New Leadership for NSLL

Time for a change.

The NSLL board is comprised of volunteers. The solution here is not to discourage involvement or get rid of difficult personalities. Not everyone will always see eye to eye. We should all want to encourage everyone, willing to join, to become involved for the betterment of youth baseball/softball—ultimately build community. I’ve personally experienced being bullied by members of the board. When questions arise, they have become defensive. Transparency is a concern. We need a well balanced board that is inclusive, communicative and has the best interest of little league at the fore front. Please be prepared to become part of the solution not the problem.

Back when my 3 boys played in the mid to late 80's for Snohomish Little League it was very organized. If as a league you are informing the parents that certain things will happen that is what should be expected. Such as the updates on field conditions. I realize it's a hard and sometimes thankless position to be a board member, but there really is no need for Rude board members.

I’ve been part of an executive boards for softball and Little League. It can be a thankless job. However, very rewarding also. The most important thing to remember is that your there volunteering your time for the good of the community, NOT just your kid but all of the kids. All the parents look up to Board and you must be the best you can be. It’s about right and wrong....

Yes, that is correct. Lindsey was the scheduler for the 2018 season. Only someone who has done the thankless job would understand that its all consuming. This was Lindsey's first time ever being a scheduler and she did make some mistakes. Although the scheduler has no say in when she receives the information to schedule, she received some coach requests after she had already created the schedules, and she was also forced to push the past season back by 2 weeks which created a serious conflict with game scheduling and time constraints. Lastly, the scheduler has nothing to do with communication from the league, all she does is create the schedules.

I just looked on the NSLL home page under board of directors and noticed that Lindsey (named as one of the people starting this petition) is listed as the scheduler. I'm just thinking that maybe this comment isn't accurate in who it is directed at. I'm just guessing that there may be more to the story.

Darin Leonard- thank you for your comment. We have no intention in humiliating anyone. We did not use anyone’s name in the headline of this petition. The purpose of this petition was to show there are many families who are frustrated with the current leadership of the NSLL board and that there needs to be a change made to the leadership. You made a lot of great points and I appreciate you taking the time to do so.

John Doe- thank you for your question. At this time, we do not have select people who would take the executive positions. We do have hopes that the newer board members would take the roles over; they have fresh ideas, and hopeful attitudes. We would hope people who have strong leadership skills, people who have the very best interest of the children of the NSLL community, and people who feel strongly about making sure the league grows in a positive and constructive manner would step up and take over. Also, someone who makes sure each and every person on the board is held accountable for their actions, someone who requires complete and open transparency, and someone who welcomes new ideas with an open mind.

I'm curious who it is that you plan on replacing the executive board members with?

Mario, thank you for the support! Please be sure to share with Bree and anyone else you think would like to help our cause!

It's gotten really bad the last 2-3 years with that group. It's no wonder they are losing so many kids. Follow the money and I bet you find a rat (or several)!

It was so bad that I left the league this year and took my son to play Maltby Pony League.

I have a lot to share but I will keep it to highlights and won’t address perceptions or people as I have no knowledge of individual experiences. I will share this for all. 1. As the past-President of NSLL 2010-2012 and CEO of a national retailer, leading a community youth sports non-profit was the hardest leadership job of my career. My empathy for anyone that serves in this capacity protects them from any passing thoughts of judgement that come my way. To govern well, you must be willing to manage to the betterment of the children, not parents. That is tougher than anyone can imagine. In fact it’s nearly impossible. 2. It is made increasingly more difficult for NSLL due to the incredible blessing of owning our own 26 acre complex. A dream for every other Little League in Western Washington as we are the only one. The volunteer load and expense has worn on every Board every year. The hours and issues are invisible to all and compassion can only be found when you serve in leadership over it 3. A full Board is at least 26 volunteer leaders and I don’t know a year where all 26 have been full. As a President, you cannot help but become frustrated by the 100+ complaints from people unwilling to serve in a volunteer capacity 4. That said, issues and problems are real. I am confident every signature to date is born in real, honest frustration. I made many mistakes every year but we also had to establish boundaries that the same 5 to 10 people had to be husbands/wife’s and parents first. That running the league cannot consume everything and without boundaries and more volunteers, it would. Therefore some things simply can’t get done like updating a phone line by 3:30pm. If all Board members have jobs, who is responsible to leave work everyday at 2:30pm to drive to the field? These are examples where I ask people to use empathy before criticizing 4. Select baseball is real and I took over as President primarily because I hate where youth sports are going. So

Glad to see this I agree with all the comments said about the horrible communication in the league, My son is 5 so we will be spending many years in this league, but to be honest, its disheartening after the 1st couple years in the league, because It seems like there are alot of things that need to change. The coaches hardly know anything about the schedule information until THE LAST MINUTE. Anyways I am happy to see this in action

Agree.

My great grandson played in that league,very disorganized

Darren Unrue is one of the rudest people I have ever interacted with. I agree with the other comment above about blaming others and talking to people like their stupid. I emailed the board with concerns about the field status hotline not being updated on time and got a quick response back from Darren Unrue that was very aggressive and sarcastically saying maybe I should take over the hotline if I was so concerned about it. Most definitely need new leadership!

I hope they get rid of the VP Darren, I can't imagine how the Pres is, if the VP acts the way he does. Darren treats people like they are stupid! He calls you names and he can't do his job. He likes to blame others for the volunteers that don't do their job. I queztioned to keep my kids in this league. It sucks to say the least! I hope this gets new people that actually want to help.

I agree something needs to change. In two years my kids have played and I needed to talk to someone from the league I got zero messages answered or even a email or call back was nothing.