AHA Board Meeting

October 27, 2005

Roll Call:

Also present: Beau Fore, Jim Sculley, Joe Healy, Ryan Healy, Joe Castrodale.

Call to Order: at 6:32p.m.

Review & Approve September minutes:

Motion to approve: Barry Kerr

Seconded: Rick Murray

Unanimously approved.

Registrars Report: Mike

House League: Several teams are registered and rostered.

PeeWees have some players that they want rostered that arent the right agewill address at tonights meeting.

73 players registered from Little Rock.

19 mites (11 of these are age 6 or under)

12 squirts

12 peewees

25 bantams

17 midgets (4 are from Jackson)

Two people are being shown by Mike as not having paid the registration fee (one is a Jackson player), and we need to check on that.

The Kochs are not playing.

There have been a few refunds issued.

$6910 has been brought in, another $210 not collected.

Some fees are not equal for everyone. Jackson players paid $55 rather than $105. Texarkana too. These are not included in the above monies.

Some more money will come in.

All teams are rostered except the peewee team and a few on bantam bronze, which is being turned in tonight.

Leigh should have all the email addresses for everyone that has registered.

Neil thanked Mike for his hard work.

Still not utilizing the database to the fullest yet, because were still learning it.

It will be useful for everyone, including the treasurer.

Treasurers Report: Janet

The information for taxes are in Neils hands now.

Kroger cards have been passed out.

Except for the Bantamsworking on getting them out.

And maybe a few others.

If anyone else wants one for friends, family, etc., let Janet know so she can get it set up.

House Account had about $10,000, which is a lot to carry over.

Paul Phillips, Gwen, and Janet discussed it.

Decided to allocate $7000 for the four house teams to let the teams use it.

Allocation was based on size of the team.

Ended up being about $152 per player.

Paul suggested using it for game fees.

This money has stayed in the account, but there is an accounting system set in place to keep track of it.

Managers need to try to get the ice fees collected by the 1^st of the month, rather than later.

Directors Reports:

House:

This weekend, Oct 29 & 30, the mites, squirts, and peewees are playing in Springdale.

The weekend of Nov. 5 & 6 is the Squirt SAHA games here at the Skatium.

Bantams Bronze are struggling to get games locked down.

Memphis is on for sure though.

So they are not totally devastated if SAHA falls through for them.

There are scheduling problems with the icethe ice is booked pretty much, so we may need to schedule ice somewhere else, like Jackson for games.

Baton Rouge has no one around them to playtheyll probably have to travel more and further to get games.

Travel:

Midgets went 3 wins, 1 loss about 2 weeks ago, and are tied for 2^nd in their division.

Theyll play the weekend of Nov 15/16 in Birmingham.

Bantam Silver went 3 wins, 1 loss last weekend, and are in 1^st place in their division.

Theyll play in Memphis the weekend of Nov. 15/16.

There are no more games scheduled here in 2005, but we may try to schedule more in 2006.

The referees did really well this past weekend here, especially the younger ones.

Particularly noted was Andrew Collins, who was put in a difficult situation calling the Chaos game versus the undefeated Jackson team. He did well with no incidents.

Adult:

Nothing to report.

Beau Fore volunteered to be the second adult board member. Rick Murray motioned, Barry seconded, and Beau was unanimously approved.

Fundraising Report:

Golf tournament

Should future participation be mandatory?

It is in June, and costs $50 per player to play.

It was suggested that each player be responsible for getting 2 tickets sold.

A few years ago, they tried to have each parent responsible for getting 2 teams.

Gwen sees a problem with parents coming up with money for ice fees and game fees all season and then having to come up with $100 for golf tickets.

Tabled for further discussion.

Chili supper

For Chaos

This is the 3^rd year.

It will be held Wednesday, Nov 16 at the Burns Park Hospitality House, from 7-10p.m.

It costs $5 for all you can eat, and free soft drinks.

Or $20 per family.

The chili has been donated this year.

There will also be a silent auction.

Old Business:

Rink improvements:

Parking lot has been repaved in the bad places.

Brian King has worked on making some improvements and painted the locker rooms.

The ref room has a new bench in it and the room has been cleaned up.

Things are moving in the right direction.

Joe Healy was asked if there were any comments from the out-of-towners at the past tournament.

He said they dont like the small locker rooms, but the hospitality is outstanding here.

The major issue that needs to be dealt with now is the condition of the boards.

New Business:

SAHA Participation:

Jim Jacoby said that they went through a long process of deciding whether to play in SAHA or just with Springdale, and ultimately chose SAHA.

They finally got a schedule in September, then weather cancelled the first tournament, which he understood.

However, he was concerned that now theyve got a new schedule that they received just this weekend, and it has 3 totally new dates on it.

So he is curious as to the certainty and stability of the schedule now.

He said that he went to bat for SAHA and told the parents that the schedule would be set at the beginning, and now the schedule has changed.

Nick said that Memphis loses their ice very quickly, and thats what happened with that tournament.

Paul Petrarca said that Memphis was scared of losing their ice for next year.

Paul said that southern hockey was difficult right now due to the recent weather issues.

Texarkana is putting down a double sheet of ice.

Shreveport has a temporary sheet for the Mudbugs.

He also said that if it is an issue with the majority of the team, then he would be willing to go to SAHA and tell them that there were issues with the schedule changing.

Jim will get back to him on that.

Off-Ice Officiating / Status of Ceritification

Several people showed up to the off-ice official clinic, but most were managers.

Certification for off-ice officials is still up in the air.

Jim Dewhurst is the referee-in-chief, and he cant get a good answer on the off-ice official certification issue. He said, though, that our clinic was a good idea and that it should be done everywhere.

Jim Acebedo will be in charge of off-ice training.

It was suggested that we pay the clock runner (even $5-10).

The guy that runs the clock on Sunday nights has said that he could helpwe need to contact him.

Charlie Foster does the clock sometimes, and perhaps he could help.

Ice Scheduling Issues:

Seems to go very smoothly.

Midgets need 15 minute periods.

Jay wants ice cuts to have 15 minutes allocated between the curfew end of one game and the beginning of the next.

Remember that we pay for the ice time of these cuts.

It was noted that we need to not allow players to jump on the ice immediately, to allow the ice to set for about 5 minutes.

Everywhere else, players dont get on the ice until the officials allow them to get on.

We need to let our officials know thisto allow the ice some time to set and to let the teams know when its OK to get on.

Jerseys:

We currently have:

A set of white and a set of black Lightning jerseys in good shapeBantam size.

A set of black Riverblades jerseysPeeWee size

Two sets (different colors) of Chaos jerseysPeeWee size.

A set of white and a set of black Razorblade jerseysadult size.

House mites are using Blue Memphis League jerseys.

Squirts have red Memphis League jerseys to use for Springdale play and have bought jerseys for SAHA play.

It was asked if we could have a locker or somewhere to lock up these kind of things. But stuff still disappears whenever we try that.

Play-Up Issues

Bryce Scott, Alex Deguire, Grant Harrison are all mites that have requested to play up to squirts. All proper forms, parents and coaches signatures are present, so unanimously approved.

Squirt team this year had several members who didnt want to or couldnt participate in SAHA. It was asked whether these kids could play up.

Brian King originally asked why they should be rewarded for refusing to play with their own team by being allowed to play up.

On the other had, the peewees are very short.

Brian has eventually rethought and has signed off or will sign off on these players.

Damon Ryan will play as PeeWee for Springdales team.

The squirts will play with their primary team (the squirts)thats their first obligation.

Nick Mattone and Noah Findlay have requested to play up. Motioned to approve by Frank Udouj, seconded by Tod Richie, unanimously approved.

The travel bantams are encouraged to play with the house bantams whenever theres no conflict in scheduling.

The bantam (house) schedule changes frequently.

Coaching Registration:

Background checks were sent to Axciom the other day.

Approximately 23 applications.

There are still a few who havent turned one in. Neil said to let him know who they were and he would take care of it.

Close:

Neil said that he would be out-of-pocket from Oct 31-Nov 15.

Paul Petrarca and Paul Phillips both said a big thank you to Leigh for all her help.

Next months meeting is November 17. Theres a conflict with the figure skaterswe will meet at 6:00 instead of 6:30 so that we will be done by the time they are ready to begin.

Adjourned at 7:29p.m.