SCAHA MEETING OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS

AUGUST 10, 2005

LAKEWOOD MALL MEETING ROOM

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE PRESENT

Commissioner – Robert Doherty, Deputy Commissioner – Sandy Blumberg, Treasurer – Bob Driffill, Ace Coaching Coordinator – Larry Bruyere, Associate Director – Rosemary Voulelikas, Legal Counsel – Louis Pacella, Member Services – Wendy Goldstein, Referee-in-Chief – Art Kitano and Statistician – Annie Fisher.

MEMBER ASSOCIATIONS PRESENT

Anaheim Jr. Ducks, Bay Harbor Red Wings, Beach City Lightning, California Bears, California Stars, Channel Island Riptide, Huntington Beach Sun Devils, Inland Valley Wild, Jr. Ice Dogs, LA Hockey Club, La Jolla Jaguars, LA Jr. Kings, Ontario Eagles, Pasadena Maple Leafs, San Diego Gulls, San Diego Ice Arena, West Valley Wolves, Valencia Express, Ventura Mariners and Yorba Linda Blackhawks.

MEMBER ASSOCIATIONS ABSENT

Bakersfield Dragons, California Wave, North Valley Tigers, and South Coast Sabers.

Commissioner Robert Doherty called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m.

It was determined that twenty (20) Presidents were present at the meeting enough for a quorum.

MINUTES

The July meeting minutes were distributed for review. Rod Gunn motioned to accept the 7-13-05 minutes and Tom West seconded. MOTION PASSED.

GUEST

Bob stated the guest speaker planned for tonight’s meeting was not able to make it.

Carmen Starr Scholarship:

The Carmen Starr Scholarships were presented to Walter Voisard and Dylan Ramos.

COMMISSIONER REPORT

Block Recruitment Rule:

Bob Doherty informed the board that the Block recruitment rule is a rule requested by the presidents in order to protect clubs and is a rule enforced by SCAHA. Individual requests for exception to this rule must be made in writing to the SCAHA Executive Committee whose decision will be final.

Bob gave a brief overview of a parent’s petition to have SCAHA waive the BRR against the LA Jr. Kings’ Midget A18U team. After careful consideration of all the facts and LAHC’s approval to waive the BRR against its 7 players on the team, the SCAHA Executive Committee voted to grant the waiver. Bob informed the board that both Louis and Rosemary excused themselves from voting.

Recruitment Violation:

Bob stated that SCAHA continues to receive complaints regarding violation of the recruitment rules 17.03 and 17.04 of the SCAHA Rules and Regulations. Allegations of recruitment violations must be submitted in writing by the parent and/or player in order for SCAHA to be able to enforce the rule. It is very difficult for SCAHA to enforce it without these attestations in writing.

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER REPORT

Sandy informed the board she was working closely with Chris Carcerano in developing online SCAHA forms. She talked about the SCAHA Game Summary form and how they were looking to update it with possible comment section for the coaches to evaluate the refs. She also talked about developing another form for referees to use that would give more details about games.

SCAHA will be providing LAHOA copies of the SCAHA Rules and Regulations to distribute to all LAHOA officials. The cost would be split between SCAHA and LAHOA.

Art Kitano informed the board that the referee seminar season started last week.

TREASURER’S REPORT

Bob Driffill stated that all the paperwork, transfers and signing of signature cards has been completed.  He stated that he would be able to present the budget at the next scheduled SCAHA meeting.

MEMBER SERVICES REPORT

Wendy Goldstein reported the delinquency list has been reduced to one page as more and more outstanding financial obligations are being paid to the clubs. She also reminded the club presidents to submit the coaches LOI’s and that to date she has yet to receive any. Wendy reiterated that preliminary rosters are due September 3, 2005 and that AA teams dropping down to the A level must do so before September 15, 2005 in order to be SCAHA post season eligible.

ICE CONVENER REPORT

No report at this time. Bob did mention that Chris is working diligently to get the Tier Schedule out but needs to have the clubs respond within the timeframe and deadlines requested by Chris. Non compliance of these deadlines will cause delays in releasing the schedules.

Dave Bigelow asked about the Tier weekends. Bob responded that SCAHA will schedule the Tier II for one game around the CAHA weekends and the remaining weekends will be up to the Tier II teams. Sandy clarified she had a meeting with Chris and Bob discussing the rescheduling of games and reiterated that last meeting’s discussion of rescheduling of games was for Tier II teams only. Bob reaffirmed SCAHA’s position that the rescheduling of Tier games requires agreement between the presidents and a rescheduled time and date submitted no later than 30 days from the original scheduled date.

Ron White asked about the team declarations in the Tier II division up North. A discussion followed when it was determined that there was probably one or two clubs fielding Midget Tier II teams up north. Kevin C. motioned to have SCAHA legal counsel draft a resolution outlining SCAHA’s petition to be exempt from having to play the CAHA mandated Tier weekends. Louis Soltero seconded. MOTION PASSED.

STATISTICIAN REPORT

Annie Fisher reported she did not have the team packets to distribute at this time, but made available last season’s score sheets for the clubs to pick up. She reminded everyone that the address listed on the old score sheet was no longer correct and to note the street number change of 4664 Wheeler as the correct address.

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS REPORT

No report at this time.

ACE COACHING COORDINATOR REPORT

Larry Bruyere stated the schedule for the coaches clinics was available online. Presently for the Advance clinic in Reno, there were about 80 applicants registered. He reminded everyone that coaches must be certified at the appropriate levels. He informed the board that USA Hockey has a listing of the certification levels of coaches from the last three-(3) years on their web site.

NEW BUSINESS

Bob Doherty discussed SCAHA’s role in trying to promote the sport of hockey among younger players and suggested we should come up with some sort of a marketing strategy. Bob stated that it is time for SCAHA to go further than just talking about it, maybe even launch an advertising campaign with the help of the NHL teams, the Ducks and the Kings. Ron White agreed with Bob and stated that SCAHA needs more exposure. He suggested a possible hockey alliance with the professional teams’ maybe even get some airtime on radio broadcasts.

Larry B. suggested we form a committee and come up with a plan before we pitch our ideas to the NHL teams. Al those interested should send an email to Bob. Bob Doherty to chair the committee.

OLD BUSINESS

Exhibition Teams:

Bob informed the board that our member clubs that currently have AAA Bantam and AAA Peewee teams would like for SCAHA to facilitate scheduling of exhibition games with SCAHA member clubs. Basically, a PWAAA team would play a BNAA team and a BNAAA team would play a MDAA team. The games would not count and would be on a voluntary basis. The AAA clubs would be responsible for the ice costs. Laura Ryan raised concerns regarding how this would impact the game schedule. Bob assured the board that Chris would produce the master schedule first and then would input the AAA games.

SDIA also petitioned to be included in the scheduling of exhibition games.  Lisa England motioned that the exhibition schedule for games with the AAA teams and SDIA be on a voluntary basis and for an email to be sent by SCAHA to its member clubs asking if they are interested in playing these exhibition teams. Larry B seconded it. 16 voted in favor and three abstained. MOTION PASSED.

Laura Ryan motioned to reinstate Las Vegas Outlaws into the SCAHA schedule as an exhibition team. Rick Kent seconded it. Discussion followed and Laura R. amended her motion to allow SCAHA clubs/teams to opt out of the exhibition schedule with the LV Outlaws. 18 voted in favor, and two abstained. MOTION CARRIED.

Next meeting is September 14^th, 2005.

Meeting adjourned at 9:40 PM.