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Dear AJAA Membership,
Last June I was selected to serve as the President of our organization. I deeply appreciate this opportunity to serve the membership of AJAA and the Avon community in this capacity. It is my hope to be able to continue the positive direction that AJAA has taken, and bring the organization to a level commensurate with the size and affluence of Avon as it stands today. But, good things do take time and lots of help!
Board Elections and Volunteers Needed!
One of the purposes of this communication is to inform the membership of AJAA about some leadership vacancies. I trust that upon receiving this letter, some members will step forward to assist us.
Currently, we are in need of a Director of Girl’s Basketball. This position is a voting board member position. The Director has the oversight of the girl’s basketball program and reports to the Board of Directors at our monthly board meeting. He (or she) selects and provides direction to each of the age group coordinators.
Another area in which we need assistance is that of General Board Member. These positions are a voting member position and will be assigned oversight of one of our advancement committees. (web site, fund raising, community outreach).
If you think you might be interested in helping in any of these positions, or if you would like more information, please call our office number at 317-839-5480 and leave a message with our Executive Director Lisa Brodasky.
Be sure to visit our website regularly at www.ajaaonline.com. It is our goal to utilize this to a greater extent than in the past. We will try to always have the significant dates for sign-ups, evaluations, etc. posted on this site.
As always, we are open for suggestions on how to serve you better. Please feel free to give me a call to discuss any ideas of how we can help make AJAA better.
Great News and Accolades to Share!
It is with great pride that I write you today—specifically due to the improvements we are beginning to see around the facility. I believe the baseball and softball parents will be pleased with the upgrades to our bathrooms and to the fields. Shawna Sas, our Secretary, and Fyzal Ohab, teamed up to make sure we got a great deal on rehabbing our restrooms—please let them know how much you appreciate their efforts as the bathrooms look absolutely fantastic for the first time in the 36 years I have been coming down to the fields.
I wanted to let you know that we have been studying the responses to the survey, thus the reason why we have made some of the changes already mentioned. Additional changes include an overhaul of our baseball program, with a similar improvement being looked at for softball the following season. DJ Payne, your Director of Baseball, has spent countless hours over the past year benchmarking, researching, and interviewing other leagues and the like, just to make sure we came out of the gate this baseball season with a brand new approach that would make our leagues developmentally appropriate for each athlete. We expect there will be some minor bumps in the road, but we will seek to smooth this new system out over the next couple of years. The good news is that we now have a system that can place your athlete in a league that gives him a better chance of developing and having a maximum amount of fun (yes, it still is about that for our kids!).
I also would like to commend Gail Bradley for his yeoman’s work on football. Gail is our Director of Football. Along with Jonathan Mayo, his Assistant, they have introduced the leagues to USA Football, an outstanding national organization that will have a lasting impact on player and coach development (survey need!), as well as how we all conduct ourselves during games. Please take some time to check out this link to USA Football to gain a better understanding of some of our new approaches: http://www.usafootball.com/#camps.
Additionally, I would like to recognize Steve Brodasky and his committee (Coach & Player Development) for introducing our organization to PCA (http://www.positivecoach.org/), Positive Coaching Alliance. Please take some time to go through the website link to fully understand the positive cultural change we hope to see during our youth activities. The main point is that we need to get back to the basic reasons for having our kids play sports: FUN, Skill Development, Character, and Social Skills, etc. We are hoping to have all of our coaches complete the course prior to coaching our kids. Systemically, this could reduce the number of negative experiences for the athletes and make the experience better for everyone! Again, our survey results said this was one of the most important things we need to work on for the health of our organization!
I would like to recognize Lisa Brodasky for performing one of the most thankless jobs in Avon as the Executive Director of our organization! She works many more hours than we actually pay her to cover all of our gaps, and to make sure everyone of our kids have the opportunity to play ball. I honestly don’t know many people that would last in this position as long as Lisa has, but she keeps on going for us because of the great heart she has for the kids in our community. Lisa, thank you on behalf of all of our members!
While there have been some new programs researched and instituted over the past twelve months, I would be remiss if I did not thank all of our Sports Directors for their hard work and dedication to the kids! If you know Bob Boehman (Girl’s Basketball), John Demerly (Junior Runners), Corey Ebert (Attack Baseball), David Heavrin (Elite Softball), Tim Hunt (Softball), Jennifer Lee (Boy’s Basketball), Christina Mandabach & Bobbie Martin (Volleyball), please take time to personally thank them for their tireless efforts – it sometime is a thankless job that requires many, many volunteer hours.
Lastly, I would like to reiterate how much help we really need within the organization. We literally are asking only a handful of people, including the officers, to do everything that is needed so that your kids can play sports. We are not paid and we like to see our families once in a while. If we can get many, many more volunteers, we can move the organization’s development at a faster pace. Right now, most of the board members and officers are trying to stay above water only because we are maxed out. I hate to beg, but we will put you to work if you are willing to lend a hand. If you are handy with writing newsletters, have certain skills in landscaping, you have a unique skill at raising money, or you can work well with websites, these are just a few of the areas we could use your help—there are many other ways to support our progress!
God Bless & Warm Regards,
F. Scott Handlon, President |