again express my deepest appreciation to the Board for allowing me the opportunity to serve as your Board President for the past two years.
Mark McGill, President
LLWSUAI
OCTOBER 2005 LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
Message from the President - 2005/06
Dear LLWSUAI Member:
I again bring you greetings from the LLWSUAI Board of Directors and Committee Members.
The board and committee members have had great success this past year for the benefit of the membership. We continue to solicit members input so that the association can broaden our mission throughout Little League Baseball/Softball.
Let me review what has taken place in this past year:
- The Web-Site www.eteamz.com/llwsuai is now under the direction of Tom McGorty. Tom has been a member of the LLWSUAI since 2001. We welcome Tom onboard our team as Jack Conway moves over to assume the responsibilities of Vice President of the LLWSUAI. Tom will continue to up-date the web-site with educational information important to our membership. You will be seeing shortly some great changes to the web-site as well. Tom welcomes whatever additional material would be beneficial to our association members. Please feel free to email Tom at tom.mcgorty@active.com.
- The membership committee under the direction of Rob Rossi is working very hard to improve our renewal of membership dues. Rob is happy to report that 85% of the 2005 World Series Umpires are members of LLWSUAI. Please email Rob at ct1ump@optonline.net with any suggestions that you might have. Rob and Jack Conway will be working together on breaking down the membership into the different regions and posting those named on the web-site. You can now renew your membership online right from our web site at www.eteamz.com/LLWSUAI.
- All of the Little League Baseball and Softball World Series had a formal ceremony to honor the 2005 World Series umpires with their LLWSUAI plaques. A big thanks goes to the Little League Tournament Directors and the LLWSUAI Representatives.
- Mr. Steve Jones, Penn State sports announcer was the guest speaker for the annual luncheon during World Series week in Williamsport. He spoke of the umpires as heroes. Mr. Jones stated "People expect you to get it right every time, and sometimes youre not perfect, but the country is better off because of volunteer umpires like you."
- We will continue to fund the Urban Initiative Umpire Scholarship Program. We will be looking to expand that program over the next couple of years. LLWSUAI is working with the different regions within Little League Baseball International in order that World Series Umpires may be able to assist with the umpire clinics.
- The LLWSUAI board continues to emphasize the importance of our purpose, which reads as follows: To encourage all members of the Association to reach out into every league and share our expertise and experience. The association supports the training and development of Little League Baseball and Softball volunteers at the local level, through clinics and seminars, to enhance their umpiring skills and to promote the full benefit and enjoyment of the youngsters that play Little League Baseball/Softball.
I cannot emphasize enough how hard the board, committee and regional members are working to help enhance the association on the members behalf. They are always available for your feedback or your needed information.
Finally, let me again express my deepest appreciation to the Board for allowing me the opportunity to serve as your Board President. Please feel free to email me at bkr@suscom.net with your comments, questions, or concerns.
Barry K. Rake, President
LLWSUAI
OCTOBER 2004 LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
October 18, 2004
From the Desk of the LLWSUAI President
Dear LLWSUAI Members:
I again bring you greetings from the LLWSUAI Board of Directors and Committee Members.
The board and committee members have had great success this past year for the benefit of the membership. We continue to solicit members input so that the association can broaden our mission throughout Little League Baseball/Softball.
Let me review what has taken place in this past year.
The Web-Site www.eteamz.com/llwsuai under the direction of Jack Conway continues to be up-dated with educational information important to our membership. Jack welcomes whatever additional material would be beneficial to our association members. Please feel free to email Jack at jconway14@aol.com with your comments.
The membership committee under the direction of Rob Rossi is working very hard to improve our renewal of membership dues. Rob is happy to report that 90% of the 2004 World Series Umpires are members of LLWSUAI. Please email Rob at ct1ump@snet.net with any suggestions that you might have.
All of the Little League Baseball and Softball World Series had a formal ceremony to honor the 2004 World Series umpires with their LLWSUAI plaques. A big thanks to the Little League Tournament Directors and the LLWSUAI Representatives.
Mr. Andy Konyar, UIC, Little League International, was our speaker at the 2004 annual luncheon held during the week of the Little League Baseball World Series. Andys message emphasized the importance the LLWSUAI umpires can perform in the training of new and younger umpires.
Following Andy's remarks the association presented a $1,500.00 check to Mr. David James, Director of Little League Urban Initiative to create Umpire Scholarships. See news release listed on our home page.
The LLWSUAI board continues to emphasize the importance of our purpose, which reads as follows: To encourage all members of the Association to reach out into every league and share our expertise and experience. The association supports the training and development of Little League Baseball and Softball volunteers at the local level, through clinics and seminars, to enhance their umpiring skills and to promote the full benefit and enjoyment of the youngsters that play Little League Baseball/Softball.
I cannot emphasize enough how hard the board, committee and regional members are working to help enhance the association on the members behalf. They are always available for your feedback or your needed information.
Finally, let me again express my deepest appreciation to the Board for allowing me the opportunity to serve as your Board President. Please feel free to email me at bkr@blazenet.net with your comments, questions, or concerns.
Barry K. Rake, President
LLWSUAI
JUNE 2004 PRESIDENTS ADDRESS TO WORLD SERIES REPS
June 21, 2004
Dear World Series Representatives:
A very heartfelt thanks for your commitment to represent the LLWSUAI at the World Series site.
It is the goal of the LLWSUAI to have in place some general guidelines that will hopefully make your responsibilities flow easier. The most important task will be the ceremony honoring the umpires at your site. Your tournament director has agreed to this ceremony. The time and date is set as indicated by the enclosure.
I understand that you may have attended previous World Series and have already established procedures that you follow. Thats not a problem; however, LLWSUAI would like to have in place guidelines, a "road map" for each representative to use. I also understand that since this is our first year for the ceremony and trying to have all the World Series representatives on the same page, that it may not go as smoothly as one might like. I can assure you that the LLWSUAI Board will do everything to cooperate with you and will accept any recommendations to improve this event. In the end the youth that participate in Little League Baseball/Softball will become the real winners.
You will have all your plaques, gold plates with the umpires names for the plaques and memorabilia by July 15th. If your schedule permits please check all items when received and let me know if there is a problem ASAP.
If you have any questions or concerns after receiving this information please feel free to call me at 570-327-1006 (Daytime), 570-323-1622, (after 8PM), EST or email me at bkr@blazenet.net.
Thanks again for all your hard work and time. I look forward to working with each one of you.
Yours in umpiring,
Barry
Barry K. Rake
President
OCTOBER 2003 LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
October 27, 2003
From the Desk of the LLWSUAI President
Dear LLWSUAI Members:
I bring you greetings from the LLWSUAI Board of Directors and Committee Members.
The board and committee members have been enthusiastically working hard to expand the image of the LLWSUAI to our membership. We want everyone to have an opportunity to play a role in the development of the association.
Let me review what has taken place in this past year.
At the annual meeting in August 2003the board of directors submitted a purpose for the LLWSUAI. The membership approved the purpose by unanimous vote.
It reads as follows: To encourage all members of the Association to reach out into every league and share our expertise and experience. The association supports the training and development of Little League Baseball and Softball volunteers at the local level, through clinics and seminars, to enhance their umpiring skills and to promote the full benefit and enjoyment of the youngsters that play Little League Baseball/Softball.
Mr. Stephen Keener, President & CEO of Little League Baseball, Inc. was our luncheon speaker during Little League World Series week this past year. Here are some of Mr. Keeners remarks. He urged members of the LLWSUAI to recruit more men and women in blue- saying that even leagues here in the shadow of the Little League Headquarters struggle to find umpires. We need more umpires in our program. Helping with that recruitment could be the greatest service the organization could provide Little League Baseball, Inc.
Following Keeners remarks the association presented a $2,000.00 check to Mr. Stephen Keener to be used for improvements to the umpires locker room at Lamade Stadium.
The LLWSUAI plaques were presented to the 2003 Little League World Series Umpires on August 20,2003 on the field before the start of the International Game at Lamade Stadium.
We are working vigorously with Little League Baseball, Inc. to develop a very professional LLWSUAI umpires plaque presentation at all the World Series sites throughout Little League Baseball/Softball.
We will be asking all the umpires in the LLWSUAI to participate in a very pro-active role in encouraging new umpires and promoting all Little League Baseball/Softball umpires to attend clinics. The Little League Baseball/Softball Umpire Training Program will go a long way to not only improve the quality of umpiring in all regions, but also to provide everyone with a core group of volunteer umpires for the regular season as well as tournament games.
We now have a complete contingent of board, committee and regional members working to bring good news to you. The memorabilia chairman, membership chairman, board and regional members are available for your feedback or your needed information. Their names and email addresses can be found on the menu section of the Web Page.
Our Web-Page master, Jack Conway, is working very hard to give you whatever useful information is needed for the membership. Please feel free to email Jack Conway with your comments.
Finally, let me express my deepest gratitude to the Board for allowing me the opportunity to serve as your Board President. My objective is to improve the association in the best interests of the membership. In the end, the youth that participate in Little League Baseball/Softball will be the real winners. Please feel free to email me at bkr@blazenet.net or brake@sunlink.net with your comments, questions or concerns.
Yours in umpiring,
Barry
Barry K. Rake
President, LLWSUAI
(email response to: bkr@blazenet.net)
