Leduc Ringette AssociationAgendaTuesday, May 24th, 2015Lede Room A, Civic Centre @ 7:15PM

In Attendance: Chelsea Cameron, Kari Baker, Kristine Gullickson, Bonnie Lammie, Ken Milne, Craig Stuparyk, Tamara Bellerose, Mike Baker, Serena Heintz, Shelby Berghs, Mel Milne, Sherrill Gering, Denise Broadbent

1. Call to Order: 7:13 PM2. Approval of February Minutes

Tamara makes a motion for the approval of February minutes.Mike seconds the motion.All in favor.

3. Additions to AgendaNo additions

4. Reports/Updates – Read prior to meeting:a) President's Report – Chelsea Cameron

-Attended the RAB AGMa) Fort McMurray is hoping if they have a season this year that teams will be willing to come to them to play their gamesb) Residency Policy Vote – Still being discussed

-Attended the BGL AGMa) BGL running a course for referee in chief’s and ice allocators to help the people who undertake these positions in their association have a better understanding of everything that is required and how to do them as smoothly as possibleb) Decisions to be made at Ringette Alberta's meeting on June 5 regarding any changes to evaluation methods.

b) Past President - Ryan Heck

c) Vice President – Kari Baker

Booked Photos with Photography by Tara for October 5, 2016

d) Treasurer's Report –Kristine Gullickson

-Current Bank Balance May 23, 2016: $37,683.76-Still have not seen an Invoice from Better Player for last season’s Power Skating Clinics (Craig will ask Scott from Better Player for the invoice)

e) Secretary - Bonnie Lammief) Ice Allocator's Report – Ken Milne

-Ice request was submitted. Details: asked for 4 one hour slots to be extended by 15 min to accommodate U16, u19 and open game requirements. Probably will get 2 or 3 of them. Priority was Sunday 630pm and Thursday 730pm slots to be extended. Monday 630 pm and Tuesday 7pm (add on earlier) were the other requests. Weekday ice to start last week of August, weekend ice to start after Labor Day weekend. No ice at Christmas break, no ice on Thanksgiving weekend. Asked for our usual tournament ice. Ice to end March 20th or so.We won't know for a month or so what we will get. No guarantee we get the same ice times either.

-Active Start to begin after Thanksgiving and go to the middle of March and they will have regular ice time each week

g) Referee-In-Chief's Report – Allison Cowell

h) Equipment Manager's Report - Craig Stuparyk

- (Ken) I still need to prepare an inventory for Craig. U12A did not return equipment or jerseys yet. Black gold rodeo setup interrupted my plan to have this done. - Clean Up not done yet as per Ken -There are about 50 old jerseys in the equipment room – Serena is going to take them in order to see them put to a good use (eg: practice jerseys for players, made into a quilt, etc.)

i) Registrar's Report – Pam Horn

- We accepted 60 Registrations at the AGM in April. This is the highest number ever at an AGM. Some have not paid their fees yet, so registration is not considered complete until payment is received.

o Serena is going to send out an email to everyone who attended the AGM to find out the top two reasons as to why they attended

- We NEED THE WEBSITE UP AND RUNNING FOR REGISTRATIONS!!! We cannot wait for RAMP to finish their platform changes. We need on-line open, or at the very least, we need to have a form on the website that people can print off and submit. The home page of the website needs to be cleaned up (archive old news) and state that registrations are open (either on-line or have printable form), mail payment and/or form to PO Box 3412, Leduc AB, T9E 6M2.

- We need to determine the date for Come Try Ringette and get organizing that.- We need to set dates for Universal Athlete Assessment for U10 – U14, as well as find

volunteers and have a practice run of the procedure.- Suggest we have a meeting with Beaumont Association for U16 and U19 to possibly run

tryouts together to make an A and B team at each level. Then work together to split the ice times for the teams at both locations.

j) Zone 5 Rep. Report – Pam Horn

- The UAA must be done and submitted to RA prior to the league Declaration meeting on Sept. 28. It has not yet been decided if this will be used to set teams (U10 – U14) into appropriate levels of play instead of using the old tiering formula.

- Small nets will be used again for U10S1 and S2. It is still being decided what to do at U10S3.- RA is still discussing playing time for U10 and U12 goalies; may only be allowed so many

games or 50% of time. This is to try to help with development of goalies so that there will not be such a shortage of goalies once the players get to higher levels.

- Fort McMurray has requested that if they are up and running for the season and have teams at U14 – U19, then home games be played in Fort McMurray. This will be discussed again at the BGL August meeting.

- Policies are being reviewed again this summer. There may be changes to the blackout request policy and the rescheduling of games policy.

- Ice for the first session must be submitted by Sept. 9. Use the proper codes (eg. Arena codes) and form on the website. We must submit at least 1.5 x the ice needed for games for all our teams, but I believe we always submit all (or most) of our ice slots.

- Next BGL meeting is August 27.

k) Fundraising & Bingo Report – Tamara Bellerose-Bingo Dates – October 11 & 30, November 13, December 4 & 21-Looking into doing the Casino Application -Putting in application for 50/50 for Oilers game

l) Coach Coordinator - Mike Baker

m) Manager Coordinator - Serena Heintz

-Currently working on Manager/Coach template for Coach and Manager meeting.-Would like to push for anyone interested in managing teams to be sending in applications alongside Coaching applications. We have done this in the past but rarely receive Managing applications, will look to advertise this (as well as Coaching applications) on our website and Social Media.-Have left a message with Tia Lefrance in regards to setting up a First Aid workshop for Coaches in late September. She will follow up with Mike or myself.

-look into pricing from a couple of companies -Could use first aid workshop as a way to get some extra revenue by offering seats to other associations that require this as well and selling the seats

-Shawn Cuff wishes to head a Personnel Screening Committee along with two other Association members to ensure all Managers and Coaches complete Record Checks and Screenings in a timely fashion. Any objections?

-Serena makes a motion for Shawn to head the Personnel Screening Committee-Denise seconds the motion-All in favor.-Tamara abstains

n) Player Dev. Report – Shelby Berghs

-Goalie Clinic- I have been in contact with Keely Brown in regards to goalie clinics. Keely is looking into trying a new format this season; having goalies from Edmonton area of similar skill and age meet on set dates at different arenas. This idea is still in the works, otherwise we can still set up clinics on our own ice time, but would like to start early in the season.What is the board approved budget for this? Last season we spent approx. $750 for 7 goalies to receive 2 sessions each.

-Should do 3 goalie clinics before ChristmasIt was discussed briefly last season I have been told, is the board open to supporting our goalies through lowered registration costs, equipment rebates etc.? Any ideas to attract new goalies at especially the U10 Step 3/U12 levels?

-Look into soliciting hockey goalies-UAAs (Universal Athlete Assessments) - Hoping to set up for last week of August/First week of Sept. Will need some parent or coach volunteers to help time the skaters.

-Evaluations will need to be held at the U10, U12, and likely U14 levels (depending on final registration numbers). We are waiting on decisions made at Ringette Alberta's meeting on June 5 regarding any changes to evaluation methods before anything is booked. There is talk of having UAAs replace any other tiering methods.

-Scrimmages and Exhibition games need to be done for evaluations if ice is available --Sherwood Park hired someone to do their evaluations last year. We should look into this but wait until RAB meeting on June 5

- Need more power skating and making better usage of the power skating provided-better communication between LRA and Better Player in regards to what age level is going to be on the ice - if dryland warm up is done before power skating only a small warmup will be required on the ice which will make better use of the power skating - Coaches need to communicate with Scott from Better Player as to what power skating skills to teach that would most benefit their team (eg: backward skating, tight turns, etc.) - Power Skating should finish at the end of January

o) Social Media Director: Mel Milne

- Social Media release forms are ready for the coach/manager meeting.Followers on the current accounts of Twitter 400+, Instagram 390+ and I have just created a new FB page. It's set up as a fake person so the ability to like other pages and create events etc. is an option. It is my understanding that there is already a FB page or profile created and if possible, I'd like it to be deleted.-Tamara to give Mel access to old FB page to transfer photos, etc. over to new page

p) Tournament Coordinator's Report – **Open Position**

Tournament Dates for BGL-Sherwood Park - Oct 28-30, Beaumont - Oct 21-23, Red Deer - Jan 6-8, Leduc - Jan 13-15, Drayton Valley - Nov 25-27, Spruce Grove - Feb 10-13, St Albert - Oct 7-10, Edmonton - Jan 20-22, Lacombe - end of Nov/beg of Dec date yet to be set, Hinton - trying to schedule around major Calgary tourney. **Ensure that this information is passed out at the coach/manager meeting so new coaches/managers know what tournaments will need immediate action in order to get in. **

q) Webmaster Report – Sherrill Gering- Up to date for Contacts- Online Registration is open and email money transfers are now available

r) PR & Marketing – Denise Broadbent

- SPONSORSHIP Did not have any volunteers to sit on the Sponsorship Committee. Will not be pursuing the

new sponsorship model that I had in mind as it would require about 5-8 people soliciting sponsorship

Corporate sponsorship will continue from last year with some revisions based on current economic conditions. We will offer some more affordable sponsorship options

MARKETING

I recommend that we should attend Community Registration nights in Devon, Calmar, Thorsby, Millet, and Wetaskiwin

Roadside advertising – who should I contact for that? Need to know our season start date Continued focus on news releases for the coming year

Do we want to pursue having a dedicated ringette display cabinet at LRC? If yes, do we feel we have the human resources to keep the cabinet looking fresh and relevant?

Who will coordinate our Come Try Event? When will it be held? What can we do to make it even MORE FUN? Can we host a Come Try event in another community…Devon, Calmar, Millet etc.?

Website is our main marketing tool and it currently had many outdated or irrelevant sections – e.g. Want to Play? Still has some old division names; Forms page has irrelevant minutes; FAQ does not have any questions listed only a place to ask a question; Classified should be re-branded e.g. Ringette Gear For Sale or Swap. Website, including background imagery, needs to be refreshed and renewed.

The mission vision and core values that come out of the strategic planning session should be included in the ABOUT US section of the website.

I would like to introduce a fresh line of products that our LRA members can purchase directly from Alice Embroidery. I would like to have these in place prior to the commencement of the school year. The product line would include school related products such as: Backpacks, Contigo mugs, pencil cases, etc. These are ways to market Leduc Ringette in the community

I would like to purchase design and print services to make community posters aimed at promoting Free and deeply discounted Ringette in Leduc. These posters would not be dated so unused posters could be carried forward into future years

Hope to have a marketing plan in place this summer. Marketing plan will be driven by the priorities, goals, and vision identified in the Strategic

planning session.OTHER:

There are a few grants which can be applied for. Do you have a Board member who is responsible for Grant applications? Does anyone want to take this on?

o Chelsea can look into the grants

- SportChek Team Assist – Sign up teams to receive coupons/free skate sharpening and at the end of the year you get 5% back from purchases (look into the 5% that teams get back to come back to the ringette association)

5. Unfinished Business:a) Open Board positions – Tournament Coordinators (Have reached out to 3 potential people whom

are interested in stepping up)

6. New Businessa) Website – MUST BE UPDATEDb) Website – look at getting outside training and/or support for upgrading the websitec) Strategic Planning – June 13/20 (6-9pm)

-Government Lead – Vision, Mission, Core Values, Goals, and Objectives-Recommend entire board to attend (min of 8 to 20 people to attend)

d) Come Try Ringette Evente) Residency Policy Vote – June 5th

- Any changes made should only effect Double A this yearf) Grant Application – Make A difference in sportsg) Parade – Budget of $750 :

-Email to be sent out regarding girls participating in parade/liability forms-We will be handing out 1000 silicone bracelets to our Target Market-Can we have a few available board members who are willing to chat about our great association hand these out? Yes, Serena, Craig, Shelby-Denise has set up a meeting with Ryan at LA Nissan for Wednesday morning regarding teaming up with our sponsor in the parade. -We are planning on a truck and a trailer for the parade and any players/parents who want to walk, pull each other in wagons, blow bubbles etc. I will have our parade application in as soon as we have proof of insurance on the vehicle we choose to use (LA Nissan may wish to supply the vehicle)-Kari and I will be setting up a date to decorate trailer. Likely the Thursday or Friday, more details to follow, players and parents welcome to help.-Craig/Ken what do we have for banners? LA Nissan has 2 banners that say “Proudly Support Leduc Jaguars”; can we use the U16 Western Champions banner?-Any ideas on best ways to advertise "free" registration? Attach a free registration coupon to each bracelet-Are we interested in handing out coupons etc.? (These are allowed as long as they aren't loose; we could attach a few to certain bracelets etc.?)- Cheryl might have access to a trailer

h) Privacy policy – Re: ringette email addressesi) Extra Fundraising – Hi-way Cleanup (done for this year but look into if this is something we

would like to do in the future) & Alberta Summer Games (collecting recyclables/garbage if this is still open?) - Cheryl has brought information on “Chase the Ace Lottery”.

Tamara to look into this for fundraising (rules are attached)j) Online Registrationk) Leduc Hall of Fame Nominations – Leduc U16A Jaguars

-Submitted for the U16 team as a wholel) Youth Leadership Award Nominations

7. Next Meeting: June 23, 2016 @ 7pm – Will be held @ Denise’s Home

8. Adjournment: 9:25 (Need to finish the uncovered business at the next meeting)