Quebec Chapter meeting recap – 1/25/2014
Quebec Chapter SABR Day meeting recap
January 25, 2014
Submitted by Bill Young
Members in attendance: Jacques Doucet; Robert Duval; Bobby Lalande; Daniel Papillon; Alexandre Pratt; Bill Young
Visitor: Maxime Séguéla
Regrets: Jack Anderson; Alain Dumas; Norm King; Alain Usereau, plus several affiliated SABR members who expressed regret at not being able to attend, citing distance as the reason.
The agenda focused on two major issues: Structures and Communication.
Structures
The principal aim of the meeting was to examine our administrative structures, roles and priorities, and in that regard was successful. SABR-Quebec is a volunteer organization whose members are drawn together through their passion for baseball. While differences in style and comportment can be expected, we should never lose sight of the fact that we are all volunteers trying our best to further knowledge and understanding about baseball – in Quebec and beyond – and that our strength lies in the support we can offer another. When this falters, we weaken both the chapter and the interest of members within it.
As the chapter has experienced somewhat of a downward turn recently, discussion centered on that trend and how to reverse it. Two threads emerged – that we select a leadership team to guide us firmly back onto the rails, and that we strengthen our lines of communication, making them more of a two-way street.
The first step was to confirm our leadership situation. On a motion by Jacques Doucet, seconded by Alexandre Pratt and adopted unanimously, Daniel Papillon was re-elected head of the SABR-Quebec Chapter. Bill Young will continue as his side-kick although steps are underway to shift that role to another member.
And that led to our second topic of discussion:
Communications
We have a responsibility – and the capacity – to do more by way of communicating amongst ourselves, within the world of SABR and in our local communities. Several ideas were tossed about but the good news was that Alexandre Pratt, working closely with Daniel Papillon and others, is prepared to spearhead an assessment and renewal of our various means of communication. These include:
• SABR-Quebec website: The old website is now up and working but it seems to be frozen as of 2006. While the information found there is accessible, there seems to be no effective means of updating or adding new material. This means that alternative measures will have to be taken.
• What are the chances of creating a new web-site? What would be involved?
• Blogs: Alexandre recommends that as a less complicated option than the difficult and time-consuming wrestling required of a website, we consider the creation of a blog or blogs designed to give easy access to contributions by members. Such a blog could take a number of forms and be focused on a number of issues. Alexandre will follow this up.
• Other documents: Perhaps one of the first steps should be to ensure that articles and other documents produced by SABR-Quebec members for other sources – blogs, newspaper articles; books – be shared with the membership as well via such a blog.
• Baseball Quebec: This province-wide organization seems willing to partner up with SABR-Quebec, and it was suggested that one of the ways we might do so would be to interact more with their website. Daniel and Jacques expressed a willingness to follow up this idea.
• Photographs: SABR-Quebec has a wealth of photographs in its possession and we need to find a way of making them more available. The original website holds a number of them, but what do we do with more recently acquired material?
• Documents: The same issue arises with regards to all archival material. Where do we store it and how do we make it available? Here again, there might be a role for cooperative venture with Baseball Quebec.
• Meetings: It was agreed to maintain our current practice of four meetings per year, beginning with the SABR Day meeting in January. It could serve as our annual meeting at which we take a look at priorities, plan for the year ahead and confirm our leadership team. We would then meet in the spring and fall around specific programmes and in the summer where the meeting would include a baseball game perhaps in Quebec City, perhaps in Trois-Rivières or even Burlington.
• It was suggested that the spring and fall gatherings incorporate the fact that SABR-Quebec functions in both English and French by designating one as a primarily French language meeting and the other as a primarily English language meeting.
• It was also suggested that in an informal way we establish a SABR-Quebec presence at the annual installation of members to the Quebec Hall of Fame.
Conclusion
Judging by the response at the meeting and from those who sent their regrets SABR-Quebec has, since its inception, played a significant role in advancing the ‘cause’ of baseball in the province, in part by bringing together those who share a common interest in the game.
Next Meeting
Sometime in the spring, in Montreal.