Pat, Greg, and I are back from the Nations Baseball Texas convention, and it was a very productive convention! I can tell you all that every single South Zone director (and most of the North Zone) has gone over to Nations. We are well on our way.
We hashed out several items during the convention, including the revision of some rules (still to be approved by the national office), and best of all for the Texas teams, we added an option for team registration (Texas only)!
Basicially teams now have two options for registration:
- Teams without insurance
Teams that don't have any insurance coverage use the normal registration. Normal registration includes insurance coverage through the baseball season from August 1 - July 31. The rates are cheaper than the other sanctioning body that many teams used. The cost for regular registration is $140, which includes your annual insurance and annual registration fee. Teams receive their certificate within a few days of registering. - Teams with insurance
Nations Baseball recognizes that in the first year, many teams already have insurance from other sanctioning bodies that covers them until December 2008. It makes no sense to have those teams purchase insurance for that five-month time frame. Therefore, for teams that already have insurance through the end of December, Nations Baseball is offering a reduced registration rate of $90. This option includes the registration fee and insurance coverage from January 1 through July 31.
Teams receive their certificate within a day or two of registering, but the certificate will be dated January 1 - July 31. These teams will be flagged to directors and must show proof of insurance for tournament or league play until the end of December.
This reduced registration option is only available for the Texas teams for the 2009 inaugural season.
Another item noticably different than what teams might be used to is the way teams can be frozen in the spring.
- We will have fall qualifiers where teams qualify for the Fall State tournament just by playing in the tournament. Winning the Fall State Tournament earns a team a World Series berth, which can be turned down.
- World Series qualifiers begin in February. However, until April 1, teams can turn down any World Series berths earned in World Series qualifiers.
- Elite (AAA) and Premiere (Major) World Series qualifiers pass out berths to 25% of the teams: two World Series berths (instead of one) and two State berths.
- Select (AA) World Series qualifiers pass out berths to 50% of the teams.
- Berths pass down only once. In other words, if a berth passes down to Team F in a tournament, and they turn it down, the berth would not pass down to Team G.
- Berths cannot be turned down after April 1.
Many other things came out of this convention. Look for new features on the website every day. The website will always be evolving. The web team says that if it is ever "finished," then they have failed. However, expect it to be stable and at spec by the first of the year. In the mean time, please be patient. You will be amazed at the features in the web plan. Many of them are already built. It is just a matter of plugging the modules into the program.
We also want your feedback. Nations Baseball is team-driven and very much open to suggestion. Please use this forum to make suggestions or send an email to one of the Nations Baseball directors.
Thanks for your interest!
-Karen
