Date: Thu, 05 May 2005 19:58:29 -0700
From: Kelly L Perry <klperry@dcs04.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: suzanne.bradfield@jpl.nasa.gov, scott.morgan@jpl.nasa.gov,
        toby.solorzano@jpl.nasa.gov
CC: Richard Chen <richard.chen@jpl.nasa.gov>, richard.c.benesh@jpl.nasa.gov,
        sam.dolinar@jpl.nasa.gov, charles.kaczinski@jpl.nasa.gov
Subject: JPL Softball Conflict: Potential Resolution and some history

Scott, Toby and Suzanne,

I spoke with management at both Loma Alta Park and L.A. County
Parks and Recreation yesterday about the latest conflict with
Mr. Ryan Graves, the president of Altadena Little League. One of
the managers at L.A. County Parks has decided to take this problem
to the Little League Regional Office, because staff/volunteers from
all three of our organizations have had to endure Mr. Graves' abusive,
vulgar language and his inability to work within the scheduling
system for over 3 years.

Just to bring everyone up to speed, the real problem is that Mr. Graves
does not check the reservation dates on his Reservation Contract. These
Contracts are provided to the customer in writing about 10 days after
the initial request. (Mid-March for JPL Softball. Earlier for Little 
League,
because their season starts before ours.) Mr. Graves should have had ample
time before May 3 to check the Little League Reservation, and if there
was a problem with the scheduled dates, call the County, Penny (the .
manager of Loma Alta Park) or me to work something out.  I have been
the Field Rep for JPL Softball for the last 5 years, and I can assure you
that we've never received all of our initially requested dates for the
Spring season.  Working with the County to get substitute dates has
become a standard part of the process.

Also, Mr. Graves has used the double-booking excuse at least once
per year for the last three years and has been either unwilling or
unable to produce the "erroneous" Reservation Contract at each
occurrence.  The Reservation Contracts are generated by the County's
scheduling software which is coded to prevent the ball fields from
being booked by different groups at the same time.

In past years, Penny and I have both clearly stated to Mr. Graves
that JPL Softball would accommodate any scheduling changes that
Little League needs as long as we are given a few days notice to
inform our players and umpires. As Richard mentioned, we have
accommodated them on several past occasions. Therefore, I do not
understand why Mr. Graves did not negotiate with us this time after
Penny informed him several days in advance that Little League did
not have the field on May 3.  Instead, and not for the first time, he
had the Little League players, coaches and parents show up. As usual,
the parents and coaches berated the JPL Softball Commissioner for
"stealing the field from children", and we received the expected
harassing phone calls at work on the following day from the Little
League parents, including some who are JPL employees.

This is a very unpleasant and stressful situation for the B-League
Commissioners. Most of us played Little League and have no desire to
prevent any child from playing a game we love.  However, I don't
know what else to do to avoid conflicts with Altadena Little League
in the future. (The schedulers at the County and I have even looked
into moving to another field with no luck.) I guess we just have to
cross our fingers and hope the County can work something out with
the Little League Regional Office.  I will let you all know the results
of their negotiations once I receive an update.

Kelly