BlindWhiteHat wrote:That is my point. No league says that, but I agree some people do. If so, spend more of your time so they will spend less of theirs "helping" out.
I must jump in on this one. First off, people shouldn't be on a league board unless they expect to be at the field 4-5 nights per week during regular season. My son has played in several different leagues depending on where we lived at the time, and I must say that once he was older and I knew the board members, several (not just one or two) were present nightly. The president was almost always there. It was a given, that if they wanted the position and wanted to run the league right, they would be there. If not, they were voted out and another was voted in who would do the job the way it should be done!
As for volunteering, I believe that Russell Little League was the best that I witnessed when it came to parents giving their time. When my son played little league baseball there I can't say that I knew of a single parent who didn't serve their time at the concession stand, while several mothers spent a week or two as concession "supervisor" to assure that the scheduled workers were called and aware of their duty days that week. Things ran smoothly, umpires were paid for the 9 & up teams, and all coaches did their time and more when it came to umpiring the younger teams. Everyone didn't ALWAYS get along, but for the most part, it was a great league. I attribute much of this to the late Carl Stevens, who dedicated most of his life to helping the kids! My boys will always have a place in their hearts for this man whom they would have never known had he not given so much to little league baseball.
I haven't seen the organization being so great when my son played for other leagues, such as one in southern Ohio. The concession stand was always short handed and the parents didn't even seem to know when they were scheduled to work. In KY, many years ago, a team was assigned a week to share with another team, so that they wouldn't have to work during their own child's games. Each parent ended up working a night during that week or two "half nights". That was part of the expectation, stated when the child signed up to play. If the parent couldn't work there was a list of students who were 14 or older who they could pay to fill their slot. These kids were trained as to concession procedures, etc. Like I said, very well organized!
If a parent wanted to help their child's team, they were never turned away for "practicing too much" in the past when they had coached, or other such non-sense as I have heard of lately. As anyone who knows anything about baseball knows, when you have a team of 11 or more children, the more stations you have, the more the child is going to get out of the practice. Some of the local little league teams needs to watch the KY Mudcats practice. Parents aren't turned away, they are a welcome addition to each and every practice. They have 10 or more stations going at all times and their record is a testiment to their success. When leagues start turning parents away from even being allowed to help on the field, there is definitely a power struggle/personal issue going on as opposed to wanting what's best for the team. Unless a parent has been unfair to children or is a risk to the safety of children, banning parents from helping on the field is simply and udderly crazy. How one can ask for more volunteers yet turn some away is beyond me...Unfortunately, it's the kids that suffer. Any board or board president that allows this to occur, let alone rules on it should all be asked to step down. I recently heard of this happening locally and am amazed. Yet the same people state that they want people to "spend more of your time so they will spend less of theirs "helping" out". Make up your mind...People are able and willing, yet they are turned away. This will eventually cost Ohio many good baseball players as they will move to other leagues next year, but in the mean time, this year will be a wasted year due to personal problems and a desire to have too much control. One shouldn't let personal issues stand in the way of what's best for children. Any teacher should know this. Especially a teacher who is elected to serve children on a little league board! I would love to hear more, as I know how valuable a parent's help is on a team at such a young age! I no longer live in the area, and still have heard of all of the controversy. I'm glad my son is no longer playing there!
