• The Child Safe requirements are continue to be ‘firmed up’. Hills will require people to complete the on-line training course AND submit (to their club, not to Hills) a certificate. Peter will call up the website during tonight’s meeting to illustrate the process necessary for the courses for Coaches, Club Officials and Peak Bodies. A copy of the certificate will be available at the meeting Hills will require certificates for:-

• All club coaches,
• One official from each club, and
• All Association officials, including the Executive and representative coaches.
• Regarding the Coach quiz, Peter finished it in less than 11 minutes compared to the 49 minutes that the ASC suggested. Registration took another 5 minutes. The "Club Official" quiz took 15 minutes. We ought to be able to achieve this sort of commitment at the minimum

• Hills have three players selected in the team to play in the Cal Ripken tournament in the USA in August. The three players are Cameron Power, Joel Dyer and Dean Frew. I believe that there are six Sydney players selected. Their selection continues Hills’ good record of representation in this team with Joshua Guyer and Dominic Woodward being selected in 2007 and Hayden Bray, Zachary Shepherd and Tim Wakefield selected last year.

• Applications for coaching positions for Hills Representative teams have been invited – the closing date was yesterday. Nominations are

• Under 16 Peter Olson and Richard West
• Under 14 Darian Lindsay and Greg Robinson
• Under 12 Nigel Hern, Peter Whatson and James Waddell

Peter Olson Darian Lindsay, Greg Robinson and Peter Whatson will have sons trialling in teams they applied to coach. Nigel Hern will have a number of Castle Hill players he coached last year trialling for selection. Jeff Catt has retired. We hope to use Jeff’s expertise in a number of areas including developing coaches and being available to club teams for training sessions.

• The Hills’ Annual General Meeting will be Tuesday the 14th July. We have received written nominations for the present Executive. Nominations for the Executive should close at the conclusion of the June meeting – as per the Constitution. To be elected sole nominees need to be elected on a basis of 50% of the vote plus one.

• The preliminary thinking for season 2009 –10 has begun. We are guessing a bit in the three live ball competitions as to the dates for Champion of Champions – the Under 12,14 and17 first division competitions will commence on 5th September with the second and third division competitions including Under 9 and Under10 commencing on 12th September. School holidays and the World Masters Games will complicate the draw. The planning is that we will play on the 3rd October (which is the first day of School Holidays and the Saturday of the October long weekend). We will not play the 10th October (first week of World Masters Games) but will need to play the 17th October. Corbin will be unavailable on the 17th October so we will just need to juggle the draw the best we can. Under 8 T ball will commence 19th September. We need to re visit the Under 8 competition with Quakers Hill and Blacktown joining as to whether we wish to play one of the Under 8 competitions for points. A very large part of our problems in Under 8 is that coaches have the attitude ‘It is only T Ball’ and the rules and policies ‘go out the window’.

Other dates are:

• Assessment day for Dispensations will be 29th August. I will be overseas on that day not returning until 1st September. That will also have an effect on the preparation of the draw.
• Team nominations for first division competitions are going to have to be by 17th August. For competitions commencing 12th September the team entries can be 31st August.
• Initially planning is for Level 0 courses to be held Sunday 9th and the night of the 10th August. The dates of second course will be Sunday 23rd August and Monday 24th August. These dates will need to be worked around the availability of the Instructors. The ratio of couches to instructors will remain six students to one instructor. At that ratio we are looking at 24 students per course.
• Rules night will be 2nd or 3rd September depending on availability of a room at (probably) Riverstone RSL
• The T Ball coaching and instruction for coaches will be Sunday 6th September at Castle Glen subject to the draw for representative baseball.

• I have been thinking of suggesting a series of internal gala days on Sunday 30th August. The thought was to stage a different age at a different venue. It was more for the second and third division teams. It would be a way of providing practice games before the season and to assist Hills and the clubs with internal grading- also overcome some of the struggle that clubs have in attracting teams to their Gala Days. Sundays were preferred to Saturday because of soccer commitments.

• Dates have to be set for the Selection Trials for the three representative teams. This won’t be easy with players involved in TIP and NSWJBL programs. The problem is exacerbated with the representative season commencing so early this year. The dates are not to be published as I have not spoken to the coaches.

We can hold two Under 12 trials, one on Sunday 5th July (am), Tuesday 7th July, Sunday 12th and 26th July. Trials would continue in August in game situation against Japanese. Under 14 trials will be 5th July (pm), 12th July (pm) 26th July (pm) and 2 August. Under 16 will be Tuesday nights 14th, 21st and 28th July and Saturdays 1st August and 9th August (am) if necessary. Sunday 19th July which is in the middle week of July School Holidays will be kept as a ‘spare’ trial date in case it is needed due to wet weather affecting other trial dates. The trials will be more complex this year with players from Blacktown and Quakers Hill being eligible. There will be a number of players we do not know.

• Waverley won the Little League Australian Championship defeating Adelaide 11-1 in the final. The format appeared much better, fairer yet more difficult than last year (no ‘nothing games’). It will always be difficult for a Sydney based Association to win the National Championship while-ever the larger Associations have to ‘split’ their strength. Yes we did it last year but in a different format. Ryde finished third after a ‘soft’ draw. Lost 4-5 to Adelaide in the semi finals. There were some big blow scores in games in the pool sections of the competition. Final placings were Waverley, Adelaide, Ryde, Perth, Alice Springs, Newcastle, Mt Gambier, Brisbane, Ringwood, West Australian Country, Far North Coast and Canberra. Brisbane’s final placing does not reflect its performances during the tournament. The team lost 2-1 to Waverly in a pool game and 2-0 to Adelaide in quarter final round. I understand that the Waverley team played as a team all season- it was not a hand picked team especially for the tournament.

• The wet weather has had a dramatic effect on the winter competition and development program. Worst affected has been the Pitching Development for Under 14 and 16 on a Thursday night. The least affected has been the ‘late’ session on Tuesday night which has been able to use the batting tunnels at Knights for two weeks. There was some allowance made for the weather in the Under 12 competition when we decided upon two four team competitions rather than an eight team competition.

• The situation at Bankstown is clearer. Moorebank will enter some live-ball teams in both Macarthur and Bankstown competitions and be eligible in either Associations representative teams. Holroyd, Guildford and Fairfield are to play across in Bankstown- what is not so clear is do they have to join Bankstown to do so? Seems there is some confusion there. Eagles will play across in Hills if Cumberland forms. If it does not form Eagles will apply to join Hills.

Actions required:

• Child Safe procedures
• Yellow Vest Program
• Appointment of Representative Coaches
• Agreement to season commencement dates

In addition to the written report, Mr. Yard reported that –

• Sport, Youth & Recreation are conducting a workshop on ‘Running Your Club’
• The Eteam coaching hints have been uploaded to the Hills web site.
• BNSW have advised of the ‘last chance’ for clubs to have names printed on Try Baseball flyers.

The Secretary’s report was accepted.

Mr. Yard reported on the May meeting.

• The team touring Europe has picked up two additional players.

• The team to Osaka has had a player withdrawal – it has also picked up an additional two players.

• The planning for the Pan Pacifics continues. It is proposed to again send a team to the south East Asian Pacific tournament in Singapore during October.

The JLSC has not met since our last meeting - its June meeting is tomorrow night.

• Statement of Financial Position was presented.
• Payments were approved.
• Debtors and liabilities were disclosed.

Mr. Schmidt reported on the Child Safe Policy within Hills. Mr. Schmidt demonstrated the on line training on ‘Play by the Rules’ site. There are three basic courses to be undertaken –

• Coaches and Officials (includes Managers) – this is in addition to the ‘Working with Children’ legal requirements.

• Peak Bodies and Associations – Executive of Hills Clubs and Organised Groups –

• The ‘Child Safe’ Coordinator in each club. Each course will issue a Certificate on satisfactory completion of the course. The certificate for Coaches and Officials and Clubs and Organised Groups, are to be forwarded to the Clubs and not Hills.

Level O:. Mr. Frew enquired whether there is a minimum age for Level 0 candidates – thought to be 14 years of age. Mr. Yard stated that there will be a conflict here. There are only two Level 0 courses originally planned - the courses are not for coaching of junior players. Head coaches will be given preference.

Annual General Meetings: Mr. Blundell advised that he has stepped down as President of Kings Langley. He will continue as the Hills Delegate. There is a new roster of people in the Kings Langley executive. Mrs. Wright advised that the Baulkham Hills Executive was re-elected. Mrs. Foley reported that the Executive at Winston Hills in unchanged.

Recruitment: Mr. Petrone advised that Kellyville commence recruitment on 27 June with Registrations on 5 July – is Try Baseball Day.

Trial and Season dates: The recommended dates for trials and commencement of season 2009/10 were accepted.

Appointment of Representative Coaches: It was agreed that the coaching appointments would be –

• Under 16 P. Olson (Head Coach) R. West (Assistant Coach)

• Under 14 D. Lindsay (Head Coach) J. Catt, G. Robinson (Assistant. Coaches)

• Under 12 N. Hern (Head Coach P. Whatson, J. Waddell (Assistant Coaches)

Under 8 play for points: There was no interest in discussing the question raised by Mr. Yard as to whether Under 8 should play for competition points.