Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting Oct 22, 2016 2301 McCullough Road, Nanaimo BC PRESENT: President Jim Humphrey Executive Director Charlotte Johnson Director of Hockey Operations David Beatty VP Competitive Steve Moir VP South Island Al Walker VP Mid Island Daniel Payne VP North Island Win Hunter Officiating Coord South - Ives Ouellet (excused) Officiating Coord North John Hall (excused) District Coach Coordinator South Bob Gordon (excused) District Coach Coordinator North Jim McLean (excused) District Safety & Risk Manager Vacant District Female Dev Coordinator Kristen Arnold (excused) Oceanside MHA Andrew Copley Victoria Racquet Club MHA Anthony Della Siega Alberni Valley MHA Al McCulloch Campbell River MHA Meghan Mills Comox Valley MHA Bill Brett Cowichan Valley MHA Christine Steeves Juan de Fuca MHA Harold Bloomenthal Kerry Park MHA Erin Egeland Nanaimo MHA Janelle Olson Powell River MHA Mike Mastrodonato Saanich MHA Bill Morrison Sooke MHA Martin Knowles Tri-Port MHA Vadim Stavrakov (absent) Victoria MHA Mark Grambart Gold River MHA James Reedel Peninsula MHA Chad Rintoul Lake Cowichan Todd Vaughan Absent MHA s: Tri-Port GUESTS: Bruce Brunt (IL Midget Managing Director), Sharon Cairns (IL Peewee Managing Director), Anne Dumonceaux (IL Bantam Managing Director), Dave Berg (PMHA 2 nd VP & Ice Allocator) CALL TO ORDER: 11:00 am Round Table Introductions ADOPTION OF AGENDA: MOTION: M/S (Win Hunter/Dan Payne) to adopt the Agenda of the Oct 22, 2016 Meeting as presented ADOPTION OF THE PREVIOUS MINUTES: MOTION: M/S (Harold Bloomenthal/Mike Mastrodonato) to approve the Sept 11, 2016 minutes as presented. CORRESPONDANCE: None OLD BUSINESS: a) Cross Ice for Novice and Initiation Players: Our Governing body (BC Hockey) has said the Province is going Cross Ice in both Novice and Initiation - and that is what we have to follow Who here belongs to another sport or Association and gets to change the rules that govern them while you participate? The guess is no one. If you do not like the changes enforced BC Hockey and Hockey Canada don t join & don t play. Yes BC Hockey could of launched and handled this change better - but we were all made aware of this in the summer and it was addressed again at the July 9 th Special Executive Meeting. VIAHA has also provided Temporary Guidelines until we get official ones from BC Hockey. From here, MHA s should have structured/prepared programs for H3 (7 yr. Old Teams) & H4 (8 yr. Old Teams). However some have said Nope! And continued on with mixed Novice D teams which as a result is now causing issues and
problems. (Some exceptions can be made for smaller associations of course who have to mix ages to create one team) MHA s are still able to decide where Super Star kids or very weak kids should play within H3 & H4 BC Hockey wants us to conform and we have done our best to do so. As mentioned before, we have used and converted PCAHA s Temporary Guidelines to create something that will work for VIAHA and they are pretty clear. They have been distributed and available on the VIAHA website and will used until BC Hockey gives us some official guidelines. This isn t going away so please structure your teams accordingly because we all need to support and work together on this Last year we had on Vancouver Island some Novice teams that played in excess of 30 games each and had the kids traveling every chance possible - that is too much. Equipment & Outlaw Team issues address below in Jim s report REPORTS: a) VIAHA President Jim Humphrey: Outlaw Leagues/Teams: VIAHA has been told that Hockey Canada is in the midst of investigating three (3) Outlaw Novice teams/programs operating on the Island involving approximately 45+ players. We understand they are renting ice in various locations, contacting others and inviting them to pay to play. We understand Hockey Canada is seeking to suspend everyone involved for up to 1 year. In addition, those involved will stay suspended until a decision is made and there is no guarantee on how long it will take Hockey Canada to come to the decision so they could be out of hockey for much longer by the time everything is said and done. Hockey Canada is a very powerful entity and recognized as the sole organization responsible for Hockey in the country this was proven during an Ontario Court Case whereby the Consumer Protection Branch determined that Hockey Canada has the right by Federal Law to suspend any player, Team or Ice Official, volunteer or parent in the country for operating outside of their programs They have the right to operate an Outlaw league - just that they will be suspended from any leagues or teams connected to Hockey Canada, which includes all Minor Hockey, Sport Schools and Junior/Professional levels, etc. VIAHA may get into trouble or be suspended as well, for leaking this information but feels it s important to give everyone a heads up so that Presidents can go back to their draw zones and help warn the people involved that this is coming. Show up to the ice times, if you know about them and approach those involved. *Please be clear when warning others that the suspensions are coming from Hockey Canada and not VIAHA Hopefully Hockey Canada will give out a warning first. Especially to those parents who really didn t know it was not Ok to participate People need to remember that this could carry on for years and that their Profile s stay with Hockey Canada for a lifetime For more information please Google Outlaw Leagues or read Teams Playing in Other Jurisdictions # 9 Competition B page 57 in the Hockey Canada Handbook. Novice News & Other: I will be out of the Country for the month of November but still doing Hockey work while away South Island VP Al Walker will be attending the next Minor Committee Meeting for me As it stands right now, there is no full ice opportunities allowable for Novice age players but VIAHA is pushing for the right to hold full ice Tournaments/Jamborees in the New Year and hope to be successful Equipment: Working with grants to get funding for cross ice equipment. Thank you to the MHA s that supplied the required support letters To clarify H1 Jamboree s: Team limitations are one away one home (for a total of 2)
The following item was moved up from New Business so that the Managing Directors and the Director of Hockey Operations could leave to begin working on the Island League Schedule; a) Island League Placements: Division Managers presented and spoke to each of their team placement decisions. If requested, justifications were given by MHA Presidents as to why and where they felt their teams should be placed after the placement round. The Executive was reminded that each division should have no more than 7 teams and the preferred minimum was 5 teams PEEWEE PLACMENTS: MOTION: M/S (Steve Moir/Dan Payne) to approve Sharon Cairns/Peewee Managing Directors report on Division placements. MOTION: M/S (Bill Brett/Christine Steeves) to move the Comox Peewee T2 Team up to Division 2 and move JDF Peewee T2 to Division 3 DEFEATED MOTION: M/S (Meghan Mills/Mark Grambart) to move the Campbell River Peewee T3 Team up to Division 3 BANTAM PLACMENTS: MOTION: M/S (Steve Moir/Dan Payne) to approve Anne Dumonceaux/Bantam Managing Directors report on Division placements. MOTION: M/S (Martin Knowles/ Mike Mastrodonato) to move the Tri-Port Bantam T3 Team down to Division 4 to bring it up to the preferred 5 teams MOTION: M/S (Meghan Mills/ Al McCulloch) to move the Campbell River Bantam T3 Team up to Division 2 DEFEATED MIDGET PLACMENTS: MOTION: M/S (Steve Moir/Dan Payne) to approve Bruce Brunt/Midget Managing Directors report on Division placements. MOTION: M/S (Erin Egeland/Anthony Della Siega) to move the Kerry Park Midget T3 Team up to Division 2 and move the Tri-Port Midget T3 down to Division 4 DEFEATED MOTION: M/S (Bill Morrison/None) to move the Saanich Midget T2 Team up to Division 2 FAILED (No one to 2 ND ) b) Executive Director/Financial Report - Charlotte Johnson: All under/over exemption requests are handled and up to date Dual Rostering? Officers don t wish to approve dual rostering onto teams that play in our leagues as it creates too much conflict during playoffs Charlotte is the Operations Task Person for our District again. Our first province wide evening conference call is on Nov 2 nd. I will share any up-dated request forms for Tourney Teams & Lateral Player Movements
Reminder that every team needs to have AP s listed on them (except Atom Rec Teams of course and that Tourney Teams cannot go to Recreation Tourney s they can only go to T4 level and above Tourneys. Any year end All-Star Tourneys should be sanctioned as at least a T4 Tourney BC Hockey recently listing many people as ineligible came as a bit of a shock but we all handled it and know what to expect next season. In the end it helps gets everyone ready and certified quicker The Financial report from March 31 st up to Oct 13 th, 2016 was presented. MOTION: M/S (Dan Payne/Chad Rintoul) to accept the Financial Report up to Oct 13th, 2016 as presented. c) Director of Hockey Operations David Beatty: (Written) Scheduling: Female Recreation League is completed and distributed 1 st five weeks of Mid & South Island recreation leagues are completed and distributed. I will complete these schedules within the next few weeks Island League of course will be worked on over this weekend Atom Development regular league schedule will be done Nov 12-13 when placements have been completed Female Regional A Midget teams will be interlocking with the 6 Female A PCAHA teams to play games on both the mainland and the Island Female Regional A Bantam Team will be scheduled into Peewee Island League and the Peewee Regional A Team will be scheduled into the Atom Development League Inter-district Forms: About 145 completed or pending Some are still being sent to BC Hockey rather than to me. Sometimes they get forwarded and sometime not Tournament Applications: Some MHA s continue to apply to BC Hockey for sanctions without asking VIAHA for approval first. Problem seems to be getting worse, not better. This causes extra work for me and BC Hockey Staff. *We always do our best to accommodate and approve long standing MHA annual Tourneys Discipline: Ten (10) Match Penalty/Gross Misconduct reports so far Referees are gradually becoming more accustomed to the on-line incident reporting system introduced by BC Hockey. A few glitches but they are being ironed out Everything comes back to the VIAHA office to be distributed out to the Managing Directors & the VP s rather than going directly to the recipients. This is extra work for VIAHA Staff. Thus far we have received 100 reports to forward If you have issues with suspensions etc. Please contact your local VIAHA VP Volunteers: Ice Allocators, Commissioners, Managing Directors, etc. have been very helpful as usual. Thank you *If a draft copy of any scheduled is received please do not share and distribute. These are not the final copies and only circulated to specific people to check for errors, etc. Changes always occur, so if teams are sent drafts it is creates a lot of confusion and issues down the road. d) Vice Presidents Reports: VP Mid- Island Dan Payne: (Written) Atom Development is going well so far with no issues to date. Placements are going well and divisions will be set by Nov 6 th Mid-Island Coach/Manager Meetings: Several Teams were not fully represented and did not receive preapproval so suspensions were issued as per VIAHA Regulation 9.06. Unfortunately, this led to a lot of very nasty emails and social media posts disparaging VIAHA, myself and other fellow volunteers Mid-Island Recreation League has just started and is going well so far. Referee reports for Misconducts and Majors not coming through
VP North Win Hunter: The North is running well Teething pains with the BC Hockey changing Novice aged players to Cross ice Our player numbers are down Congratulations to Gold River for pulling their MHA together yet again. Other MHA s are encouraged TO please make an effort to go to their tourneys and/or exhibition games. VP Island League (Competitive) Steve Moir: Island League Coach/Manager Meeting went well A few no shows because teams were not formed yet. In some cases the MHA s Executive members attended in their place which was pre-approved and acceptable Major Penalties are starting to come in now unfortunately Penalties are up from last year and we are only just finish placements 15 per team to 20 per team Misconducts in the last 10 minutes are being reported Some issues with the drop down boxes in the on-line reporting system. They have old info in them that sticks The Managing Directors & I have worked hard on the placement of teams in regular league divisions Refs for game should be a 3 to 4 man system for Peewee and a 4 man system in Bantam & Midget. A North Island MHA just tried to use a 2 man system and it didn t end well and the Coach was suspended for too many penalties VP South Al Walker: The South Island is up and running well so far Recreation leagues: We tried our best to fit in 3 exhibition games per team to help with team balancing and placements I am filling in as the South Island Juvenile Commissioner so all games sheets & reports come to me Any type of local complaints received so far I have forwarded on to the respective MHA President to deal with first. I do not want to be caught in between until needed e) Female Hockey Coordinator Kristen Arnold: (Excused with written Report) Recreational Teams: All recreational Leagues have their league schedules, thank you to David Beatty in the VIAHA office for getting the schedule to the teams so quickly. We have 4 Recreational teams in Atom, 5 in Peewee, 5 in Bantam and 8 in Midget. The teams are looking forward to a great season. Competitive Teams: We are very excited to report that our Midget A teams are now in a series of play with the PCMHA Female A league. This has been a long time in the making with many thanks to Jim, Dave and Laurie Wishart working many hours to confirm the schedule. The first weekend of play begins November 5 th weekend. I have included a Report from our Managing Director for the Regional A teams below Report for Regional A Female teams - Laurie Wishart, Managing Director for Regional Female A: Female A Tryouts went smoothly and the teams have settled into their annual plans. The teams are gearing up to attend 3-4 female tournaments each over the course of the season. The Midget Royals have returned from the Kelowna tournament as gold medalists, winning in overtime against the Williams Lake squad that handed them their only defeat in round-robin play. All of the teams are looking forward to playing in the leagues that VIAHA has placed them in: Peewees in Atom development, Bantams in Peewee Island League, and the Midgets are set to play an interlocking exhibition schedule vs. all six (6) of the Pacific Coast AHA Midget A female teams. Thanks go to VIAHA President Jim Humphrey, Dave Beatty, Kristen Arnold and to PCAHA President Cindy Secord and Drew MacDonald for helping to make this happen for the Midgets. We will be getting the game scores posted on the VIAHA website under the female section once league games have been set up. Thank you.
f) BC Hockey District Coaching Coordinators Reports: (South) Bob Gordon (Excused) (North) Jim McLean (Excused) g) Officiating Committee Members: Officiating Committee Member (South) Yves Ouellet: (Excused with written Report) All Clinics are completed and may look at having an extra one sometime in November if required I passed on the message to all RIC s regarding the need to have the Game # included in the write up report. I won't be able to attend the meeting as I will be in Ottawa for the CAF Sports Awards. Officiating Committee Member (North) John Hall: (Excused with written Report) Clinics: the last Officiating Clinic in the North Island will be held 23 Oct in Port McNeill Online game reporting: the officials have been given guidance on how to complete the forms and to include Game Numbers. There is a video and checklist available on the BC Hockey website for them to follow in order to complete the process properly. If they follow it, there should be no issues; VIJHL/Minor Hockey "Officials night". This initiative was started by a VIJHL/BCHL official in the Comox Valley. Officials (12-15 years of age) from Oceanside, Comox and Campbell River are being invited to participate (26 Nov). There will be a Hot Stove with the game officials and VIJHL Officiating Manager prior to the game and several officials will be invited onto the ice (in ref gear) for the National Anthem. All attendees will receive a ticket to the game. CVMHA has graciously stepped forward to assist with funding for dinner for the officials. BC Hockey is purchasing the game tickets. If there is available ice-time through CVMHA, I will be holding an onice development session for the officials. If this initiative goes well, we will be looking to hold similar events in other associations in the North. The only cost to the attending officials will be getting to Comox and any food/snacks during the game (we are looking at providing game tickets to chaperones that bring them). That's all for now - let me know if you have any questions/concerns. h) Initiation Program/Cross Ice Lead (North) Brian Sugiyama: (Excused with written Report) Initiation/Cross Ice Priorities BC Hockey met with the District IP/Cross Ice Leads on October 14/15 and identified the following goals and priorities for the 2016-2017 season Item: Video/Social Media Campaign Details: Get video and quotes from players, parents, coaches and administrators on the merits of cross ice hockey. Create stories and develop polished video for promotion. Plan: Work with Communications team to determine cross-ice stories, interviews, and locations Item: Resources Details: Enhance our current resources with a focus on best practices based on the size of the MHA. Specific details like roster size, game schedule, tournament guideline, best practices. Create a grassroots development guide. Plan: Work with IP District Leads for best practices and grassroots development document. Item: Website Enhancement Details: Ensure our website is the go to for IP/Cross Ice resources. Plan: Work with Communications team to enhance and promote website. Item: Transitional Plan full ice Details: Work with IP/District Leads to develop a comprehensive plan for players to successfully transition to full ice. Plan would then be presented to the Development Committee and Board of Directors. Plan: Create template for transition with dates and suggested gameplay protocol. Item: Ice layout Details: Work with arenas to add cross-ice lines to arenas. Plan: Work with RFABC to see if this is possible in community arenas. Item: Considerations for Equipment Details: District team to work with Minor Hockey to determine the best tools for cross-ice hockey. IE nets, blue pucks, etc. Add this to MHA Best Practices. Plan: Review District Lead reports upon receipt.
NEW BUSINESS: a) Island League Placements: Moved up to the beginning of the meeting to accommodate the schedulers b) Oct 31 st Deadline Reminders: Age Exemption Requests Left to only the VIAHA President to decide on after Oct 31 st The 1 Parent RIS requirement Any players without 1 parent with RIS are considered ineligible c) 1 st Shift Info Sharing: Alberni Valley MHA President Al McCulloch shared his experience with the program. Strongly recommend that your Association takes on this program. The response has been awesome. 35 players was supposed to be the cut off but we received more and was told to keep letting it fill-up The kids get supplied with full brand new gear and the Coaches get Jackets and Helmets it s like Christmas at the rink when the shipment arrives This program really helps to build numbers up in your bottom end too d) Exemptions: MOTION: M/S (Win Hunter/Dan Payne) to give all Juvenile aged players an exemption to the one (1) parent RIS requirement as many are living away from home attending post-secondary. e) Shawnigan Lake Hockey School: The defeat on last meetings motion caught their attention Jim Humphrey & Dan Payne were able to meet with School representatives Kevin Cooper & Veronica Brown recently and they have agreed to fully comply to our requests: They will not approach our players during the season They will send a representative to attend each Kerry Park MHA Monthly Executive meeting (as KPMHA is their host MHA) HCR Rosters are now provided to all the Managing Directors and they will seek game numbers from them for every game They understand that VIAHA cares about what penalties they receive and need to know which players are ineligible and understand that ineligible players are not insured to play They have offered us the Shawnigan Lake Ice when they are not home on the weekends Local MHA s are still experiencing an issue around Referees. Shawnigan is offering them higher pay so they are dumping local MHA games MHA s would like to see Shawnigan Lake start to contribute to local referee development. In many cases the MHA s have funded the development of these Ref s so it s very discouraging. This was a good request and it will be brought to their attention and requested Presidents asked VIAHA to check on the Monarch Spring Team info emails coming out of Shawnigan and see if the team is recognized by BC Hockey. ACTION ITEMS: Jim will contact Shawnigan regarding help with Ref s Development & Charlotte will contact BC Hockey regarding the Monarchs Emails. MOTION: M/S (Chad Rintoul/Bill Brett) to rescind the defeated decision on the motion to play Shawnigan Lake Sport School teams in the coming season and change it to carried. f) Clarification on Novice H3 & H4 playing games: BC Hockey set a start date of Dec 15 th and VIAHA pushed it to Dec 1 st as their date was too close to Christmas. There will be no games prior to Dec 1st. VIAHA has pushed as far as we can go on this one
OTHER: Reminder Coaches must have a Level 2 Certification to Coach Recreation Teams & Atom Development Teams and Dev 1 Certification to coach Competitive (Island League Teams) Jim Humphrey will be in Europe for November but still handling hockey business. He will answer calls up to 2:00pm (BC time) and will have access to emails during his travels IN-CAMERA SESSION: None NEXT MEETING DATE: January 8 th, 2017 ADJOURNMENT: 2:00pm MOTION: M/S (Al Walker/Chad Rintoul) to adjourn the meeting. Jim Humphrey, VIAHA President Charlotte Johnson, VIAHA Executive Director