Covid 19 information
Aug 10, 2020 Update
Dear FCLL Families,
We hope you and your families are well and healthy during these challenging and unprecedented times. Below is a lot of updated information and we hope you’ll take a few minutes to review it.
It is with sadness and disappointment that the FCLL Board of Directors has voted to cancel the 2020 season.
To this day, FCLL Board Members continued to hold out hope of bringing our children back to play baseball. Board members have worked with the City of Fremont and Fremont Unified School District to gain approvals to use properties. We have continued to maintain our fields so that we could resume baseball at any time. We have coordinated with District 14 and stayed in touch with other leagues also holding out hope. We took the lead and developed a safety plan, shared it with other leagues and the City of Fremont gaining tentative approval of the plan pending opening the fields.
We recently heard from the City of Fremont that we won’t be able open our fields until at least September 1. That will not leave sufficient time to resume the season. Considering safety guidelines, the Board will look into alternative activities that FCLL coaches and players can engage in when the fields open.
As we all know, 2020 is the inaugural season for Fremont Centerville Little League. Following two years of planning, three local leagues merged into one. More than that, with the promise of a new and exciting baseball opportunity, FCLL experienced huge, positive growth and influx of new players and families from other organizations.
Even though the Spring season was cut short after one-and-a-half months of practice and less than a week of games due to the Alameda County stay at home order, FCLL had incurred a significant portion of our annual expenses for uniforms, equipment, insurance, Little League fees, facility improvements, field preparation, and operating expenses such as utilities, port-a-potties, garbage, etc. FCLL made significant upfront investments to accommodate the merger and growth.
As you know, FCLL is a volunteer-driven non-profit. Our mission is simply to provide a positive youth baseball experience for our FCLL families. We intentionally kept our registration fees low in order to keep Little League Baseball available to everyone. In fact, we budgeted registration fees to cover approximately just 50% of our annual operating budget. The balance would be raised through sponsorships, the snack bar operations and our annual fundraising efforts, which we have not been able to conduct this year. Consequently, 100% of registration fees have been spent preparing for and starting the season before it was cut short in March. Nonetheless, we have assessed our financial situation and can offer the following refunds or alternatives.
Below is what the Board of Directors believes we can prudently and responsibly offer as refunds. Any family who chooses to donate their registration fees will be entered into a drawing to win one of seven prizes: 1st - a $250 Target Gift Card donated by Target, 2nd – a $100 gift card or 3rd – one of five Goody Baskets valued at about $25 or more.
Registration Fees: We can offer you 3 choices: 1) donate your registration fees and enter the drawing, 2) a $50 refund of 2020 registration fees or 3) 50% off your 2021 registration fees. If you would like a refund or 2021 discount, please fill out this refund request survey at: Link to FCLL 2020 Cancellation Questionnaire Please respond no later than August 31. Otherwise, registration fees will be deemed to be donated to FCLL for 2020 and you will be entered into the drawing once for each player.
Buy-outs, Hit-A-Thon collections and Fundraising: We can offer you 3 choices for Buy-outs, Hit-A-Thon donations and other fundraising donations/payments: 1) leave the money with FCLL as a 2020 donation, 2) request a 2020 refund, or 3) keep the money for my 2021 buy-out, Hit-A-Thon or other fundraising. Please complete the Link to FCLL 2020 Cancellation Questionnaire to request. If you request a Hit-A-Thon refund we will make every effort to return the donation to the original donor.
In lieu of a refund, all Members have the option to donate some or all their refund to the league. FCLL is a non-profit organization, and as such, your donation is tax deductible. If you would like to have your refund donated to the league, please email [email protected] with the name of your kid(s), and we will email you a tax deductible receipt (Thank you!).
Team Funds: We will also be sending guidance to team parents arranging refunds of team funds deposited. We will be refunding snack shack funds but please understand they probably can't get refunds for already purchased banners or other team expenses.
The FCLL Board would have liked to have been able to refund a larger portion of your registration fees. However, the way in which this crisis has impacted organizations like ours, it’s simply not possible.
To recap the main point of this email, we must regretfully cancel the 2020 baseball season. The Board will continue to pursue alternative activities for coaches and players following safety guidelines once the City of Fremont and/or Fremont Unified School District allow access to fields. Please complete the questionnaire to request a refund. For info on our COVID safety plan and financial report please see the attached documentation.
Thank you for your patience and your commitment to keeping our community healthy so we can get back on the fields.
Please be on the lookout for further communications from FCLL. Until then, we hope you and your loved ones remain healthy and safe, and we eagerly look forward to a time when we can gather as a community, rooting for kids playing baseball.
Sincerely,
FCLL Board of Directors