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

Hey Guys,

Well, here we go, it’s Playoff time !!
Congrats to the Mariners and the Twins for their Great Seasons finishing 1 and 2 !!

As I’m sure everyone is aware, the D’Backs and the Rockhounds get the Playoffs Started on Tuesday with game 1 and 2.
And the Red Sox and the Blue Jays hit the field on Wednesday with their games 1 and 2.

And if required, Game 3’s on Thursday.

Tuesday, August 23, 2022
GM 1 – 5:45 PM Rock Hounds (A) @ D’Backs (H)
GM 2 – 7:15 PM D’Backs (A) @ Rock Hounds (H)

Wednesday, August 24, 2022
GM 1 – 5:45 PM Red Sox (A) @ Blue Jays (H)
GM 2 – 7:15 PM Blue Jays (A) @ Red Sox (H)

If Necessary,
Thursday, August 25, 2022
GM 3 – 5:45 PM Rock Hounds (A) @ D’Backs (H)
GM 3 – 7:15 PM Red Sox (A) @ Blue Jays (H)

I want to sincerely wish all the Teams the Best of Luck. Have Fun, play well and be Safe.
Good luck to everyone in the Playoffs.

Cheers Guys,
Paul M
And a Quote for Everyone,
“About this Time of the Year, Every Year, The world Revolves around Baseball”
- Reggie Jackson ( Mr. October )

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

Hey Guys,

Here is next week’s “AAA” Div Game Schedule.

Note. There are no games scheduled for this Thursday at CW 1 or CW 2
CW 1 has been booked for practice by one of our teams.

Tuesday, August 16, 2022
6:00 PM Twins (A) @ D’Backs (H)
7:30 PM D’Backs (A) @ Twins (H)

Wednesday, August 17, 2022
6:00 PM Red Sox (A) @ Rock Hounds (H)
7:30 PM Rock Hounds (A) @ Red Sox (H)

Good luck this week everyone.

Cheers,
Paul M