SSWHL Meeting Minutes August 15, 2012 7pm at NESC

Teams Present: Assabet, Bears, Breakers, Bulldogs, Chaos, Cougars C, Demolition Divas, Eagles, ECW A, ECW D, Hell’s Belles, Ice Sharks, Lightning, Mass Chaos, Needham A, Nighthawks B, Nighthawks, Noreasters, Outlaws, Phantoms, Pirates, Quincy, Ravens, RI Panthers, RI Panthers C, RI Raptors, Shamrocks, Sting, Storm 1 (C), Storm 2 (B), Stormchasers C2, Stormchasers D

Board members present: Laura Bowser, President; Jenn Devlin, VP; Louise Cardinale, Treasurer; Judy Sheldon, Secretary

1. Divisions: Laura Bowser led a discussion on the divisions, specifically whether there are enough teams to keep a B2 division. The Nighthawks Blue team lost their goalie for the season and will be dropping down into the C1 division from the B2 division. According to an email from Cynara, that would leave a three team B2 division, which she could work with as long as those and other teams would be willing to play crossover games. However, the Shamrocks stated that they definitely want to move up from the B2 division to the B1 division, and it was not clear whether Cynara was taking this into account. As of now, it looks like there will be no B2 division. Instead there will be:

B division: 9 teams

Bears, Lady Monarchs, Mass Chaos, Nighthawks B, Quincy, RI Panthers C, Shamrocks, Sirens, Storm 2

C1 division: 11 teams

Chaos, Cougars C, ECW C, Ice Sharks, Nighthawks Blue, Phantoms, Pirates, Randolph, Ravens, Stoneham, Storm 1

But Laura will review this with Cynara and with the teams.

2. Schedule: Cynara is on vacation; Laura reports:

Games will be starting on the following dates:

NESC - Sept 9

Canton - Sept 16

Milton - November

Bedford - Sept 9

Too many teams asked for one of the weekends around Christmas off; Laura couldn't remember which week, but try to get enough players to play that weekend (can't guarantee that everyone who asked for it off will get it off).

3. Treasurer’s report: Louise Cardinale. Deposit of $300 for all teams was due at this meeting. New teams also need to pay a $200 buy-in fee which was also due now. New teams must also pay a $150 forfeit fee to be held in escrow in case they forfeit a game. If your existing team forfeited last year, you must send another $150 forfeit fee to Louise. Forfeit escrow fees are due with the September payment and may be sent in the same check. First payment of $1000 due September 15 to Louise Cardinale. She will not have the season total until later; waiting on rink contracts. She expects the total fee to be similar to last year. She also needs to know how many games we will be playing this year.

4. Registration report: Judy Sheldon

Teams must send their list of USA hockey numbers to me and Stacey Paicos by September 9. The USA Hockey registration fee has increased to $40 this year. If you want to participate in States or Nationals, rosters will be due to the Girls/Womens Registrar, Mark Lissner, by October 1, no exceptions. If you are not participating in those, you don't need to get roster signatures (but either way, you need to submit a roster to the G/W Registrar). There is no longer a $20 team fee to register a team with the G/W district. You can just email a roster to him if you are not collecting signatures. Registration details will be sent out in an email shortly.

Dates for State Tournament: March 8, 9, 10 NESC

Senior A, B, C Nationals: April 5-7 Oakland, CA

Senior Womens Recreational Nationals (30+, 40+, 50+): April 25-28 Tampa, FL

New rules for Senior C National Tournament teams: a team may roster up to four former NCAA college players (they still may not be current or past Olympic or National Team players).

5. Vote: Laura Bowser asked for a vote to elect Judy Sheldon as Secretary. Vote was unanimous in favor.

6. New business:

Amy Westhaver from the Shamrocks suggested that we organize something for the division winners each year. She stated that everyone she has talked to is interested and asked for a vote on having a playoff or banquet or even just a trophy or something for the division winners. Kim Whelan warned that this could encourage teams to stack ringers just to win. Laura Bowser stated that the league used to have a banquet each year but everyone lost interest. She asked Amy to send her an email to be sent out to the teams for them to vote on whether they would like to do something like this. Amy offered to organize it and Pattyanne Lyons offered to help.