Shrewsbury Youth Hockey Association
Board of Directors
Oct. 28, 2008
Present: Jerry Rutigliano, Richard Burke, Dan Sullivan, Callan McInally, Todd Osik, Ted Murphy, Kevin Flaherty, Kevin O’Brien, Dave Butler, Cheryl Koki
Absent: Herb Lade, Tony Mastromatteo, Bill Nemes
Meeting began 7:05 pm
Treasurer’s Report: There are only two players left who haven’t paid this year’s fees, one of whom has not yet attended practices. Compared to last year, however, payments are ahead. Association articles say skaters should be paid in full by Aug. 15. Grafton and Midstate either have players pay by the due date or write a letter regarding why players can’t play.
Financially, the Association is in good shape. The dinner-dance brought in $8400. Kevin O’Brien has looked into having auction bids payable on-line, and that would be possible. There was discussion about buying additional goalie chest protectors with the money raised. This was felt to be good idea. There was also a question if some of the money could be given to teams for playdowns or tournaments. It was felt this would not work since not all teams participate in playdowns or tournaments.
Practice jerseys came out well. Because it would have been too expensive to have the players’ regular numbers put on them, random numbers were put on jerseys. Team managers could make up another list with practice jersey numbers if jerseys have to be used in a game. The adult small jerseys were too small.
Tony is collecting money for shirts.
Learn to Skate: About 30 participants have signed up. Sessions start this week.
Motion made and seconded to accept minutes from September meeting. Motion unanimously passed.
Fundraising: The dinner-dance was a great success. Dave raffled off three trips. Carol Walsh requested that the no 6 am practice auction that she won be given to another team because the bantams don’t have 6 am practice. All teams (except bantams and midgets) were put in a hat, and one team was drawn. The winner was Squirt 4. Something should be posted on the website regarding the dinner-dance. Kevin O’Brien will do that.
Coaches: Since Mass Hockey requires full equipment, full equipment is required for all players when on the ice for practices. This does not need to put in our bylaws because we follow Mass Hockey and USA Hockey regulations which require full equipment. There have been some conflicts with the Squirt 1 and select teams’ schedule for practices. Dan will let the Squirt 4 coach know about winning the no 6 am practices.
Scheduling: Parity rounds have created a problem. NESC’s parity has already ended, but Northstar’s parity does not end until Nov. 1. Therefore, the full practice schedule is difficult to do because Northstar andNESC haven’t put out their schedules. NESC has posted its schedule until the end of Oct.
Leagues: Rich went to both parity meetings at Northstar and NESC. He took input from SYHA coaches, but the leagues wanted some teams to move up. Brett Frankian wanted his team to stay where it was, but his team was moved up. Steve Tepper also wanted his team to stay where it was, but his team was moved up because the team was in first place at Northstar. Kathy at Northstar said no to the request given the Squirt 1’s record. The Presidents Roundtable hasn’t been held yet at NESC. NESC is missing some coaches’ information and rosters. Wes will issue suspensions if coaches don’t comply. The Peewee 3 team went up at NESC, but three teams that beat them stayed where they were. If the Peewee 3 team does not do well, they’ll probably move back down.
State Tourney and Mass Hockey: Ted needs ice times for Mass Hockey. Jerry will get ice times from Kathy at Northstar. Referees need to be scheduled for the tourney. Ted’s wife is getting started on baskets for the raffle. A form letter was sent to major league teams (Celtics, Surge, BU, BC, etc.) for items for the raffle. The Association needs to do lots of fundraising. The Association should send an e-mail regarding camps and tryouts for national selection. Ted will try to get dates for that from Chuck. Tryouts are usually in spring. The District meeting was last weekend. Association presidents and registrars were invited. A lot of organizations’ representatives were at the meeting.
Tryouts: The Association needs to start thinking about tryouts and ice times. Right now the bylaws state three tryouts per player. Lovell, however, suggested two 2-hr sessions instead of three 1-hr sessions with all the players from the same level on the ice at the same time. Lovell would like the same people to evaluate all the players on the same skill at the same time for consistency. Last year there was a problem with tryouts because of playoffs at NESC.
The Association would need to figure out how to manage tryout scrimmages because of the numbers of players. Two 45-minute scrimmages are a possibility. There would need to be two mite sessions at 2 hours each, two squirt sessions, two peewee sessions, and two bantam sessions (although one bantam session may be enough). Approximately 16 hours somehow need to be lumped together. On April 15, 2009, theAssociation hasice time from 5-9 pm. The mites could be at 5 pm and the squirts at 7 pm. On Wednesday, the mites could do5-7 pm again, and the squirts7-9 pm. The bantams could do two 1-hour sessions 9-10 pm each night. The peewees would end up with two separate stand alone sessions. The peewees could be on April 9, 2009, for two hours. It was questioned if Lovell would come out for only two hours. The peewees could do8-10 am on April 11, but there could be conflicts with games. The peewees could also do April 9 and16, and the bantams could do Wed. and Tues. for one hour each time. Dave will do a rough document with tryout times for Kevin O’Brien to post on web
.
Skills: Initial sessions have gone well. Coaches are trying out things from skills in practices. The players seem to be enjoying sessions. Only challenge is having more coaches go to goalie sessions. Coaches who have children as goalies have been the main ones attending goalie sessions.
House League: Over 50 participants have signed up. There was a question of who keeps CORI checks. Mass Hockey says CORI checks are needed every other year. There was also a question of who is the CORI officer for SYHA. Ted will be the CORI officer. An officer is needed if a CORI check comes back as questionable. Another question arose regarding if House League coaches need level 1. Both Learn to Skate and House League coaches need level 1. There are still some level 1 classes coming up. Dec. 31 is the deadline for getting level 1. Dan will send another reminder to coaches to get level 1. Mite coaches need level 3. A question was asked about the definition of a coach. A coach is any individual on the bench or roster. Anyone helping out should be registered with USA Hockey for insurance purposes.
Midstate is doing a mosquito program this year that we can participate in if we want to. Last year the House League kids played another team.
Equipment: All needs seem to have been met so far. Small chest protectors are needed to fit House League and mites. Most of the squirt and peewee goalies have there own equipment, so larger sizes of equipment are not needed. Cheryl will look into purchasing youth-sized chest protectors.
Other business: A question arose about what happens with extra ice time at the end of the season. It was suggested that SYHA could possibly doa 3-on-3 jamboree with three games going on simultaneously. Free hot dogs and soda could be given out, and coaches could be used as refs. The players could pick their own teams of five.
Bylaws: The Board cannot change bylaws; it can make recommendations to the membership. The membership needs to vote on any changes
Proposed change: Article III--Membership…”Any person residing in the Town….membership” should be changed to “Mass Hockey determines our district”. Currently MassHockey says we can take members from Shrewsbury, Boylston, and West Boylston. “A player living….Directors” needs to be changed. The wording should be changed to reflect our charter with Mass Hockey.
3rdparagraph: “and sponsors with…..donations” gives Learn to Skate participants membership but no voting capabilities.
Article IV--Dues & Registration: Second paragraph should be deleted since we don’t do that anymore.
Article V—Board of Directors: Strike one year terms
5th paragraph, page. 6: President is ex officio
Page 9, Directors: Website and Communication should be combined under one position .
Article VIII—Committees, page. 12, 6th paragraph, “Hardship Committee”: Keep although not many hardships in Association.
Article X—Amendments, page 13, 1st paragraph: Everything prior to page 13 needs to be voted on by Association; anything after page 13 can be changed/modified by the board. A change needs to be voted on by 2/3 of the members present at the annual meeting.
Pages 16 and 22-24: Tryout information needs to be tweaked regarding number of sessions.
Page 16, number 5: “Players returning….”: Placement needs to be looked at so that Board has some flexibility; right now if there’s a tie between two players, second year player gets the nod.
Jerry will reword changes which will be reviewed at next month’s meeting
Coaches Game: There is currently no Saturday night ice time for the coaches’ game. SYHA may need to buy extra ice for the game. Last year the Association tried to swap ice for a Sat. night. Callan will try to get ice for a Saturday night from 6-9 pm. There needsto be some activity between periods. A contest would be good. There could be a shoot out for the car again. Another possibility could be a mom’s game.
Next Meeting: Tues., Dec. 2, 2009, at 7 pm, at Butler-Dearden
Meeting Adjourned. 8:50 pm