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North Star Minor Hockey Association President’s Report April 12th, 2017
2017-04-23I would like to welcome everyone (players, coaches, trainers, managers, officials, volunteers, parents, executive board members and guests to our AGM. Tonight, is my last official event as the president of the NSMHA. Over the last 2 years we have seen many changes. To start I want to acknowledge and thank all ...
I would like to welcome everyone (players, coaches, trainers, managers, officials, volunteers, parents, executive board members and guests to our AGM.
Tonight, is my last official event as the president of the NSMHA. Over the last 2 years we have seen many changes.
To start I want to acknowledge and thank all the players, coaches, team official’s board members and volunteers for all the time and effort they have put in both on and off the ice.
In 2016-2017 we completed our second year under the new constitution which I believe was a success again. This ensures that all three associations work together within a structure to support A hockey at all levels and competitive AA teams. This past year again we saw player movement within all three associations to accomplish this and as a result NSMHA was able to have a team at every A level play out of our rink. There was one disappointment for me this year when we were not willing to move some players at a level to help out a sister association. This resulted in our organization having to financially subsidize the other association as per our agreement. This concerns me because in the last 2 years we have received several players at different levels so that we could host an A team and if we are not willing to share going forward it will cause issues going forward as the other organizations have not been able to host teams at all levels in both years.
This past year we were successful in getting a new constitution for the female Wildcat group so that they too have procedures and policies in place to allow the volunteers of the operating board to effectively guide that group.
NSMHA continued to support coaches, trainers and officials with financial support to cover the cost of the sessions. We will continue with this support going forward as it is essential that our local volunteers get support in development and education so that they can further develop their skills.
As highlighted in the individual team reports NSMHA players and teams had an overall successful year. Although some teams struggled in the win loss category kids still played hard and enjoyed the sport. I would like to make special mention of the Wildcat Midget AAA girls team for winning the Atlantics and heading to the Esso Nationals in Manitoba in another 2 weeks. Congratulations to the Matrix Bantam AAA’s for playing hard and doing a great job of hosting the Atlantics at the APM Centre in Cornwall. To the NSMHA Atom A team that hosted a successful Provincials tournament at North Star Arena and to all the teams both NSMHA and Gulf Storm that made the crossovers well done everyone!.
When I reflect on this past year or two I am especially proud of our board in supporting the continued partnership with our sister associations as I believe this will be a bond that will have to continue to build for all of us to be successful. Although putting three new constitutions in place has been challenging it also shows the necessity to having an open mind and adapting to change. This will have to continue in order to have success in developing players and icing competitive teams in the future. I believe the returning and new members of our board will be committed to looking after the best interest of the association as a whole. Going forward I think there will be opportunities to work together to develop and share officials as well as technology costs that would benefit everyone and the game.
I would like to say a special thank you to all the volunteers and board members that take time out of their busy lives to do their best to ensure that the kids in our community continue to have a vibrant association to which they can be proud to be a part of.
In closing I wish everyone great summer and some downtime to prepare for next season. I hope everyone supports Dean Gallant as your new President of NSMHA as Dean is very capable of guiding the association forward. I will now turn the chair over to Michelle Neill to hold nominations/elections for the upcoming council.
Sincerely
Bruce Andrews President
North Star Minor Hockey Association
Tonight, is my last official event as the president of the NSMHA. Over the last 2 years we have seen many changes.
To start I want to acknowledge and thank all the players, coaches, team official’s board members and volunteers for all the time and effort they have put in both on and off the ice.
In 2016-2017 we completed our second year under the new constitution which I believe was a success again. This ensures that all three associations work together within a structure to support A hockey at all levels and competitive AA teams. This past year again we saw player movement within all three associations to accomplish this and as a result NSMHA was able to have a team at every A level play out of our rink. There was one disappointment for me this year when we were not willing to move some players at a level to help out a sister association. This resulted in our organization having to financially subsidize the other association as per our agreement. This concerns me because in the last 2 years we have received several players at different levels so that we could host an A team and if we are not willing to share going forward it will cause issues going forward as the other organizations have not been able to host teams at all levels in both years.
This past year we were successful in getting a new constitution for the female Wildcat group so that they too have procedures and policies in place to allow the volunteers of the operating board to effectively guide that group.
NSMHA continued to support coaches, trainers and officials with financial support to cover the cost of the sessions. We will continue with this support going forward as it is essential that our local volunteers get support in development and education so that they can further develop their skills.
As highlighted in the individual team reports NSMHA players and teams had an overall successful year. Although some teams struggled in the win loss category kids still played hard and enjoyed the sport. I would like to make special mention of the Wildcat Midget AAA girls team for winning the Atlantics and heading to the Esso Nationals in Manitoba in another 2 weeks. Congratulations to the Matrix Bantam AAA’s for playing hard and doing a great job of hosting the Atlantics at the APM Centre in Cornwall. To the NSMHA Atom A team that hosted a successful Provincials tournament at North Star Arena and to all the teams both NSMHA and Gulf Storm that made the crossovers well done everyone!.
When I reflect on this past year or two I am especially proud of our board in supporting the continued partnership with our sister associations as I believe this will be a bond that will have to continue to build for all of us to be successful. Although putting three new constitutions in place has been challenging it also shows the necessity to having an open mind and adapting to change. This will have to continue in order to have success in developing players and icing competitive teams in the future. I believe the returning and new members of our board will be committed to looking after the best interest of the association as a whole. Going forward I think there will be opportunities to work together to develop and share officials as well as technology costs that would benefit everyone and the game.
I would like to say a special thank you to all the volunteers and board members that take time out of their busy lives to do their best to ensure that the kids in our community continue to have a vibrant association to which they can be proud to be a part of.
In closing I wish everyone great summer and some downtime to prepare for next season. I hope everyone supports Dean Gallant as your new President of NSMHA as Dean is very capable of guiding the association forward. I will now turn the chair over to Michelle Neill to hold nominations/elections for the upcoming council.
Sincerely
Bruce Andrews President
North Star Minor Hockey Association