Presidents Message

Fellow Officials,

Lots going on, so let’s jump right in. Today, I want to talk about uniforms, rules, the banquet, our association’s constitution and by-laws and membership dues.

I’ve heard a fair amount of negative feedback on the proposed modification to the uniform guidelines regarding shorts and tee shirts. I find that discouraging for two reasons. First, I sense that folks have the opinion that – “I’m not going to wear shorts and you can’t make me.” Of course, no one is trying to make you wear shorts. What the policy is saying is simply that, in some very limited circumstances, such as recreational ball and exceptionally hot weather, you have the option to wear either shorts or a MAC tee shirt or both. All I can tell you is that I intend to vote in favor of the change, and, if it’s not approved, I’ll need to prioritize my health and tell the assignors to not schedule me when it’s exceptionally hot.

This leads to the second point – that folks believe it’s unprofessional. Let me respectfully disagree…what’s unprofessional is missing games because umpires can’t work in 90 plus degree weather. What’s unprofessional is an umpire association not doing everything it can do to advocate for its umpires and their health and safety. What’s unprofessional is a game being covered with one umpire, because an umpire had to leave the field due to the heat. If you have any issue with this proposal, please reach out to me to discuss your concerns sometime between now and the 18th. You know where I’ll be every Friday night. Moving on…

Greg McEvoy is working on a presentation regarding the pitching rules. We don’t have the time and date yet, but don’t worry, we are recording the session and will put it on the web site. You can watch it live, but the timing may not work. BTW, check out rule 3.1.4-b if you have nothing better to do tonight. I’m not saying why.

We have a location and a date set for the banquet! We will be at the Vienna Legion Post 180 on Saturday evening, December 6th. Many more details are to follow; mark your calendars now!

One more thing on the 18th is that you will see the first draft of the revised association constitution and by-laws. I’ll be talking more about these documents in the future; there are some changes, but mostly they codify the way we work now. It’s important for transparency that you, the members, see these documents and have the opportunity to vote for them. A vote will be taken in the September meeting.

Finally, a note about association dues. If you have not done so, please log into the site and pay your annual dues. These funds pay some administrative expenses (our website and insurance costs, for example) as well as the costs for the banquet. We also use these funds to pay bonuses to people like trainers and others who do work for the association. Payment of dues is required for attendance at the banquet.

That’s all I got! Have a great time doing the playoffs! It’s the best time of the year!

Dave