Monday, Feb. 26th: 6 – 7:30pm at Delta Beer Lab
6 – 6:30pm: Social time!
6:30 – 7pm: League updates and announcements!
- Quick introduction of the MGHA organizing groups
- Board doesn’t do everything – this league is run by a bunch of other folks
- HOps, scorebox leads, coaches, captains, recruiting, website, sponsorship, Classic tournament, crafters
- Highlights from the 2023-2024 season so far
- Late games, scheduling issues with the rink. We don’t have much control about this
- Folks are showing up to help as needed
- Events recap and announcements
- Financial update
- Handouts!
- Aim to have 1/3 of operating budget on hand in case of emergencies
- Cap Ice is biggest expense, but we have really good rates with them
- Gene isn’t planning on running for the board next year – will still be around, will be able to guide the next treasurer
- Want to be the treasurer? Reach out to Gene
- Got sponsorship ideas? Send them our way!
- Reminder about our annual meeting in May – become an MGHA member!
- What’s the distinction between player vs member?
- Members have a voice in decisions around running the league
- Players aren’t necessarily members, though there is minimum of 1 season before you can be a member
- Members don’t have to be playing in the current season
- Members have additional responsibilities (we can call on membership for volunteers, for example)
- Want to be a member? Get someone to sponsor you! Fill out the application
- Lets you have some responsibility for the league without being on the board
- Go recruit people to be members! Tell your teammates!
- Membership and Bylaws
- Vote on board in this meeting
- There must be 10-60 days of notice for this meeting. – MGHA Bylaws
- What’s the distinction between player vs member?
7 – 7:30pm: Open discussion, the “ask us anything!” part of the evening!
- Championship night
- March 24th
- The Classic Tournament
- April 26th – 28th, always the last weekend in April
- Moving to Verona this year (Verona opened a second sheet of ice)
- Verona is meeting Cap Ice’s rate for the Classic tournament
- Tournament committee runs the tournament and the board is typically hands-off
- Turnabout show last Friday 2/23 (fundraiser for the Classic) was a huge success
- Lots of people have signed up – will be closing registration soon
- Beginner division will have 4 teams, advanced will also be 4 teams, intermediate is expected to be ~10 teams
- We haven’t picked a charity to donate to for the Classic yet
- Verona has a bar, will be running it for us, we should not bring in our own alcohol
- If you want to help out with the tournament, reach out!
- Score-keeping is covered
- Need help wrangling social events for the tournament
- T-shirt design for Classic – going with the cute cow / cheese logo
- Make it a design competition next year?
- Summer Ice
- Reached out to Cap Ice about summer ice, response was “we’ll get back to you soon”
- No firm details (e.g., what night of the week, what rink)
- Likely doing at least 2 levels, skills for all levels, will find coaches
- Do we allow non-MGHA skaters? Historically no for scrimmages, more flexible on skills clinics (so, yes)
- Goalie curious clinic may happen this summer
- Skating-only clinics – hard to get interest for, so we don’t tend to run these
- Laura Stamm also runs some clinics
- UW does skating lessons
- Craft group
- Getting organized – folks asked for them to return to the Classic
- HOps
- Captains meetings updates
- Minor corrections on behavior in the moment are really helpful, especially for L3 (folks coming in with prior hockey experience)
- Also helpful to tell people when they’re doing well, remind them to be kind
- Recruiting goalies! There will likely be a summer goalie curious clinic
- Collecting “the MGHA way” examples from each level – what does good MGHA play look like in each division
- Do your team social! You don’t have to be the captain to organize something. Off-ice connections build community!
- Growing pains with league expansion – survey going out to captains to collect input. Will come up with written guidelines for upcoming seasons on expected behavior on the ice
- Tim’s updates
- We convey the updates from Cap Ice about our ice times getting moved as soon as we receive them – it feels late because we get them late
- Cap Ice tends to work in silos (front office, eatery, Zamboni crew (and Tyler), folks who book ice, etc)
- Internally, the folks booking ice don’t tell Tyler (our rep), so ice gets double booked
- Tyler understands our frustration, is talking to folks at Cap Ice about it
- Teams have 3-or-fewer late late ice times
- When the Zamboni broke, we had to pay the refs who were scheduled that evening. We’re asking Cap Ice to pay for these unexpected expenses, they’ve generally been receptive to this
- Captains meetings updates
- All The Way awards
- Award given to a member of each team who well represents the MGHA
- Survey coming out soon! Players can submit for their teammates (but not other teams)
- Essays
- What Gay Hockey Means To Me
- Winner gets published in Our Lives Magazine, gets league fees covered for the next season
- Is a powerful recruiting tool
- Has gotten us sponsorship, interest from the NHL
7:30 – 7:45pm: Closing up.