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Moving To Full Service Membership in 2014

posted by Administrator 12/28/2013 11:12:20

Moving to "Full Service Membership" in 2014



ENYTB members are generally quite happy with the services provided by ENYTB membership.

Chief among them are:

(1) Competitively balanced regular season schedules customized to each member's team/field availability;

(2) Regulation and enforcement of schedule reliability rules, self-managed by each team via the website;

(3) Automatic regulation and enforcement of rules governing roster protection and player movement (ENYTB's RFA system!)

(4) Great post-season tournament opportunities, including 70 berths to sanctioned championship tournament series sponsored by four different sanctioning bodies, as well as numerous additional local tournaments hosted by ENYTB; and,

(5) Premium access to an extensive website that mirrors the operations of the league with content customized to each member and team.

Looking back at 2013, the league faced three major challenges:

(1) The great amount of wet weather from Memorial Day Weekend through the July 4th Holiday;

(2) Lack of discipline and sportsmanship at games by some players, parents and coaches; and,

(3) The record volume of requests for league information by the membership (approx 25,000).

There isn't anything the league can do about the rain issue but at least our members were able to easily process weather postponements through the website. In addition, since ENYTB does not require its members to make-up WP games (thanks to ENYTB's "FLEX" scheduling process it is not necessary to do so), teams were not forced to play every day once the rain finally stopped (and then it got extremely hot instead!).

The great increase in the number of member vs member complaints; player ejections; and, instances of fighting in 2013 greatly concerns the league. The league's Executive Board and Members' Council dealt with each situation as it arose according to league rule, precedent and judgment. The question looms, do our penalties need to get more harsh to keep these situations to a minimum? The Members' Council and Executive Board will continue to enforce the discipline measures included in our playing rules. People who mess up will be held accountable. You can count on that. Beyond that, we are hoping 2013 was just a bad year in this regard, perhaps caused in part by all the extreme weather. It's not easy to postpone/reschedule game after game.

The final issue mentioned above - 25,000 requests for information by members - threatens the very continuation of the league and therefore must be rectified. Twenty-five thousand requests for information is an extraordinary service burden for the league that clearly indicates the current system of information dissemination established by ENYTB is NOT working. This issue, along with tweaks to our RFA system, were the main focus of our off-season deliberations.

We begin by observing that ENYTB is only a baseball league, so how complicated can it be?

...Leagues consist of parent clubs (owners) and their teams.

...Teams have a roster (eligible players) and they play games against other league teams, based on a schedule developed for them by the league.

...If a team can't play play a game as scheduled, it MUST forfeit that game, UNLESS it qualifies for any of the allowable ENYTB schedule transactions re: postponement or cancellation w/o penalty.

...ENYTB keeps standings based on the results of regular season play.

...ENYTB uses those standings to determine which teams are awarded post-season tournament berths.

This description is quite straightforward and generally describes how every league in every team sport in the world operates. Apparently the devil is in the details.

The "details" are made available to the membership in numerous ways:

First we hold educational meetings about the league during January and February and upload the information presented in those meetings to the website news page. These meetings cover the three major areas of league operations:

...post-season sign-up options and registration;

...scheduling and schedule transactions (rules re: schedule changes); and,

...player eligibility and player transactions (rules re: player movement and limited roster protection).

In addition to the materials presented at the meetings and posted on the website news board, the league maintains a comprehensive HELP > FAQ page. Much of this information is repeated in the form of context sensitive help on the page where the information is needed/used. The league also emails quite a bit of information re: league operations to the membership on a regular basis. Many of these emails are also posted on the league news board and on the league's event calendar.

The extensive information resources described above are MORE than sufficient to answer all routine membership and operational questions.

Despite the availability of these educational resources, ENYTB still received more than 25,000 inquiries relating to this information. How can this be?

We feel we have identified the two main reasons for this breakdown in communication. They are:

CURRENT SYSTEM OF INFORMATION DISSEMINATION - How it was supposed to work.

The current system is based on the premise that each parent club (owner) would appoint a club rep and that club rep would be the point of contact with the league for ALL information exchange with the league (in both directions). The presumption was that each club rep would familiarize himself with the website, with league informational requirements and with the "details" of league operations. Each club rep, over time, would become quite ENYTB competent and thus would need less and less ENYTB support each year i.e., they would become their club's league expert and utilize the website in a self-service mode. That was the theory but precious few club reps have operated in this manner. Most club reps, even after several years in the position, have very limited knowledge of league operations and/or the use of the website.

So what has happened instead? Team managers and coaches routinely bypass their club reps and go straight to the league for assistance.
In many cases, they are told to do so by their club rep.

Despite all the resources the league invests in member education, as described above, the explanation I most frequently get from club reps, team managers and coaches that contact me repeatedly about even the simplest aspects of league operations, all of which are are clearly spelled on the FAQ page and/or elsewhere (on-page context sensitive help etc.) is that they simply don't have the time or the inclination to learn how the league is structured, how it operates or how to use the website.

Eureka!

POINT ONE: The current system hasn't worked because most club reps have been very poor club reps i.e., they haven't done their job.

POINT TWO: It takes two to tango aka you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

CONCLUSION:

So the message is quite clear: the current system of self-service based on the club GM as a league expert has been an abysmal failure and there is no reason to believe that it can be fixed by anything short of a major overhaul and reduction of responsibilities for the club GM.

Basically a large share of our membership is demanding full service from the league.

NOTE: In 2013 members got full service by emailing and/or telephoning League Admin (me) more than 25,000 times. I can not do that again so we need a new system that actually works given the limitations of what most people have time to do or are able to do or are willing to do.

SOLUTION: Give the members what they want - a Full Service experience!

DESIGN OF A WIN-WIN SOLUTION For The League and Its Members:

The league needs to hire a few specialists who are expert in all facets of league operations as well as the website (the website is a mirror reflection of the league). These persons shall be referred to as League Navigators (similar to the Obamacare website).

Under the new system, the league navigators will be accessible to and work directly with, the primary contact of each team, as well as the club GM where necessary. In effect, the league navigator will direct the team's primary contact, answer his questions and enter all information to the website that the primary contact is unable to do for himself. As stated above, the club GM will no longer expected to be competent in use of the website or league structure or operations. His job is to activate his club/teams and identify the manager, coach, primary and secondary contact for each team, including complete contact info. If he wishes, the GM may handle all or none of the administrative for his teams, or something in between. The League Navigator will contact each club GM to see how he wants to define his role. Also, the club GM shall be fully responsible for all his teams in terms of compliance with all league rules and administrative procedures. If a team is screwing up, the league navigator will inform the club GM and expect the problem to be fixed.

Club GMs and Team Primary Contacts only - may go to their league navigator for ALL league informational requirements.

Club GMs and Team Primary Contacts are NOT to go to the League President for any routine business. If however, a problem needs special attention, direct contact with the President is permissible.

GENERAL EXAMPLE:

Team A has a question about some facet of league participation.

1) Team A communicates question to primary contact for Team A.
2) Primary contact for Team A poses question to League Navigator assigned to Club A.

NOTE: If Team A has a club GM that wants to be in the middle of all informational exchanges between team A and the league, the primary contact for Team A would go to his club GM.

3) League Navigator answers question for Team A Primary Contact.
4) Team A Primary Contact brings information back to team A.

Thus, the main difference between the new system and the old system are:

1)teams have direct access to their league navigator who serves as your club's expert on both league participation/operations and website use (but he is assigned to clubs by the league) i.e., he would be what your club rep was supposed to be in the old system; and,

2) the club GM in the new system would act as an assistant to the league navigator, and whose responsibility is to interface with his club owner, his club's teams and the league rep to ensure that the needs of all three groups are met.

LEAGUE NAVIGATORS - ENYTB will assign several clubs of various sizes to a single league navigator. The league navigator will be responsible for their teams providing all required website inputs except score-keeping (teams (or the club GM) should enter all scores for their team's games).

Team primary contacts and club GMs have unlimited access to their league navigator (phone and email). Each navigator will inform his clients of his general availability for phone contact. In this manner, the league navigator shall provide each club with FULL SERVICE i.e., operate the website for the parent club, including all its teams, except for score-keeping, and answer all questions about league participation from the team primary contacts and the club GM. The league rep will be available to from the time the club is activated till when the season ends, including tournaments. Thus, once a club is activated, the club member will enjoy a FULL SERVICE experience i.e., his league navigator will assist his club in every aspect of league participation, from sanctioned NCTS options and bill payment through roster creation, scheduling, schedule and player transactions, throughout the regular and post-season. Except for score-keeping, the league navigator will have primary responsibility to ensure that every client (clubs & teams) is up to date with all league requirements. If absolutely necessary, the league navigator will even enter the required info to the website for the client.

FULL SERVICE PREMIUM - The specialist or league rep will be a paid position. It is anticipated that the league rep will be paid $100/team.

Virtually all this fee will come out of the league admin fee currently charged all teams. Free team discounts given to large members will be reduced by $100. In addition, the $50 discount given to low silver teams will be eliminated.

The full service "option" is provided to all members although members who are confident in their understanding of league operations and the website are free to manage the league information requirements of their club and teams on the website themselves if they wish to do so. If this is the case, simply inform your league navigator when he contacts you. He would still be available as needed but if he is not needed, then that is even better.

I am contemplating that four league reps would be sufficient for the entire league. I will handle all first year members.

Members with "special" issues are still be free to contact me for assistance/advice but all routine operational matters associated with league membership would be funneled through the league navigator assigned to that club.

IMPORTANT: If a club GM doesn't have the time or inclination to serve in that capacity, he should inform his club owner and the club owner can either designate a new club GM or break up his club into several smaller clubs (separate and distinct from each other) where each team has a person willing to act in the club GM role. For example, John Doe has an ENYTB club membership and owns 5 teams. The parent club has nobody that wants to serve in the role of GM for five teams. The owner could break his club up into as many as 5 separate clubs of one team. Similarly, it could become two separate parent clubs consisting of 2 teams and 3 teams respectively. What is most important is that every team has somebody acting capably in the role of club GM and team primary contact.
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