Hello all! At the last RNB AGM we had 3 representatives attend which seemed to be a huge plus for us! Present were Kathryn, Wendy and Cara. There were lots of intersting ideas discussed as to help the open divison keep up and going to its fullest potential. I'm sure you will all agree that committment is one of our biggest issues, mostly a result of boredom due to lack of games/movement in the league. Well hopefully that will all change!
RNB's president, Peter Amirault, brought forth the idea that yes, RNB needs to put more focus on the open divison so that we can benefit from more activity and best of all organization.
- RNB is considering helping out the UNB Raiders with possibly getting some ringette lines painted on the ice, they will try writing a letter and we will keep our fingers crossed. RNB is aware it won't be easy so they looked at adding a few advantages that this will give the UNB Facility, for example publicity with hosting a provinical/atlantic tournament.
- Here is a big one! RNB has asked Jerry Sonier and Ron Richard to include the open division in the provinical leagues scheduling procedures. This will start early in the year, helping our players have fun and remain interested/competitive.
- The Kent Sud area is looking at combining with the Shediac/Cap Pele areas to register an Open team! They are looking at an estimate of 20 players.
- With another team in the province besides UNB and Memramcook that brought on a lot of excitement which lead to a discussion of a pre-season Jamboree held in Shediac to bring all the dusty players back out. This will give everyone a chance to chat it up with players they haven't seen for years and hopefully promote the open division. They are talking about having registration forms right there at the jamboree!
- The Chaleur Representatives were keen on the idea and are looking to push the sport more in their area also as they named off several players who are looking for a team to play on.
- Riverview Tournament is looking into tiering the Open Division for better results, as last year they had quite an unbalanced few games involving 7 open teams.
- Chaleur is hoping that with the new Shediac Open team they can pursue their tournament with an Open Divison this year.
- Peter Amirault threw out the fact that PEI had 2 teams up and ready but lost interest, so it was suggested that when organizing tournaments the tournament committee should really extend their invitations outside of the province for the open divison especially.
- During the meeting it was brought up that we, as a club, offer clinics/day camps. Denis "somebody" was very interested and took down all the information. So I'm delighted to bring you news that this is looking to be a great year for the UNB Raiders.
- We will continue to provide FYRA with whatever help we can offer and this year we may look into hosting a coaching clinic or two as the coaching structure is all changing over to a new system. It will benefit FYRA because we can get free ice and a classroom where as they would normally have to pay for these things with less than 7 participants. This would be a great opportunity for UNB Players to maybe get more involved also.
Wendy has gathered all kinds of contacts over the past season and we learnt alot as far as deadlines and all those need-to-know things one just does not know going in blind. We have all sorts of resources now, including the policy/procedure manual approved from RNB. Wendy says she is confident that this year will be a much smoother year.
Also last season Kathryn and Wendy were coaching teams at a Montreal Tournament that maybe some of you remember participating in long ago. Well they have brought back a contact for that tournament and we're hoping that with our numbers we'll be able to participate this year.