FLHA Parent’s Meeting

September 2009

Summary for Posting

This is the first annual FLHA Parent Meeting

  • Attendance is mandatory meaning all FLHA families are responsible to understand the messages given in the meeting
  • Failure to attend does not give a family the right to claim ignorance of the FLHA policies and procedures
  • A summary of the meeting will be posted on the web site

Larry Porter FLAAA Gambling Director

  • Discussed the history of FLAAA and its relationship with FLHA

Shawn Maher – FLAAA Sports Arena General Manager

  • Discussed the policies of the arena
  • Puck Wall is close to being installed
  • Trophy Case is in place
  • Please respect the arena

Introduction of Board Members

  • President – Steve Hunt
  • Vice President and Bantam/Jr. Gold Director – Chris Edstrom
  • Secretary/Registrar – Deedie Hildreth
  • Treasurer – Mark Ferraro
  • Girls Director and District 2 Rep. – Michelle Brennan
  • Peewee Director – Steve Bakken
  • Squirt Director – Brad Kolstad
  • Initiation Director – Dan Gallatin
  • Sponsorship/Fundraising Director and Rep. to FLAAA – Melissa Hursh
  • Ice Scheduler – Carol Bisbee

Committees

  • Coaches Selection – 3 open positions in November
  • Qualified candidates will be those that understand how to interview people and what FLHA is looking for in a coach
  • Player Development – 3 open positions in November
  • Qualified candidates will be very hockey minded
  • Strong hockey background in both coaching and developing
  • This will be a key role as we move forward to organize and develop our coaches and players, including goalies
  • Ethics and Rules – 3 open positions in November
  • Qualified candidates will have a strong ethical background
  • Good organizational skills
  • Ability to mediate grievance situations
  • Tournament – next open position is November 2010
  • Equipment – One person for now but would like to get a few to help
  • We have one person dealing with all of our equipment
  • Where to store it?
  • Annual inventory
  • Potential annual reorder
  • ACE Coordinator – Association and Coaching Education Program
  • Important role as we move forward with our hockey development
  • This person will be in charge of educating and developing our parents, players and coaches
  • Strong hockey background

Current Struggles

  • Player attrition
  • We continue to look for methods to retain skaters as well as recruit more to play this great game
  • Costs
  • The cost of ice is ever increasing
  • Fundraising and volunteering help to defray these costs
  • Volunteering
  • We need to get more people involved in all areas of our organization
  • The idea that nine people make the majority of major decisions for over 300 families’ skaters
  • We would like to see more people attend our meetings and let us know their opinions on the topics we discuss
  • Goalies – recruiting and developing

Codes of Conduct

  • Players, parents and coaches
  • Coaches signed them after their interview
  • Parents signed them electronically during registration
  • Players will sign them once they are assigned to a team
  • These codes are not taken lightly
  • Violations will be documented and violators will be subject to disciplinary actions
  • Be a good role model for your kids, for FLHA and for ForestLake
  • Responsible actions at arenas
  • Take care of our arena and make sure you leave any arena in the same shape it was when you arrived

Volunteer Policy

  • Hours Required
  • 12 hours per family
  • Exempt positions are:
  • Board, committees, head coaches, assistant coaches, managers, equipment manager
  • Available options
  • Concession stand, tournaments, other work as deemed appropriate by the FLHA Board
  • There are opportunities to help with project both at the arena and for FLHA

Sponsorship

  • Teams, web sites, FLHA

Ice time for the upcoming season

  • Increase in hours
  • Originally we purchased every hour of ice available at our arena
  • Once we had the final registration numbers we realized we will need to sell some of the hours we purchased
  • Game schedules are being created
  • Tournaments are scheduled
  • Other associations’ use of FL Sports Center
  • Because we are not able to use every available hour at the arena we will see other associations using the arena, but not to the extent we did last season
  • October ice schedule created in mid-September

Cost breakdown

  • Fixed vs. Variable
  • Budget Overview

Team level designations

  • Bantam – A, B1, C
  • Jr. Gold – B (tentative)
  • Peewees – A, B1, B2, C
  • Squirts – A, two B teams, two C teams
  • Mites – 3 Level 1, 3 Level 2, 5 Level 3/4
  • Girls – U12A, U12 B, U10 B, U8 three teams

Tryouts

  • They will be closed this season
  • Staging area will be in the field house
  • Using seasoned evaluators for each level
  • Will not have a group evaluate more than one level
  • For next season we want people to know the clinic is for all skaters and goalies
  • Goalie emphasis
  • We do run the goalies through the tryout drills and get them involved in the skating drills and scrimmages
  • Clinic level leaders
  • Next season these people very well might be potential head coaches on the ice running the clinic

Question and Answer

  • Sunday is skills days for all skaters
  • Goalies attend only their own skills session and then scrimmages the rest of the week
  • Skater will not be told to play forward or defense
  • We will work with all that come forward prior to a schedule conflict to make it as fair as possible for the skaters