Two minutes down the road from my house is Fournier Park, the site of what some people refer to as the best outdoor adult softball league in the state.
Amidst a growing community of teams and players, the Leominster Adult Mixed Softball Association (LAMSA) is dealing with criticism for its lack of communication.
The league has made several changes in the past few years. Perhaps the most important change – the league president – will feature a third new head of the league in as many years. This speaks to the pressure and weight of running a growing softball league.
Another controversial change introduced for the 2016 season is a division 1 player list and roster restrictions. This offseason, the board consulted privately to create a list of player they consider elite. Those players are placed on the D1 roster and cannot play in division 6 or lower. If a team wants to qualify for division 5, they may only have one D1 player. If a team wants to qualify for division 4, they are only allowed two D1 players, and so on. The roster list was posted publicly on the league’s official website.
It was met with lots of criticism on who was voted onto the list and who was left out. Some players criticized the league for leaving this decision to board members only, and for making these decisions privately, without hearing the opinions of the community before releasing a draft of the list. Questions have been raised about how the league will add and drop people from the list to make it final. The league has remained quiet.
To reach people, LAMSA has created a public Facebook group page called “L.A.M.S.A. Softball”. On this page, the league posts about important dates and information such as game postponements due to rain, or dates and locations for coaches meetings and banquets, and gives players who are looking for a team the opportunity to advertise themselves. If someone posts questions on the page, an unnamed person responds quickly under the name “L.A.M.S.A. Softball”.
A second Facebook page exists under the alias “Leominster Softball LAMSA Voice”. This page is not public; in order to participate on the page you must send a friend request only if you are a member of the league. Last year, I sent a friend request that didn’t get accepted until months afterwards. It is unknown who regulates the page, but it has 411 “friends” that are comprised of current or former league members.
The page is more dedicated to opinion and criticism. Examples of posts made on the page include complaints about the rain delay notification policies, complaints about umpire unfairness, and complaints about league fees and lack of financial disclosure.
One of the biggest problems that arose last year was a new multi-team fee. Since the league has grown from 42 teams to over 50 teams between 2012-2015, board members decided to hire and pay a league scheduler, a position that was previously done voluntarily by an unpaid league administrator.
The existing rule was that members of the league can play for up to three teams. A vote to drop that rule to only two teams did not pass due to the desire to maintain a growing community. As the league continued to grow, it became more difficult to create schedules for players on multiple teams.
For example, if I am on Team A, Team B, and Team C in different divisions, the scheduler must have an organized system to ensure that my Team A doesn’t play on Tuesday at 8pm when my Team C also plays at that day/time. The scheduler has to do this for every player on every day from April to September. As a result, the new scheduler gets paid to deal the nightmare of making sure nobody has conflicting schedules, and to update it whenever there is a rain postponement.
Nobody would disagree that the job of the scheduler is a difficult one. Initially, the league raised team fees to cover the expense of the scheduler. Last year, the alternate player fee was added as well, thus creating a double tax. This makes members who play on multiple teams pays $20 before the season starts, even though their already paying more with the increase in team fees.
Some players took to the LAMSA voice page to share their disapproval. Some board members will respond to justify the league’s decisions, but other times complaints will be seen but not responded to publicly.
The league only has a dozen or so people, between board members and administrators, in charge of everything. They need to take advantage of their growing community by establishing a better communication system right now. In the league’s defense, communicating with angry and frustrated people is a challenge. Not everyone is easy to communicate with, but nonetheless, the image of league administrators seeing posts and handling it in private meetings behind closed doors will continue to make league members upset.
DJ Hosley
References
Facebook. (2016). Leominster softball lamsa voice. https://www.facebook.com/leominstersoftball.lamsavoice?fref=ts
Facebook. (2016). L.A.M.S.A. softball. https://www.facebook.com/LAMSASoftball/?fref=ts
Pellecchia, R. (2016). Leominster adult mixed softball association. http://lamsa.org/
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