Hi Stealers

As the Committee begin preparations for transitioning from Softball and winter Baseball to the Summer season, I thought it an ideal opportunity to touch base with you all and provide an update on where the club is currently sitting and some general announcements.

In an exciting piece of news just in, I am pleased to announce that our current Platinum sponsor, Pivotel, has agreed to sponsor the club for a further 3 years. Rob Sakker and his family have been contributors to the club for many years by way of coaching, playing, umpiring, sponsoring etc. For them to continue this sponsorship for a further 3 years is a wonderful gesture and one that is greatly appreciated. Pivotel’s sponsorship will contribute directly to infrastructure projects and equipment that players will gain benefit from for many years to come. Please join me in thanking Pivotel and the Sakker family.

Uniforms

As you are aware, the club changed its playing uniform at the beginning of last summer season with a one-year grace period to enable families to budget for this, not insubstantial, cost. Please note that the new uniform is now compulsory for all senior and junior baseball players. The uniform shop will be open for fittings at various times over the next few weeks, so please keep an eye on FB and the website for these times. Please note that the playing top, cap, and all supporters / training apparel MUST be ordered though the club. All other items can either be ordered through the club or by attending Red Stitches in Thornleigh.

Please ensure you get your orders in ASAP so as to ensure you receive it in time for the start of the season.

In further uniform news, Guy Jeffrey has been working extremely hard in rebuilding our website. This will enable the website to maintain an online shop for the purchase of all apparel. The new server is now up and running and ALL orders will need to be processed through the online shop and no “paper” orders will be accepted.

Fees

One of the goals during my tenure as President will be to have no, or very minor registration fees increases. I am pleased to advise that there will be NO INCREASE in the summer baseball fees for this season. Hopefully this will also be the case for both Softball and Winter Baseball in 2019.

Fundraising

It is a very simple fact that the club needs to increase its revenue from areas other than registration fees. I believe that we offer some of the best facilities to our members in NSW and the committee would like to be able to continue to maintain this level of quality. We don’t want to be continually coming to our members with our hands out asking for more money. We would prefer to raise this money through more sponsorships, local govt, grants etc. To that end, the club will NOT be holding a raffle this year. What the Committee is seeking is for someone (or many people!) to put their hand up to come onboard as the VP – Sponsorship/Revenue/Fundraising. There is a mountain of grant opportunities out there, but we need someone to tap into them all so as to best optimise our chances of obtaining grants. Individuals with sponsorship or grant writing experience would be ideal. Please let me know directly if you are interested.

Diamonds maintenance

For the first time ever, the club will be holding a 45-minute course on how to maintain our diamonds. It’s no secret that our diamonds (1, 5, 9) can sometimes look a little shoddy after a full weekend of use and we all need to learn how to maintain these better. This very brief session will be held at GJ on what is hopefully a convenient time for all. ALL teams will be expected to send at least one person along so they can then show the rest of their team.

Clubhouse cleanup

If you can spare a couple of hours on Sunday August 12 8am – 11am, there will be a number of people up at GJ preparing the club for the season. This will include cleaning up of the clubhouse and storage areas, counting and putting away equipment etc. Please come on up and lend a hand!!

Softball and winter baseball, good luck to all competing in the finals.
Summer baseball, good luck for the upcoming season.

Thanks
Adrian Steer
President