AGM 2011 – A report from the Floor
Another SMHA Annual General Meeting has come and gone. I was there with about 80 other members and I thought I’d give you a short synopsis of the meeting in the hopes that you’ll be wishing you had come and you’ll all sign up for next years when the invite goes out 
First of all the turn out was huge by AGM standards – 80 people is more than we normally get and this year we didn’t even offer pizza or a draw for a free membership. I saw coaches and managers and trainers of many teams, lots of regular parents looking to learn what goes on, and we also had some esteemed guests – three representatives from the ODMHA including their President and the Chairman of District 4. They all chipped in to answer questions and as they are all volunteers themselves, we are grateful that they took time from their weekend to come out to support us.
One of the big parts of the AGM is for you to get a wrap up of the year from your executive – the people you elect to represent your views and drive programs to make hockey fun and safe for your kids. We heard about the Successes of the Year and there were many, the biggest challenges we faced (and overcame!), and our recommendations for next year’s management council. You can get the highlights in the presentation but you really had to be there to get the full picture!
Then we voted on changes to the Constitution, and there were alot of them. Now this might appear to be the boring adminstrative side but some of these decisions are very important. We had changes intended to encourage more volunteers (such as giving more volunteers a vote on the executive, removing the restriction that prevented executive volunteers from coaching or managing a team without approval at the AGM, preventing paid exec members from voting as it might be conflict of interest, and allowing the executive to decide who takes over when the President becomes unavailable), and many others too such as paving the way for our goal of having all volunteers undergo a police check.
We then elected the people who will serve as your executive next year. All but one position came up for renewal, and your executive for next year is:
Glenn Austin – Operations
Fiona Livingstone – Finance
Lynda Partner – Support Services
Jacqueline Kimmerly, Secretary
Chris Weir, Competitive Programs
Mike Clarkson, House Program
Angelo Miceli, Hockey Development Program.
Director at Large, Open
The other positions will be filled over the next few months – there is still time to put your name in!
Last thing we did was award the first Annual Rory Bradley Volunteer of the Year award – you can read all about it here.
The best part of the meeting was the optional part, which took place after the official business part. About 40 people stayed for a round table discussion that lasted almost two hours. We had gathered up all the questions from the surveys and the blog comments and we talked about checking and nonchecking, where we can and cannot play, why we are not ready to be our district, why some teams had such a tough time this year, how we choose teams and why we don’t do it in the spring – I could go on and on. It was a great conversation and we’d like to do more of these. Perhaps next year we’ll run a few Town Halls.
All in all, a good meeting – anyone else who was there want to add anything?
First Annual Rory Bradley Volunteer of the Year
Wow, what a list of nominees for the first annual Rory Bradley Volunteer of the Year:
Shelley Clarke, SMHA Member, had this to say about Joan:
I have known Joan since I moved to the Ottawa area 8 years ago. Of course, we met at the arena when our boys were on the same team – coached by Rory Bradley. Joan was the trainer for the team. Each season, Joan and I managed to have at least one son on the same team, so I had the privilege of getting to know Joan well as a volunteer and parent in the hockey community.
Catherine Westbrook’s nomination outlined Joan’s thorough grounding in the policies and procedures of the local hockey associations in all the various positions she held throughout the many years (President LCMHL, Past-President LCMHL, Bantam & Peewee Tournament Convener, Scheduler, Statistician, coach and trainer). It is clear that Joan’s volunteer positions have enabled her to contribute to the frameworks that provide quality opportunities for the youth in hockey in our communities.
But there are so many other stories to share about her. Joan was first and foremost an advocate for the players. No matter what, she did whatever she could to get these kids on the ice so they could play the game they loved. So many nights, there were always young players, for one reason or another, would not have a ride to a game and Joan was always first to make room in her van for “just one more.” I remember on more than one occasion, players showing up to a game with no mouth guard or neck guard. Without hesitation, Joan would buy these boys what they needed at the rink shop or canteen so they wouldn’t have to miss a minute of the game.
Rarely have I ever had the chance to sit in the stands with Joan to watch a game because she is always on the “other” side of the ice, as the trainer, timekeeper and she even stepped up to coach one year when it became clear that nobody else was going to volunteer. She didn’t know anything about coaching but she knew she could figure it out… and she did
Joan was always involved as a volunteer with Rory Bradley’s teams each and every year that Rory coached. Having also known Rory for many years as both my son’s coach and a dear friend, he would be proud and thrilled to have Joan presented with this award. In view of her long and successful volunteering career with SMHA, I cannot imagine a more worthy volunteer for the Rory Bradley Volunteer of the Year award than Joan Savoie.
And finally, Joan’s son Sean had this to say
As a final note my mom’s dedication and pride in helping out our teams in any way she could had made a lasting impression on me. I try to do the little things she did with the adult teams I am a part of now in order to bring us together as a team and make the joy of playing hockey as a team more memorable. Isn’t that what truly makes for a great volunteer, someone who not only helps out but has an influence on those they help out.
Rory grew up playing minor hockey in both Richmond and Stittsville. He was a very good hockey player, playing for the Richmond Royals and Nepean’s Junior A team and getting a hockey scholarship for a university in the US before he eventually came back home to Stittsville
Rory began his coaching career when his son Joel started playing hockey in Stittsville. Joel was soon joined by his sister Courtney, and Rory coached each and every year they were in hockey. Although Rory’s first passion was being on the ice or behind the bench coaching, his dedication to the minor hockey organization led him to take some roles off the ice too. When a call went out for volunteers, Rory was always finding a way to fit “just one more” thing into his schedule, and he took on the role of convener at the Midget and Juvenile levels and continued coaching
Rory was one of the biggest advocates of non-checking at the house league level. While convening the Midget level, he was the driving force behind the creation of a non checking A team at Midget. They played in the highly skilled By- back and forth for the top spot in the season, and ended up a finalist for the league championship. That year is still talked about by coaches, players and parents alike.
Rory’s son Joel, played his last season with Stittsville this year, and with the rest of “Rory’s RAMS”, won Lanark Carleton Juvenile Championships. Rory would have been so proud of these boys, not just because they won but because they played clean and worked hard.
Rory’s love of the game and his commitment level to each and every player was a special thing to see firsthand. He emphasized team sportsmanship above all and one of his many special sayings was “before saying anything negative about your teammate, better have a look in the mirror.”
Great advice from a great man and I know we’ll have many more volunteers to celebrate going forward.
Non-Checking/Checking Survey Results
For the 2009-10 hockey season, the SMHA made best efforts to offer a choice of checking and non-checking house hockey programs at all levels where Hockey Canada permitted checking, ie: PeeWee, Bantam and Midget A and B levels. At the end of the 2009-10 season, the members approved a motion by the SMHA executive to offer choice (where possible) at A levels, and to make all B level hockey non-checking starting the 2010-11 season
Almost one year into this program change, the SMHA surveyed their members to understand how satisfied they were with the policy change, and to understand what form of hockey members would select for the coming year if they were given the choice. The survey was a web survey conducted in February 2011 and analyzed by a certified quantitative market researcher who is also a volunteer with the SMHA. For reporting purposes, only responses from people who identified themselves as parents were considered and survey results focused on those members whose children were affected by the decision or who were likely to be affected by the decision for the next season, ie: Atom, PeeWee, Bantam, and Midget
484 people completed the survey, 312 were parents of Atom, PeeWee, Bantam or Midget House league players. A note of caution – the overall results are statistically sound, meaning that they are representative of the SMHA member population but the results at the various age groups should be interpreted with caution as sample sizes are small.
The presentation given to the SMHA executive is below, along with a summary of the key findings.
The short summary is as follows:
On the shift to non-checking only at B hockey…
- The majority of affected parents (59%) are satisfied with the change in program, while 26% were unsatisfied
- Satisfaction exceeds dissatisfaction at all age levels, with the highest levels of satisfaction (65%) at the older age levels, Bantam and Midget
- A higher percentage are happier with the shift to non-checking only at B hockey than are happier with the decision to offer a choice at A hockey
On the decision to offer Choice at A hockey
- The majority of affected parents (52%) are satisfied with the change in program
- At all age levels, the satisfaction levels for Choice at A are less than or equal to those for Non-Checking only at B
- When choice at A is offered, a higher percentage of parents were indifferent compared to indifference for non-checking only at B
On choices for next year
- More than 2/3 of parents picked Non-Checking as their choice of program for next season
- Non-checking choice exceeds checking choice at all age levels
- Almost 40% of parents whose kids played checking would pick non-checking for next season
Bottom Line:
- Parents are divided on the issue of checking vs non-checking
- In both programs, checking only and choice, the percentage of satisfied parents is more than double the percentage of dissatisfied parents
- Satisfaction with non-checking programs increases as the kids get older but the opinions become more polarized as well as indifference levels drop with age
- 2/3 of parents of atom to midget aged kids would pick non-checking for their kids if given the choice
- It appears that no decision will make everyone happy but overall satisfaction is higher with non-checking only
Share your thoughts – any surprises in this?
Annual General Meeting – its your meeting
The SMHA Annual General Meeting will take place Sunday April 17th 2011 at the Stittsville Legion on Main Street between 10 am and noon.
For the first hour we will be providing an update on the 2010/11 season, electing a new slate of SMHA executives, approving any changes to the SMHA constitution, and announcing the Rory Bradley Volunteer of the Year.
- Any member can propose a change to the constitution. All changes have now been submitted to secretary_2@stittsvilleminorhockey.com by April 1 and those that have been approved by the Executive are now available for your review and you will be asked to vote on them at the AGM. Please take a minute to review these.
- Nominations for open executive positions must be in to secretary_2@stittsvilleminorhockey.com by April 1. You can nominate yourself or any other SMHA member and you can be nominated for more than one position. Names will be published by April 10th. Open positions this year include:
- VP Support Services – 2 year
VP Finance – 2 year
Director, Hockey Development – 2 year
Secretary – 2 year
Director House – 1 year
Director Competitive – 1 year - Director At Large – 1 year
*President – 1 year
- * If Craig Goodwin, currently elected President, is not able to return to the SMHA by April 1, we will be accepting nominations for someone to serve the year remaining in his term. To be eligible for a nomination, a member must have served as an elected member of the Executive in one of the previous two years.
For the second hour we will be talking about the key issues identified by the members in the blog and in the surveys – specifically
- Checking vs Non-checking – Feedback on this year, what are other associations in Ottawa doing, why we don’t offer a choice, should we make A all non checking
- Where we play – Why Lanark Carleton for some/Kanata for others, Why can’t we just have our own house league, Why can’t we just play with Kanata, Why don’t we form our own District
- Team Evaluations – How are they done?, Why are the teams in our division so unbalanced?, Why can’t we have more/fewer A/B/C teams, Why don’t we do evaluations in the spring?, Why so little warning about ice times for evaluations?
- Ice – Why didn’t we get more ice time, especially for practices, Why are our ice times so sporadic, Why did my team get less ice than other teams at my level, Why don’t we get all our ice schedules at the beginning of the year, Will the new ice pad at the GRC give us more ice?
Loading ...So, what do you want to see on the Agenda for your AGM? Add your items in the comments
Blog Etiquette
Opinion Piece
I received an email from one of our members the other night. They were cranky about the blog. When I asked why, they pointed out something that had not occurred to me until just then – that the comments may not even be from SMHA members because those who leave comments are not required to show their real names. This never occurred to me because I live and work in the world of blogs and it’s just the way blogs operate.
I love our blog. I see it as a way for the executive to make better decisions because they can tap into the opinions of our members quickly and easily. Now when we sit around the table discussing things, we refer to what members want and think, not from the few conversations we have with those of you who call or us or those of you who happen to be at the rink when we are, but from as many of you who want to share your thoughts. It’s like having a continual meeting where anyone can speak.
That said, if we were at the rink or on the phone or in a meeting, we’d all know who was speaking. If that’s true, then the blog should be the same, no?. From now on, we’d like to requesting that anyone who comments use their real name. We don’t want you to stop commenting, we’d just like you to introduce yourself in our “meeting” by putting your real name on your comment submission.
So what do you think of this policy?
Loading ...Celebrating our Volunteers with the first Annual Rory Bradley Volunteer of the Year Award
The late Rory Bradley, my son’s coach for many years and my peer on the SMHA management council, was one of my heroes. He was a prince of a man, a great coach and a tireless non-political SMHA volunteer. It’s been a tough year for volunteers in the SMHA, with a serious shortage of hands, some suspensions, some people resigning. Whenever I get down about volunteering, I remember my last conversation with Rory, who was then the coach of the Juvenile team AND the Juvenile convener.
Are our hockey programs killing hockey?
A recent special report on Minor Hockey, written by respected hockey writer Ken Campbell, claims that that Hockey Canada lost almost 8,000 players from 2008-09 to 2009-10, and that by 2016, at least 30,000 fewer Canadian kids will be playing the game. Three of the biggest obstacles Hockey Canada is facing are cost, a lack of facilities and declining interest from a changing population.
Finding Volunteers
Volunteers are the lifeblood of our association. Without them there would be no hockey. I need to repeat that last sentence – without them there would be no hockey.
Wow. I remember wayyyyyy back when I realized that all of minor hockey was run by volunteers. It was a real eye opener and it was the moment I decided I needed to step up and help. 15 years have gone by and while my kids don’t even play minor hockey anymore, I am still volunteering and loving every minute of it. Knowing that my efforts are helping to make hockey fun for a thousand kids is a huge reward.
Coach Selection
I received an email today that I thought was worthy of a blog post and hopefully a discussion.
Why is it that at the end of evaluations, when the teams are being put together and the kids are looking forward to getting into the season, we are always scrambling to find coaching staff for the teams and hearing that “the boys will not be allowed on the ice without coaching staff, so please step forward”?
Is there no way that coaching staff can be decided well ahead of the season? In my opinion, this is another issue that is left way to late, and runs the risk of people stepping into the positions perhaps ahead of police checks and Speak Out courses being done.
SMHA knows by August,which kids will be playing at which age level and I believe that they should be recruiting coaching staff at that time,
I am hoping this can stimulate some ideas on the best way to select coaches. So join in, what do you think?
House B is now Non-Checking
At the Annual General Meeting on April 24, 2010, the membership of the SMHA, following the lead of most associations in the Ottawa area, voted to make all House B hockey non-checking, and where possible to offer a choice of checking and non-checking at House A from PeeWee to Midget. The vote was 30 “for” and 17 “against”.
Many people are wondering what impact this decision will have on where the kids play. SMHA’s priority is to place our non-checking teams in the LCMHL, where they would play against other LCMHL associations. For this happen, there must be enough associations fielding non-checking teams, to create a viable division. If no other associations participate, or if the division is too small (4 teams or less), SMHA will then approach other associations and/or leagues to explore playing options. In the past, SMHA has placed its non-checking teams in an interlocking league with Kanata at the B house level, and with the Bytown league at the A house level. All house teams at the C level will continue to play in the LCMHL as body-checking is prohibited at this level for all associations and there are a sufficient number of teams.
Sorting all this out will take some time but the SMHA will determine where our non-checking teams will play before October 1.
While this decision by the members was overwhelmingly in favor of the move to non-checking, it’s a big change and we’d like to know what you think. Tell us what you think of this decision leaving a comment – see below.
