WORL A/AA League

Minutes

March 10, 2009

The meeting was called to order at 7:35 pm

1) Attendance

Chatham, Dorchester, Elora-Fergus, Exeter, Forest, Guelph, Kitchener, London, Mitchell, St. Clements, St. Marys, St. Thomas, Stratford, Waterloo, London Ladies, Peter Westelaken, Keith Kaiser, Mary Kaiser, Dave Kelton, Jeff Snyder, Dave Gillis, Linda Hawkins, Brenda Van Bree, Kevin Beuermann, Ron Vermeltfoort and Michelle Hodgert.

The meeting was called to order at 7:35 pm

2) Any new business to add to the Agenda

Discuss the feelings on posting the player tracking on website prior to ‘A’ Provincials

3) Minutes from the February 16, 2009 meeting

Motion to accept minutes as written – Mitchell/Guelph – approved

4) Reports

• Treasurer/Registrar Report

  • No report

  • UoG, $125 outstanding fees

• Scheduler’s and Convenor’s Reports

  • Petite

    • Game P87 has been rescheduled for Sunday 15^th in London

    • Petite finals, Guelph at Kitchener AND Chatham at Waterloo

    • Suggestion for next season, to run season to middle of February and then playoffs

    • No other issues

• Tween

  • Tween A playoffs, Chatham at St. Marys (now, this evening)

  • Tween AA playoffs, Guelph at London (March 28^th)

  • Tween AA playoff final, above winner at Waterloo (March 29^th)

  • No other issues

• Junior A

  • Chatham defeated Guelph (1-0) last weekend

  • Junior A playoff final, Chatham at St. Marys.

  • No other issues

• Junior AA/Belle A

  • Junior AA playoffs, London at Waterloo (March 29^th)

  • Above winner to play in St. Clements in final

  • Belle A, lots of games not played or rescheduled – playoffs?

  • No other issues

• Belle AA/Open A

  • Stratford concentrating on Nationals, not competing for WORL Championship

  • Guelph to play in Dorchester for Belle AA championship final (March 23^rd)

  • No information on Open A playoff format

  • No issues

• Official’s Report

  • No report

• Elite Coordinators Report (Mary Kaiser)

  • The Western Region AAA coach will be determined by the March WORL meeting

  • AAA team may have open/NRL players on roster – born 1991 or later

  • Players must play in their home association, that are attending university/college outside of their home association

  • Challenge Cups (West Ferris, St. Marys & Kingston) and OWG (Muskoka - Bala) locations have been finalized.

• Membership Services Report (Keith Kaiser)

  • Membership was reminded on Award nominations for the 2008-09 season.

• G & T Report (Keith Kaiser)

  • No report – Janet feeling under the weather, did not attend

Motion to accept the reports as given – London/Stratford – approved

5) Open Discussion - A/AA Tryout and Selection Process

• Peter reviewed the status of the draft proposal – followed by a lengthy discussion

• Discussed and finalized the AA tryout and declaration time line

• Discussed and finalized the A tryout and declaration time line

• Timing of posting the Player Tracking information was reviewed and agreed upon

  • player tracking information will be shared with association president’s for now

  • player tracking information will be posted on the WRRA website at the completion of the ‘A’ Provincials.

• Discussion had on Willing-to-Host and bid criteria information as well

• Discussed the idea of forming a Overview Committee – nothing finalized

The committee members would include:

• 1 Western Region Executive,

• 1 WORL Executive,

• 1 WORL Rep from a small association ( < 80 registrations in 08-09)

• 1 WORL Rep from a large association ( > 100 registration in 08-09)

• 1 Committee Chair.

Comments from Discussion

Timing of ORA decision on “closest versus chosen” makes our decisions very difficult and complex – “a moving target”.

ORA waiting on CRA recommendations on Long Term Athlete Development (LTA) plans.

Discussion of team declaration chart, we heard everything from modify numbers, separate AA and A, use association membership % and ban the chart completely – leave numbers up to host/overview committee.

Also mentioned that majority of 2008-09 AA teams would not meet the content % numbers.

Mentioned, Overview Committee should not be decision makers – then who should be?

Concern over the affect & development of the B/C leagues and membership.

Time constraints were discussed; Nationals, Easter, AAA RAT Team, AA/A and B/C.

Dates were reviewed and altered:

AA March 31^st Tryout Schedules Posted…

April 30^th Each AA team must have completed 2 tryouts…

May 24^th AA Tryouts conclude… Full Rosters declared…

A May 1^st Tryout Schedules Posted…

May 31^st Each A team must have completed 2 tryouts…

June 30^th A Tryouts conclude… Full Rosters declared…

Motion:

To accept the dates proposed for the AA/A WORL Tryouts for 2009.

Chatham/Guelph … carried

Associations and team need to commit to players, majority are looking for some type of process that commits the player to the roster once selected to a team.

After this lengthy discussion the following motion was presented.

Motion:

Support the WORL President (Peter W) to propose to the Western Region Ringette Association that the WORL AA/A tryouts precede with the “chosen” association guidelines for the 2009-10 playing season.

Chatham/St. Clements … carried (9 For, 4 Opposed, 2 No Vote)

Timeout called – as a governing body, we went from simply tweaking certain areas of a very successful and well working selection team process to making a hasty and significant change to our team selection process, without properly exploring and understanding the benefits and pitfalls of our actions.

Motion:

To thank the Adhoc committee for their efforts to date, and to table the remaining recommendations at our next meeting, and adjourn this meeting

Chatham/Elora-Fergus… carried

Next Meeting: April 14, 2009 at the Optimist Hall, Dorchester

Minutes recorded by Ken Rowe