“Community Hockey for Creative People”
Hey Folks,
It’s been some time since our last GTHLA newsletter and there is much to talk about. Ideally, we’d like to get reports from everyone on what’s going on in their end of the GTHLA world, but time is of the essence and there is news to get out. After the
Contents
1. Artwork call out for the Exclaim! Hockey
2. Sponsorship call out for the Exclaim! Hockey
3. Committees and workgroups
4. Volunteer Tracking
5. Volunteering
6. Next GM Meeting
7. Missing league sweaters
8. General Resources
1. Artwork call out for the Exclaim! Hockey
From Jen Cutts (Black Hearts), the Art Director…
Hey all you illustrators, scribblers and scratchers, painters and photographers, and everyone else,
Looking for a sure path to fame and glory? Then get your act together and submit some work to be included in the Exclaim!
We only turn 10 once - let's do it up right!
Thanks, Jen
2. Sponsorship call out for the Exclaim! Hockey
From Brent Oliver (
Hello Exclaim Cup Reps!
Brent Oliver here from the Green Pepper Gong Show reaching out to you and your team for some ad opportunities in this year's Summit Guide.
As you're well aware, every year the tournament gets bigger and better, and this year - we're making a very splashy guide to celebrate a decade of Exclaim cup hockey.
I've attached a rate card for your perusal, and I'll follow up in the coming weeks on an individual basis.
Basically, if you can forward this off to any players (with businesses, or otherwise) that may be interested in advertising in the program, we can keep the guide to a grassroot advertising level.
Feel free to ask me any questions about the guide, or to go ahead and book an ad - email sponsorship@hockeyaa.net
If you net some ads through your team, you'll receive a 15% commission on the price of ad.
Anyways, take a look and let me know if you can help out.
See you in March!
B
3. Committees and workgroups
Our regular trifecta GM meetings have been the most productive and the best attended ever over the past year. We also keep getting more and more members helping out with the regular league management. Thanks to all our members who tirelessly give their time and talents every year. These are all tremendously encouraging signs, but there’s still much more to develop. The Fair Play committee has some great initiatives in the works and even has struck a subsequent workgroup to pro actively identify the players with the best sportsmanship. Other workgroups are meeting regularly, including the Summit Program Guide, Website and sponsorship groups. Ray Henderson has been working hard developing our operations and membership. It’s time to reconvene our organizing committee.
Fair Play Committee
A general Fair Play Committee meeting will be scheduled after our next GM meeting in February.
Organizing Committee
The organizing committee will be the “catch all” committee with a rotating agenda touching upon all the pressing tasks that have to be addressed for the league. The goal of this committee is to develop workgroups who will be responsible for specific aspects of the league and launch a more formal governance structure. Any member can attend all of the meetings or only the ones which address topics and issues you want to get involved with. This committee, as well as the already established committees and workgroups and all future management Boards will have these basic beginning expectations to build from:
They will be responsible in maintaining the values and mission of our league and association and always strive to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our enterprise. Workgroup, committee and Board members will be responsible for their attitudes and actions as well as take the initiative to make things happen. They will seek mutually beneficial goals and be empathic listeners to inspire openness and trust.
At the Organizing committee meetings there won’t be much time to discuss the background and history of issues and topics. It will be the responsibility of those attending to familiarize themselves with the background and histories through reading the relevant blogs, minutes, discussion board topics and newsletters. These meetings won’t be for auditing, they’re only for those interested in participating by getting things done. Everyone attending must end each meeting having actions that they will be taking responsibility for. We’ll keep our membership up to speed with our progress through our current modes of communication (Blogs, website, newsletters and GM meetings) and any new effective ones we can develop. This process will inherently identify those in our membership who will take responsibility in getting things done, who want to better understand all the business and organizational aspects needed in order for our enterprise to run with its principles and strive towards its goals. This will help us develop more effective league management.
As we build our governance, we will also continue to build metrics for measuring success in relation to our core values and mission. (e.g. our penalty minute restrictions)
We’re looking forward to having our regular “doers” and all new interested members out for these meetings. Attendance will most likely vary depending on the agenda each week. A general guideline we’ll have is to do a conference call (preferably through Skype) if we’re expecting less than 10 people, if we’re expecting in the double digits, we’ll get together face to face.
We would like to have our first gathering this Saturday afternoon and then establish the most effective inclusive way to set our following dates and times. We might be able to make this one a combo - in person and conference call, depending on interest. The agenda for at least the next three weeks will be the remaining Exclaim! Hockey
4. Volunteer Tracking
One key component in building our metrics is tracking our volunteer hours. Tim Etherington (Pneumonia) and Paul Chisholm (Morningstars) are standing by collecting all the volunteer hours which are sent in. We need an accurate picture of the time and effort being put into this enterprise, so we’re asking everyone who has ever or is currently putting in volunteer time to report it. This tracking will…
- Show our membership who’s helping us and what they’re doing and hopefully help motivate others in contributing themselves.
- Help us develop time and money budgets to accurately assess what is needed to accomplish all the working components of our enterprise
- All profits made by the enterprise will be paid out proportionally to volunteer work as honorariums or diverted to further discounts on membership fees to the volunteers. It’s the volunteer’s choice whether they want an honorarium or further membership fee discounts or a combination of the two.
Send in your best estimate on the hours you’ve done with the details of approximately when and what you were doing to volunteerhours@hockeyaa.net. The more detail the better. If you are a regular volunteer, please do your best to send your hours in regularly.
5. Volunteering
On top of the stuff you could be helping us out on with the organizing committee, we could use some immediate help with these things…
- Statistician. We have a lot of stats that need further upkeep on the website.
- Volunteer hour retriever. We could use the help of someone to help us cajole and organize our members to report their volunteer hours. It would consist of contacting our volunteers and encouraging them to report until it becomes a habit.
- Website Content coordinator. Join the website workgroup and help us get the content flowing better.
6. Next GM Meeting
We’ll be having our next GM meeting in February. We’ll have our general updates on all aspects of the league, including extracurricular (GTHLAKids etc…), fair play, operations and communications. Specific topics will include the upcoming playoffs, team travel, game sheet reporting on the website and further fee discounts we can integrate to scale the business. Please send any topics to gthlamembership@hockeyaa.net that you want to make sure are on the agenda.
7. Missing league sweaters
We are still missing sweaters from the summer league and we even had a few not returned at the last No-Star games. Please let us know where they are and bring them home. gthlamembership@hockeyaa.net
8. General Resources
Current Team Membership fee discounts available for next year
$250 for volunteering ($11 for each volunteer hour up to $250) (this is exclusive to any additional discount a volunteer may want to divert from their volunteer honorarium)
$30 for fair play (based on team penalty minute average)
$30 for hosting a social event for the league this season
$50 for attending all the General Managers meetings (3)
Other communication sources
http://hockeyaa.net/wordpress/ (current development for HAA site)
(The GTHLA is the South Central Ontario Chapter of the HAA)
The H.A.A. is an international social enterprise with a common interest in hockey, the Arts and community involvement. Inspired by the amateur roots of the game, the H.A.A. was founded on the ideals of sportsmanship, fun, safety, camaraderie, collaboration, cooperation, community, creativity, imagination, artistic expression, social involvement/awareness/activism, inclusion, fairness, equity, communication, responsibility, empathy, participation, understanding and being proactive. The H.A.A. is a forum for participating in hockey and sharing imagination upon which its members can build collaboration to strengthen community and initiate positive social change. Leagues, clubs and players can liaise with others through the association and have their games publicised and recorded.
