B.C. Secondary School Cross-Country Commission s Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2018 November 2, 2018. 7:00PM Coast Bastion Hotel, Nanaimo, British Columbia 1. Call To Order Welcome and introductions of the Commission - Colin Reminder to sign in and get one voting card per School. o Colin noted that there were no voting cards here. Thanks to race directors: Allen Johnston, Tyler Heisterman 2. The Executive Commissioner: (Up for re-election) Treasurer: (Up for re-election) Secretary: Jody Barber (Up for re-election) Media Liaison: Sean Dawson (position to be included in duties of commissioner) Liaison with BC Athletics: : Media liaison job is not a big job and it is easy for Colin to do it. Some discussion on the proper process for re-elections. All those up for re-election were acclaimed. Members at Large: Zone Representatives Fraser Valley Independent Sean Dawson Kootenays Jon Francis North Central Brian Nemethy North West Jody Barber North Shore/Howe Sound Gerry Karvelis Okanagan Tom Carlson Burnaby/New West/Rich Bill Harvey Vancouver Paul Skarsgard Vancouver Island Tessa Kubicek 3. Review of 2017 Minutes : Hopes the Zone Reps will continue in their positions. Reps will be needed for the new zone configuration. Thought we might need to raise the entry fees but didn t need to this year. He will wait on this year s financials to see if it needs to be raised $5. Appeals process went well there were six and they all went through. Motion to approve the Minutes: Brian Nemethy, Nechako Valley Seconded: Mark Fenn, Sentinel Motion carried. 1
4. Financials Financials reviewed by, projected on the screen, are to the end of June, 2018 : BCSS does the financials for free Went over the income items Subway has donated the same as last year, $5100 Went over expenses Typically, it is more expense to host in larger cities (comparison of Vancouver to Kelowna) There is a small surplus from last year of $500 Gaming grants are not guaranteed, and if we don t get one, we may need to raise the race fees How much surplus can we carry to help the commission financially weather more expensive race years? Jordan Abney BCSS does not have a set policy on this up to a year s general operating money on reserve, could be about twenty thousand a year, given our average costs BCSS gets a gaming grant each year, but no core government funding. The new government has indicated changes may be coming as far as grant allocation. It is currently about two hundred thousand a year. We had $13,900 in the bank as of the end of June 2018 with virtually no liabilities Vince Van Dyk Is sponsorship the same as last year? He noticed the sponsor advertising on the BCXC webpage. : Most of the sponsor money is Subway Vince Van Dyk: How much does it cost to get your company on the website? doesn t think there is a limit. Some past host committees had some smaller sponsors, some didn t. Vince Van Dyk wonders about the possibility of getting more sponsors : It ends up being up to the host committee. Sue Moore Does the host committee get anything for hosting? : They get an extra Zone birth 2
: They ask for what they need, eg. flagging, and get to keep it. There is no cash incentive or bonus. It might be a good idea to come up with guidelines, what kind of sponsors we want, and what we could do for them, depending on how much they donate. Vince Van Dyk might be nice to have a larger scholarship fund, with more scholarships available, from more sponsors or with excess in the bank That would be a great motion for next year. Motion to accept the Financials: Tom Carlson, Kelowna Seconded: Mike Keenlyside, Point Grey Motion carried. 5. Committees A. Championship Host Committee: Allen Johnston, Tyler Heisterman To discuss details about race site, race and awards (1:30PM sharp) They were unavailable for the duration of the meeting B. Disciplinary Committee Handles disputes and infractions on race day (Commissioner) Mark Fenn, Sentinel Secondary School Andrew Lenton, Maple Ridge Secondary School Eric Wolf, Dawson Creek Secondary School C. Scholarship Committee To choose 2 $500 scholarship winners (get applications in by Dec 1) Brian Nemethy, Nechako Valley Tessa Kubicek, Oak Bay Mark Fenn, Sentinel 2017 Winners: Aidan Doherty (West Vancouver) and Rhian Paterson (Sentinel) Clarified that it was $500 per athlete, and $1000 in total Asked that Reps encourage more athletes to apply 3
6. Future Championships 2019 Lower Mainland, Saturday, November 2, 2019. Abbotsford (Andrew Lenton, hopefully along with MEI and Abbotsford Christian), likely at Clearbrook Park 2020 Other, Saturday, November 7. 2020. Kootenay-Columbia maybe Selkirk College Tom Carlson: wondering if the 2020 race could be moved up a week Jordan Abney need to run it through the BCSS office to ensure there are no conflicts, check with clubs After checking for conflicts, this is something we could vote on at next year s AGM The application to host is available on www.bcxc.ca 7. Future Zones BCSS is going to 9 zones from 10 for 2019 Discussion: New zones and berths : Starts next year, changes affect the five lower mainland zones Take existing berths and move in accordance with changes, not big changes this year, the changes take into account the carving There will be a berthing review in 2019, so not reviewing it now 2017 participant data used by Stan Richmond-Burnaby-New Westminster and Fraser Valley are changing from these two zones to three: Fraser River North, Fraser River South, Fraser Valley East North Shore-Howe Sound, Vancouver, Independent are becoming one zone: the Vancouver-Whistler Zone Sir Thomas Moore (independent school outside Vancouver) will become part of Fraser River North Numbers in communities taken into account to divide up team and individual berths Proportional transfer of berths using current allocations Would prefer not to round up numbers for the first run-through next year, 2019, and go with the provided numbers for team berths and individuals for 2019 only Stan would like to get next year s zone results in advance of the 2019 AGM so they can be used in discussions on moving forward 4
Berthing for 2019 Zone 2017 Participation Team Berths Indiv Berths Vancouver-Whistler 966 9 58 Fraser River North 449 4 26 Fraser River South 475 4 25 Fraser Valley East 307 3 16 Total 2197 20 125 Mike Keenleyside: Is this a motion? Motion to Discuss New Berthing Configuration: Brian Nemethy, Nechako Valley Seconded: Mark Fenn, Sentinel Motion carried. Vincent Gabel Wondering about the numbers of individual berths The proposed berthing allocations are not perfectly balanced, hope to do this next year, this is a work in progress, he is open to further criteria Andrew Lenton using athlete numbers here but what about the number of schools to create berths, numbers of participants can vary within schools and years, but school numbers don t vary, might be a better way to do it Didn t analyse the number of schools data for his numbers Vincent Gabel Concerned that the number of participants in school programs can vary dramatically year to year, but the number of schools remains fairly constant He thinks the original calculations were done with school numbers as opposed to athlete numbers Vince Van Dyk: supports Andrew s claim to work with number of schools, not athlete numbers Feels the berthing numbers seem low for his zone Jordan Abney BCSS is preparing a package with data to help answer questions, should be out in about two weeks numbers are associated with number of schools looking for consistency between sports, hence moving to nine zones for all sports Looking to make Zone Championships more manageable this has been a two year process, looked at both numbers for schools and students, a challenge looking at different sports 5
Abi Craton: Why is the Vancouver-Whistler Zone so massive Reiterated what Jordan Abney said, that in looking at other sports, it s not massive Jordan Abney XC is different in that it s classified as an individual sport, despite the team competition aspect Mike Keenleyside: Is the proposed zoning just for XC? : No, for all BCSS sports : only used 2017 data as other years was incomplete, and he doesn t have all the 2018 data yet Tom Carlson: are we mandated to make the change? Yes Tom Carlson Seems like the changes result in loss of one very large zone an creation of another Agrees Tom Carlson Agrees with Andrew Lenton, thinks it makes more sense to look at number of schools competing, not number of athletes will look at more years data Jordan Abney: agrees that number of schools is a valid way to deal with it, not just number of participants Numbers are analyzed every few years : he used five years of data for his calculations on berthing, just looked at participants, not number of schools Andrew Lenton: looking at school numbers, feels data is misleading given it is just athlete numbers, concerned we aren t getting all the data without addressing the number of schools he s concerned about the large number of schools in the Fraser Valley Acknowledges he has just used one criteria the number of participants : If a Zone has a lot of schools but participation is down, that s not fair. Participation numbers fluctuate, and berths are adjusted accordingly. The number or schools is not used as some schools don t have XC running teams. 6
: A school number does not account for the great variation in athlete participation numbers. School numbers are not indicative of participation numbers Questions whether we should use the school number provided by BCSS as those numbers are schools that are members of BCSS, and not specific to the schools with XC running teams Jordan Abney: Clarified that he is providing numbers of schools that do have cross country teams or athletes, but not numbers of athlete numbers Feels it comes down to philosophically, how do you organize your berths, by rewarding schools which have more athletes? What are you valuing, does it work to organize based on schools, or those who have teams? : could use individual participation numbers for individual berths, and school numbers for team berths could use a hybrid model, where both individual participation and number of schools both factor into the berthing allocations reiterated that his information keeps the same berthing allocation, and is just for 2019, then further analyze Eric Wolf: wants to decide what we re doing for next year, how do we move on with more data after next year Susan Northey: wants the motion to include that we will look at the numbers again next year and we will look at more data and vote again next year Eric Wolf: amends motion that we leave it up to the executive to look at more data, needs to be stated in the motion, wants a one year vote, friendly amendment s original Motion: To use the numbers that Stan has produced for next year Eric Wolf s friendly amendment: We will analyze more data and bring it up next year at the AGM, and vote on it again Friendly amendment seconded: Mike Keenleyside, Point Grey Secondary Carried. We should form a committee to do this He has been tasked with this Wants a committee to work on how much, and what type, of data should be used, and present this Eric Wolf 7
wants to be a part of the committee think is it could be someone from each Zone and will contact Zones next week about this, maybe one coach from each Zone This will affect other zones, so full representation would be good says current numbers were based on five years of data, to show trends use the Zone Championships numbers the next committee agrees more years of data required looked at finishers only, not all participants 8. Motions Whereas, zones races typically match BC Championship distances; Whereas, we are trying to grow our sport; Whereas, approximately 75% of BC high school athletes don t make BC X Country Provincials; Whereas, shorter distances would allow greater success for the majority and allow the elite Provincial-bound athletes to work on increasing speed; Whereas, US high school varsity athletes run a standard 5k; Whereas, BC Athletics high schooled aged athletes run 5k or less; Whereas, Junior athletes ought to run shorter than Seniors Moved by (Elgin Park), Seconded by Davy Gin (White Rock Christian Academy): "At the BC High School Cross Country Championships: Senior boys and girls run 5k (or close to it as possible based on the course) Junior boys and girls run 4k (or close to it as possible based on the course)" : read the motion to open discussion on it feels the current distances only benefit the few students who will go on to run at university Tom Turnbull: agrees with the motion Dylan Gant: agrees with the motion Eric Wolf: agrees with and supports the motion, to get kids running Jordan Abney: supports the motion, given that, as educators, we are not in the athlete development business, we are developing good citizens, not just good athletes who will go on, and it s good for participation For kids going on, whether they run 5km or 6km isn t going to make a difference for them 8
Tom Carlson: likes the extra longer distances as separating us from track Brian Nemethy: kids liked the shorter track distances Mike Keenleyside: supports the motion Jacob Emerson: his athletes enjoyed the challenge of the longer distance Don Sparks: His numbers of senior girls were good, they started preparing in the summer He feels that if it is better for participation, then the distances should be moved down, but also feels that athletes are capable of preparing for the longer distances : suggests that distances be it as close as it makes sense, based on the course Voting on the motion: For: 30 Opposed: 4 The motion carried 8. New Business Mike Keenleyside: wants to thank the hosts in Nanaimo Don Sparks: brought shirts he thinks the profile of the sport would be raised by a better shirt, technical fabric, wants better logo and fit, feels this can be done for $13 thinks we should charge more and have athletes leave with better momentos, wants to raise the profile of the sport by offering something that has more meaning for the students, thinks this will build our numbers by attracting more kids Brian Nemethy: also gives out a shirt every year, has the team history for the Zone and Provincials, feels it is good advertising in the school, does fundraisers for their jacket, shirt has profile Brian charges $45 to join XC at his school, and he gets sponsors to help offset costs Motion to adjourn Motion to adjourn: Tom Turnbull, Lambrick Park Seconded by Brian Nemethy, Nechako Valley 9