Established 11/19/05

Membership and Election Process:

• The NYSL BOD will consist of 5 members
• Terms will be for 3 years. These terms will be staggered so that there are never more than 2 members up for re-election in the same year.
• Members of the BOD will be elected by all volunteer members of the NYSA that have at least 1 full season of service to the NYSL . This voting includes current BOD members. If there is a tie between 2 candidates the tie will be broken by the current BOD members voting a second time.
• Elections will be held the following October/November when BOD members 3rd year is completed.
• In order to vote on candidates for the Board of Directors, voters must be present at the election. There will be no mail in or email voting.
• Any candidate for the BOD must have 1 full season of service to the NYSL.
• Any candidate that wants to be considered to be a BOD member must be present at election meeting or must have an excused absence from the meeting by current BOD in advance of election.
• When elections are held, any BOD members up for re-election will be listed along with new candidates on ballot. The candidates with the most votes will be elected to join the BOD.

Filling BOD Vacancy During Term:

• If one member of the BOD resigns mid-term, communication will go out to the entire league making people aware of the vacancy. The remaining BOD members will choose new board member from the available candidates by private ballot.
• Vacancies can exist due to resignations of a BOD member or if the 4 other BOD members vote that 1 of the members is clearly not fulfilling his/her BOD responsibilities for an extended period of time. This must be decided by an unanimous vote of 4 remaining BOD members.

Responsibilities of BOD:

• BOD members are responsible for coordinating all aspects of the NYSL, This includes but is not limited to overseeing the financials, concessions, clinics, umpire recruitment and training, working with BVGSL, field maintenance, coach selection, equipment purchasing, ect.

Rules of Communication:

• In order to keep BOD planning sessions to an appropriate time frame, group must stay on one agenda item at a time. BOD members are discouraged from going on sidetracks to agenda item
• During discussions of agenda items, it is essential that one person speak at a time. The BOD will consider interruptions from other BOD members to be unacceptable
• All email correspondence within the group of BOD members will be positive and/or informational. Email messages that may be considered negative or slanderous by any BOD member are unacceptable. If a board member feels the need to communicate something that could be considered "controversial" this should be done in person or at a BOD meeting.

NYSL Rule Changes/Structural Changes Requiring Vote:

• Any rule change or structural change to the league must be voted on by the full 5 person BOD's. Issues important enough to require a vote relate to but are not limited to age divisions, registration costs, oversight of other committees, capital investments, ect.  Any BOD member can request that an item be voted on before any changes are made permanently.

Amendments/Rule Changes:

• Amendments to by-laws can be made at any time. The full 5 person BOD must vote amendments in by a majority vote.

Drafting of Teams:

There will be various types of drafts that the Board of Directors can utilize depending on the situation at hand and the age group. These are some of the options:

• Farm League - No draft, No tryouts-BOD. selects teams

• AA - No tryouts - Coaches will meet and choose teams with regards to trying to keep number of girls from each grade equally dispersed amongst teams

• Full-Blown Drafts: All the teams in a given age group start with only the coach's children and then all players are chosen in a draft process.

• Draft to Even Out Talent/Expansion Draft: Tryout, draft: Occasionally the B.O.D. may feel that talent in a division is not spread out equally or the division will be adding a team from previous season. In this case they will redraw teams to equalize talent. The process to this is the following:

• Existing teams are allowed to keep 5 of their top players from previous years team with no more than 2 of those players being pitchers. Someone with pitching experience would be any player that pitched in at least 1 inning the previous season. Coaches at this point will "rate" the protected players from each team into "A" or "B" class. At this point the teams will be given their order in the drafting process. Tryouts will be held and players will be chosen in the order of pitchers, then highest school grade in the division, then next grade down in that division. This will help to even out the talent throughout the league as well as the grades.

• Parents request to have their daughter play with another friend due to car pooling reasons will be honored as long s it does not interfere with the above drafting process. The BOD. has final say in all special requests.

Coaches:

• All coaches will have to pass a CORI report each year.
• All coaches involved with the NYSL will be held to a high level of standards in regards to being a positive role model, being a good teacher of softball skills, and teaching sportsmanship.
• The BOD has final say in all decisions in regards to putting together the coaching staffs.
• Due to the nature of how a town youth recreational softball league runs, change is not only inevitable, but also likely. Coaches will be expected to be flexible as well as positive in regards to the BOD's decisions in running the league. If a coach tries to undermine the efforts of the BOD in running the league this could be reason for dismissal as a coach.
• If a coach or any volunteer has an issue with the BOD's decisions in running the league, that person is encouraged to come to a board meeting and discuss their opinion.

All Star Coaches:

• The decision as to who the head coach and assistant coaches of the All Star team is for any division will be finalized by the B.O.D. One approach to choosing the head coach will be to award the position to the Head Coach of the team with the best regular season record. If the records were tied you would then go to the best record in head to head competition.