Fall is upon us and winter is just around the corner. I hope everyone is still active in one sport or another. I’m looking forward to Winter Indoor Baseball which has just started at the Novelletto Centre. With some of the players going south in January there will be open spaces. Come on out and join us. Contact Ron Ottogalli.

I thought this past season with summer Slo-Pitch was a success. Our new Commissioner, Rick Anderson, and his Slo-Pitch Committee did an excellent job this year. It took us a while to get used to the pitching screens but most members adjusted well and we will continue with their use. The Slo-Pitch executive will be busy this winter organizing for next year.
We did experience some problems with fielding teams, (especially in the Red and Green Divisions), as a number of players due to health or injuries had to quit playing. We had 16 teams this year, (5 Red, 6 Blue and 5 Green.) At present, we are projecting only 14 teams next year, (down from 18 teams a few years ago), as both Red and Green will probably be down to 4 teams each. We need some new players. As a result a Motion was passed at the WECSSO Annual Meeting to lower the age of involvement in the Slo-Pitch Division of WECSSO to age 50. We’re hoping to get more players that work shifts and are able to play in the morning.
I’d like to thank all the members who supported Megan and Matt this year at the concession, especially with their loss because of the concession fire. On behalf of the members, the WECSSO Executive and the Slo-pitch Committee presented Matt and Megan with a donation of $2000 to help offset some of their losses. They were also given a gift certificate to Babies ‘R Us and funds from a 50/50 draw – special thanks to Maggie Miall and Bernie Decaire.

We had a beautiful day at our 18th Annual Memorial Day of Remembrance. Gord Gunnel and Bob Parent presented an excellent program to honour eight members that had passed away in the past year. Special thanks to Carolyn Campbell and Deacon Rick Heath, one of our members, for taking part in the service. It would be nice to see more members out at this event. A memorial brick is laid for each member in our own special reserved area which is right by the Udine Fountain at the corner of Riverside Drive and Ouellette Ave.
Since that service, four more members, Bill Vankoughnett, Dave Bohonko, John Parr and Ron Villeneuve have passed away. They will be honoured at next year’s service.

The WECSSO Slo-Pitch Annual Banquet was well attended this year. A special surprise presentation was made to Bob Parent. He was presented with a Tiger jersey and a beautiful Tiger jacket for his 22 years of service with WECSSO. Bob will continue to serve as Past President and co-chairman of the Remembrance Committee.

A word about the Annual Meeting this past October 21st: We had 50 members, if that, in attendance. I thank those who were able to attend but we need to see more of you at this once a year meeting. WECSSO is SLO-PITCH BASEBALL. Without a WECSSO Executive to organize, recruit, fund-raise and direct the membership there is no Slo-Pitch Baseball.

This executive along with the Slo-Pitch Committee provides an excellent program we all love, but it needs some leadership to continue to do so. We had 5 members up for re-election. Tom Bois, Ken Dafoe, and Sylvia Schultz, were willing to stand for re-election. Bob Parent and Bill Scheuerman, (both after many years of service), were stepping down leaving 2 vacancies on the executive. Nominations were open to the floor but no one was willing to stand for the 2 open positions. If this continues, where does that leave us?
The WECSSO executive is responsible for membership/recruitment, fundraising, support of the Goodfellows Paper Drive, Youth and Child Sponsorship and support of both the summer and winter indoor slo-pitch. The executive meets 4 – 5 times a year. If you feel you are able give some time and want to serve on this executive, please email or call me or any one of the executive members. Along with Tom, Ken and Sylvia, you have, Jim Bridge, Phil Ochs, Ron Ottogalli, Lido Sandre and myself as your 2015 WECSSO Executive.
ALONE WE CAN DO SO LITTLE, TOGETHER WE CAN DO SO MUCH – Helen Keller