Earlier this year, Slo-Pitch Ontario and Slo-Pitch National announced their plans to enhance their working agreement in an effort to provide consistency in programming with the adoption of similar rules and policies, to share ratings and classifications of teams and players to reduce sandbagging and the abuse of rules and guidelines in the game to make it fair for all participants, and to look for ways to build the game of slo-pitch.

Over the past year or so, as any prudent business must do, we looked at our histories, our missions, values and goals, recognized each other's strengths, as well as equally assessed areas in which we each were not as effective as we wanted to be. We scrutinized everything from the costs of running programs, events, tournaments and championships, insurance, the availability of volunteers, officials and facilities, competing for the same corporate dollars, and for the same members, to provide similar services and benefits, and most of all, we looked at the future of the game we love. We made these assessments focusing on the adage, "Better, Together. For the Love of the Game.", and on our mutual commitment to build a stronger game of slo-pitch.

To that end, beginning with the 2024 season, Slo-Pitch Ontario and Slo-Pitch National will be merging their operations.

What will this mean to you - the league director/convenor, the tournament director/convenor, the player, the umpire? In short, it will mean the best of both worlds as you join what will be the largest slo-pitch organization in Ontario, and in Canada. It is meant to mean more benefits and services, more perks and rewards, more programs, more opportunities to play and umpire, more competition and more teams for events, and more opportunities to get involved, for anyone that participates in slo-pitch.

This decision is huge - possibly the biggest game changer for slo-pitch since our associations were each formed - and a lot of time and effort has gone into making it, with much more work ahead of us as we complete our game plan and get ready for 2024! There will be critics - it's slo-pitch, after all - but in the end, our focus has been - and will continue to be - to build a stronger game for the benefit of all who love it.

More information will be provided as it becomes available. Questions can be sent to info@slopitch.org, or to info@slo-pitch.com.

Yours in slo-pitch,

Tom Buchan and Trish Harrow-Rodic