Richmond Old Timers Hockey
ROTHC
Post-season Meeting of League Executive
July 24, 2023 – 7:30pm
AGENDA
In attendance:
Don Taylor, Dale Carter – Greyhawks
Jim Chu, Al Avery, Graham Amano – Avalanche
Brian Newman, Dave Hutton - Rusty Blades
Fred Brome – Shogun Shooters
Gord Gouthro – Evaders
Chris Malloy – Roadrunners
Ken Hori, Rob Lang (Vice President) – Island Sun
Doug Collins (President) - Cowboys
1) Season Review
a) Officiating
i) The officials really stepped up this season, essentially taking control of scheduling, and assuming responsibility for their own replacement when necessary. There is a risk to relying on self-administration, but for the most part it went well with just a few games with a solo referee.
b) Team Performance
i) The League saw a bit of a transformation this season in terms of competitiveness and parity.
The Cowboys, with the help of some younger, skilled players moved from
the bottom of the league to become one of the more winning teams.
On the other end
of the scale, the Avalanche, who have a loyal core of long time players,
have now found it difficult to compete.
The Island Sun, struggled at the beginning of the season, but seemed to get a few players back that helped get them back in the game. However, it is clear that their level of competitiveness does not match that of other teams in the league.
The Evaders, who are relatively new to the league (second season), compete well, but are perhaps a little too competitive and still need to adjust to our style of hockey.
The Shogun do well in our league, but are conspicuous by the performance of one player who seems to stand out above everyone else on the ice. It is not necessarily a problem, but it does tip the balance in terms of a goal of evenly matched games.
The Sorcerers sadly did not do well this year and struggled to get enough players out every week. They had a small core group that fit well in the league, but without bodies a team cannot survive. Unfortunately they will not be able to continue next season.
The Greyhawks, Blades and Roadrunners were steady and reliable with not much change, aside from aging like everyone else.
In all it was a successful season with some well-matched games, but there is a divide emerging which is largely due to age. It is a problem that will eventually show itself in any league, and it cannot be ignored if we wish to continue.
Further discussion below...
c) Issues or Concerns
As already identified, there is the difficulty of age. Perhaps hand in hand with that comes the problem of competitiveness. In reviewing this issue the record of Disciplinary Action comes to the front. Of the 4 Disciplinary Actions recorded last season, the Evaders were involved in all of them. While it can be argued that this is a coincidence and not something to be concerned about, there is now at least one team that does not want to play against them anymore.
During the meeting, the Gord Guthrie of the Evaders shared the concern and promised to address the issue by approaching 2 or 3 individuals that may be the source of the issue.
Not specific to the above, the Avalanche indicated that they cannot continue to compete with their current roster. The advent of an over 60 division could be a solution for the Avalanche and other teams that might be struggling to compete.
With the Sorcerers folding, we are left with 8 teams. Three of those teams (Cowboys, Avalanche and Sun) are interested in an over 60 division, possibly involving splitting some of the teams into two team – an over 60 and over 50 squad. Discussions of further details of how this might work in the schedule followed...
2) Financial Report
a) Presentation of the Financial Statements
i) The short story of the Financial Report is that the ROTHC did very well last season, recording a surplus of $3203.90. This is largely because league fees were set prior to the schedule being made. Some teams played fewer games, but their dues were prorated accordingly. But the fact that playoffs did not occur was ignored and pretty much accounts for the profit.
Items of note on the Profit/Loss statement are:
· Awards and Recognition were outgoing Commissioner, Bruce Imrie was thanked with a gift totally $445.23.
· A refund to the Pirates of $863, as decreed by the previous regime.
· A new line item for Web Site reports $10.49 which covers the cost of the domain name renewal. It should be noted that there was no charge for Web Hosting which would normally be $60 to $120 per year.
· An amount of $411 represents outstanding league fees from the Sorcerers and will likely need to be written off.
· The Current bank balance sits at $11,334.46, well above contingency requirements.
b) Change in Fiscal Year End
i) The previous fiscal year ended on April 30th each year. This year, due to an inordinate delay in billing from the Arenas, it was difficult (if not impossible) to close the book by normal year end. Therefore is was necessarily (and convenient to future seasons) to move the fiscal year end to May 31st. This means this season’s financial statements cover 13 months, which is inconsequential as no financial activity took place during the month of May other than settling Accounts Payable.
During the meeting a request was made to make the change in fiscal year official by way of vote. A motion was made, seconded and carried to change the fiscal year end to May 31st.
c) League Fee Payment Default
i) As noted above, the Sorcerers are in default of payment of league fees by $411. This is not a huge problem as we recorded a surplus this season and it can be argued that league fees were set too high anyway.
Rather than write-off this amount as an Uncollectable amount, it is proposed that all teams be given a refund of the same amount, equaling the board while maintaining a healthy contingency. The end result would effectively be a loss of about $495 on the season, but it would not show on this season’s financials, rather absorbed into next season’s operations and league fees.
MOTION: “It is so moved that all teams that played it the ROTHC 2022-23 season be credited $411 toward league fees in 2023-24.”
The motion was carried.
3) Glimpse at Next Season
a) Proposal for and 60 and over division
i) It is apparent that age progression has become a problem for the League. Certain individuals and indeed entire teams are aging out.
One way to address this issue is to increase the age requirements, allowing the entire league to grow old together. The problem is, the League will eventually, and quite literally, die. It is a selfish solution for old men and probably too late as it is.
An alternative solution is to create a new division for the league of players older than a set age. But it is somewhat complicated. At present there are three teams that have indicated they could and would be willing to enter into an over 65 division (players over 60 grandfathered in, if necessary). Both the Sun and Cowboys feel they could present two teams for the ROTHC – one team to compete as usual in the league and the other to play in an older division. (Qualifying players could play in both divisions.) The Avalanche has indicated that they would be happy to move the entire team into this new division, but could possibly gather enough players for both divisions. This could work, but there are challenges.
At present there are a few scenarios:
· Losing the Sorcerers and possibly the Avalanche to the regular schedule leaves us just 7 teams sharing 4 ice times on Wednesday night and 3 teams sharing one ice time on Tuesday night. One of those teams could rotate in on Wednesday night in a weighted schedule tipping toward less competitive teams.
· There is some interest from two new teams: a younger team and an older team, but it is going to take some discussion and planning with no guarantees of anything. This could give us an 8 team division and an older 4 team division.
· If the Sun, Cowboys and Avalanche can gather enough players to form an older and younger team, we could form an older division of 3 for Tuesday nights with one of the teams sitting out each week. However, the bulk of the players would still get to play the following night.
A lengthy discussion ensued on how this might look in the coming season, with the Avalanche, Cowboys and Sun all expressing keen interest in an over 60 division.
The suggestion to allow the Guns into the league was rejected for the time being.
Rumours of a Monday night group joining in with the over 60 division was entertained, but was deferred until more was known.
In the end, it was decided that the Avalanche, Cowboys and Sun will all try to form both an over 60 squad as well as maintain their existing team to compete in the regular league. The regular league would play on the 4 Wednesday night spots and the over 60 division would share the Tuesday night ice time. (One team would have to sit out every three weeks.) However, this may prove to be challenging, particularly for the Avalanche who would have to bolster their roster to be able to compete in the regular league.
It may be necessary to replace the Avalanche with another team, or cycle in one of the over 60 teams on their off week. This too will be challenging to fill rosters as the Cowboy and Sun would possibly have players needing to play twice in one night on Wednesdays.
Due to the above outlined complications, no decision was made and the teams will take the summer to see exactly what the interest is for all teams.
b) Post season
i) The detailed discussion of Play-offs is premature given the above mentioned variables. However, we can at least discuss the concept of a post season.
This matters was deferred to a later date when more is known about the divisions and will of the teams involved.
4) Proposed Budget
a) League fees
i) Setting a specific budget at this time is difficult, but when a schedule is established the math will not be complicated. We just need to establish a desired level of contingency and work backward from there to establish a suitable League Fee.
The decision on league fees was deferred until the schedule is set, with the goal of maintaining a contingency bank balance of approximately $8000.
b) Insurance
i) In the past, all teams have been responsible for their own insurance coverage. This is fine, but it was a tad complicated last season – mostly for the arenas. There appears to be only two insurance options: Sport BC through Richmond Arenas, or CARHA directly. (There may be other options yet to be presented.)
Having individual teams insure through the Arenas is problematic, not because of the process, but because a lot of team last season didn’t even seem to know what the process was! This made it a challenge to the Arenas and to the League President. It would be far simpler if we applied for insurance as a group, making for one transaction rather than several. However, not all teams wish to insure with Sport BC. There is a benefit to insuring with CARHA if your team intends to play in CARHA tournament which CARHA insurance is required.
The other issue of individual team insurance is that it provides no coverage for the League Executive. This may or may not be an issue, but it is a concern.
Following discussion, it was decided that the teams were free to choose where they wish to be insured. If all teams were to choose CARHA we could be insured as a league, which would include coverage for the executive. However, it was suggested that it is not necessary to protect the executive because the league is not a legal entity and therefore no protection is required. (This opinion has not been reviewed by a lawyer, but accepted as reasonable until advised differently.)
For efficiency, it was requested that all teams inform the President in advance of the season of where they wish to insure. Teams wishing to be insured with the arena would be grouped together the cost will be added to the ice rental contract. League fees for those teams will be increased proportionally. Teams choosing to go with CARHA (or other) would be responsible to cover the cost individually. They will likely have to show proof to the arena and name CITY OF RICHMOND; RICHMOND ARENAS COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION in their insurance policy.
5) Other business
It was moved, seconded and carried that the ROTHC cover the cost of the bar bill for the meeting. The amount totalled $55.52
6) Adjournment
Meet was adjourned at approximately 8:35pm