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Vol. 16 No. 2
March/May 2005
Spring 2005 Board Meeting - Houston

 

Table of Contents

Newsworthy Items

Team Rosters are due by June 1st for the $10/member fee. Final Rosters are due by July 1st ($20/member fee) in order to be able to participate in the World Series. NOTE the addition of Identifying a minor on the roster and their signed waiver requirements.

Letters verifying visual impairment will be required for all NEW athletes participating in the 2005 World Series. Contact the secretary with questions.

Remember that to qualify for the 2005 George Haws Sportsmanship Award sponsored by the TeleCom Pioneers, teams must display the official NBBA patch on their uniform sleeve. Patches can be obtained from the NBBA secretary for $2.00 each.

The dates for the 2005 World Series are July 24th through 30th. The meetings will be held on Tuesday, July 26th. Games will begin on Wednesday, July 27th, and continue thru Friday, July 29th. The Championship games will be held Saturday, July 30th. The tournament will be held in Houston, TX. See the World Series Hotel and Van Rental Information section of this newsletter for more information.

2005 Regional Tournaments –
June 4-5 Topeka, KS
June 11-12 Chicago, IL
June 25-26 Midwest City, OK
July 9-10 Columbus, OH
For more detailed information, see the 2005 Regional Tournament Information in the newsletter.

Nominations – There are 3 Board positions up for election in 2005: Tim Hibner, Michael Garrett and Jim Wolfe. Please submit your nominations (remember the person must be willing to run) to Dan Kelley at (614) 848 4681 or email to dkelley55125@sbcglobal.net.

Information regarding current or former NBBA members who have passed away may be submitted to DAN GREENE – 1611 S. Aida Ave., Tucson, AZ 85710, OR may be sent online to dan@g-ware.com.

Visit us on the web at: www.NBBA.org.

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World Series Hotel and Van Rental Information

Hotel:
Houston Airport Marriott at George Bush Intercontinental
18700 John F. Kennedy Blvd.
Houston, TX 77032
Phone: 281-443-2310 Fax; 281-443-5294

Reservations:
- 1 rep from each team to call Becky Moshou direct at 281-443-5235 with the TEAM reservation. This person will be considered the “responsible party” by the hotel. They will need this person’s name, address, phone number, & e-mail address if there is one.
- Will need to have a credit card to hold the rooms, but at check-in each room can self pay
- Accept cash, check, and credit card payments
- If personal check, must provide a current drivers license/ID AND a credit card
- If an organizational check, must provide a current drivers license
- TAX exempt teams need to let Becky know about their tax exempt status with their reservation. Ask her what documentation you will need to provide & when. MUST pay with organization check or credit card
- Rooming list must be provided (names for each room) – this may be edited prior to check-in if needed. You may e-mail this to Becky at Becky.Moshou@marriott.com
- IF provide rooming list and request a “master bill”, check-in can be completed by 1 person who will be given a “key packet” to distribute.
- No long distance calls or room charges will be able to be made until the hotel receives a credit card to bill for each individual room.
- When it is known, please let Becky know your team’s arrival & departure date(s) & time(s).
- JULY 11th is the deadline for reservations!!!!
- Please include the preferences for each room you reserve (i.e. smoking/non-smoking, double or king rooms)
- Refrigerators will be available for MEDICAL REASONS ONLY.
(They have a very limited number available.)

AIRPORT to HOTEL SHUTTLE is available at no cost. It is located on the level below baggage claim. This service is a “tram” and runs continuously.

Van Rentals:
15-passenger van rentals are available through Enterprise. The rate is $499 dollars per week. . The number to call for reservations is (281) 540-1070 and ask for Ronny. You need to ask for the NBBA rate.

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2005 Regional Tournament Information

June 4-5 Gofor Classic – Topeka, KS
Contact Julia Fonseca at (785) 267-1717 (work)
Or JuliaF01@yahoo.com (e-mail)
Entry fee: $100 plus 5 newly repaired working balls
DEADLINE: May 10th
Hotel: Clubhouse Inn

June 4-5 Indy Thunder Beep Baseball Tournament – Indianapolis, IN
Contact Darnell Booker at 317-253-5194
Or book@indy.net

June 11-12 Bolingbrook Bash – Chicago, IL
Contact John Herzog at (630) 739-5324 or
Or JohnCHerzog@comcast.net
Entry fee $75 plus 5 newly repaired working beep balls
Hotel: Bolingbrook Holiday Inn Express (630) 679-1600
Meal & T-shirt package available for $10/person

June 25-26 Midwest City Regional Beep Ball Tournament– Oklahoma City, OK
Contact Paula Hawkins at (405) 232-4644
Or Phawkins@olb.org
Entry fee: $85 plus 5 newly repaired working balls
DEADLINE: May 6th
Hotels: Comfort Inn, AmeriSuites, and Hampton Inn.

July 9-10 Viper Classic – Columbus, OH
Contact Rob Weigand at (614) 442-1444
Or Weigandrm@cs.com
Entry fee: $75 plus 5 newly repaired working balls
DEADLINE: May 1st
Hotel: Holiday Inn on the Lane

** Check the website for the most up-to-date regional tourney info

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Jim Quinn Award Nomination Information

This notice is for all the teams and N.B.B.A. affiliates that have had a person from their team...or any individual who has won the coveted Jim Quinn Award.

If a copy of your Jim Quinn nomination letter was given to you after you received this award or if a team has a copy of the nomination, and/or if the recipient or team does not have a copy and can obtain one, please make a copy for the Jim Quinn Committee.

Please send all copies to Kevin Barrett.
We thank all of you for your assistance.

Please mail to: Kevin Barrett
17715 Susan Av.
Cleveland, OH 44111

Thanks again. See you soon on the ball fields!!

Jan Traphagan and Kevin Barrett
NBBA Jim Quinn Award Committee

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2005 Spring Board Meeting Minutes

March 5, 2005
Houston, TX

Call to order.
Invocation.
Announcements regarding lunch and the recording of the meeting.
2004 Fall Board Meeting minutes read. Motion to accept as read, 2nd, passed.
Treasurer’s report read. Motion to accept as read, 2nd, passed.
Endowment fund report read. Motion to accept as read, 2nd, passed.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

BUDGET & FINANCE: Applied for two grants (Qwest & Chicago White Sox). Both were denied. It has been pointed out to us that the Lions Club International Fund (LCIF) grant we have been working on is not being applied for in the correct category. We will begin reworking the grant for the correct category submission. Since we did not apply for the original grant, the “seed money” approved at the fall meeting was not dispersed. Request “testimonies” from NBBA participants on how Beep Baseball has changed or affected their lives. Raffle Grand Prize will be a 4-megapixel or greater digital camera.
Revised budget read. Motion to accept report as given, 2nd, discussion, passed.

TOURNAMENT: Reviewed information for the 2005 World Series in Houston, TX. Reviewed information for the 2006 World Series in Cleveland, OH. Discussion. No bids for 2007 at this time. Wish to extend an invitation to Jon Larsen from Rochester, MN to attend the 2005 World Series. This city proposed a bid for the 2005 Series, but has no previous experience hosting a beep baseball event. Motion to accept the report as given, 2nd, passed.

Adjourn for lunch.
Meeting resumed at 2pm.

Motion to reimburse board members, 2nd, passed.
Motion to grant Terri Smolka an excused absence for missing the meeting due to having to care for her ill mother, 2nd, passed.

PROJECTS: Scholarship - paperwork to be submitted by Neal McDonald, former chairman, to the IRS. Hope to have approval by November so we can begin the scholarship in January of 2006. For questions or additional information about the change in the grant application process, contact Kevin Barrett. For fundraising purposes many grants consider the NBBA as a “sports” organization. We need to shift the focus to the other aspects such as increased mobility skills, emotional & physical well-being and maturity in independence. We will be seeking other grants.

BY_LAWS: Nothing to report at this time. Shooting for a November deadline for the NBBA’s Policies Manual.

MEMBERSHIP: 17 teams registered as of March 1st. Read list of previous years teams that have not registered at this time. Any team on that list who registers with a postmark after March 1st will be required to pay the additional $50 late registration fee for a total of $75 to register for the 2005 season.

BALLS & EQUIPMENT: Ball emergency exists. The ball manufacturer has changed and no longer produces a ball with stitching that will allow the Telecom Pioneers to unstitch the balls to insert the chamber & cut out the speaker holes and re-stitch them. Per Roy, there is only the one manufacturer for our ball. This means that to get “new” balls, teams will have to return old balls to be repaired. (This will mean that technically there will be no “new” balls, only repaired ones.) Committee is requesting that teams return all the bad balls they can. Committee recommends that a letter be sent to Rawlings, the current manufacturer, requesting that they produce the ball that we need.
Recommendation 2nd and approved. Per Roy, there are 160 balls on hand and they have already been purchased by the World Series host committee. This is why teams will need to have old balls repaired. **NOTE: Not all used balls can be repaired. Be prepared for that when you send balls in for repair.
The committee has discussed the issue of the humidity in Taiwan damaging the balls. Suggestions have been made to try to fix this problem. The committee has requested that Roy sell & ship only the new chambers to Taiwan so they can cut down on their shipping expenses and have the balls repaired in Taiwan. Roy has requested the website change his contact information on the web page from beepballs@nbba.org to his e-mail address of beepball@earthlink.net . Please address the ball shortage on the website.
Blindfolds: Change the website & newsletter wording on those with unknown cost to “contact for pricing”. Also, please put more space in between the sources in both the newsletter & the website. The Cleveland Sight Center has approximately 30 blindfolds in stock and is checking on the price.
Bases: The Arnold Center in Midland, MI has taken over production & sales. All outstanding orders have been filled. Committee recommends sending a letter of commendation to Keith Meade and the Arnold Center for the extensive efforts & timely turnaround of the bases. Friendly amended to include a plaque for the Arnold Center. John Lykowski to choose wording, purchase & send the plaque.
Wireless bases (radio controlled) are in the works. Hope to have a potential prototype at the World Series. Issue of the seventeen lost balls involved in the 2004 World Series is tabled. Motion to accept reports as given, 2nd, approved.
Announcement that April 28th Jan Traphagan and interested parties will be going to Midland, MI to tour the Arnold Center and give a presentation to the Midland Rotary Club.

HALL OF FAME: Website link has been updated. Promoting the 30th Anniversary of the World Series in 2006. Remember to keep submitting nominees for the Jim Quinn Award.

NOMINATING: Three positions are up this year: Jim Wolfe, Tim Hibner and Michael Garrett. No nominations have been received to date. Motion to accept as given, 2nd, passed.

RULES: Several rules have been proposed, including one that suggests shortening the home run arc. These will be addressed in the Rules Committee meeting at the World Series. Motion to accept as given, 2nd, passed.
PUBLIC RELATIONS: Fanfest is July 9-10 in Detroit, MI. Dave, with others will be presenting beep baseball to attendees. Discussion on continuing Fanfest promotion. The majority of those who commented were in favor of continuing. New team in Joliet. Presentation at Jackhammers and Lions benefit with approximately 600 attendees. Chat room is available for beep baseball on www.for-the-people.com. Input from Dave Loyd, WCRS Akron, OH: there are 196 radio-reading programs in the U.S. Contact your local station to get beep ball on the air. Report by Nick Lopez from the Chicago Comets: he has been working with a group from San Louis, Mexico promoting beepball. They are requesting a donation of equipment – bases, balls, blindfolds. Roy Trujillo to donate a set of used bases; Stephen Guerra donated $100 to purchase blindfolds. Board would like to see each NBBA registered team return 1 dead ball, with their team name written on it, to Roy for repair and donation to the team in Mexico.
There is a PR DVD available by request on the website.

COMPETITION COMMITTEE: Working on Friday games after teams have been eliminated. Teams will need to use their own balls for games. Host city will need to make sure that volunteers will be available for these potential games. Also working on a “clinic” for the Monday prior to games for coaches, pitchers, spotters & batters.
Motion to accept as given, 2nd, passed.

WEBSITE: New Hall of Fame page up. Still a work in progress though. Working on making the site easier to use with search engines. A policy is in the making for proofing website submissions. Also working on a PDF version of the newsletter for the future. Motion to accept as given, 2nd, passed.

OLD BUSINESS: No waiver will prevent a lawsuit. The suit would be about negligence and that can exist with or without a waiver. Discussion. Motion for the NBBA to use the Bollinger ASA Insurance waiver for minors and parents/guardians. A minor will be considered any participant under age 18. Discussion, 2nd, passed. Hand vote taken, 3 opposed.
The following policy for use of the NBBA’s 501(c3) number was presented:
An NBBA organization must request permission to use our 501c3 number from the Board of Directors for a specific function. If approved, all monies received from the use of our number must flow through the NBBA treasurer (NBBA’s checking account)
Motion to accept this policy, 2nd, passed.
Houston has requested the use of the NBBA’s 501(c3) number for soliciting funds for the 2005 World Series only. They agree to abide by the NBBA’s policy for its use. Motion to allow Houston to use our number, 2nd, passed.
Motion to drop the NBBA sanctioning of regional tournaments due to liability issues, 2nd, passed. This motion will need to be presented to the 2005 General Assembly for vote.

Announcement: Request that we ask participants in the 2005 World Series to save their unused hotel toiletries and bring them to the hospitality room so the NBBA can donate them to a local abuse shelter (Star of Hope in Houston).
Motion to adjourn.

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Board E-Mail Addresses and Phone Numbers

For these details contact the NBBA Secretary

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NBBA Board Members

For these details contact the NBBA Secretary

Committee Chairpersons:
Nominating: Dan Kelley
By-Laws: Stephen Guerra
Projects: Michael Garrett
Public Relations: David Smolka
Membership: Jeana Weigand
Balls & Equipment: Tim Hibner
Rules: Jim Wolfe
Hall of Fame: Kevin Barrett
Budget & Finance: John Lykowski

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Equipment List

As of 11/2004, the following is a list of names & addresses for beep baseball equipment:
The NBBA Ball and Equipment Chairman is Tim Hibner.

BASES:

NOTE: Jim Wolfe is NO LONGER the contact for bases.

A full set of bases with electronic components are $350.00 plus $50 for shipping.
Make check payable to: Arnold Center, Inc.
Payment must be made at time of order placement in the form of money order, credit/debit card, personal or business check or authorized Purchase Order. Once the funds are in the Arnold Center account, orders will be shipped.

The Arnold Center expects to begin shipping in January 2005. Orders
will be filled in the order of the date they are received.

Contact: Greg Knopp
Arnold Center, Inc.
400 Wexford Ave
Midland, Michigan 48640
989 631-9570 x28
989 631-9316 FAX
gknopp@arnoldcenter.org
***************************************************************************
For Sale: Repair parts and components for audio bases. Mostly electronics, some misc. foam and covers.
All orders shipped within 10 business days of receipt of payment.
For prices and availability, contact: Kerry Kuck 303 934-9103 Mountain time
**********************************************************************

BLINDFOLDS:

Mindfold
(888) 705-3805
8043 E. 7th St.
Tucson, AZ 85710
Contact for pricing

Cleveland Sight Center
Clients Creative Arts Center
1909 East 101st Street,
Cleveland, OH 44106
Phone: (216) 791-8118 ext. 226
E-mail: jrask@clevelandsightcenter.org
Soft fabric Blindfold
Please contact Jerry Rask for more details and pricing

Maggie Braddock
E-mail: mann51@sbcglobal.net
$5 per blindfold

BALLS:

Must contact first via phone, US mail or e-mail to get exact amount with shipping included, then SEND PAYMENT WITH ACTUAL ORDER for balls or accessories.

****NOTE: There are a limited number of new balls available for shipping. To receive balls for the 2005 season, please send old balls back for repairs. Since not all old balls are repairable, you should receive a refund check back with your newly repaired balls to compensate for any balls that were unable to be repaired.

NEW: $30 per ball PLUS shipping and handling.
REPAIRED: $21.00 per ball (will replace entire chamber) PLUS shipping & handling

ACCESSORIES: Charger - $3.00 each PLUS shipping & handling
Eliminator - $9.00 each PLUS shipping & handling
Multiple ball charger – contact for pricing

Contact info:
F.H. Reid Beep Ball Manufacturing
C/o Roy Trujillo
2020 W. Pine Ridge Ave.
Littleton, CO 80120
(303) 798-6597
(303) 738-9997 Fax number
e-mail: beepball@earthlink.net

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