Mock Draft Central’s Geoff Stein came in fourth in last month’s vote to fill three vacancies on the Fantasy Sports Trade Association’s board of directors, but that won’t keep him from joining the group.

Jeff Coruccini of Fantasy Football Starters has stepped away from his position to tend to outside commitments, leaving the first alternate to take his spot and serve on the conference committee.

Stein said he’s “excited” to take on that task and wants to make the events a bit more welcoming for folks who might not be as connected in the industry.

“One area, I feel where they’ve lacked in the past is creating a warm atmosphere for first-time attendees and less established members,” Stein told FSB.com. “Those conference rooms can be pretty intimidating places, and it isn’t an easy thing to just walk up to someone from an ‘established’ site and start a conversation — especially when you’re the new kid on the block.”

Stein also said that he’d like to see the conference deliver a bit more value for smaller companies just starting to make their way in fantasy.

“As a member of the board, I want to give a voice to the smaller sites,” Stein said. “Through my work at Mock Draft Central, I’ve had the chance to deal with all sites — from the guy writing a blog in his mom’s basement, to the big boys like ESPN, Yahoo and CBS.

“Whenever I’ve talked to the smaller sites about the FSTA, they’ve shown little-to-no interest, and I think that needs to change as I feel the association has the chance to offer them quite a bit — and vice versa.”

The next FSTA conference will take place in June in Chicago.

With the first pitch of baseball season just a few days away, it’s become apparent that our initial post on the FSTA baseball accuracy challenge was a bit lacking in specifics and clarity.

Just to restate, the challenge is being put on by the Fantasy Sports Trade Association in conjunction with FantasyDispute.com, the Fantasy Football Librarian and TheMostCredible.com to recognize fantasy outlets that provide the most accurate player stat projections for the coming season.

The baseball version of this challenge that originated in the 2008 football season differs in that participants must provide specific projections rather than just player rankings.

“We decided that you just couldn’t do the player rankings as easily with baseball as with football so we’re looking at projected stats for specific players instead,” said Sara Holladay, the FF Librarian and one of three judges for the challenge.

Those interested in participating should download the rules sheet and the official entry form from the FSTA’s site. Completed forms should be sent to Holladay (fflibrarian@gmail.com), Bill Green (greenbill@fantasydispute.com) and Donnie Campbell (dc@themostcredible.com).

Entries will be welcomed throughout the season, as long as participants can verify that their projections were published before the start of the MLB season.