N.H. AMATEUR HOCKEY ASSOCIATION GENERAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING HOLIDAY INN, CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2018

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1 ROLL CALL/CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 9:40 am. Delegates Present: Delegates Absent: Backbay N.H. Avalanche Henniker Berlin N.H. East Eagles Hollis Concord N.H. Jr. Monarchs Keene Dover N. Cyclones Lakes Region Hanover Plymouth Nashua Kearsarge Rochester Oyster River (excused) Manchester Seacoast Women s Twin Valley Flyers Mt. Washington Valley Upper Valley Officers Present: Paul Comeau Mike Durant Kevin Fascetta Charles Fortier Roger Gilles Stephanie Laurin Pat McDonough John McKenzie David Maxfield Bobby Rodrique Matt Roy Cam Stoddard Joan Strogen Chris Cooper President Treasurer Webmaster Risk Manager Registrar Squirts Divisional VP (excused) Bantams Divisional VP (excused) Mites Divisional VP (excused) Referee-in-Chief (excused) Coaching Director (excused) 1 st Executive VP/Midgets Executive VP Secretary & SafeSport Coordinator (excused) Pee Wees Divisional VP Womens Divisional VP Guests: Larry Rocha Andy Gibson NED CIC USAH I. OPENING REMARKS Paul Comeau thanked everybody for coming. (Page 1)

2 II. ANNOUNCEMENTS Background Checks Association SafeSport coordinators have access to background search verifications, and right now there is a glitch in the system. If a request form is completed but the credit card information is not entered correctly, an will still be sent out announcing that the background search has been completed, even though the verification is not actually released until the payment has been received by Verity. Verity has been notified. Meanwhile, please ask SafeSport Coordinators to double check to ensure that there is a C next to names in the system for which forms were completed. New Registrar Please welcome Roger Gillies, the new Registrar. As a reminder, the turnaround time for roster approval is a 7-day process if the other association does not respond immediately. N.H. Jr. Monarchs Fliers have been handed out regarding N.H. Jr. Monarchs programs being offering this season. Information will also be posted online about these programs, including an article provided by the N.H. Jr. Monarchs. They will be at next month s meeting to talk about their programs in greater depth. Election for Womens Divisional VP Joan Strogen moved, seconded by Matt Roy, to allow this vote ahead of the other agenda items. The motion passed. Chris Cooper offered to remain in the position of Womens Divisional VP. Paul Comeau acknowledged that he was required to ask three times whether there were any other nominations for either position, as otherwise the Secretary would automatically cast one vote for Chris, and then asked three times whether there were any additional nominations. No additional nominations were made. He asked the Secretary to cast one vote for Chris, and congratulated Chris for remaining in the position. III. MONTHLY STATUS REPORTS Secretary Joan Strogen moved, seconded by Trina Cassady (Rochester), to accept the February 17, 2018 meeting minutes. The motion passed. Matt Roy moved, seconded by Jeremy Vega (N.H. Jr. Monarchs) to accept the August 25, 2018 meeting minutes as amended to reflect that Joan Strogen s absence. The motion passed. (Page 2)

3 Treasurer Mike Durant handed out copies of the Fiscal Year Final Report. Attached to the end of that is a copy of the balance sheet through August 31 st. Once the final report is approved, Mike will have the accountant review it. Joan motioned, seconded by Jen Fullerton (Plymouth), to accept the final report. The motion passed. A monthly report will be provided at next month s meeting. Paul Comeau announced that a copy of the grant application is now available on line. Grant applications are due by November 1 st. Grants will be disbursed as early as December 1 st so long as applicable receipts have been submitted and approved. Grants up to $2,000 will be awarded and $30,000 is available overall. 1 st Executive VP Matt Roy announced that approximately 550 releases have been processed to date. The last 100 were submitted last-minute and again, building on what Paul Comeau said earlier, the turnaround time for roster approval is a 7-day process if the other association does not respond immediately. He understands how frustrating this can be. There was a brief discussion regarding releases, national-bound teams, and the GSL league. Please reach out to Matt or Paul Comeau with any questions regarding releases. They are here to help. Banners have been distributed. They seemed to be really popular last year and many people have been asking for them again this year. If you are missing one please reach out to Matt. It would also appear that players would prefer shirts to trophies. Please share your thoughts with Matt regarding banners, shirts, trophies, and the like. The Tier 2 independents list: U14: N.H. Avalanche; U16: N.H. Avalanche & New England Edge; and U18: New England Edge. For these levels, there will be a GSL playoff and then the winner will play the independent. This rule may be amended a bit when doing so would not cause displacement. Registrar Roger Giles introduced himself and suggested for local registrars who have not reached out to him yet to do so. Roger announced that because he is USAH and not NHAHA, he is not involved with releases. All release-related questions and issues should be addressed to Matt Roy who is here to help with them. Building upon what Matt and Paul Comeau said earlier, building on what Paul Comeau said earlier, the turnaround time for roster approval is a 7-day process if the other association does not respond immediately. He processes rosters as quickly as he can. (Page 3)

4 With regard to communication, the Registrar should be hearing from presidents and local registrars; coaches need to talk to their presidents and local registrars when they have rosterrelated questions or issues. Annual Guides and Rule Books are being handed out. They are also available on the USAH website and through the app stores. He has had a lot of questions about girls; girls can only be on one national-bound roster. The exception here is that until December 31 st, girls can appear on both a girls roster and a youth roster after the 31 st, they must declare. With regard to tracking players who are on national-bound rosters, he can look in the system and track players to determine whether they are on a national-bound team already. He will do his best to catch the doubles. The only problem is if a player is added in New Hampshire before the player is added in another state, say Massachusetts; the problem being if Massachusetts does not catch the doubles. As a reminder, Paul noted that if a border program registers in New Hampshire, 50 percent of the players need to be New Hampshire-based players. Please reach out to Roger and Paul because this can be tricky especially with players around the age of majority. Roger asked everybody to be patient with him because this is his first year. Please reach out to him with any questions. He is here to help. Risk Manager Charles Fortier announced that he plans to add an addendum to the certificates of insurance regarding non-sanctioned teams (i.e. Mites) not being covered by USAH s liability insurance if using someone else s ice time. Please complete request forms for certificates of insurance and include a copy of the ice contract so that the rink can be named as an additional insured. Please include the rink s address on the request form. Womens Divisional VP Paul Comeau announced that because some of the girls tiers are very light it might be worthwhile to considering allowing the girls to play into the GSL tiers; U10 into Tier 4, for example. Paul planned to add a discussion about this as an agenda item for a future meeting. Mites Divisional VP Paul Comeau announced that John McKenzie is done with Mites now. There is a Google doc through which games can be scheduled. It is not a NHAHA-controlled doc. (Page 4)

5 Peewees Divisional VP Joan Strogen announced that schedulers should not be scheduling games past February 10 th per the bylaws. She will be deleting games scheduled past the deadline. Bantams Divisional VP Matt Roy announced that there are two Tier 1 independents for Bantams; Seacoast and N.H. Avalanche. The regular Tier 1 team is the N. Cyclones. Midgets Divisional VP Paul Comeau announced that Midgets playing on girls split-season teams need to post all games online before the end of the day. Matt Roy announced that Tier 2 U16 will be Manchester and N.H. East; Tier 3 U16 will be Dover, Manchester, and Oyster River; and Tier 1 U16 will be N. Cyclones and N.H. Avalanche; Tier 1 U15 will be N. Cyclones and N.H. Avalanche; Tier 2 U18 will be N. Cyclones, Dover, Manchester, and N.H. East; Tier 3 U18 will be Berlin, Manchester, Washington Valley, Oyster River, and Plymouth. The state tournament for midgets (November 9 11) is posted on the website. The state tournament is optional for Tier 3; however, please let Matt know if a team opts out so that he can let the host know. Rosters have been trickling in. Please get them in before first games. Today is the last day to get games scheduled. Webmaster Kevin Fascetta thanked the associations that have submitted their interface information to him for doing so as it will allow him to help games flow down from the NHAHA website to the pages for the associations. Please let scorekeepers know that games need to be submitted before noon on Tuesdays otherwise fines are issued. He has no control over this. Please let Kevin know who the scorekeepers are so he can set them up to submit games. Kevin has been sending out instructions for doing so. They are also available online under the Admin tab in the Help section. Scorekeepers will need to set up a SportsNgin ID. Anyone with questions can reach out to Kevin for help. SafeSport Coordinator Paul Comeau announced that the SafeSport certification is broken into three parts. Consequently, a certification is issued for each part instead of just one certification for all three. (Page 5)

6 This is important, because each coach will need to submit all three certifications to their association instead of just one. Joan Strogen moved, seconded by Lisa Williams (Berlin), to accept all of the above monthly status reports. The motion passed. IV. NEW BUSINESS GSL Tournament GSL Tournament information has been posted online. If you trade tournaments, please notify Paul Comeau as soon as possible. The GSL tournament website should be up and running soon. GSL tournament fees are currently $1,200 for Midgets and $900 for the other levels. Paul Comeau asked if anyone was interested in changing them. No one answered in the affirmative. Information will be posted in a week or two regarding the regionals and nationals. NHAHA will be hosting a couple of regionals including a Peewee Tier 2, Girls 16U & 19U Tier 2. The Supersite has not been planned yet. Anyone who is interested in hosting it should contact Chris Cooper. Andy Gibson (USAH Program Services Coordinator) Andy s department focuses on the 8 and under players and development for these levels. He handed out two documents entitled Club Excellence: How to Register and 2 & 2 Challenge: A Guide to Drive 8 & Under Participation for Your Local Association respectively. The 2 & 2 Challenge has three components. The retention component focuses on Welcome Back Week. The objective is to help associations reach out to kids and welcome them back for the new season. The acquisition component focuses on Try Hockey for Free Day and it is worth noting that participants who register online will receive a temporary USAH ID number which is good for four free sessions. The last component is the conversion component, which includes the Learn to Skate, Learn to Play, and Shortened Season programs. Associations can participate in the Completing the Challenge program on the Bronze, Silver, or Gold level and each level contains at least three components of the 2 & 2 Challenge. Club Excellence offers tools that associations can use for administration purposes. It is a blueprint, essentially. It has been incredibly popular with non-profit boards and it can be customized. Please reach out to Andy with any questions about Club Excellence or the 2 & 2 Challenge. Larry Rocha (NED Coaching Chief) (Page 6)

7 Larry handed out a document entitled Coaching Guidelines What a Coach Needs to Coach a Team. There are additional documents such as Avoiding the Coaching Cliff and A Coach s Checklist available online; this one is also available online. These documents contain need-to-know information for associations and their coaches. Pass this information on to coaches please. The last page of the documented handed out today contains a brief summary of the clinical progression which associations and coaches will find incredibly helpful. It contains a decision tree with regard to SafeSport, age-specific modules, and levels. Of note, all coaches must be properly certified if they are on the bench. It is up to the associations to monitor coaches and their certifications. Larry plans to run a high performance clinic in March to help coaches move from level 1 to 2 and 2 to 3. There is also a new goalie initiative and high performance clinics related to this initiative will be held in October. The helmet rule is in effect now. Coaches on the ice without helmets will be taken off the ice for 30 days. Contractors running skills sessions must also wear helmets. There will be a level 4 in Massachusetts. Also of note, waivers are rarely issued. Exceptions are also rare. Please reach out to Larry with any questions about coaching. Legends of Hockey Paul Comeau asked if the membership was interested in donating to Legends of Hockey again this year. Joan moved, seconded by Mick Mounsey (Concord) to donate $1,000 to Legends of Hockey. The motion carried. New England Camp Tryouts Paul Comeau announced that tryouts for the New England Camp for 14s, 15s, 16s, and 17s boys are coming up. The dates will be posted online. NHAHA is partnering with Massachusetts and the tryouts will be held in Marlborough at the New England Sports Center. March Development Weekend Paul Comeau announced that a Development Weekend will be held in March and that it looks as though 12 and 13 boys and girls will be coming back. Tryouts will probably be in early January. The idea is to return to the old-school festival way of doing things due to its popularity. V. CLOSING STATEMENTS Paul Comeau thanked everybody for coming and announced that the next meeting will be held on October 13 th at 9:30 am at the Holiday Inn. The meeting was adjourned at 11:55 am. (Page 7)