Support your Alumni: become a member
Kingsley Collins
1 December 2017
Into its fourth year of operation, Australian Baseball Alumni is urging all of those with an interest in the continued betterment of baseball to renew or take out a membership for the next twelve months. JOIN NOW
Ongoing support of the Australian baseball community is absolutely vital to us. It allows us to continue promoting the sport and it enables us to contribute in material ways to targeted programmes and initiatives.
Our patron for 2017/18 will be former Major League player, Australian Baseball League and national representative Mark Ettles, who accepted the role without hesitation as a person who has retained an intense interest in the development of the sport Down Under.
We thank our outgoing Patron Graeme Lloyd for his generous commitment to the Alumni project since its very beginning - and we welcome Mark Ettles on board for the 2017/18 year.
If you have not already done so, please take the time to read OUR FEATURE on Mark Ettles.
Australian Baseball Alumni has the full endorsement of Baseball Australia. While it is independent of any other body, it is a totally accountable legal entity that is under direct control of a Committee of Management comprising people of the highest stature in Australian baseball.
With assistance of the baseball community and wonderful supporters like Jet Couriers, we have been able to achieve some great things for the game in our first three years. Through fund-raising activities alone the Alumni has managed to contribute over $20,000 to assist in covering the costs of national team programs.
The range of services we seek to deliver include:
Providing the means of encouraging ongoing connection and reconnection between baseball people, whatever their level of achievement or involvement may have been:
Provision of mentoring and other assistance to young people taking up college offers or signing professional contracts:
Conducting fund-raising activities (such as online auctions) to assist in covering the costs of national team programs:
Provision of free online coaching material prepared by national coaches:
Timely and high quality coverage, interviews and commentary on Australian baseball through website and social media.
For those people with existing memberships, we encourage you to renew for 2017/18 through the Baseball Australia LINK. For new members, follow this LINK.
While an overview of Australian Baseball Alumni history and service is provided below, we are excited to announce an attractive incentive for clubs taking out bulk membership of the Alumni.
“If a club can get a group of 30 members or more to join the Alumni, then the Alumni will organise for one of our Major League players to go and visit that club for two hours and either train the players, deliver a talk to the club or help coach the coaches,” Alumni Chairman Brett Ward explained.
“The Alumni will also provide an item of memorabilia for the club when the Major League player visits. That item could be raffled - or the club can do whatever it wishes with the item,” he said.
For further information about how to enrol for the club offer please email us (australianbaseballalumni@gmail.com)or send a personal message through our FACEBOOK page.
We look forward to your support. We urge you to JOIN NOW.
AUSTRALIAN BASEBALL ALUMNI: a brief history and overview
Inspired by the enthusiasm of high-profile Australia baseball identities, the Alumni organisation was launched in October 2014 as a not-for profit group committed to promoting the sport, to building relationships in the sport, reporting on the sport and conducting fund-raising activities to assist with particular projects – especially in the junior area.
Over its three years thus far, Australian Baseball Alumni has established great credibility as a voluntary body that has adopted a constructive supporting role to a sporting community governed by Baseball Australia and its affiliate associations across the land.
The Alumni seeks to do far more. It is able to do far more. It will do far more - with the assistance of a strong and growing membership base.
While our online reach is considerable, the potential needs to translate into more memberships for us to continue to honour and to build upon our fundamental commitments.
For those who have not taken out memberships but are among the very many thousands of people with an interest in baseball – as players, coaches, administrators, volunteers, officials, supporters, family members or friends – we urge you to join as new members.
We invite businesses and organisations to come on board in a sponsorship capacity.
We encourage associations and clubs to promote our activities – even if simply by inclusion of our logo and links on websites and in social media.
In joining us, members can feel a degree of ownership of the Alumni organisation and can be confident that they are contributing in a tangible way to the services that we offer and to the support that we seek to provide for worthwhile baseball projects.
Your involvement is valued and will be very much appreciated.
“Australian Baseball Alumni membership is open to anyone with an interest or an involvement in our great sport,” said current Alumni Chairman, former Australian Baseball League star and 1984 Helms Award winner Brett Ward.
“Alumni management is excited about the future of Australian baseball and is here for the long haul,” he said. “Your support is absolutely vital to help us deliver on our goals. We would love to have you aboard for the ride.”