Totally not defensive. Otherwise I wouldn't have posted the original question. This is a great place to pick people's brains for ideas and suggestions. You sound like you understand the travel issue and face the same dilemmas we do. That's why I asked the original question. We'd love to provide something for area girls to continue their journey in softball. We have several kids that participate in travel ball from our area and we know that it is a huge time commitment for parents and families. It's all about providing an outlet to play a sport that kids love and increasing their abilities and their love of the game.
My concern away from the rules and guidelines and a host of other issues you will face is that I haven't seen you answer the question as to where are your girls coming from? If your answer is that you plan to offer a new team to local girls that have already committed to others for 2017, than my advice is don't do it now. Loyalty and commitment are a few of the character traits the girls should learn from the experience and few on here would support any plans for you to recruit kids from other clubs this late. If you have an entire team of non-committed girls, I suggest you find out how serious their commitment is by getting their money for the season collected and place it in an account that takes 2 people to endorse the check. That will go a long way to show the families your intentions are pure. You'll need that money as soon as you can get it collected because teams are already entering next year's tourneys. Let's not get the cart before the horse before you know their level of commitment.
Be sure they understand that as a first year team they will have to travel to play and most tourneys will not be local. Many big tourneys will only have a limited amount of slots because they are going to be faithful to teams that have played without incident in the past and their check is good. You'll need a few seasons to build that trust.
Don't concern yourself with the development of an organization until you know you have teams ready to commit and put in a season actually playing.
We're not against a new organization. We're actually doing you a huge favor. Many "teams" are lucky to play a scheduled season due to players and families not understanding how much time, travel, and money it truly takes to make things work. Insure that first. Build your organization and set up tryouts when others are doing the same. I'd be willing to do a sit down with you if you remain on course to make it happen. Just send me a personal message and well coordinate a meeting. I drink sweet tea---------you'll be buying. lol