New Jersey Soft Ball Cricket League (NJSBCL) wishes all the teams & their families a Very Happy New Year 2010 !!

Looking at the white out and blizzard conditions outside today, playing cricket on a hot sunny day would look like a distant dream. But we are commencing to prepare for another exciting season of cricket - the 2010 season for the NJSBCL Division 1 and Division 2 Championships with pre-season activities.

With the league growing to over 50 teams in the last two seasons, for the first time in 2009 we successfully tried out a new format of splitting the teams into two divisions – Division 1 and Division 2. This paved the way for some exciting and thrilling games through out the season in both divisions. The season ended with the second edition of the 8x8 cricket carnival that added more flavor to the 2009 season.

Registered as a “not for profit” organization in 2009, we will be filing taxes for the first time this year. The league’s P&L will be posted as soon as we are ready to file the taxes for 2009.

Last year we laid down the framework for the league for the upcoming season. We will be following two division format this season with no cross over between divisions till end of the season in 2010.

This year for the first time NJSBCL is planning an Annual General Body Meeting (AGM) with face to face participation from all team captains/managers in mid-March. Nominations will be solicited in advance and a secret ballot election will be conducted at the AGM for electing the EC for 2010 season. This venue will also provide for more interaction among all teams and we are looking forward to suggestions and opinions from everyone on betterment of the league. The AGM will also provide an opportunity to bring more transparency on managing the league operations.

Another new for 2010 is the league has started actively looking for sponsorships for NJSBCL in all forms. If any of the member player’s organization wants to sponsor the league / teams for 2010, please get in touch with the EC by sending an email to ec@njsbcl.com

These are the salient points for the 2010 season --


• All teams should register their teams for the 2010 season at the www.njsbcl.com website by March 7, 2010.
  
  The team manager / players can use the last year’s user id and password for logging into the website and making any updates to their / team’s profile.
  
  
• All teams will have the facility to pay the league fees at the www.njsbcl.com website using PayPal. The 2010 league season fees is $175. Registration of a team can be considered complete only after the team manager / captain completes the registration at the website, accepts the liability waiver form, registers a minimum of 14 players at the website and pays the registration fees of $175 by PayPal/cash/check. PayPal payment can be made after the Registration request has been tendered at the website and a minimum of 14 players have been registered.
  
  
• Along with registering at the website, any team, if interested, should send in their nominations for the League Executive Committee (EC) of the 2010 season by March 7, 2010. Teams should send the names of their EC nominee by email to ec@njsbcl.com. A secret ballot election will be conducted if required at the AGM meeting to select the 2010 EC following a voting process where each team will have one vote. The person nominated should be someone, who is conversant with our League rules (www.njsbcl.com), have good general knowledge of cricket rules, is an impartial mature person & most importantly someone who can devote significant time on an ongoing basis to work for the betterment of our league and address any issues. Note: - An elected officer cannot be a spokesperson for their team or promote their team's interests in the governing body's decisions. To ensure impartiality, he will be kept aside from any decision that may involve his team. The nominated person should send a brief (3-4 sentences) write-up about his experience in handling similar organizational responsibilities to support his nomination to the email ec@njsbcl.com by March 7, 2010.
  
  
• The elected officers (EC) will vote internally among them to select the league Board of Directors - President, Secretary, Vice President (Marketing & PR), Treasurer& Vice President (Operations). The league EC will then deliberate and decide on a framework on how to handle the operational activities for 2010. We hope new members who are interested in actively participating in managing its affairs would come forward to participate in the EC this season.
  
  

Team registration process:--

A) NEW TEAMS should use following registration link and follow the step by step process for registering their team and its players.

http://www.njsbcl.com/teamregister.aspx

1. Follow the link above and Register your Team online
2. The Captain/Manager will receive the login and pwd in their email after Registration
3. Login at NJSBCL.com using the credentials received and accepts the Individual Player Waiver. This is mandatory for every member of NJSBCL Teams.
4. Once the Player Waiver Form is accepted, the Captain/Manager will be able to "add new members" by following the link - Manage Team from the Left Hand Admin Menu
5. Follow link to the NJSBCL yahoo groups and register there as well.

B) TEAMS FROM 2009 should follow the below process for registration -

1. Team manager / captain should Login at njsbcl.com using Login Id.
2. If Users do not remember their passwords they can use the "Forgot Password" link from the Login box. An email with your user id and new pwd will be sent to the registered email id
3. When the designated captain/manager logs in, first he will need to confirm the Team Participation for 2010. After he has done that in the affirmative, he will be required to accept the Individual Player Waiver before proceeding to be able to use the online admin site.
4. Team captain/manager can then add / edit the individual player names, email and Phone using the "manage team" link.
5. Every newly registered player will received their login/pwd in email.
6. Each individual player should accept the Individual player waiver form at the NJSBCL website. It is the responsibility of the team captain / manager to ensure that All players registered in his team has completed this documentation before he plays the first game of the season.

The schedule for the 2010 season kick off is as follows -

- 2010 season Team & Player Registration – March 7, 2010

- Nomination of EC members from teams – March 7, 2010

- Annual General Body Meeting (AGM) at a venue to be announced – March 13/14 weekend

- EC election complete– March 13/ 14 weekend, 2010

- 2010 Officers election – March 13/14 weekend, 2010

- Finalize the format/rules based on number of registered teams – March 25, 2010

- Announcement of league schedule - First week of April 2010

- Tentative league games start date – Second or Third week of April 2010

Looking forward to another thrilling season of cricket!!!

Regards

On behalf of NJSBCL

Vivek Nair