Capital Area Minor Football Association

    Executive Meeting Minutes

Monday, November 1: 7:00 P.M.
RCMP Headquarters, Regent Street

Fredericton , NB

Attendance: Andrew Allaby, Michele Coleman, Tanya Kitchen, Steve Spear, Jodi Steeves, Steve Drisdelle, Ryan Ward, Barry Hatt, Justin DeMerchant, John Jurcina, Terry McIntyre, Selena Duthie

Absent:, Norm Sequin, Lisa Fagan, Vince Sturgeon, Shawn Kitchen, David Davis, Curtis Hiscock,

Meeting called to order at 7:17.

President

Equipment Manager

No report from Shawn Kitchen.

Fundraising

Report by Jodi Steeves.

New money-  $51.50 from Bombers 50/50. $250 cash donation from Walmart.

FSI update- Jodi reported having problems selling tickets for the FSI Dinner/ Auction.  Nelson Monuments has made a donation for the auction. A&P has promised an auction item. Ridell is also expected to make a contribution. Jodi is looking for one more large auction item.

Registrar

Nothing to report by Tanya Kitchen.  Terry reported the following approx. registration numbers for the year

17 girls flag

20 girls tackle (20-2009)

30 Oromocto flag

50 Mite  (31-2009)

70 Squirt  (92-2009)

135 Mosquito (131-2009)

170 Middle School   (150-2009)

115 bantam  (109-2009)   which added up to 607 for the fall, compared to 533 for 2009.

40 for summer flag

225 Spring

25 women

35 men

Which gives the total for 932 for the year; up from last year.

Treasurer

Still waiting for some incoming bills and officiating numbers. T.McIntyre.

Coaching Coordinator

No report by V. Sturgeon.

Other Items

1. Tanya Kitchen reported that there has been an offer of free coaching clinics and the possibility of making this a mandatory clinic for coaches of all levels.  Lee Hoyt has offered for tackle and OJ Burnett for flag.

2.  Tanya asked who or where should we give the old Middle school championship trophy now that we have the Dan McCullough trophy.  Bliss Carmen (formerly Albert) has won it more times than any other school and they were the last school to win it.  Resolution: The trophy will be given to Bliss Carmen School for their trophy case.

3. Tanya reported approximately 24 kids for spring and 23 kids for fall had applied for Jumpstart funding.    JumpStart funded all of the spring players but ran out of funding for the fall and only sponsored the program for $900.  Terry stated that he does not think CAMFA should turn a kid away due to lack of funds so CAMFA had to absorb the difference.  Most of these kids were at risk kids so it was decided that CAMFA needs to find a backer to cover these costs in the future.  Steve will talk to contacts to look for a service organization that could fill the gap.  A visitor (Ed Casey) suggested asking Kingswood for sponsorship.

4. Training - Courses are available on line to take at the trainees’ leisure.  Andrew to check with NCCP about putting a link for the online novice coach on the CAMFA website.  Tanya will check with Dave Blanchard about what coach training is available.  John will look into criminal record checks for coaches for next year and report back on how long the checks will be valid for.

5. Maritime Bantam/ Pee Wee game issue? This will be the last year for the Maritime Championship.  Nova Scotia will be changing their age ranges next year.   

Sending a team at the Bantam level is not an issue.    

For Pee Wee, Steven S. said it’s an issue if it happened to a smaller team that could use more players; he could use more players.  Steve D. said some teams have enough players and it will be team bonding to use the same team that played together all season.  John - Is it more important to send a team down to get beat or to send down an all-star team which will get beat anyway.  Terry – let the team that wins the NB Pee Wee championship make the decision at that time.  

6. Jodi – use up leftover hot dogs from Touch Down for the Cure for the games on Sunday at Knowledge Park Field.  

Guests; Ed and Kathy Casey – retired teachers.

Questions: Mission statement talks about self esteem, skills, and fair play. They feel that if you pay, you should be able to play the same amount.  Not playing does damage the self-esteem of young players.  They don’t feel that that is what happening; some kids that are not that skilled are spending more time on the bench than others.  The age group is 14-15 (Bantam).  What is the goal?  How do we approach the fair play aspect?

• Barry does see it but he believes in equal play but he knows that some coaches play to win. 
• Tanya and Ryan both are aware of coaches with that attitude and they try to address that issue.
• Terry said the big problem is that they take 45 kids on the Bantam team and they only need 30.  The games are just too short to play them all.
• Steve S. said that just cutting the top 15 is not that simple because of skills and body size.
• Steve D. said you can substitute in a few players at a time, but you need to keep the groove but when there is only one game per week.  He tries to put them all in simulation games during the three practices per week. 
• John – not playing in games but practicing still improves the skill level so that playing time may increase as their skill level improves. 
• Terry – to answer the question, as the skill levels improve at the older ages, the players are preparing for the varsity team.  The play becomes much rougher and injuries may be more common.  Playing time can’t be equal if the teams still carry 45 kids, but that is not what the schools want because they don’t want to limit the number of kids.  Some schools can support an extra 8 man team; but some teams can barely muster a regular team.
• Steve S. - unprepared/unskilled kids can get hurt that much easier.  Certain sizes/ skill levels can only play certain positions.
• Steve D. - Fair play is not equal play.
• Andrew – defense or offense may be out on the field a lot more than the other side so you can never get equal time.
• Kathy – that they understand but they want to know about fair playing time.
• John- had a kid that was pretty tentative about playing but he wanted to be part of a team so John kept him on with a reduced playing time; but at least the kid felt that he was part of the team.
• Steve S –never played as a kid but has had a wonderful experience coaching and puts all his effort into his team and his players.

Conversation ensued but the conclusion was that we still struggle with it as coaches and the executive. Fair play is much harder to enforce at the higher levels of play due to safety and skill level issues.  The Casey’s thanked the Executive for their discussion of the matter.

Meeting adjourned at 9:01 pm.

Next Meeting: December 6,  7pm, location to be determined.