AGM Minutes - 2018

AGM 2018

NOTE:   PLEASE NOTE THAT THE MINUTES WERE TRANSCRIBED FROM AN AUDIO MACHINE AND THAT AT TIMES BECAUSE OF THE LARGE LOCATION SOME OF THE DISCUSSION COULD NOT BE CLEARLY HEARD. I HAVE DONE MY BEST TO INCLUDE AN ACCURATE RECAP OF THE MEETING BUT IF THERE ARE ANY OMMISSIONS THAT NEED TO BE ON RECORD WE WILL ADDRESS THEM AT THIS YEARS AGM. 

   (Carla)

 

 

AGM MINUTES 2018

80  ELIGIBLE VOTING MEMBERS WERE IN ATTENDANCE

17 NON-ELIGIBLE VOTING MEMBERS WERE IN ATTENDANCE

 

Meeting was brought to order by Joe Peck (president) at 7pm. It was motioned by Gord to close registration 2^nd by Cheryl. All were in favor

 

Joe asked if everyone had a chance to review the minutes of the 2017 AGM that were posted on-line.  The minutes were moved by? 2^nd by Cheryl to be accepted into the record. All were in favor

Joe congratulated all of this 2018 Year end winners-   Long Term Service was Alex Johnson

                                                                                                          Volunteer- Trina Compton

                                                                                                         Trainer-      Rob Hardy

                                                                                                          Rep Coach- John MacPhee

                                                                                                          Metro Coach- Kevin Stairs

                                                                                                          Manager- Anita MacNeil

 

Year End reports have been posted to the Website if there are any questions regarding those

John MacPhee- Development Coordinator-  John thanked the Goalie Coaches for the dedication and great leadership of Kevin Stairs,  John spoke about the decision to purchase the foam rink dividers as a less cumbersome way to break up into groups and to use the Half Boards when we play games.  We planned to offset some of the cost of those by selling advertising.  Hopefully they will be an asset with development.   The Power Skating was introduced again and attendance is still not where we would like to see it so that will have to be addressed going forward.

John spoke about the Development in general and how we could move it forward, it was discussed at Board Level to ask for proposals of outside individuals to put together a plan for development.  Most of our Volunteers are doing so many other things and Development is a huge commitment.  Practice Plans, evaluations, etc.  Maybe on a trial basis is something we are going to consider.

Mike read the Midget Report that was available on line- No question

Gordie McGean (treasurer) reviewed the Financial Report

QUESTIONS:   No questions

Motioned by Cheryl Rendell to accept the Financial Report into the record. 2^nd by Harold Marsh.  All in favor

 

Joe called for a Moments of silence for the Humboldt Tragedy victims.

 

There were several motions received for changes to the By-Laws proposed by Blair MacKenzie and Joe asked him to approach the mic and state his intended changes.

Blair stated he had a question before he got to the By-law changes:  He questioned the Officials that were in attendance, where it stated that they get a vote as a member of the association.

Constitution Article 2 sub section 3-  Gordie read the Article in out.  Blair asked if the Constitution could be posted on the Web site.  Gordie stated that if it is not there it was an oversight.   He explained that it was passed at the AGM of the previous year.  Blair disagreed that it was not proposed the previous year, discussion occurred and Gordie assured him had it been read it was clearly stated in that Article.

Blair moved on to the By- Law changes- first one was Board members could only be appointed from the parents of the membership and only if there wasn’t enough could there be someone else appointed.  He stated that it would exclude Carla as the Secretary (Cheryl corrected that Carla is the Office Administrator and that Cheryl is the Board Secretary).

Question from Joe:  Who would appoint these parents?  Blair: The people who nominate them at the AGM. 

Question from Mike:  Mike agreed that parents for sure would have a vested interested and a valuable contribution but If we eliminate all volunteers that do not have children playing, we would be discarding a lot of very valuable talent and knowledge. Our membership certainly has some very valuable insight however coaches with no children on the team should be what we ultimately look for.  I believe it would limit too many great volunteers.

Statement from Gordie:  Some people like myself have not had a child play for 12 years, however I continued to Volunteer because I wanted to see the association move forward. I won’t be returning regardless of the decisions made here tonight but I would caution the membership to really think about this as I feel I was as better decision maker because I didn’t have a vested interested with a child and I decided what was best for an entire membership.

Joe stated that he doesn’t believer DNA should come into play to decide who would be a good coach or Board member.

Blair Answered that he had no problem with Coaching just the Board members because he has been looking at the same people for year. 

Mike stated that every year there is an election of officers and half of the board can change. If the membership cast the votes then the people are elected.

Comment from the floor from?   Person wanted to add that they had run a group for 18 years with no children involved.

Comment from Charlie Johnson- Back to what Mike stated that a great coach is someone who doesn’t have a person on the team, he wanted to know how it was that Alex Johnson after 35 years was not given a team this year with all his ability.

Joe stated that it was put to a vote and he didn’t get approved.   Mike stated that he is definitely the kind of coach we would want however with 15 people you have to garnish enough votes and this time he didn’t.

Comments from the floor- inaudible

Sheri- stated that most of the years we do not have a large number of applicants that we are not all personally aware of and that interview process would not be like in larger associations.

Blair commented that we were getting far off topic-   Joe said the conversation was generated from the membership. 

Comments from Blair Spicer- I sat on that Board as a parent with great intentions I will tell you I have attended meetings that lasted until midnight.  There is a tremendous amount of work that go into running this association and if people want to give of their time to do that, I see no problem with it.

Motioned by Marylynn Hurley to vote on that By-law change.

As stated above-    The vote was called and did not pass.  

Blair proposed the second change- By law 1-C.   the first one did not pass and this one is related so he withdrew that change.

Blair proposed his next change- By law 4B & C   only 9 members in total and each member elected every year, only able to sit for 2 terms unless there is a position not filled.   Blair stated that other associations do not operate with this many.

Question: - Joe stated that he believes that other association have full Boards,  Gord questioned that number of 9 as being to light to perform the tasks necessary especially during start up and if they were all new as you are proposing it would be chaos.  Experience is a factor.

Lawrence MacNeil asked if any Board Member gets paid?  Answer: No, then if no one gets paid what is the difference how many volunteers.   (large applause)

Joe- asked if Blair mis understand how the President role or executive role works.  Most times the President doesn’t even get a vote unless it was a tie your elected Board member decide

Mike read the By -Law 4 B & C-    .   Mike commented that he had been around for a long time as a parent and coach before a board member and he didn’t have any idea what went into being on the board.

Amy Mills motion to accept Blairs proposed motion.  Marylynn Hurley 2^nd

Question for clarification- the 15 members would be all gone tonight and 9 new members would be elected and an executive be elected from the new board.

Motion defeated

Blair posted a change to By law 4 G- any member must attend 75 % of all meetings and you cannot be absent for two consecutive meetings.

Discussion from the floor- Alex comments inaudible (large applause)

Question- Does the Board currently have an attendance policy:   Answer Yes they do, members must attend at least 50 % of the meetings held and cannot miss more than 3 unexcused consecutive meetings and if they are in violation of the unexcused meetings they do not have permission to vote on any topic at the following meeting.

Discussion from the floor- inaudible

Question- What constitutes an excused meeting- a Phone call to Carla or an email to the office.

 

Call for Vote_ Motion defeated

Blair proposed by law 13 - All competitive teams should be selected from a group outside of CB.

Shane addressed this topic- when I got on the board, I was asked to take on the Evaluations at the start of the year. And agreed to do so because I too believed the was a flaw in them that needed fixing.  Most people will think it is flawed when it doesn’t go in their favor!

Discussion occurred about the process as it happens now.

Question:  how do the people get selected to evaluate

Answer: We try to get people who come with a significant amount of hockey knowledge, we try to place evaluators in divisions other than the one that children are participating in.

Question:  Are these people volunteers

Answer:  Yes they are all volunteers

Comments from the floor (inaudible)

For clarification:  The Board does not pick the team, the Coach comes in the office for final selection with his list of players and it would only be in a situation that evaluators have a certain player in the top 10 but the coach has omitted them, He would have to address the reasons for that.   Or if a coach had a player on the team that other evaluators had way down the list as not even bubble, the same questions would have to be addressed.  In the past the coach had all the decisions, now we have a checks and balance so players do not get missed.

Joe questioned that the proposed change would leave the house players with no evaluations to evenly distribute them to teams

Motion was called to vote, 2^nd by Angela Hull, Motion defeated.

By Law 13 Change – Development be a paid position

John MacPhee- agreed that we should ask for proposals, list hockey knowledge, teaching concepts etc.

Discussion occurred from the floor – partially inaudible, but this is not a change to a By-law it is a policy change and the Board of Directors set policies,   Gordie clarified that if when we get to new business you would like to propose that they look at Development Hiring, but ultimately policies and procedures are set by the Board.

Peter Keagan gave a recap of Hockey Nova Scotia meetings – Half Ice for Novice will be implemented

Fred Howard was called on to discuss the two Peewee AAA teams for next season- Discussions will continue in August and September.  It is designed to see CB Zone more competitive

Sandy Kerr- Female rep, It is the aim that within two years the Females will be their own Association.  Female is the only group that have seen growth in hockey and they will continue to work on that.

 

Election of Officers

Nominations sent in by Angela Hull

Blain Penny- accept

Mike Bishop- accept

Nathan Cantwell- accept

Sandy Kerr- accept

Marc Lyle- accept

Carroll Vickers- accept

Jacquline Seymour- decline

Mike Young- accept

Blair Mackenzie- left the meeting

Adam Daye- accept

Ryan Ivey- accept

Alex Johnson- decline

Terry Higgins- accept

Bev Swan- decline

Stephen Clake- accept

Denis Howley- decline

 

John Asked if everyone could please have a seat while the votes are being counted to ask a few questions

One topic we are faced with as a Board each year is trying to decide what is the best decision with offering the highest levels of hockey even if we feel that we will not be competitive?  What is the membership feeling?  Discussion occurred  

John asked if we could have a show of hands for what the people think about offering the highest levels even if we think we will not be competitive.  This is a decision that the Board is deciding every year and as you can see by the discussion there is pro’s and con’s to both sides of the issue. We try to look at all scenarios and the history of how each group preformed years prior etc. 

 

Elected to the Board

Mike Bishop

Blain Penny

Sandy Kerr

Marc Lyle

Carroll Vickers

Nathan Cantwell

Adam Daye

Returning members

Cheryl Rendell

Harold Marsh

Shane Ryan

Sheri Campbell

John MacPhee

Peter Keagan

Scott MacMullin

Peggy MacDonald

 

                                

 

 

NOMINATIONS FOR PRESIDENT

MIKE BISHOP- ACCEPT (Elected)

 

Mike thanked Joe Peck for all his dedication and volunteer time, He does great things for our community, and for this association.

Mike also thanked Gordie McGean for his years of service and his role in getting Minor Hockey to a stable position financially as well as all his knowledge for supporting roles for the rest of new Board Members

 

John MacPhee initiated some great discussion here tonight on what levels of hockey we as a group would like to offer.

Mike mentioned Blair’s amendments he thought that they produced good discussion, he also said that everyone here that volunteers does so with the best interest of the kids in mind.  Of course, we make mistakes, we expect this Board to be approachable with constructive and reasonable respectful opinions from the membership but wont entertain disrespect.

Show of hands please on the Development topic if you want us to spend more money for next on Development from Outside sources.  Most of the group were in support by a showing of hands.

Nominations for Vice President

Blain Penny- Accept (elected)

Treasurer- Harold Marsh -       Accept (elected)

                     Peggy MacDonald- Accept

Secretary-   Cheryl Rendell- accept (elected)

John MacPhee asked if the membership could share some discussion on opinions on divisions where we are only have 36 kids for instance- What would the membership see that breakdown looking like-  12-12-12 or 18-18 or some other breakdown?  Discussion occurred and it was thought that larger numbers in Midget for sure but varying opinions among the membership.  John stated that by asking that question he wanted to give insight as to the difficult decision that we face as a board.  Just in that room whatever the decision that was reached it would be the wrong one for some people.

Motion to destroy the ballots made by Sheri Campbell, 2^nd by Cheryl Rendell

Mike wanted to make one comment.  As President if there are any requests for him for meetings or information they have to be made through the office with Carla and either she or myself will get in touch with you. Please respect my workplace by not texting me through the day as I am working.  But I assure you that I will get the messages and make arrangement to address your concerns.