Date of Meeting May 1, 2007	Time of Meeting 7:30 PM
Date of Next Meeting June 26, 2007	Time of Next Meeting 7:30 PM
Attendees St. Marys, Stratford, Mitchell, Dorchester, Exeter, Waterloo, Guelph, Chatham, St. Clements, Elora Fergus, London, Peter Westelaken, Donna Jones, Chuck Weber, Janet Logan, Keith Kaiser, Mary Kaiser
Regrets Forest, Owen Sound, Tillsonburg, Wellington North, Woolwich, Goderich, Hanover, Kitchener, Ripley, Seaforth, St. Jacobs, St. Thomas, Tara, Woodstock
Items Discussed: Outstanding Item from previous meeting: Belle Convenor Ron Vermeltfoort from London will be the Belle Convenor for the 2007-2008 season Treasurer’s Report Fines Owing for the following centres: Hanover $25 London Ladies $25. Janet to email Donna contact information for the London Ladies team. G & T Report Releases: Level of Play releases Home Associations can move players within their own Association. For example: Jr. aged players may play at the Belle level. It is the choice of the Home Association as to what level their players can play at. Once moving outside of your Home Association, a Jr. aged player must move to a Jr. team according to the matrix and the level of play they are looking for. As an example of a possible exception to the rule: If a Jr. aged player from Chatham wishes to play AA ringette and the closest Jr. AA team is in Guelph but there is a Belle AA team in London, that player would have to submit a request to Membership Services for Western Region for an exception. If the Association releases the player to move to another Association and the Coach does not agree, the Coach has no recourse. The decision of the Association is final. Any player losing a tribunal will be sent back to their Home Association. All Player Release Requests need to go through Chuck Weber – Membership Services. Recruiting Recruiting is not allowed. Coaches can not approach a player or the player’s parents. Parents/Players can not recruit a coach. In the example of two Associations looking to combine players or move players around, the initial contact must be President to President. Website AA / A Tryout information Information will be displayed on the Announcement page. Online form to track tryout attendees. This form must be filled in after each tryout. ORA number not mandatory. After the initial tryout, you are required to only enter new players attending tryouts and players absent based on your original list Any Association consenting that a player be allowed to ‘pass through’ and not attend a tryout is OK with Chuck Weber – Membership Services, however Chuck must be notified of that agreement. Further Discussions Open Communication is key for this process to work. Elora Fergus / Guelph / Waterloo are in discussions regarding the number of girls available to play Belle AA ringette. The three associations are working together to determine the best location for the team based on the number of girls coming from each centre. Elora Fergus has declared a Belle AA team but received consent from the group that the team could move to either Guelph or Waterloo without issue. Each Association was asked to communicate what they would be declaring. Keith indicated that this would be communicated on the website. Dorchester – Belle AA Elora Fergus – Jr. AA, Belle AA Guelph – Jr. AA, have 4 Belle AA girls London – Jr. AA St. Clements – Tween AA, Jr. AA **Tween AA dependant upon the number of girls available and the turnout at tryouts Tween AA St. Marys – Tween AA Stratford – Jr. AA, Belle AA **Jr. AA dependant upon the number of girls available and the turnout at tryouts Waterloo – Tween AA, Jr. AA When posting tryouts include a contact name to encourage open dialogue between other Associations hosting the same level. Encourage releases to be expedited. Teams that find they can not host a team that they have declared needs to communicate publicly and quickly that they have folded. A Player can contact the Coach of another team to inform them of their interest to tryout once cut from the team they are obligated to tryout for. Each Association is to send your Association President’s contact information and the Webmaster will post this on the website. This information is necessary for Tryout Release signatures. An Association President can not refuse to sign a Tryout Release form. Remember to keep track of all attendees at all tryouts. Should an issue arise, this information could be key to making decisions. June 24th tryouts are done. Next Meeting is June 26th. Roster list needs to be brought to the June 26th meeting. Roster list must contain at minimum 7 players and 1 goalie. The players listed on the roster as of June 26th can not be removed by the coach. They can leave on their own accord. Players who need to be released from their Home and other Associations can not be included on the roster list if the release form has not been completed. Any issues regarding releases are to be discussed with Chuck Weber – Membership Services. On a final note: Mary found the shot clock! REMINDER: All Associations that are declaring AA teams must attend the June 26th meeting at 7:30 PM Dorchester Optimist Hall with the applicable roster list. Associations looking to declare A teams must also attend the June 26th meeting to announce their intentions. Motion to adjourn by Waterloo, seconded by Elora Fergus. Meeting adjourned.

Minutes taken by: Helen Fulton – Stratford