I've said this many time, it doesn't really matter what "national organization" you league is affiliated with,  what matters is the local people running the league.

There are great Little Leagues and there are horrible Little Leagues (same as in PONY or Babe Ruth, or Dixie, etc).  It all comes down to who is invovled locally.

As for your local league starting an older age group, around here (in our District) just about every Little League offers both baseball and softball from Tee-Ball (5-6) all the way through Big League (17-18).  LL "encourages" local leagues to have all age groups although some do "stop" at age 12 (Majors) and the players then move on to another organization.

Jules, Sometimes the truth is painful.  Daddy ball is bad when dad plays their kid where the kid does not belong.  Often those kids have problems when reality sets in.  My kids have to earn their spots on the field and in the lineup.  I have been board member and coach in a league over 12 years.  No amount of "volunteer work" justifies daddy ball and favoritism. 

It was great when my oldest was finally on a team that was coached by a former pro who had no kids on the team.  No more BS for him since then.  He is now playing varsity at a school that had a pretty nice 2009 and may have a VERY good 2010.

Dorothy, you have been given many good pieces of advice to date. Please go into your board meetings with a solution mindset and actual solutions to place on the table. Here is another possible solution you might consider, it is what our little league has been doing for years and has worked extemely well. This is not to say that it goes without hiccups sometimes, but we seem to end up with the best players on the team and it all but eliminates the popularity/favortism show.

Here is how our LITTLE LEAGUE chooses all-stars:

Managers and Coaches: All persons wishing to be considered for manager positions must apply, in writing, to our president and be approved by the board. In our league the major league manager whose team wins the regular season gets first shot at managing the 11-12's. If they do not wish to, it goes to 2nd place manager, and so on.  The 9-10 manager is purely a board vote and you must carry a majority and have been a regular season manager or coach.

9-10 age group: After regular season and before July 15th we hold a try-out for all eligible players that wish to try out. We have 5 majors teams and 7 AAA teams in our league so we normally have about 30-50 kids try out. We encourage all 9 and 10 yr olds in our league to at least try out! Then the manager and one coach from each regular season team meet in board room to vote for the team, naming a max of 10 players per ballot. Here is the kicker, you CANNOT vote for kids who were on your regular season team! The votes are tallied, the top 10 vote getters are automatically on the team and the manager gets to choose the final 2 or 3 players, depending on how many kids the manager and coaches wish to have on the team. That's your final team!

11-12: A little more complicated. These are usually kids who played the season on a major level team. We have all the majors teams vote indiviually at different times in our board room. Again, the kids CANNOT vote for anyone on their regular season team and we allow them to vote for a max of 10 players. The votes are tallied and the top 10 vote getters are placed on the team. We list the top 18 vote getters on the chalkboard and if there is a tie for 18th, 19th or 20th (which happens regularly) we put all the names on the board. The pre-approved manager and coaches for the team then picks, from the remaining names on the list, 2 or 3 kids depending again on how many kids we will carry on the roster. There you have your 12 or 13 player roster.

I agree with the advice you have rec'd before to go into the board meeting with a "I am here to help" mindset and see if you can affect change for the positive! Little League can be such a positive experience if handled well!  I wish you good luck and your son continued success on the diamond!!