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

Hi guys:

As promised, here’s the one leg of our three-fold effort to secure a fourth diamond that YOU can help with!

Please click on the link below to quickly and easily sign the petition to bring the ‘Triwood Baseball’ diamond under our wings as our fourth CSMS League diamond.

https://www.petitions.net/a_fourth_diamond_for_calgary_senior_mens_slopitch?u=8315067&utm_source=email

Thanks for your help!

Gary Paukert
President
Calgary Senior Men’s Slopitch League

Hi Everyone,

Well with the 2022 Season fast coming to an end, I wanted to share Links to all of the Pictures Folders that I have created of our Entire CSMS 55+ League.
I know many of you do not have Facebook accounts so you haven’t been seeing the many posts and pictures that we have been sharing this season, so this may well be the first time you will
get to see pictures of yourself and your Friends and Teammates from this Years Season.

I have created a Link for each team as well as Fans, Umpires and Misc Links.
All you need to do is click on the Link below your team name or any of the Links that are provided and it will open up a Google Photo Folder where you will be able to see the pictures from your Teams Pictures or any other Team or Group you would like to view.
And if you have spared for other Teams this season, your picture will also be in that Teams Folder for you to view.
I will still be out there taking pictures for the remaining games and I will add them to your Teams Folders and you will be able to view them with the same Link I have provided here.
You can save or print the Pictures that you like.
I have backed up all these photos as well so even though the Links will expire in Approx 6 months, the Photos will be saved.
And because the Links will expire, be sure to download them or print them before the end of February 2023.

On average, there are about 312 Pictures in each Teams Folder.

Please let me know if you have any questions or issues.

Enjoy Everyone,

A DIVISION,

Brewers 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/miMyzfPnBZNu2Ybk8

Phillies 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/K1zQ7uP6nJd5srg66

A’s 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/xSGx4Np3WS6QpX6M7

Tigers 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8BTRLXAvEJGsg8Dm7

Jays (A Div) 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/y3XkPnnfWPokDqf48

Dodgers 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ABHh9cjG4ZxNornb6

AA DIVISION,

Royals 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vkcwF9GsS8LJKa73A

Mets 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/hHKHdiVWn1U6FBtW9

Orioles 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/f8AygXoZYdJqdq3y5

Nationals 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/CJDHnAZC79Ne8wLL9

Rockies 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/eGrFqrTcX3LMj8Xk7

Cubs 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/xAiCJKs4FYwJDB7V7

Cardinals 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/CVu24L7R2rMz1sjZ7

Rangers 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/xrKCM7ziBxFjJ7Nm8

AAA DIVISION,

Red Sox 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/bEvxJD8YdHQNZDtf6

D’Backs 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/yKmWudZhYYFsq4YB8

Blue Jays (AAA Div) 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/MbqzPihSuCP7FKfm8

Mariners 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/CE2w9SiJDxQUP3NL6

Twins 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/DXKUVKorGETVPn6H7

Rock Hounds 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/LT1vc3qYc5SsCR1S9

MONDAY DAYBALL 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3o58gnvrBdcbe13R9

MISC,

CSMS 55+ Team Pictures and Tournament Teams 2022.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/qAE2V1Enz6UEHmPZA

Umpires 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/F3zWJzE92fPT2wNX6

Fans 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/VHRxaw55uR6XxubB7

Ground Crew, Rick and Mike 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZUfXSvhvxUcPDehL7

Misc Softball Pics 2022,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8xoGztkj73sqkNoH8

Cheers to All CSMS 55+ Teams and Members,
Paul M

Hi Everyone,

A large group of guys in our CSMS 55+ League play in a Hockey League in Calgary from October until April.
(I’m not ready to think Hockey Yet, but planning ahead is always a good thing)

They are searching for Goalie’s for the upcoming year.
If you are a goalie or know of a goalie please contact me and I will forward your message on to Don McKillop and Dave Curtis. Or I can send you their contact info.
And FYI,
Goalie’s play for free and they don’t have to be 55, they can be younger.

Thanks Everyone,

Paul M
(Ex Goalie)

and Here is a quote that seems to fits with this message,
“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”
- Wayne Gretzky