Hello League,

I am pleased to be able to Finally provide some important information on the upcoming Mike Church Tournament which will take place in a few short weeks on Sat Sept 10th and 11th at the Triwood Diamonds and the Charleswood Diamonds.

We will be hosting 3 Divisions during this important tournament.
There will be a “AA” Recreational Division made up of our Teams from the League and these rosters will consist of players from our both “AA” and “A” Division’s.
There will be a “AA” Competitive Division made up of Tournament Teams from our League and outside of our League.
And there will be a “AAA” Division made up of Teams from our League.

For a lot of our players, this could be the final games of the season and perhaps your only tournament this Season.
This tournament, in honour of Mike Church, was designed to give our senior players an opportunity to play in a tournament and to support PROSTATE CANCER. A disease that affects men.

If you are a Player that is interested in Playing, we ask you to contact your current coach or manager and let them know of your interest in participating. We then ask that the “AA” Coaches and Managers contact, Kelly Toombs, who is now co-ordinating the 2 “AA” Divisions.
“AA” Tournament Teams that have already contacted us have had their info passed along to Kelly Toombs.
The “AAA” Coaches and Managers can contact Len Seib, who is co-ordinating the “AAA” Division.

Coaches and managers can let us know if they can enter their entire Team and if not, please let us know which of their teams players are interested in participating on another team.
If a League team is not participating, but a player is interested and has no Team, we will get you placed on a Team that will be Participating and try and balance the Teams as Best we can.

STEP UP THIS IS YOUR CHANCE WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT

All we are asking is give us approximately 4 hours each day, for a worthwhile cause that can affect us all, PROSTATE CANCER and to give our senior members another chance to play this Year.
This is also a Great Chance for the new members to meet the members that have kept this league alive for so many years.

At $30. per person, the more bodies we have participating, the bigger the donation our League will make to this worthwhile cause.
We are also working with The Man Van once again.
They will be offering everyone a baseline PSA blood test, blood sugar, waist circumference and stress check. We hope to have the Man Van available Sunday Morning. (times to be confirmed)

Please decide as soon as you can, hopefully by 9pm this coming Tuesday night.
TIME IS A FACTOR, WE ARE VERY SORRY FOR THE SHORT NOTICE.
Please COMMIT to this event IN THE SPIRIT OF THE GAME and to honour our senior members and in Memory of Mike Church.

Triwood Community Association and JT’s Lounge is also working with us and is trying to co-ordinate one or more Food Trucks for each day of the Tournament.

You may also contact myself, Paul McNeil, for any questions, or if your interested and you cant reach your coach or manager.

Thanks Everyone for your Attention to this Important League Message.

Sincerely,
Paul M

Hi Everyone

I just received some exciting news about one of our CSMS 55+ Members.
I just wanted to send out a Huge Congratulations to
Howard Northcott and his recent Golfing Achievement representing Calgary Zone 3 at the Provincial qualifiers.

The tournament was at HeatherGlen Golf Course on June 27/22. It was the zone 3 provincial qualifying tournament to represent zone 3 at the 2023 provincials to be held in Brooks.

Howie fired a 78 to Take top spot !! That’s a Great Score !!

Howie played with the “AA” Cubs this Year !

Great Effort Howard.
On Behalf of the Entire CSMS 55 Family,
Congratulations !!

Hi Everyone,

Although there have been Many in our League that stepped up this year to help volunteer their time or just helped out wherever they could, I wanted to take a minute to send out a Huge THANK YOU and a Tip of The Hat, to a couple specific people that responded to our League request with the Lawn Mower issue we had a short time back.

Jim Kalyn, who plays with the A’s in Div A.
Jim helped us tremendously by not only picking up the Mower, but he repaired it and brought it back cleaner and in far better working condition then when he picked it up. And he brought it back with a Full Tank of Gas !!

Steve Phelps, who plays with the Orioles in Div AA.
Steve had a very good backup working mower which he donated to our League. And he Also brought it to us with a Full Tank of Gas !!

Gentlemen, we Salute your contributions to our League !!

On Behalf of our Entire CSMS 55 + League.
Thank You for your Contributions.

Paul M
A Fitting Quote for Everyone,
“Here is what a team can do for you. . . . It allows you to help others do their best.”
- John C Maxwell

Hello League Members,
I have been asked to post the following message from our League President, Gary Paukert.

“Dear League Members,

The Fall General Meeting (GM) of the Calgary Senior Men’s Slopitch League will take place:

When: Wednesday, September 28, 2022
Time: 7:00pm
Where: Triwood Community Centre.

This will be an in-person meeting only.

The Fall General Meeting includes election of Directors to the Board. The Board is comprised of 16 Directors. The following positions are open for election this year;

5 positions – 3 year term;
1 position – 2 year term;
3 positions – 1 year term.

Members are encouraged to consider running and those so interested may contact any current Board member for information about the various duties and responsibilities if elected. All nominees must have a nominator, a seconder and consent to letting their name be added to the ballot. Nominations may be made from the floor at the meeting or by mail (e-mail) to the Board President at garyw@thepaukerts.net. Any nomination submitted by e-mail shall include the name of the nominator, the seconder and the consent of the Nominee.

Any Special Resolutions that members wish to have considered at the Fall meeting must be submitted to the President on or before September 5, 2022 so that they may be provided to the membership not less than 21 days prior to the meeting. Please feel free to contact the President if you require further information concerning the wording of Special Resolutions. Motions from the floor are permitted, but motions involving changes to bylaws or operating rules are not.

General Meetings are, for the most part, informational. The membership has the opportunity to make its opinions known to the Board of Directors and the Board has the opportunity to inform the membership of its activities.

I encourage all League members to make the effort to attend on September 28th so as to help the continuing efforts to make our League as good as it can possibly be.

Please feel free to contact me directly for any Special Resolutions or Board nominations before Friday Sept 23rd.
Contact me directly at
https://www.grandslamslopitch.com/organizations/3209/contact_page/contacts/4247/emails/new
or
president@grandslamslopitch.com

Best regards,
Gary Paukert
President
Calgary Senior Men’s Slopitch League"

Thanks Everyone for your Attention to this Important League Message from our President, Gary Paukert.
Paul M

Hello League Members:

As you probably know, for many years our League has talked about gaining access to the very under-utilized ‘Triwood Baseball’ diamond just to the south of the Triwood diamond we currently use. The idea has been to get the City of Calgary to release the diamond to the control of our partner, the Triwood Community Association. To date there has been little progress on this, but it’s a critical issue if our League is going to continue to flourish at our Triwood location.

Your Board has started a three-pronged renewed effort toward getting this fourth diamond. We will be trying to engage the City of Calgary Parks Department and Ward 4 Councillor Sean Chu to work on the issue with Triwood Community Association. In addition, we’ll soon be asking you to sign a petition which will let the City know of our desire. Please have a look at the letter which has been sent to Councillor Chu:

Dear Councillor Chu,

I’d like to tell you about a wonderful organization operating within your Ward 4, which every week brings hundreds of people together for healthy recreation and social interaction and which also generates Ward 4 neighbourhood economic activity.

The Calgary Senior Men’s Slopitch League is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. It is a remarkable organization with an affiliated women’s league, indoor winter activities and travel teams which represent the City of Calgary by traveling across western Canada and to places such as Montana, Utah and Florida in the USA. The CSMSL has called the Triwood Community Centre and Charleswood Drive/Northmount Drive softball diamonds our home for many years. Every week from May through September, over 300 senior men and as many as 75 senior women gather to play ball. Our League has been a model of positive activity within the Triwood area of Ward 4, and we hope to continue there for many years to come. Last year we were even featured on the CTV Calgary and CTV National evening news as we re-started our activities after being prevented from playing for so long due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Best of all, we are in growth mode! We’ve maintained a steady membership despite the COVID pandemic, but we truly believe that in a city the size of Calgary there are many, many more seniors who would like to enjoy our sport with us. We will be undertaking advertising and promotion this off-season to grow our League, potentially by an additional 30%.

Our problem, however, is that at the moment we only have three diamonds on which to play. One of these is at the Triwood Community Centre and under their control. We have a wonderful working relationship with them. There is, however, an additional diamond controlled by the City of Calgary next to the Community Centre which receives very little use. We have suggested for many years that this diamond would be better put to use by giving control of it to Triwood C.C. who would rent the diamond to the CSMSL and others. We have petitioned Parks and Recreation, and the idea seems to have merit, but after years of waiting, there seems to be no movement toward making this diamond more available. And is there anything sadder than an empty ball diamond?

We could do so much with this diamond! It grieves us to see it sitting empty so often. Our biggest fear is that we will grow so large and so fast that with the limited diamond availability at Triwood we would have to move to another venue outside of Ward 4, which would be a severe reduction in the positive activity we bring to the neighbourhood, to Triwood Community Centre and to Triwood’s JT’s pub where our members spend so much time after games.

Our League would like to ask that you check out the status of our request before the Park and Recreation Department and see if there is any recourse available. We would love to be able to expand our activities for the 2023 Calgary Senior Men’s Slopitch League season next May 1st.

While you are at it, I would like to personally extend to you an invitation to attend one of our games this year to see how we are benefiting our members and the neighbourhood. After a 30-game season, we are just starting our playoffs and you could come by during the day to see our older guys play, or in the evening to see our ‘young bucks’ (55-65) play. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the days you are most likely to catch a game. It would be a great opportunity for you to meet our large membership, many of whom live in your Ward. Please contact me and I would love to arrange a time for you to check out what’s going on at Triwood/Charleswood as we head into our exciting playoff run!

Gratefully,
Gary W. Paukert
President
Calgary Senior Men’s Slopitch League
-——————————————————————-
This notice is meant mainly to keep you, the membership, informed about what we are doing. But as a member you can help. Sign the upcoming petition. And if you live in Ward 4, you can certainly contact Councillor Chu and express your support.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a fourth diamond for the 2023 CSMS League season and all the the flexibility and growth that would allow? Let’s make this happen!

Gary Paukert
President
CSMS League