Minutes of theAnnual General Meeting

Date: Feb28, 2017

Start Time 7:15pm

End Time 8:20 pm

Location: Crabby Joes Restaurant, Sarnia

Attendance: Jeff McRae, Matt McDonald, Jeff Rathburn, Tyler Shaw, Mikayla Hanlon, Laura Taylor, Pam Walker, Becky Abrametz, Ryan Clubb, Patricia Charbonneau.

Elections:

  • Treasurer: Ryan Clubb, whom had filled in last season after Adrianne Sutherland could not fulfill the position, was finally able to step aside. Mikayla H. nominated Laura Taylor for Treasurer. There were no other nominations. Welcome to the board Laura!
  • Social: Patricia C.Had indicated her desire to step down from the position after two years of good work. Thanks for all your efforts Patricia! Becky A. Had nominated Pam Walkerfor Social Coordinator. With no other nominations we welcome Pam to the team!
  • Summer league: Last year Jeff R was nominated but had to step down very early in the season. Mikayla H took over as the only other nominee from the lasts AGM. In this unexpected role she successfully set league teams and format and found new fields of better quality than city fields.
  • There were no other competing nominations or changes. All other positions remain the same.
  • For the 2016 season the league Officers are as follows:
  • Co-Presidents: Becky Abrametz
  • Vice-President: Mikayla Hanlon
  • Treasurer: Laura Taylor
  • Secretary: Jeff McRae
  • For the 2016 season the league Co-ordinators are as follows:
  • Thursday League: Mikayla Hanlon
  • Jr. League: Mikayla Hanlon and Becky Abrametz
  • Fall league: Mikayla Hanlon
  • Marketing: Matt McDonald
  • Social: Patricia Charbonneau
  • Webmaster: Becky Abrametz
  • Merchandise: Becky Abrametz

Budget:

  • Our Leagues finances remained healthy for the 2017 year. Balance at the start of 2017 is $5980.35.
  • For the 2016 season the fields have been requested and confirmed by the city. No payment had been made. Fieldsare to be; Lansdowne and Blackwell.Temple Baptist Church will be approached within a week or so to confirm those two fields.
  • For the 2017 season Sarnia Ultimate will consider moving to Ontario Ultimate as ODSA has increased their fees by approx $500 per year. Update March 6: ODSA quoted $2028.35 and Ontario Ultimate was at $1549.60. The decision was made by the president to go with Ontario Ultimate.
  • The Thursday League registration fee will remain at $50.
  • A marketing budget of $400 was renewed for this year. Motion: Ryan C. Sec: Marc L.

General Discussion:

  • The summer league will start on May the 4th.Quarter finals will begin on the last Thursday of league play, Aug 17.
  • The Thursday league playoffs date and after party will be Aug 20th.
  • League and finals format will remain the same as last year as confirmed by the summer league co-ordinator. The gender ratio will remain the same at 4 male and 3 female.
  • A Port-O-John was rented and placed at the field during the Saturday playoffs was very well received. This will reoccur this year.
  • Team prize breakdown for the league finals will remain the same as previous years.
  • League Championship:
  • First place: $200
  • Second place: $150
  • Third place: $100

Sean Phillips Bracket:

  • First place: $125
  • Second place: $75

Final budget for the league finals and party will be approved by the President.

  • Mikayla H. and Jeff M.will organise the seventh annual pre season hattournament and party. The Tournament will be held on TBDstarting at noon at Lansdowne fields. Entry fee will be $10.The get together afterward will be organised by Pam.
  • Becky A and Mikayla H.will co-ordinate twocaptains meetings. The first will be open to all who are interested in being a captain at some point. It will be more of an information session to help promote good future captains. The date for this will be March 23rd
  • The usual stylecaptains meeting with the intent of sorting out the last details of teams and league issues will be held on April 27th at Brownstones.
  • The Junior League will be co-ordinated by Becky Abrametz and Mikayla Hanlon. The league will run on Tuesday evenings starting on July 4th and ending on Aug Fee will be $40. Each player will receive a tee shirt, disk and pizza party at the end on the season.
    Becky will attempt to recruit in schools again this year.
    The league is looking for coaches to assist with the teams.
  • Mikayla Hanlon suggested and will take the lead on two initiatives to promote our junior league. The first is the kids funfest while runs on June 10th at Clearwater arena. We have setup an activity at this even in the past. It is unknown if there is a fee to display.
  • Second is Hobbyfest. The date for the event is TBA. Mikayla will report back when more information is available.
  • Mikayla H also suggested reprinting the SU pamphlets for the Canada day parade.
  • The topic of having competent captains who know and enforce the rules of play was discussed. After some discussion two results emerged.
    The first is to host a pre captains meeting to gather potential and interested captains to discuss this topic. The end goal is to help foster good captains who promote the sport via good knowledge of game play and spirit of the game.
    The second was to start from the bottom up with new players at pickup. See Below.
  • Pickup Ultimate: while discussing the root of relaxed rules during play Jeff M suggested that the weekly pickup games promote this relaxed attitude and it carries forth into the regular league. He also suggested that this needs to be solved in order to further promote the sport at a city wide level. Encouraging veteran players to teach and play by the full rules during pickup will eventually result in more players with better knowledge of the sport and fewer players ready to accept modified rules on the fly.
    Mikayla H. indicated that pickup must also maintain a welcoming attitude for this to be effective. There was unanimous agreement for this and it was accepted that there is a way to fulfill both goals at once.
    Matt M suggested that a warm up/practice period with game play explanations might encourage these goals.
  • The issue of multiple colors of jerseys during pickup was mentioned. The juniors league may be looking into ‘pinny’(pin on or pull over jerseys) jerseys for their players. These could also be used at pickup.
  • The topic of the Thursday night league bar location was raised. The new social coordinator Pam w. had shopped around and made arrangements with Brownstones to meet there after games. they have a 10% kickback deal along with appetizer and beverage specials. The club directors are open to feedback on this location.
  • Merchandise: after attempting to push sales with at cost prices at the tournament last year becky pitched the idea to permanently set the items to these costs. Merch tables will be setup at various time throughout the year. Costs at follows; pint glasses $10, Red Jerseys $10, SU hoodies $20.
  • Becky raised the topic of a charity donation for ultimate disks to be donated to Ultimate without Borders Program in Gambia. These will be sent overseas to promote cooperation and leadership among youth. The idea was suggested that the league donate 10 disks. An option will be added to registration to allow club members to pay to donate an additional $6 to add one disks to the total. This initiative was well received at the meeting as it shows a balance between league donation and club member donations.

Marketing:

  • Matt McDonaldwill continue the role of marketing co-ordinator. Focus will be on Facebookand Kijiji advertising. Advertising will focus on all the clubs leagues including junior and summer as well as an open invite to join us for pickup.
  • Becky abrametz suggested taking out a large ad in the Sarnia Community Guide. This ad would benefit all leagues in the club. The cost was to be $275. There was generally a positive reception to the idea. With no motion for extra spending this ad will fall under the regular marketing budget.
  • Radio ads were deemed too expensive to continue.
  • A budget of $400 was renewed. See budget section.

Equipment:

  • First aid kits need renewal, Becky A has volunteered to do this. Each captain shall have, or be provided with a basic kit.
  • A Set of 4 Safety cones for marking fields will be available for any captains needing them.New Scoreboards were purchases last year. These were numbered for reference to each team and no new boards are expected to be needed.
  • We are currently out of Sarnia ultimate disks. The remaining Team Hubris disks were purchased from Adrianne Sutherland with the intent of selling through to Club members. Prices are the same as regular ordered discs. The cost of this acquisition is currently unknown to the secretary. The total cost of disks and merchandise from last year was $525 according to the report from the treasurer.

Website:

  • The Ultimate Central Website will continue to be used. All registrations will continue through the website. Ultimate Central has moved away from PayPal and has instead integrated a new program powered by Stripe. It appears players can now only pay by credit card and the funds are transferred directly into the Sarnia ultimate account.

Registration:

  • Registration opens on March 6th.
  • The registration deadline for the summer league will be April 14th. This cap allows the Captains and league coordinators to setup teams in time to start the season. After this deadline, players are not guaranteed a spot in our Thursday league and will be waitlisted.
  • Unchanged. All registration fees must be paid in full by the start of the second regular season game. If payment has not been received the player may not participate in that game.
  • Unchanged. Any captain submitting a complete team into the league must ensure the entire team has paid by the start of the second game, otherwise the ENTIRE TEAM will not be permitted to play that game.
  • Unchanged. All teams must hold one female and one male spot open on their rosters for new players until the teams are finalized. It was agreed that hard cap team number limits are not applicable to teams across the board and the original rule will remain. Care will be taken during team creation not to place a single rookie player on a pre submitted team. This could result in unequal field time amongst players.