District 23

The annual Oregon State Leadership Conference will be held in Portland Oregon from January 9-11, 2009 at the Portland Airport Holiday Inn. To view and download a copy of the conference registration form, click here. To view more information including information on vendor information click here, at you will be taken to the Oregon District 1 website.

Dear fellow District Administrators,

Since my last report in December the Board of Directors have had one meeting in April in Washington, D.C. Several committee meetings have been held via conference calls.

In my last report I mentioned the staggered terms for the 9 field directors elected to the Board of Directors at the 2007 World Congress in Houston, Texas. The outgoing board members to determine how long of a term each new member would serve conducted a random draw.  The results were:

a)      3 yr terms: Latin America, Central & Southwest Region

b)      4 yr terms: Asia Pacific, East & West Region

c)      5 yr terms: Canada, EMEA, & South Region

This means that the West Region will elect a new member to the Board of Directors in 4 years (2011). The election will not be held at a World Congress but at a Regional Meeting to be determined later. The person who is elected would then serve a 3-year term. The purpose of the staggered term is so that the elected field representatives are not all leaving at the same time and causing start overs on projects that are in the works.

I am chairman of the Operations Committee and also sit on the property & evaluation committee.

To date these are some of the changes or projects that we have been working on.

We have restructured the EMEA & Transatlantic regions. EMEA will now be known as MEA & Transatlantic region will be Europe. This realignment opened the door for teams from Germany and other countries to participate in Little League Baseball.

We also completed the sale of our 12.8 acre Southern Region Headquarters in Gulfport, Florida to the Pinellas County School District in Florida. We will still have the use of the facility until the end of the year. The Board of Directors will be considering bids from the states within the Southern Region to relocate our complex. To date most of the states in the Southern Region have shown interest as a possible site. This is to be a topic at our meeting in Williamsport, Pa in August.

Headquarters offices in Williamsport, Pa will be doing a long overdue remodeling and expansion. They will be adding on an additional 13,300 sq ft $5 Million dollar project.

Construction & Demolition has begun but will not interrupt anything during the World Series.

Little League Baseball, Inc. has also purchased the property east along side of US highway 15 formerly known as Morrone’s Restaurant and Lounge. This 2-acre property was located directly next to the headquarters office. This purchase was needed as part of the long-range plans to enhance the Little League International Complex.

We also purchased of the property across the street formerly known as the Kings Inn & Restaurant. Little League purchased the 9.63 acres at a sheriff’s sale for $617,000.00.  As of now, we don’t have any specific plans for the property. It has been leveled and will be used for parking during the World Series.

We select Lexington, Ky for the site of our next World Congress starting on Friday March 12-15, 2010. Others in consideration were Atlanta, Ga and Milwaukee, Wi.

Rosters size in Senior League & Big League baseball were also increased for tournament play. And a new affidavit was created for tournament play.

Thank you,

Robert Fleming

International Board of Directors