UPDATE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Hi all,

I have been handling some family issues and have sort of fallen behind in my contact with the membership.  I want to thank everyone for the great fall seasons.  As far as I can tell the fall seasons for all sports went reasonably well.  Were there hiccups?  Yes and there always will be.  We are getting into the winter sports and a couple of reminders.  ALL of our winters sports are in the school facilities.  Why do I bring this to everyone’s attention you may ask?  Well it is simple.  The school has policies that we must follow or be banned from the school facilities.

There is to be no wondering around in the buildings.  We are to stay in the areas we have assigned to us only.

There is NO TABACCO use on school property. THIS MEANS NO SMOKING OR CHEWING on school grounds.  NO you can’t SNEAK outside to grab a puff.  If a custodian sees this and reports to the administration we could lose our privlidges for use of the buildings.  They are not allowed to smoke so neither are we!!!!!!  Remember there are codes of conduct!  This means if caught you the parent, coach or other volunteer may be disciplined upto and including being banned from the facilities.

I know there have been a few issues though out the fall and already at winter start up.  I am going to repeat something I said at the meeting in October.  THIS IS ABOUT THE CHILDREN.  WE THE ADULTS NEED TO ALLOW THE CHILDREN TO PLAY AND HAVE FUN AND NOT TALK OR REACT NEGATIVELY.  If we don’t respond in a negative manner the kids will not for the most part think anything is wrong.  They just want to play and have fun and they will.  I referred to an article written by Mike Matheny the manager of the St Louis Cardinals and former major league catcher and also a former youth coach.  The link is right here. ( http://www.mac-n-seitz.com/teams/mike-matheny-letter.html )  This was written to baseball parents but applies to all sports.  PLEASE take time to read it.

Next item for publication is the fact that we have expanded the board of directors of the organization.  We have the ability to have more at large members on the board and we are also going to have one additional officer position.  The officers now are President, Vice President Treasurer, Secretary, Financial Secretary, and Sgt. at Arms.  We are going to add an athletic director to this board.  The AD will be responsible for coordinating things with all the individual sport commissioners.  We have had to adopt a new clearance process and policy because the state law changed.  Until the passage of the new law we did not NEED to have clearances in this organization.  We felt it important enough that the association instituted a policy that we felt was enough at the time.  The new law not only says we must have the child abuse and criminal history clearances now but also says we must have the FBI and fingerprint starting in 2017.  This is going to be a large task for an organization our size.  This will be a responsibility of the AD.  SO as you see this person is going to need to be organized and on top of things.  We are currently putting this out there so if there is anyone in the organization interested in this position it is to be elected at our December meeting.

We are also going to be looking for a Treasurer.  Our current Treasurer has decided that with her new increase in her job responsibilities and her kids playing multiple sports as well as everything else in everyday life that she will not have the time needed to do the job right.  I want to personally thank her for coming into a bad situation and fixing it and getting the association back on track.

Of course as always all the officers that are up this year are open to anyone interested.  The President and Vice President as well as the Treasurer and Athletic Director are the positions to be elected this year.  The bylaws require you have three meetings in to run.  If no one runs the board after the elections are over can fill any unfilled positions with someone that did not have the three meeting minimum.

We are having Fall Clean Up at MTAA field to get it ready for winter.  The date is Saturday November 14th starting at 9AM. We can use all the help we can get as the signs need to come down, trash cans emptied clean and stored all liquid products need to be put in the concession stand for the winter so they don’t freeze, and numerous other things that need to be cleaned, organized and readied for winter.  PLEASE give us some of your time to help us get our facility ready for the bad weather.

I also want to take the time now to say thank you for all the help everyone has been to me through the recent illness and passing of my father.  A personal thank also to the coaches and board as well as everyone of you for all you do for the youth of MUHLENBERG.

THANK YOU

Don Raifsnider Jr

MTAA President