1 SSC President's Report

Contents SSC President’s Report ...... 2 National Office Report ...... 5 Committee Reports ...... 13 High Performance Committee - Short Track ...... 13 High Performance Committee – Long Track ...... 17 Competition Development Committee ...... 20 Official’s Development Committee Report ...... 23 Coaching Development Committee ...... 26 Sport Injury and Medical Emergency Committee (SIMEC)...... 30 Long Term Participant and Athlete Development Working Group ...... 33 Club and Membership Development Committee ...... 36 Branch Reports ...... 39 Alberta Amateur Speed Skating Association ...... 39 British Columbia Speed Skating Association ...... 41 Manitoba Speed Skating Association ...... 43 Speed Skate New Brunswick ...... 45 Newfoundland Speed Skating Association ...... 47 Speed Skate Nova Scotia ...... 50 Speed Skating Nunavut ...... 51 Ontario Speed Skating Association ...... 52 Speed Skate PEI ...... 53 Fédération de patinage de vitesse du Québec ...... 54 Saskatchewan Amateur Speed Skating Association ...... 69 Yukon Amateur Speed Skating Association ...... 71 Organizing Committee Calgary Report ...... 72 Sport Canada Report ...... 75

SSC President’s Report June 2012

It is my great pleasure to share with you, members of Speed Skating Canada, the report of the Board of Directors and a few thoughts on the past year.

I feel that this report is an important and vital step, and gives me an opportunity to share the Board’s various initiatives, decisions and areas of reflection. The contents of this report should not surprise you, because we have communicated regularly with the provinces and territories and with the Speed Skating Canada committees throughout the year. We have informed you of the status of our projects, shared our thoughts, and sought advice and guidance.

I believe that the 2011–2012 season has been a pivotal year for our organization—we have done some rebalancing, yet the year has also been marked by upheaval and serious reflection. The main topics regularly on our meeting agenda were as follows:

 our association’s financial status  2011–2012 budget monitoring  review of our association’s governance and structure  SSC’s future  strategic planning  the new Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act  the roles and responsibilities of the Board of Directors, the Executive Director, the Executive Director’s staff and all of the committees  SSC’s place and its needs in the national and international sports scene  risk management and safety in our sport  progress made by the BOD subcommittees  follow-up on implementation of the Long Term Participant and Athlete Development model  etc.

The 2011–2012 season has been a busy one. Although we’re experienced and clear-sighted enough to anticipate and plan for the work involved in our various projects and activities, as in any other season, we have invariably been faced with some surprises and have had to deal with a few problems. This has forced us to do better, work more closely together and communicate more effectively. Understandably, these problems have prompted us to take a fresh look at our association, hold discussions, specify our choices, review our priorities, and change our work plan where needed.

As usual, our clubs welcomed a number of skaters this season. We hope that they were won over by the passion of the many generous trainers and volunteers who supported and shaped them. We hope that our clubs and provinces hold onto these new enthusiasts and increase their client base. We also hope that the achievements of our most seasoned athletes inspired them and made them feel as proud as they made us feel.

The talent of our skaters never ceases to amaze me. I must highlight the 63 World Cup medals and 12 World Championship medals received by our short track and long track teams.

I have to point out that this has been an exceptional year for Christine Nesbitt, a consistent, hard- working athlete and top international performer, that the passionate, talented and highly promising Laurent Dubreuil's season has included a world junior 500-metre championship and 500-metre world record, that Denny Morrison earned a world championship title in the 1500 metres, that Olivier Jean earned the title of World Champion and won the World Cup in the 500 metres, and that Valérie Maltais skated to a world championship in the 3000 metres. In addition, the women’s pursuit team won a World Cup and the men’s relay team became World Champion and World Cup recipient.

I would be remiss not to mention the full Canadian podium sweep at the World Cup in Saguenay. Thanks go to Charles Hamelin (gold), Michael Gilday (silver) and Olivier Jean (bronze), who thrilled us with their 1000-metre feat on October 30. This medal sweep was repeated in the 500- metre event at the World Cup in Moscow on February 5 by Oliver Jean (gold), Liam McFarlane (silver) and Charles Hamelin (bronze). So much talent! So much emotion! So much pride!

This year, we hosted two international competitions, and as usual, held a number of competitions across the country. Thanks to our provincial partners, our organizing committees, and the outstanding officials and volunteers, we were able to offer our athletes and skaters from around the world unique experiences where they could showcase their talent in a healthy, safe and welcoming environment. I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to Saguenay, Quebec City, Sherbrooke, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary, Sylvan Lake (Alberta), Richmond, and Fort John (BC). Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

I know that the amount of work that was required by each of the provinces to manage a wide variety of competitions was just phenomenal and I especially appreciate the tireless effort that went into preparing and holding the national and international competitions.

As with every year, our Executive Director, and the staff from the national office and national centres have supported the organization with their energy and talent. The years between Olympic Games may appear quieter but they are far from it. They have their share of challenges because the funding from partners and sponsors has decreased and planning is all the more sensitive and crucial. I believe that the SSC staff deserves our appreciation and recognition.

I truly hope our financial status allows us to be more independent and creative in the near future and that we can spend time and money on projects and activities that will further strengthen the future of our sport. We are actively pursuing this goal and appreciate the contribution of the special committee set up to review our rate structure. We also appreciate the understanding and support of the provinces and territories.

Some of the initiatives undertaken this year have a bright outlook and are greatly appreciated, including the Halifax oval, the Richmond competition, the online auction, and the ongoing Quebec City oval project.

The structure of our sport is based on the work of our employees and the contribution of experienced volunteers, and I must highlight the unique contribution made by all of our committees. Thanks go out to the committee members and to the support staff for their

generosity, creativity, commitment and exceptional contribution. On behalf of the sport, and of athletes at all levels, thank you.

This year, the Board of Directors welcomed three new members, and despite the disappointment of losing members whose efforts have been appreciated, I feel that renewal benefits an association and know that the Board of Directors has been enhanced by the quality and novelty of the questions and comments from the new members. Obviously, the personal assets of the individuals serving in this capacity make all the difference. I am fortunate to be surrounded by a passionate, resourceful and friendly team. You’ve probably come to the conclusion that despite the seriousness of the work, they are always a pleasure to work with. I want to extend my thanks to them for their invaluable support.

To conclude, I would like to invite you to join us at the AGM in Montreal, where you will be able to find out more about our current work and our plans for the future. This general meeting will also provide a forum through which you can ask questions and share with us your plans and accomplishments. We hope to keep your interest and fuel your motivation and enthusiasm.

We are looking forward to seeing you there, providing you with information, listening to your concerns and celebrating together the year’s successes, our recipients, and the 125th anniversary of an association that remains so vibrant and successful.

I wish you a pleasant and refreshing summer and hope to see you again next year.

For the Speed Skating Board of Directors,

Marie-Claire Rouleau President

National Office Report STILL LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT RACE Every year much like the athletes and coaches on the ice we strive, on the administrative side of the job, for the perfect season – all partners are 100% happy, revenues are flowing, clubs are flourishing and our sport dominates everything on ice. I’m happy to say we have had some beautiful moments, but we are still adjusting and tweaking our strategies to improve in various areas.

Our High Performance continues to marvel the sport community with its success and professionalism. We are excited at the upcoming last leg leading into the 2014 Sochi Olympics– it’s a time to leverage everything this can bring to us as a community. Branches, committees and staff – lots has been achieved between and within this group of extraordinary people. It’s no secret we are still trying to find our groove but much has been achieved – whether its progress in safety issues, membership fees, new facilities, governance or others – we should be proud. The goal is still and should always be how do we create conversations / projects that speak not just to SSC but more importantly Speed Skating “in” Canada.

On the business side we are still working hard to hit our stride in becoming more self- sufficient. We have had some successes in updating membership fees, starting a very successful online auction (on which we will build more activities next year), but we are still looking for that elusive next sponsor. All sports are having a tougher time post Vancouver, but that’s the reality and we have to do better. This will be a year where we expect more.

This year we are ecstatic to be in Montreal to celebrate our sports 125th anniversary. We have a lot of fun activities for our attendees and we look forward to bringing our community together to partake in this special moment.

Finally, last year I spoke to challenges and opportunities of our sport, we lived a bit of both in the last year. It is not in shying away from the challenges that we are going to move this ship forward. I’m confident, again because of our people, that we are destined for continued greatness and poised with the pieces we are building to have one of the most respected sports in Canada and the world.

I look forward to the continuation of our journey!

All the best,

John-Paul Cody-Cox CEO, Speed Skating Canada 5

Staff List National Office - Ottawa John-Paul Cody-Cox Chief Executive Officer Patricia Brennan Director, Finance and Operations Mark Mathies Executive Director, Sport Douglas Duncan Director, Leadership Education Phil Legault Director, Communications Émilie Archambault Manager, Marketing Programs Kanika Thakar Manager, Events and Membership Mariamanda Espinoza Assistant, Finance and Administration Badr Moussadek Coordinator, Operations and Finances MacAndrew Clarke Student Intern Lindsay Macedo Student Intern Graeme Carbert Student Intern

National Team Training Centre – Calgary Sean Ireland Long Track Program Director Xiuli Wang Coach Michael Crowe Coach Mark Wild Coach Bart Schouten Coach Jonathan Cavar Coach Scott Stefani Long Track Program Coordinator Mike Marshall Regional Development Mentor Brock Miron Performance Development Coach

National Team Training Centre – Montreal Yves Hamelin Short Track Program Director Frederick Blackburn Coach Derrick Campbell Coach Jeffrey Scholten Coach Jennifer Cottin Short Track Program Coordinator Marie-Pier Charest Regional Development Mentor Stephane Bronsard Director, Short Track National Events Office

National Team Training Centre – Quebec City Gregor Jelonek Coach Robert Tremblay Director of Innovation and Development

Atlantic Regional Development Mentor - Halifax Todd Landon CSC - Atlantic Coach / Regional Development Mentor

OPERATIONS Overall in last year’s National Office Report we promised to follow through on a list of areas and projects, we’re happy to say we have been successful in several areas (with important work still to be done in others). Here is the 2011/12 list :

NEXT STEPS 2011/12 Governance YES - Well on its way with the Governance Sub-Committee Strategic Planning YES – Draft plan for review at the AGM Revamped Website YES – a newly built www.speedskating.ca is done Coverage of More Domestic Events YES - Communications has done a better and more robust job of covering domestic events and stories Increase Social Media Presence YES - We now have a facebook and twitter presence that is active (we still need to build out more traditional channels for non- social media members) National Skating Festival YES – Intact Day on Skates happened in 2011/12 with more events and outreach to happen in 2012/13. Sports Day in Canada coverage of nationals was tremendous. Increase Technological Footprint YES - SSC 2.0 well underway and hopefully ready to launch for 2012/13 season Webcasting NO – budgets just did not allow for this to happen Sponsor – add at least one for 2012/13 NO – Work in progress Expanded Events (Televised Natl NO – again budgets are not in play in this Championships, etc) area not yet being able to allow us to build the television / events side yet

In the meantime we have also had changes at the staff level with several new faces : Phil Legault (Ottawa), Marie-Pier Charest (Montreal), Todd Landon (Halifax) and more recently Brock Miron (Calgary). Happily Graeme Carbert continues to show up at our doorstep every summer – here’s to hoping for him continuing his studies next year! At the same time we sadly said goodbye to our friend Andreanne Lefebvre who’s gone to take over the family business.

GOVERNANCE / STRATEGIC PLANNING Significant work has been done in the areas of both Governance and Strategic planning (with more to be done over the next few months and years).

The work on the Strategic Plan is close to being finalized. Earlier this year we conducted a membership wide online survey followed up with a face to face meeting with the board of directors, branches, committee chairs and staff. The results provided were very detailed and will be pivotal in providing internal and external stakeholders a clear vision of next steps and priorities as we move forward.

The Governance Sub-Committee as led by Jim Elliott with Marie Claire, Laurie Murchison, Blair Carbert and staff support from JP Cody-Cox and Pat Brennan have been busy setting up processes and reviewing requirements from the Not-For Profit Act as well as our funding partner Sport Canada.

2012/13 will inevitably continue to be busy in this area and we look forward to the help and direction of members in the process.

MARKETING / COMMUNICATIONS Broadcast Average Audience Date (CBC/R- Event (per Minute) C) 10/29/2011 World Cup-Mens & Womens 500m & 1500m 158,000 10/30/2011 World Cup-Mens & Womens 500m & 1500m 138,000 1/28/2012 Speed Skating - World Sprint 173,000 2/4/2012 World Sprint Speed Skating 80,000 3/10/2012 World Championships 112,000 3/17/2012 World Championships 133,000 3/24/2012 SKATING - SPEED LONG 119,000 3/25/2012 SKATING - SPEED LONG 118,000

Next Steps :

- Olympic preparation will hit full steam in 2012/13 for Phil and High Performance - Continuing to build on current communication channels (web, social media, etc) while exploring new opportunities through partners (Calgary Oval, COC, branches and athletes) and other channels. - Work with branches to look at ways of ensuring all members have access SSC news in a timely manner - Explore media partnerships – print, television and web – as we move forward with trying to increase our media value to sponsors and exposure to our members / general public.

SPONSORSHIP / REVENUE GENERATION Sponsorship has not been what was expected. We were and continue to be very positive about the product we are selling, but the market just does not seem to be ready. We are reviewing our strategies as we lead into Sochi with great optimism. We continue to focus on several areas :

- Canadian Fortune 500 Companies - Big Categories (Telecom, Automobile and others) - Regional Sponsorships – National Team Training centers - International Companies

The review of membership fees was a productive exercise. The increased revenues may not materialize until a year or two down the road, but we are happy we have adjusted to fees to reflect the true value / cost of doing business. We are very thankful for the work of the Membership Fees Committee and TrojanOne on this project.

Fundraising will start to play a bigger and bigger role as we move forward. Our Online Auction reached its target from a revenue generation side in 2011/12. In 2012/13 we will be exploring how we can build out a national wide donation program along with regional events to connect with our speed skating and corporate community.

Next Steps : - Establish an overall fundraising strategy - Set up second edition of the SSC Online Auction - Build out fundraising events around World Cups in 2012/13 - Look at developing national level turn-key fundraising programs for clubs

MEMBERSHIP Membership growth remains a major concern and target for our Speed Skating “in” Canada. While the target and measure of success remains the actual numbers we realize the foundation to that growth / measurable is much more complex. Key Success Factors remain :

- Coaching – enough qualified coaches - Facilities – access and speed skating friendly - Club / Coach / Athlete tools – whether its communications, registration or event management we want to make it easier for our participants to focus on what is most important – developing skaters / having fun.

We have work to do in these areas with Coaching, Club and Membership as well as with our branches. We are looking forward to building out the tools and resources necessary to meet this challenge.

National Membership: 2011-12

Skating Members 3,414 Associate Members 9,989 Total 13,303

Membership Category Breakdown

Competitive Skater 2,669 Recreational Skater 7142 Special Events Skater 78 Associate Member 3,066 Lifetime Associate Member 65 Special Events Associate Member 283 Total 13,303

Club Size Breakdown

Club Size # of Clubs Under 25 Members 29 26-50 Members 36 51-100 Members 43 101-250 Members 35 250+ Members 7 Total # of Clubs 150

SSC Membership Charts: 2011-12

Branch Membership (2011-12) 7000 5873 6000

5000

4000

3000

Members 2359 2000 1569 1222 1000 623 477 306 253 339 23 101 114 40 0

Branches

Average Club Size (2011-12) 180 169 160 140 114 116 120 94 100 89 91 80 68

Members 56 60 42 42 40 40 23 15 20 0

Branch

Ten Season Membership Growth 16000

14000

12000

10000

8000

Members 6000

4000

2000

0 02-03 03-04 04-05 05-06 06-07 07-08 08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12 Seasons

Committee Reports

High Performance Committee - Short Track

I ACTIVITY REPORT

The Committee consisted of the following members in 2011-12.

Elected members: Andrew Lahey, Chair Tom Overend Annie Perreault Athlete reps: Rémi Beaulieu, Montréal National Training Centre (NTC) Caroline Truchon, Montréal National Training Centre (NTC) Gabrielle Waddell, Calgary NTC Coaches: Derrick Campbell (National Program Coach – Men, Montréal NTC) Frédéric Blackburn (National Program Coach – Men, Montréal) Sébastian Cros (National Program Coach – Women, Montréal) Jeffery Scholten (National Program Coach – Women, Montréal) Jonathan Cavar (National Program Coach, Calgary) SSC Staff: Yves Hamelin, Short Track Program Director Mark Mathies, SSC Executive Director, Sport Jennifer Cottin, Short Track Program Coordinator

 The HPCST held two in-person meetings this past year. The Committee also held numerous conference calls throughout the season, which occurred roughly on a monthly basis, and at times more frequently (on an as needed basis). Decisions and discussions of significance at these meetings will be referred to in other parts of this report. The athlete representatives provided much-valued input to the discussions of the Committee, and we thank Rémi, Caroline and Gabrielle for taking the time out of their training schedules to help represent the skaters at the Committee level this year. We also recognize and appreciate the excellent work and contribution of Yves Hamelin as the Program Director and staff lead for the Committee, Mark Mathies in providing guidance and counsel in his new role as Executive Director, Sport, and Jennifer Cottin in recording the minutes of Committee meetings and providing administrative support.  Laurent Daigneault continued his excellent work with the program as the National Team Short Track Equipment Technician, based out of the Montreal training centre this past season. Laurent’s continued dedication to the sport and to our athletes must also be recognized by the Committee.  We thank the meet coordinators, organizing committees and officials who collaborated so well to conduct our national selection events and championships in Calgary, Chicoutimi and Montréal this past year. We appreciate their essential contributions to our high performance program.

 It must be noted that Sébastian Cros left the program at season’s end. The Committee would like to wish Sébastian all the best with his new opportunities overseas in Russia. As a result of Sébastian’s departure from the program, Frédéric Blackburn will become the National Program Coach – Women, based out of Montréal for the upcoming 2012-2013 season.

II COMMITTEE DECISIONS

1. Andrew Lahey was nominated and elected as the Chair of the Committee. 2. Tom Overend was nominated and elected as the Vice-Chair. 3. Annie Perreault was nominated and elected as an Elected Committee member. 4. Isabelle Charest was nominated and elected as an Elected Committee member on an interim basis for a period throughout the season. 5. Committee representation at National Selection events for 2011-12: - Fall World Cup Selections, Calgary, Tom Overend - Canadian Championships, Chicoutimi, Andrew Lahey - National Selections #2, Montréal, Yves Hamelin 6. The administration of bye requests for team selections was reviewed earlier this year, and the Committee re-structured the process, as outlined in High Performance Bulletin #152, based on the input it received from athletes, coaches, elected Committee members and staff. As per the High Performance Bulletin, the newly amended process by which athletes were compared for the purposes of the bye applications was through the stipulated bye point system. Under this new system, the High Performance Committee assigned bye points on the basis of competition results from the previous 12 months. If the athlete requesting a bye had at least 5 more points than the athletes in the ranking list, from which he/she was being compared, that athlete had their bye request granted by the Committee. The aforementioned changes to the bye request procedures were seen by many as a very positive progression in the decision-making structure of the high performance program. The new procedure is based entirely on a points system, and all discretion has now been removed from the bye request process for team selections. The Committee would like to thank all those involved in the process. 7. As per the High Performance Bulletin, the Committee also utilized discretionary selections this past season, including for the World Cups and for the World Championships team. Due to the fact that the 2011-12 season was in the first half of the Olympic cycle, the Committee determined that there was significant strategic value in providing opportunities for developing athletes to gain and/or extend their international competition experience this past season. Consequently, entries for World Cups were rotated to some degree amongst a group of athletes to maximise the number of athletes who could benefit from this experience. The discretionary selections enabled the

Committee to ensure that these developmental experiences, critical in the first half of an Olympic quadrennial, were possible. 8. The Committee dealt effectively with conflict of interest issues this year by continuing to implement the procedures announced at the 2010 AGM. The Committee did not receive any negative feedback or concerns arising as a result of conflict of interest this year and will continue to remain vigilant with respect to this issue. 9. The Committee established a rotation for the next two years for sites for our Fall World Cup Selections and the Canadian Championships. We hope the identification of a schedule through to the Sochi Olympic Games will greatly assist in the identification of hosts for the important competitions throughout each season.

III FINANCIAL FORECAST

Please see 2011-2012 Budget for further details.

It should be noted that it can be very difficult to budget accurately for the season as the budget is submitted early in the calendar year before we have received confirmation of all revenue streams. The financial management by our coaches and program staff continues to be thorough and within the guidelines of SSC.

IV COMMITTEE'S OPERATIONAL GUIDELINES

The High Performance Bulletins detail the operational guidelines for the conduct of our selection competitions, and the selection criteria for Athlete Assistance Program support, National Team, Development Team, World Championships’ Teams, Junior World Championships’ Team and World Cup Teams. These operational guidelines are revised on a continuing basis depending on a range of factors including proximity to the Olympic Games, input from members of our Teams, and international competition regulations and schedule. High Performance Bulletins are generally issued in the fall and spring of each year. Additional Bulletins are also issued whenever necessary. It must be noted that based on factors both within and outside the High Performance Committee’s control, that the publication of the HP Bulletins were unfortunately delayed at times this past season. The Committee regards the timely publication of the HP Bulletins as an important factor to the national team program, and therefore is committed at ensuring that all Bulletins will be published on a timely basis during the upcoming 2012-2013 season. For a list of the dates of the published High Performance Bulletins in 2011-2012, please see below:

• Bulletin #149 was published in May, 2011. • Bulletin #150 was published in September, 2011. • Bulletin #151 was published in October, 2011.

• Bulletin #152 was published in December, 2011. • Bulletin #153 was published in February, 2012.

V NEXT SEASON'S BUDGET (see 2012-13 Budget)

The proposed budget is based on current knowledge about next season's competition locations, dates, and opportunities. As always, it contains a degree of uncertainty. The budget reflects the same basic program components as for every year (World Cup circuit, Junior and Senior World Championships, National Selection events, training camps, coaching salaries). In recent years, it has also included an expansion into the development side of the sport, funding the regional mentor coaches and intended regional training centres. The impact of funding through the OTP program continues to be considerable, and is a critical component of funding for the high performance program. The SSC contribution to the HP budget, although small in proportion, continues to be critical for the success of the program. We encourage SSC to pursue additional sources of funding to enhance the HP programs.

VI PROPOSED PLAN FOR NEXT SEASON

Three National Selection events are planned for 2012-13; Fall World Cup Selections, September 14-16 (Calgary), Canadian Championships, January 19-20 (Montréal), and final National Selection event, March 15-17 (location TBD). There will be one National Qualifier competition, to be held in December, to select up to 16 skaters to fill the competition field for the Canadian Championships in January. Qualification for this event will be by means of seed times. The Canadian Junior Championships will be held December 15-16 (location TBD). The teams for World Cups 1-4 will be chosen from the results of the Fall World Cup Selection event in September. The teams for the World Championships and World Cups 5 and 6 will be chosen from the results of the Canadian Championships in January.

High Performance Committee – Long Track 2012 SSC AGM – Annual Report

Activity Report

The Committee consisted of the following members in 2011-2012.

Elected Members: Gregg Planert (elected 2011) - Chairman Dennis Duggan (elected 2009) – Vice Chairman Derrick Auch (elected 2010) Coaching Members: Xiuli Wang, Mike Crowe, Bart Schouten, Mark Wild Gregor Jelonek Skater Representatives: Muncef Ouardi, Jamie Gregg, Philippe Riopel SSC Staff: Mark Mathies, Sean Ireland, Scott Stefani

The HPCLT held their Annual Review Meeting in April, 2012 in Calgary. A number of conference calls were held throughout the season to deal with World Cup and World Championships selections.

The second year of the Quadrennial settled down in the Team Structure and in the Staff. The only change in Staffing was saying goodbye to Amanda Froese and welcoming Scott Stefani as LT Program Coordinator based in Calgary. Gregg Planert was re-elected in June at the AGM for another three year term. Dennis Duggan is up for re-election at this year’s AGM.

The National Team for the past season consisted of skaters that competed in the 2011 World Single Distance Championships and finished in the top 16 in a distance. The significant retirement this past season was Kristina Groves. Her versatility in all distances had her filling spots on World Cup Teams for all distances. With Kristina leaving, it gave a few of the other women a chance to step up and compete in World Cups and World Championships. Two of those women, Kali Christ and Kaylin Irvine had competed in the Junior World Championships in the last two years and qualified for the World Single Distance Championships this past year.

Other significant achievements are highlighted in Sean Ireland’s report. These include World Championships for Christine Nesbitt and Denny Morrison, Junior World Championship gold and a Junior World Record for Laurent Dubreuil.

Our Spring meeting was split into two this year with a Conference Call held first to discuss the qualified skaters for the new National and Development Team. A follow-up call amongst the Elected Members was to determine any Bye Requests for the Team.

The actual Spring meeting centred around a major review of this past season, the schedule for next season, the ISU Rules and a major discussion on Selection criteria for the new HPC Bulletins.

Scheduling of the new season.

The skaters’ representatives brought forth a recommendation to include the Fall World Cup Trials in the Ranking Points system. Each year the HPC re-evaluates the past year’s ranking points and modifies it if necessary.

It was passed unanimously that the Fall Trials and Oval Invitational become the first ranking points competition. This is in addition to the Canada Cup series and the North Americans. More details will follow in the High Performance Bulletins.

With the North Americans in Salt Lake City at the beginning of March, the Oval Finale/Canada Cup 4 will be held a few days after.

The test event for the 2014 Olympics will be the World Single Distance Championships in March, 2013.

Junior events

This season the Junior World Cup Regional events are scheduled by the ISU for Calgary during the CanAm in November and in January in Roseville, Minnesota. Thus, the World Junior Team will be selected at Canada Cup 2 in Calgary at the beginning of January. The Team will then compete in the Junior World Cup in Roseville the Canadian Junior Championships in Quebec; the Junior World Championships in Collalbo, Italy and the Junior World Cup Final, also in Collalbo.

Selection events

Selections for the Fall World Cups will be held in early November in Calgary. The Winter World Cup Teams and World Championships will be selected at the Canadian Championships also in Calgary in January.

Competition Quotas for the 2012/2013 season must be confirmed by the ISU. Tentatively we have the following quotas.

World Sprint Championships – Salt Lake City, USA TBA – New rule proposed.

World All Round Championships – Hamar, Norway

(Determined at Continental Championships) – Men – 4, Ladies 6, Max of 4 per country

World Single Distance Championships – Sochi, Russia

Determined from World Cup points and Time Ranking

World Junior Championships – Collalbo, Italy

Men – 4, Ladies - 4 (Quotas may be revised pending ISU World Championships announcements.) Summary

The HPCLT continues to work to ensure that we have the best skaters competing in the World Championships and subsequently the Olympics.

Qualifying times begin this year for skater eligibility to skate in the 2014 Olympic Trials. This will continue until the Trials at a specific date yet to be determined. Discussions at the Spring Meeting were started and we will continue to work on it over the next few months.

We have had a very successful season, but we know that it will take more work to achieve even better results. With Russia hosting the next Olympics, they have been making a big push to be the number one team in the World. The Dutch continue to be the benchmark for our Team to achieve the results that they do at the World Championships.

I would like to thank the Skaters, Coaches, IST Staff, SSC Staff, the Board of Directors and Dennis and Derrick for their contributions this past season. We all look forward to the 2012/2013 competition season on the road to Sochi.

Submitted by Gregg Planert Chairman, High Performance Committee Long Track

Competition Development Committee 2012 AGM Report

Committee Members Far West - Nancy Goplen (Chair) West - Sharon Zorman East - Sandra Chenard Quebec - Robert Bourassa Atlantic - Steve Harris

All members will remain on the committee with the exception of myself. After ten years, it is time to redirect my energy and passion to some other areas of this great sport. Christina Acton, a member of BCSSA will be my replacement from the Far West. She is a former competitive skater, bringing a wealth of knowledge and passion for the sport to the committee.

Section 1: Activity Report

The committee met in person in April 2012 to review the season. This was in addition to monthly Skype calls.

Section 2: Committee Decisions and Activity

Competition Bulletin: This was the second year of the Competition Bulletin and proved once again, to be a valuable tool for the committee. As a “living” document, it can be updated at any time based upon committee and branch feedback. We really appreciate the feedback we receive, especially once the formats have been utilized at the Branch level. The Bulletin (and updated versions) is posted on the SSC website under “Events”. In April, the committee reviewed the document with very few changes from the latest 2011-12 version. The circulation of the Bulletin is coming at a much earlier date as we realize that some branches use the document to set their Branch Competition formats.

Bid/Event Package: The committee has been working to develop a more comprehensive Event Bid Package that defines the nature of the competition and the requirements from both the host and SSC. Over time, you will find a standardized approach to entry forms, announcements, display of SSC products, awards ceremonies, etc. As an example, a standardized logo was developed by the CDC for the Canada East/West, thus creating its own branding. Through this strategy, SSC is striving to elevate the profile of our national events to make it more attractive to potential sponsors and media coverage. This was also the second year of the on-line sanction process.

Competition Titles: The titles of our competitions have not truly reflected the nature of the event. A review was undertaken so look for a few adjustments in names of events found on the Calendar of Events.

Calendar of Events: The CDC maintains the Calendar of events by working cooperatively with the HP Committees and Branches. As of June 1st, the CDC has confirmed hosts for all 2012-13 competitions with the exception of the Canada East and National Qualifier. Any branch or club

interested in hosting the events should contact the SSC office. Again, an updated schedule can be found on the SSC website.

Technical Reps: We assign Tech Reps to the Sport Development level competitions such as Canada East /West, Canadian Age Class ST, Canadian Age Class LT and Can Open Masters and NA/Canadian Marathon while the High Performance Committees assigns their own committee reps to national ranking and selection events. During our annual review, the CDC has defined and expanded the role to work more closely with the Hosts so that consistent practices that meet SSC expectations occur. As an example, the Tech Reps will make early contact with the Hosts and will have a hands on role by proofing the announcements and entries before posting. By doing this, there will be an opportunity to review practice ice bookings, timing of important meetings, registration procedures, and racing formats, venue issues, safety concerns, etc.

Hosting Manual: The Manual is a planning tool found on the SSC website for hosts of SSC Championships. It is also useful for those coordinating branch competitions. The CDC is currently reviewing the standards required at Championships so we can showcase our sport to the best advantage by asking how we can increase exposure of our events within communities? How can we become an event that is viewed on a Saturday afternoon throughout the country? We need to be looking at ways to increase the sophistication of the event so it is something sponsors will want to be proud to fund and attach their names to. We welcome feedback so please direct it to your Regional Rep or Kanika Thakar in the SSC office. The Hosting Manual is also found on the SSC website.

Hosting Grants: The CDC disburses grants to the Championships and national team selection events. The amount ranges from approximately $2000 – 8,000 depending upon the duration, discipline and location of the competition. The CDC received a drastic cut in their budget so we hope to see some of the monies restored in the 2012-13 budgets.

Records: The CDC and SSC Office maintain the records. An on-line process for applying for records was implemented in 2011-12 and seems to be working well. Again, the records are only recorded for the following age categories: Junior LT and ST, Junior B ST, Senior and the Masters. SSC does not track records for the T2T categories. Thanks are extended to Brett Arnasson and Ross Hannham for tracking the Masters records.

Canada Winter Games – The CDC has named the two CWG Technical Reps, namely Christina Chenard (LT) and Sandra Chenard (ST) who will work with the 2015 Host Society.The Tech Reps, in cooperation with the CDC and SSC HP Committees, have developed and submitted the 2015 Technical Package to the Canada Games Council. In Long Track, the 100m has been replaced by an 8 lap (F) and 12 lap (M) mass start event. This coincides with events skated at the Junior World Cup level. In Short Track, the Super 1500m has been replaced with the 3000m Points Race. The committee has also created a daily schedule to assist the media and Host Society with their planning. SSC will also be encouraging the 2015 Hosts to develop a legacy long track facility i.e. artificial LT. As you know, Halifax, through community pressure now has a permanent facility after the 2015 Games. Let’s see that happen in PG!

Meet Manager Software: We realize there has been some frustration with the Meet Manager Software. Sandra, Sharon, Kanika and Susan Cook have met to define the requirements of the

software and formulate a future plan. Training using the current software will take place in late August for those hosting 2012-13 National Competitions. SSC is currently identifying a programmer who will be able to develop new software for us that will better serve the needs of the Branches and SSC competition formats. Once the new software is tested, training will occur. We do not anticipate that to occur for at least a year.

Section 3: Financial Update

Budget: This year, the CDC was scheduled to come under budget. Prior to being able to execute some of our plans such as a new medal design, we were instructed to cease any further spending. We received a drastic cut in our 2011-12 budget compared to 2010-11. Most affected was the area of hosting grants. We provided hosting grants to 13 events amounting to $52,000 compared to $66,750 in 2010-12 (approx 22% decrease). The CDC has requested an increase in our budget to restore the hosting grants to its 2010-11 levels.

Section 4: Committee Recommendations

1. That losses incurred in the 2011-12 hosting grant budget be restored to 2010-11 levels. 2. That SSC develop new software to replace the current Meet Manager with support in place for training our volunteers.

Section 5: Summary

On behalf of the committee, I wish to thank all the hosts of SSC and Branch Events. Without your efforts, our sport would not grow and our athletes would not be able to experience success. We really value your feedback and work to refine our processes and provide you with the information that you require to plan and host events. I would also like to thank the staff for their continued support. By working together, we all learn how to strive for excellence in all that we do.

On a personal note, I would like to thank all the current members and past committee members, namely Trudy Steele, Susan Whittick, Joyce Leggatt, Kathy Gregg, and Richard Benoit as well as past staff members - Hannah Juneau, Yanna Moncion and Dawn Currie. It has been ten years of personal enrichment. I have enjoyed years of learning, laughter and an interchange of ideas as we go about completing our tasks. I am not stepping too far away as I plan to remain involved at the club, branch and national level in various roles. There is too much to be gained from this sport to move away!

Respectfully submitted by

Nancy Goplen Chair, Competition Development Committee

Official’s Development Committee Report May 2012

Committee Members: Roger Cole, (Atlantic Region); Yvan Patry,(Quebec); Rocky Lamontagne,(Ontario); Dave Thomson,(West); Ted Houghton (Far West) and Chair, ODC

Activity: Yet another very busy season for ODC, on many fronts, completing its mandate. We welcomed two new members to our committee with Roger Cole representing the Atlantic region and Dave Thomson Canada West. Their substantial knowledge and experience have been most welcomed. We have had numerous skype calls as well as our annual late summer face-to-face meeting in Ottawa. That meeting focused on ISU upgrades, the assignment of senior and development officials to designated events and an in-depth review of our upgrading process.

We recommended to ISU two each Short Track Referees, Starters and Competitors Stewards and three Long Track Referees and one Starter all be upgraded to the ISU International List. This continues the tradition of SSC providing ISU with highly qualified officials to manage their events and will make a total of 40 Canadian officials who are recognized by ISU. This speaks to the strength of the officials programs at the branch and national level.

We appointed 93 officials to 19 competitions and with the second year of both the Western and Eastern Regional Championships more opportunities presented themselves for our developing Level 3 officials.

We were challenged in assigning qualified officials to three events, this past season, which were held on the same weekend. I am pleased to see, from the Competitions Committee, that such will not be the case for the 2012-2013 season.

Canadian officials, on behalf of ISU, were assigned to events in Saguenay, Calgary, Salt Lake City, Hereenveen, Hungary, Australia, China and Russia.

SSC has long been recognized as having the best domestic officials upgrading process in the World to where a number of countries have followed our lead. Within ODC we have recognized the stringent criteria may have led some officials to being overlooked by ISU. We reviewed the process and have made a number of minor but significant changes to address our own domestic needs and provide opportunities for our senior officials at the ISU level. We also changed the designation of our Level 4/5 officials to reflect their affiliation with ISU. Going forward these officials will now be known, domestically, as ISU International (formerly Level 4) and ISU (formerly Level 5) officials respectively.

We reviewed our on-line resource material and found conflicting information in various locations as it relates to domestic upgrading criteria and various reporting forms. Our committee members have now been tasked with reviewing all available material and will be removing conflicting information and the links to them.

Development & Mentorship: ODC is most grateful of the continuing support by Speed Skating Canada’s Board of Directors for these programs. We were able to assign 12 Development Program officials to 12 high level events appropriate to their skill level. Five officials who have been involved in this program were recommended to the I.S.U. for consideration as International Officials. Our Mentorship program bridges the “gap” between our senior officials and those up and coming officials, in all areas of officiating, whereby we can support the branches and their officials in attaining their goals. This one-on-one program has seen a number of Level 2 and 3B officials linking with senior officials to receive the necessary tutelage and guidance as they advance their careers. We continue to receive positive feedback from both the mentors and mentorees. ODC continues to explore innovative ways to enhance both programs.

Finance: We acknowledge and are grateful for the financial support provided by the Board of Directors in allowing ODC to meet its mandate. We have, where possible and without negatively impacting the skaters experience at all levels of events, provided the most qualified officials at all competitions consistent with the expectations of the athletes and coaches. This fall we were planning on hosting the 4th bi-annual officials’ symposium following the ISU Congress and the ISU Short Track seminar. At the time of this report, due to ongoing budget discussions, we cannot confirm this event. We are hopeful that the necessary funding can be found to bring officials from across the country, link the symposium to much needed clinics and conduct mini-workshops to ensure consistency both in rules interpretation and, as importantly, application to provide consistency, in all areas of officiating.

Clinics: Two major Level 3 clinics were held this past season, both in Calgary, linked to senior competitions and facilitated and led by Sandra Chenard and Hans Terstappen and we are most grateful to them for conducting much needed and extremely well received clinics. ODC offers Level 3 and above clinic(s) annually on a rotating basis based on need both from an officiating and geographical perspective.

These clinics are also necessary within the upgrading process. It must be said that ODC remains challenged with the lack of detail accompanying most branch requests for upgrading. We will be reviewing the existing process, this fall, with the goal of providing an overall information package. This will allow officials and branches to have a single source of required information necessary to satisfy the needs of branch officials (vis-à-vis upgrading) and individual officials as they progress. At the time of writing this report all the Level 3 upgrades had not been finalized.

Comments: SSC continues to review its financial practices including cost savings across the organization. ODC will remain ever vigilant and cost conscious when assigning officials to competitions, conducting required clinics and engaging developing officials in both our development and mentorship programs. Our strength is in our programs and the commitment by officials across the country to ensure our skaters, at all levels, engage in fair and meaningful events. ODC will continue to strive to deliver a world class program within funding parameters set.

Finally, I am most grateful to the ODC committee members for their commitment to the multiple tasks we engaged in this past season. Their desire to advance the cause and quality of officiating across the country cannot be understated. We must also recognize the enthusiastic support provided by Andreanne Lefebvre and now Hannah Juneau. Thank you both very much.

SSC ODC fully appreciates the Board’s commitment to meet the high officiating standards ODC has set. We look forward to working closely with SSC to ensure the funding formula ensures long term sustainability of our programs.

Respectfully submitted, Ted Houghton Chair, SSC ODC

Coaching Development Committee Annual Report to Speed Skating Canada AGM 2012

As we complete our second difficult year in a row, the SSC Coaching Development Committee is disappointed to acknowledge that our results did not correspond with our desired direction. Here we are two years later and we are still at an impasse with the role of the committee. In attempts to address these issues, we have met with the CEO directly in June of 2011 and we met in March of 2012 in Montreal with the CEO of SSC along with the President of SSC at a meeting facilitated by a Board of Directors member. On the first day, the SSC Coaching committee, with the aid of SSC President Marie Claire Rouleau, CEO JP Cody-Cox, facilitated by Board member David Gilday, we had a frank and open discussion, looking at problems and possible solutions.

On the second day, everyone was joined by the 3 new SSC regional mentors, and SSC Director of Leadership Education, Douglas Duncan.

It felt as though it was a very productive couple of days of idea sharing and solution seeking. The input from the Regional Mentors was well received and our committee thinks they can be a real asset to SSC, if used correctly. Our committee all left the meeting with a feeling that we had accomplished some good things, and that we were moving forward together in a positive way. However, now we will say that it’s not happening as we had hoped. Communication is still lacking, and the committee is feeling that it is not being heard.

It is clear that the volunteers of the committee are long standing members of SSC with a vast of knowledge of speed skating and many years of experience in coaching. That said, the biggest challenges faced by the committee are the on-going communication issues between SSC staff and the committee. Branches put forth their best representatives for Speed Skating Canada technical committees. These are not just newcomers who want the title of committee member but some of the most experienced and knowledgeable people in our sport. They volunteer for committee work because they love the sport and want to contribute to its growth and development. These committee members are some of our most passionate and dedicated volunteers, and come with an arsenal of ideas, knowledge, and wisdom gained from past experiences. It is imperative that these committee voices be heard and their input actually valued by SSC.

The problems on the SSC Coaching committee are not with the vision of the Regional representatives, on how to train coaches, but with the vastly different vision of how to achieve that between Committee and SSC Staff.

The Committee is also distressed that it has faced a complete, yet unapproved, change in terms of reference for the Coaching Committee, without any input from the SSC membership. Our Committee volunteers are extremely frustrated at the abrupt turnabout in the operating structure of the Committee without SSC Membership approval, a change that seems to have caused the ongoing problems. The delays in progress on the coaching file might well turn out to be a blessing in disguise, as it will make the SSC membership aware of situations that can happen if new operating structures are established without the thought & approval of the volunteer membership.

The SSC Coaching Committee is very clear in what and how they want to proceed with our current coach course delivery and evaluation challenge. To begin with, we wish to try the most direct and least expensive avenues available to us.

Recent coach training courses have not been fruitful as we have less and less coaches being certified. The Coaching Committee feels that this trend is disturbing as our numbers of certified coaches is not growing at a time we should be trying to substantially increase our skater population base to coincide with our sports International successes.

The coaching committee has been seeking the best avenue to get our Coaching course curriculum back on track as well as how to best meet the educational needs across Canada. In looking historically at this problem, the Committee feels that we made a crucial error back in 2004, by including the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) multi–sport material into our course structure. There are Provincial /Territorial jurisdictions all across Canada to facilitate the CAC multi-sport training, so having our coaches receive this information is not a problem. Having CAC material as part of the training courses created the problem of requiring our facilitators to be educated in not only the SSC technical components of skating, but having the added training and expense of learning to teach the multi-sport material as well. This decision has discouraged a number of people who were knowledgeable in our sport from carrying on or becoming learning facilitators because of the multi–sport component. The inclusion of the CAC multi-sport materials also requires facilitators to spend two weekends to deliver courses’ versus the previous one weekend requirement. The Coaching Committee feels that combined, this puts Coaching in a dangerous position if we have a decline in instructors, as has been proposed by the staff.

We are also having problems getting those who take courses to complete the certification process. We are not sure if it is the task of completing the written portfolio (most of which is completed in the class room setting), the CAC on-line ethics course, or the requirement for evaluation of the coach by a qualified SSC evaluator that is the stumbling block. Looking forward, this will eventually lead to a shortage of certified speed skating coaches in the country. It does not seem appropriate that increasing course difficulty and timeframes within the various certification contexts is the right approach at this time.

The Committee’s approach would be to divest ourselves of the CAC multi-sport material from our courses and get back to having people who know the technical components of speed skating, deliver just that.

SSC Coaching is also very concerned with expressed levels of technology that will be required to both take a speed skating course as well as instruct or evaluate course participants, in the future if the staff direction is followed. Our committee recognizes that the majority of the Coaching Committee is not exactly in the age range of all the new technology and that out concern may be misplaced. But we are also very concerned for the future, if courses and coach evaluation becomes a connection via a computer link or an on line coaching session. The coaching committee does not want to lose the personal interaction between coaches and their local mentors. We feel this is an important part of development of the coaching fraternity in local and regional areas. Coaching is the personal contact between a coach and skater(s). We believe that the instruction of coaches requires the same personable contact.

SSC Coaching is also still looking for answers to how the new SSC Regional Mentors will play a role in the education and certification of more qualified course instructors across Canada. While there are those who wish to lower the number of qualified instructors, the Coaching Committee feels we should have many qualified instructors in all areas of Canada, giving them the opportunity to instruct the material they are passionate about. The Coaching Committee feels that the new Regional Mentors can play a significant development role in this area.

One of the areas of commonality between the Coaching Committee and the Director of Leadership Education was his initiation, in the fall 2010, of a search for a scientific approach to a proper bio-mechanical model for skating. The search for the definitive instruction template on how a skater positions, initiates, and pushes at various stages of growth and development seemed like an excellent fit to LTPAD

Development in the technical components of coaching courses. Adding technically enhanced material to both the Learn-to-Train (L2T) and Train-to-Train (T2T) stages of the LTPAD could be a great asset to the course material and club coach technical comprehension. The Coaching committee is still waiting for this material from this biomechanical model and have not had any updated information since spring 2011. We see no reason to upgrade and enhance the FUNdamental (new Level 1) and Introduction to Competition (new Level 2) course material until this material is completed.

The Coaching is also deeply concerned about the proposed timeframes and and work load required to complete the replacement course for the old Level 3. While our committee has no problem in updating the content of the current material to reflect technical improvements, we are opposed to the suggested duration and certification requirements as proposed by staff. Branches should be very aware of this development, as these Competition Development course requirements will be what your future Canada Games Coaches will need. We feel the burden in volunteer time and cost is prohibitive for a coach at this level. We are not sold on the idea that because CAC increased their course time frames by over 30% that we need to follow in lock step.

The Coaching Committee is also very leery of a situation within SSC where very few people are in control of very important mandates of SSC. If staff are the ones in control of the vision of where coaching is heading and is driving that vision, what happens if they move on? Who will be in a position to carry on with the vision. This is a big concern of the committee when we, as stable volunteers, see the constant turn over in personnel. With Committee representatives from across Canada, that situation is never in doubt. The vision has to be collaborative and not totally dependent upon one or two staff members.

In the SSC Strategic Plan there is a need to raises revenue through fee increases. We as a committee were pleased to see that fee increases were not placed on the backs of the volunteers, as the original plan had called for. SSC is a very volunteer orientated sports organization and we need all the support from volunteers we can get. SSC Volunteers make significant personal contribution to all SSC Programs and should not be burdened with increased time away from family and work and with increased costs.

The Coaching Committee also feels that revenue can be generated through the growth of new clubs and was quite disappointed that a plan for club growth was not part of the strategic plan.

Our Committee sees the need for qualified instructors all across Canada, volunteers able to go into new communities to facilitate this skating growth through training of FUNdamental Leader and FUNdamental coaches in all areas within Canada. IF SSC is to grow, we will continue to need those strong and passionate pockets of speed skating knowledge that are on the ground and all across the country. This Association, celebrating it’s 125th year in existence, has grown and prospered largely due to the passion and dedication of volunteers from across Canada. That is how we think SSC will continue to grow. Volunteers are the backbone of our organization.

Our comments are not meant to disparage anyone at SSC. But, to alert SSC and its membership that we, as a committee, appointed by the branches that form SSC, have what we feel are significant issues with the current direction of our committee.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the Coaching Development Committee by

Peter Steele,

Chairman

Sport Injury and Medical Emergency Committee (SIMEC) Annual Report 2011/12

This past season was SIMEC’s first. During the season, a great deal was accomplished, but much more work remains. To set off on the right foot, SIMEC spent last summer and early fall in planning mode. From that work emerged SIMEC’s terms of reference, mandate, mission, vision and values statements. We also developed a set of pillars upon which we felt we could establish a sound sport safety system. Those pillars included i) knowledge building, ii) domestic leadership, iii) international leadership, iv) safety attitudes and expectations, and v) effective implementation.

By late fall, we moved on from planning and organization to actually “doing” sport safety. We divided our work in sport safety into five general areas: basic research (aimed at understanding mechanisms of injury), cognitive, affective and physical preparations/interventions (aimed at preparing us to avoid injury through our behavioural choices), protective equipment preparations/interventions (aimed at avoiding injury through equipment/ technology), emergency preparedness and responses (aimed at minimizing the severity of injury when it occurs) and injury surveillance (aimed at telling us how good a job we are doing at injury prevention and injury mitigation).

In terms of basic research, SIMEC kept up with current research in the area of helmet design e.g. looking at how helmet shape and size influence peak linear deceleration during impacts. We also identified where to find the latest information on mechanisms of injury in sport, and we teamed up with top researchers from across Canada and around the world to help us with this task.

In terms of behavioural interventions, we wanted to better understand what behaviours we should be supporting before implementing projects on this topic. We soon realized that we already knew some things worth developing awareness campaigns and educational resources about. These will begin to roll out towards the end of the summer. We also identified other areas where we need to do more homework before we are sure we’re conveying useful messages, since many issues in safety are quite complex. We don’t want to move too quickly only to end up conveying guidance that is actually wrong. Nevertheless, it was very clear to us that our first and most significant wall of defence was education. We need to be able to provide all individuals responsible for the field of play with access to appropriate information and training. To that end, an application for funding to develop a winter sport safety e-learning module was made through the Public Health Agency of Canada in partnership with Snowboard Canada and the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association. Indications of success are strong. However, at the time of submission of this report we were not able to confirm the funding. Douglas Duncan was the driving force behind this project.

The other area where we experienced much activity and much success was in protective equipment, and more specifically crash protection and helmets. We developed a set of specifications for a new helmet that is truly made for short track. In cooperation with Alpine Canada, we commissioned a literature review on helmet testing and design by the top Canadian impact research lab (Dr. Peter Cripton’s, at UBC), which is now complete. We formed a team of top researchers from across Canada to come up with a way to test and develop new and more effective helmets for our sport, and for other sports. And after literally years of work, we

completed the first roll-outs of the ST and LT Crash Protection Specifications and Guidelines, contained in the 2nd AGM package to be explained in further detail as part of our AGM workshop.

Emergency response is another important area of focus for SIMEC. Work began on a comprehensive review of SSC’s specifications and guidelines for medical services at practices and events. Some rule changes are being presented at this year’s AGM to address issues associated with first responders at events, while this summer’s work will provide a specific guidelines document to replace the current Appendix C within the hosting manual. The intent is to offer clearer guidance and multiple options to address the different environments in which our event organisers operate. While a first version of this new document will be completed before the start of the season, much more work remains for this focus area and the results will likely evolve over the next couple of seasons.

As the year progressed, it became increasingly evident that our last theme area, injury surveillance, was hugely important as it affects every other area of sport safety. This is the feedback mechanism by which we learn how good a job we are doing. This work is vital. We made some minor progress in this area this past year, but next year it will be a major focus. It must be. And we will need every Branch, Club and SSC member to play a part in supporting data collection and reporting, so that we can properly understand our sport risks and take appropriate action in developing new regulations and guidelines. The benefits will be enormous so we hope everyone will be enthusiastic to play key roles.

Overall, if we look at the year in terms of the strength of our pillars, it looks like we are on the right track. In terms of knowledge building, members of SIMEC attended several conferences to learn about injury epidemiology, equipment standards, mechanisms of injury, best practices, and innovation. We completed the analyses on the 2010 Club Facility Survey, and we’ll roll out those results shortly. In terms of international leadership, we are working with the ISU Medical Commission, US Speed Skating, and ASTM in leadership roles. Indeed, SIMEC’s Chair has been engaged to lead the review of the ASTM helmet standard F1849. On the domestic front, our leadership position is even stronger. We attended most Canadian conferences this year that had significant sport safety content, and we formed valuable networks at those gatherings. We have engaged with Think First on concussions, Alpine Canada on helmet design, the CSA on helmet standards, HHITT on helmet testing, and Apogee on helmet manufacturing. In terms of developing attitudes and expectations, the new P&Rs (including the ST and LT Crash Protection Specifications and Guidelines) and harmonized definitions for protective equipment, will start to shift how we think about sport safety. Those documents were our first implementations of change directed at making our sport safer.

Given our first year, 2012/13 shows much promise. We will be fine-tuning the structure of SIMEC to optimize operating efficiency. We intend to roll out some multi-media educational resources. We will continue to support basic research on pads and helmets, while working with top experts across the country and around the world to develop better ways of testing our equipment so that we can select and/or design better equipment. On the pads front, we will work on developing techniques that allow clubs to measure the performance of their own pads. We will finish the review of our emergency response methods. We will get moving on broad-based and narrowly- focused injury surveillance systems. We will strive to work more closely with other safety committees like those of the FPVQ, OSSA, US Speed Skating and the ISU, as well as with those of

other sports. And we will continue to engage with funding partners as our national/international leadership begins to be recognized.

This past year, SIMEC was led by Sean Maw and Douglas Duncan. Members included Anne Pousette, Robert Dubreuil and Andrew Quinn. And as an ad hoc member of SIMEC, we were very lucky to have Jane Moran (Chair of the ISU Medical Commission) with us. Looking ahead, we look forward to forming small working groups on specific topics as well as bringing additional subject matter experts into the committee for day to day operations. We will also benefit from formal collaboration with US Speed Skating. For 2012-2013, Hans Hoefgen (Director of US Speed Skating’s Sport Safety Sub-committee) will sit on SIMEC as an Ad-Hoc member and a SIMEC member will represent Speed Skating Canada on US Speed Skating’s Sport Safety Sub-committee.

Long Term Participant and Athlete Development Working Group 2012 Respectfully submitted by:

The LTPAD Working Group: Dennis Duggan – Chair Yves Hamelin Nancy Goplen Mark Mathies Robert Dubreuil Douglas Duncan

The Working Group acknowledges the role of the SSC Board of Directors for their unwavering support, and that of all of SSC’s standing committees, and the member Branches, who have contributed significantly to this process of moving forward in the transformation toward developmentally appropriate programming. Douglas Duncan continues to provide support in achieving SSC’s commitment to developmentally appropriate programming.

As a Working Group, we had anticipated moving the agenda forward to acclimate to the new environment in a much more robust way. This has not been the case. Nevertheless, the commitment remains and it is anticipated this coming year we will move forward having learned from our experiences.

As we know, the process of implementation is evolutionary. The review, integration and alignment of all speed skating programs is a continuum. The LTPAD Working Group will continue with its strategy for cooperation and implementation supporting SSC committees, branches and clubs to incorporate the principles of LTPAD into their everyday programming and decision making. Significantly, SSC has moved forward with the hiring of Regional Mentors. In addition to Mike Marshall, Marie-Pier Charest and Todd Landon were engaged this past season to provide advice and guidance and to act as facilitators to support branches and act as mentors to coaches in their respective regions. . We are especially fortunate to have these three individuals in these roles. They are committed to the attainment of developmentally appropriate programming.

The major priority focal point this past season was to develop and implement a sustainable formative assessment strategy that can may be adapted from year to year to track the implementation of new program initiatives. This approach was adopted to create a learning opportunity for all involved in completing the survey.

The basic purpose is to measure the impact on the delivery of quality sporting experiences and developmentally appropriate programming in relation to each stage of our athletes and participants’ development in accordance with the Canadian Sport for Life and Speed Skating Canada’s Competitions and Events Guiding Principles.

The Survey Report In the first year of this project SSC was slow out of the gate awaiting funding confirmation a critical window to benchmark activities prior to changes being implemented. This approach relied on surveying. In this regard, we wish to thank Dr. Jim McClements for his work with the survey development and the report provided. The survey provided some meaningful data with regards to the initiatives underaken by Branches, However, at the club level insufficient data was

gathered to be able to undertake an appropriate analysis from which to draw conclusions. In the first year, only 30 complete responses were received making it imposible to gather meaningful data for analysis. The Branch level report underlined that much work had been done by Branches in implementing the recommendations of Racing on Skates. As well, it permitted us to gain a better understanding of the challenges involved. This has served to reinforce the need to continue the effort to develop technical leadership throughout speed skating. As noted above, SSC is very fortunate to have added the specific expertise of Marie-Pier Charest, PhD as a Regional Development Mentor. Marie-Pier's PhD thesis focused specifically on the development and subsequent implementation of athlete development models in the context of Quebec sports organisations one of which was club. It has yelded a an extensive inventory of strategies associated with LTPAD implementation and an understanding of the effectiveness of different strategies. Her thesis is the first body of work studying long term athlete development implementation. It provided a classification system for the types of strategies used to implement LTPAD principles.

A key lesson learned from the first year of this project is the scope of work and time required to carry out successfuly such an assessment project in a sustainable manner. As a consequnce work plans for this next phase have been prepared with this in mind.

The project will be adjusted as follows: 1. Branch data will be collected using a short survey followed by a semi-structured inteverview so as to gain a full appreciation of the approach being used for LTPAD implementation within each Branch. This will enhance the relationship with each Branch and create a platform through which strategies may be suggested. This should be with the representative deemed to have the broadest understanding of the activities within a given Branch. All interviews will be recorded and transcribed so as to allow for a thorough review of data. In subsequent years, the interview guide will be refined and training provided to all Regional Development Mentors so as to have interviews carried out annually by Regional Development Mentors within their region. The surveying and interviewing will take place in August and September. 2. The club surveying strategy will be adjusted so as to enhance the response rate to achieve approximately 50% per Branch and also gather a more comprehensive data set. In year one, efforts were made to limit the number of questions so as to enhance the response rate. Unfortunately, the response rate was low and there was insufficient data to provide a meaninful snapshot of activities back to clubs. Moving forward a comprehensive survey will be used, then provided back to the clubs to be able to track their own progress over time. SSC will be seeking clubs who will be willing to participate in this review on an on-going basis commencing in the fall.

The primary areas of focus for the Working Group remain as follows:  Communication and Education: This need remains to develop specific strategies to provide more and better learning opportunities for coaches, officials and parents in the quest to provide better experiences for all participants and athletes alike. Recently, at a strategic planning session attended by Branch Presidents, Standing Committee Chairs and SSC Board members enhancing the quality of coaching through improved coaching

development across the country was identified as a key strategic priority. The Working Group will do what it can to enable this activity champion its attainment.

 Integrated LTPAD and Strategic Planning: SSC, Branches and Clubs are all equally important in the long term development of participants within our sport. Each has a different role to play in supporting the development of participants at different stages of development. The key to successful LTPAD implementation is an alignment of programs within the sport system, ensuring a continuum of participation within a sport. For this to occur, we all need to be working from a common plan with clearly stated strategic imperatives at each stage of development and for every stakeholder within SSC. This remains an objective toward which we will be focused. To that end, as a Working Group, we seek the Board’s endorsement of a revised mandate as being:

1. Work collaboratively with SSC Board and management in the development and monitoring of a comprehensive strategic plan which integrates all aspects of the LTPAD model 2. Champion cooperation and coordination amongst national and branch organisations to achieve successful implementation through active consultation and coordination of activities which facilitate collaboration and cooperation amongst stakeholders; 3. Establish priorities, within the context of the strategy, and short and long term objectives. 4. Inform SSC membership of the latest developments in participant and athlete development and monitor best practices in sport; More needs to be accomplished. For the principles of LTPAD to be implemented fully, they have to form part of daily practice and attitude within SSC. Accountability for the implementation of the principles is part of the process. Thus, system alignment is critical. As such, the focus of the Working Group will be on the identification of vital areas for improvement where effectiveness in athlete and participant development can be advanced and achieved.  Monitoring and Evaluation: To satisfy this requirement, it is critical that we monitor and evaluate impact to ensure continuous improvement. Implementation of phase two will be an important step in that direction. .The basic objective will be to create a source of information which may be used to analyse programs with the intent of sharing success stories and lessons learned.

Club and Membership Development Committee 2011/2012 Annual Report

The committee members for 2011-2012 Kathy Elliott, Chair (Central) Derrick McLeod, Vice Chair (Atlantic) Margaret Crick (Far West) Louis Forget (Quebec) Craig Dutton (West)

The 2011-12 season started off with the election of a new chair and the welcoming of Craig Dutton as the new representative for the West. The CMDC held seven meetings in the form of conference calls between August 2011 & May 2012 and one In Person meeting in Ottawa over the weekend of May 5-6th.

The committee was faced with a budget cutback heading into the 2011-12 season; the loss of these funds meant the end of SSC’s grant program. With the new budget constraints and the loss of the grant program the committee was faced with the challenge of re-examining the goals and direction the committee should and would be taking for the upcoming season.

Activities:

SPORTS DAY IN CANADA, Sept 17, 2011: Sports Day in Canada is a National celebration of sport in communities across the country .The event is presented by CBC Sports, ParticpACTION and True Sport and is intended to involve athletes from grassroots through to the high performance levels. Clubs and Branches were encouraged to host an event in conjunction with this National celebration as a means to take advantage of the potential it offered to highlight and promote the sport of speed skating in their communities and across the country. Event ideas, along with planning and promotional material were made available to all clubs. Although there was a delay in the distribution of the announcement and information package, nine Clubs, from across the country participated and held a variety of successful events, from open houses to learn to skate sessions. Of those clubs participating there were 4 from BC, 2 from each of Ontario and Manitoba and 1 from New Brunswick. We were also very fortunate that coverage of the World Cup Short Track event in Montreal was aired on CBC across the country the same day offering our sport great media coverage from coast to coast.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES: Communication continues to be a focus and concern for the CMDC. At the beginning of the 2011-12 season efforts to develop a strategy to enhance communication with the membership as a whole was explored. We feel very strongly that the current methods may not be the most effective avenue for the general membership to receive information, voice opinions, ask questions and share best practices. It was the committee’s hope that via social media a route could be established to allow for such interactive communication. Unfortunately, the efforts to set up a social media option were required to be put on hold until the launch of the new SSC website and the development of SSC facebook page. The CMDC will continue to explore the possibility of establishing a communication strategy that is acceptable and accessible to all.

CLUB EXCELLENCE: The committee was requested to provide feedback on the new Club Excellence document and program. The feedback was positive. We are supporters of the philosophies behind the program and hope to see SSC develop a promotional strategy to ensure that Clubs and Branches take advantage of all that the program has to offer in the area of club governance, administration strategies and the establishment of executive structure and duties.

VIDEO CONTEST: In efforts to bring awareness to the 125th anniversary of SSC and to enable the membership the opportunity to join in the celebration the CMDC developed plans to hold a video contest based on the 125th theme of “Celebrating our Success”. The original intent was to launch the contest mid January with the winning submission being announced mid March but due to administrative delays the committee made a decision to postpone the launch of the video contest until the beginning of the 2012-13 season.

TRIVIA QUIZ: The Trivia questions were developed as a fun interactive means to highlight the history of our sport and to acknowledge, identify and celebrate some of the pioneers and events that have lead to the success of our sport over its 125 years. Trivia questions related to various historical facts are to be posted on the website and facebook page bi –monthly. It is an interactive quiz allowing members to test their knowledge on our sport.

Moving forward into 2012-13 During an In Person meeting over the weekend of May 5-6, 2012 discussions took place surrounding the short and long term projects and programs the committee would like to undertake in the upcoming season and beyond.

ITEMS DISCUSSED AND DESICIONS:

SPORTS DAY IN CANADA (Sept 29/12): The committee feels this event has the potential to provide great exposure for our clubs and sport and decided to promote it again this year. SSC promotional material will be made available to each club that registers and event. The committee is determined to ensure more of our clubs and branches take advantage of this opportunity and will join the other sports groups across Canada by hosting an event to coincide with the 2012 Sports Day in Canada celebrations.

VIDEO CONTEST: Information regarding the launch of this project is planned to go out by the end of September. The committee is looking forward to receiving and viewing great videos based on the 125th theme “Celebrating our Success” and being able to share these videos and the stories they relay with the rest of the speed skating community.

MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS PACKAGE: The committee discussed the need for a “who are we and what do we do” handbook about SSC for the membership. While most of this information is already in existence it can often be difficult to locate. The committee plans to organize basic information regarding the operation of and what it means to be a member of the SSC and outline the programs and services the association offers. Once information is compiled it will be used to develop a document which can answer questions members may have related to their membership and our organization. Currently the committee is working on determining the format and section breakdown and hope to be able to have the framework completed by September.

REVIEW OF PAST CMDC DOCUMENTS & PROGRAMS: The committee feels that many of the documents and programs CMDC has produced in the past still contain useful and pertinent information. Rather than spend time and money on re inventing existing documents and programs we decided it would be worthwhile to look at updating and re packaging some of these past materials and once posted on the website they could continue to be useful resource material for clubs and branches.

SCHOOL PROGRAMS: The committee feels the operation of an effective school program is very useful in membership recruitment and we like to ensure all clubs have access to information on how to set up and run a successful program.

We re -examined the On the Edge Curriculum program and while not all clubs are in the position to use it as intended it defiantly contained some very useful information and is a valuable resource document, work on updating some of the information will be done and the update version will be posted to the website.

The committee would like to establish a Best Practices Guide to aid clubs in setting up and running a school program. We know there are many clubs that operate school programs, and our hopes are to contact these clubs in order to gather information on how they set up and run their programs along with the successes and challenges they have encountered. All information would be compiled and a resource document would then be posted on the website. We will be contacting Branches in the upcoming months to help us identify clubs in their regions who are currently running successful school programs.

Following a review and confirmation of the 2012-2013 Budget the committee will begin work on laying down the framework for the projects and programs the budget will allow. We are looking forward to identifying and starting the planning process on these projects and are optimistic that many of them will be ready for implementation in the upcoming season.

Finally, I would like to thank my fellow committee member for all their time and commitment to Club and Membership Development and the sport of speed skating. I would also like to thank the Board of Directors for their support and encouragement as we worked through the many challenges presented to us over the season. Lastly on behalf of the CMDC, I would like to thank Kanika Thakar for the work she has done for our committee this past season in her role of staff liaison, we have appreciated the time she put in to assist our committee and look forward to continuing to work with her as we move forward into the 2012-13 season.

Respectfully submitted, Kathy Elliott Chair

Branch Reports

Alberta Amateur Speed Skating Association

 Mike Marshall continues to play a pivotal role in improving coaching skills within the Alberta clubs. A one day coaching seminar which was held in conjunction with the AASSA AGM, attracted 25 participants. Mike continues to work with Speed Skating Canada as one of its Regional Development Mentors.

 AASSA sent 28 skaters and leaders to Hokkaido, Alberta’s sister province in Japan. The delegation visited Japan as part of an international sport exchange which was sponsored by the Alberta Sport, Recreation, Parks and Wildlife Foundation. The Alberta skaters competed at the 2011 Obihiro Forest Competition and toured around Japan for ten days. These teenage skaters connected with Alberta skaters in training, racing and in social activities. Coaches also exchanged insights and perspectives.

 The 4th Annual Silent Auction was held to raise funds for Alberta skaters. This continues to be a successful fundraising event for AASSA.

 The Canadian Junior Short Track Championships and the National Qualifiers were hosted by AASSA in Calgary in December.

 AASSA experienced an increase in membership - we now have over 1200 members.

 AASSA hosted a record number of officials clinics in 2011-2012. Level 1 clinics were held in every region of the province including Grande Prairie, Lloydminster, Edmonton, Calgary, Canmore, Rocky Mountain House, and Lethbridge. Four Level 2 clinics were held; Meet Coordinator/Recorder/Clerk of the Course, Timer/Place Judge and two Starter courses. A Level 3 Meet Coordinator/Recorder/Clerk of the Course clinic was held in Calgary.

 The Executive Committee worked hard to create the 2012-2017 AASSA Business Plan.

 Two new members were added to the 2012-2013 AASSA Executive Committee ; Graham Howe, VP Communications and Laura McWilliam, VP Club Development.

 AASSA was well represented by the age class skaters who attended the Canadian Long and Short Track Championships. Alberta skaters attended the 2012 Arctic Winter and the 2012 Alberta Winter Games. The following skaters attended the Arctic Winter Games;

Liam Ennis Bryce MacLennan Kara Friesen Xaverie MacLennan Katrina Friesen Aidan Rostad Carson Kinshella Haily Winnicky-Lewis

 The Alberta Long and Short Track Provincial Teams remain strong and competed at all Canada Cups and Trials. The ranks of the Provincials Teams has been thinned somewhat by skaters advancing to National teams and squads, but new skaters are moving up and will meet our time standards in the coming year.

 Our National Long and Short Track Team Members currently are;

National Long Track Team / Équipe nationale longue National Short Track Team / Équipe piste nationale courte piste Jamie Gregg Jessica Gregg Anastasia Bucsis Liam McFarlane Gilmore Junio Gabrielle Waddell National Long Track Development Team / Équipe nationale de développement longue piste Kate Hanly Kaylin Irvine Kirsti Lay Tamara Oudenaarden Brianne Tutt Danielle Wotherspoon

British Columbia Speed Skating Association

I am pleased to report on activities from British Columbia during the past year.

With the support of our membership at our 2011 AGM we were able to have a budget that provided sufficient funds to enable our organization to rent office space. This has made a significant improvement to our operations. We have also upgraded our office equipment allowing us to utilize a new data base program. .

Our membership also approved the funding of a Technical Director bringing our staff compliment to three. Ted Houghton, Christina Acton and Lorna Holbech have provided committed and excellent service to our branch. Funds were also provided to engage a contractor to develop a data base for initially our skaters. We look forward to this program expanding to include our volunteer officials.

Our membership declined approximately 10% last year, primarily in the associate and competitive skater categories. Having said that seven (7) of our clubs experienced growth this past year. As future government funding is dependent on growth we must improve our membership numbers in the next few years.

The Board of BCSSA has recognized that several of our traditionally strong clubs have had organizational challenges at their Board level this past year or two. Those challenges have impacts on BCSSA programs in the province. These strong clubs have been the go-to clubs to be relied upon to host meets and contribute in many ways to the success of BCSSA. That is perhaps one reason why the membership did not provide a full complement of Provincial Board and committee members this past year. Thus several of us (board and staff) served in multiple capacities straining our personal resources. In order to assist all our clubs BCSSA is committed to the Club Excellence Program and we hope to host several workshops around BC in the next year. By investing in our clubs we are confident BCSSA will continue to be a recognized sport leader in BC.

The overall sport delivery system in BC remains in transition. The new BC Sport Agency has been working towards the integration of duplicated services. Our commitment to Sport for Life and LTPAD are already being recognized within the new structure as a model for others to follow. It is our expectation that BCSA will become the sole source for funding of amateur sport in BC. With that will flow a more efficient bureaucracy and hopefully a reduction in the number of reports that must be provided to the many different bodies now, whether they fund our sport or not. We view these changes as a positive one for speed skating in BC.

We have worked hard to continue our positive relationship with SSC. Our thanks to JP, Douglas and all the National office staff for their ongoing positive support of BCSSA.

We are continuing to work with the SSC team in our mutual positive attempt to create a legacy at the Richmond Olympic Oval. As part of that commitment we agreed to host the CACSTC at the Richmond Oval. There were many lessons learned as a result of accepting that challenge. We will be developing a new website after consultation with our members. We are looking at new

communication initiatives to assist our membership in better understanding the role of BCSSA and SSC. We have many new challenges ahead and I am confident that next year will be even more successful than this past year.

I am proud of the accomplishments of BCSSA this past year. We accepted the challenges presented and had many positive results. We look forward to continuing to be a positive contributor to the success of speed skating in Canada.

Respectfully submitted,

Jim Allison BCSSA President [email protected]

Manitoba Speed Skating Association

Membership: MSSA membership has remained steady over the last several years and this year was no exception. We are considered a smaller branch with 300. MSSA is reliant on club health and growth. All of our clubs (7) have experienced slight increases and a few decreases, but nothing of huge significance, this is similar to the Manitoba economy, always considered a steady course. We had projected a larger increase post Olympic year, this did not happen. When we lost our provincial coach we had expected a potential exodus, thankfully this did not happen. Our statistics convince us that there is no rhyme or reason for the transition of membership numbers. We are happy for the positive signs of growth.

Finances: MSSA has had a few rough financial years, with many lessons learned in how to reduce risks in expenses and better predict cost. Our Provincial Sport body, Sport Manitoba, is very supportive of our efforts to improve our financial situation. This year has been a forward motion year with a membership that are appreciative of the adopted transparency approaches now in place. MSSA is anticipating a steady year with accountability in mind during fiscal decision making.

Governance: The MSSA Board of Directors has gone through the unexpected transition of the President position. It also experienced the need to manage an unexpected departure of our Provincial Coach, which was an integral part of MSSA infrastructure. Our Executive Director was a pillar of support to the board and the business practices of MSSA. The organization managed to pull through a year of changes and begin to prepare for a year of governance revisions. Clubs are aware of these upcoming tasks and the need to be in sync with the MSSA changes. We would like to share that this is our second year of hosting our AGM at a later part of the year, in September, to accommodate our annual audit process and to begin the season with planning rather than basic management. We encourage an annual board not a seasonal board and it seems to work for some but offers us challenges for others as we get use to the new rhythm.

Program: MSSA is in a huge motion of transition, we are preferring to call it revitalization. The loss of our Provincial Coach after the start of a strong season debilitated our motion for a short time…. But not for a long time. With the good decisions of clubs to send coaches to the SSC training symposium, the support of SSC and the good graces of volunteer club coaches stepping forward to take on the major responsibilities of the program, we were able to muscle through the year with a strong measure of skater and stakeholder confidence. Much effort was spent on recruitment only to come up empty handed on the Canadian front, but with potentially a success story coming from the Netherlands. A very sharp learning curve is in motion at MSSA as we learn how to navigate the world of immigration. We are hoping for confirmation of the process success in a few weeks time. In the meantime our summer program is in design.

Health: At this point in time our branch is in general good health. But not without a sharp lesson in vulnerability. Our Executive Director is the pivotal member that keeps the MSSA afloat and on good track. Clubs are in support at this time of MSSA management and mostly show full support of process and decisions. Stakeholders have provided feedback of confidence in the place that

we are. And most importantly, the skaters, both young and old are in support of our state of change.

Submitted with great respect,

Caroline Slegers-Boyd, President. Manitoba Speed Skating Association.

Speed Skate New Brunswick

Introduction The 2011-2012 speed skating season was dynamic as always. With less focus on the Canada Winter Games our committees had more time to iron out some possible kinks that were implemented in last year’s hectic season. This year our board focused on perfecting the implementation of the new competitions format, continued work on LTAD and a dedicated focus on the financial challenges our organization is facing. Another major change that Speed Skate New Brunswick faced was the addition of a high performance coach, another employee for our organization.

Finances The 2011 speed skating season ended on poor financial terms with less than 200 dollars in the bank. However, numbers aren’t the only measure of a financial situation. We hadn’t performed a financial review in over four years (our government requires a review every year) and we were also scheduled for an audit. On top of that, some of our documents needed to be in better shape. Luckily, our new financial director was more than up to the task. Our board acted responsibly and voted in favor of an audit and financial reviews, despite its high cost and our inadequate income. In turn, our first 2 months of operations we budgeted very low. All committees saw a cut to funds as we awaited the results of our audit. Thankfully it turned out for the better. Once the dust settled from four financial reviews and an audit we found ourselves with not only enough money to carry on for the season but also a significant amount of backed up HST returns (unclaimed in 5 years) to be comfortable for the year! However this is obviously not a sustainable source of income. Our organization needs to develop a plan to generate more revenues from sources outside of membership fees and government grants. Light brain storming happened in the last year on this but with the influx of funds and an already hectic financial schedule it took the back burner. It is something I hope to continue in the upcoming year.

High Performance Coach In summer 2011 I had my first of many meetings with Government New Brunswick and Canadian Sports Center Atlantic. They had created funding to pay 75% of a high performance coach for sports organizations in this province. After an application and hiring process we submitted Derrick MacLeod’s name as the high performance coach of Speed Skate New Brunswick. He and four other coaches across the province were selected for their organizations. In mid November he began his work with the Province. We are currently utilizing our high performance coach for the training and development of top level athletes in a centralized training facility in Fredericton. The high performance coach will work with skaters from across the province as well as help in coaching development. Because we have been with this program for less than a year there are still some curricular and technical options on the table and we are still taking feedback from our members as well as the interested parties to address these issues.

Other Positives For the first time in a handful of years we had a full board of directors this year. All our

committee chairs were filled with dedicated volunteers to whom I express constant gratitude. Without any of them the organization cannot run smoothly. There is still some work to be done as a whole, but this fact alone is tremendous. Along with our committee members we also had great representation from club representatives/presidents.

Our LTAD initiatives continue to get recognition from the New Brunswick Government, who is a big promoter of long term athlete development. As a province and as clubs we continue to receive grants to promote our LTAD for all ages. This is perfect as it also increases the amount of annual funding we receive from the government. The competitions committee again had their plate full trying to adapt and adjust to the constant changes from speed skate Canada. It affected a few areas (such as provincial champions, elimination of an age class meet). Generally reception to their efforts were pretty good, however we are aware of some displeasure and will work to smooth it out over the next year. The fact is with such quick change the competitions committee had to think on their toes and did so admirably.

Room for Improvement First and foremost, Officials will be one of my top priorities in the next year. It is an area in which we are struggling in both recruitment and retention. We need officials to run meets and I simply haven’t been giving officials development the attention it deserves. Continuing with Officials, but this affects other areas of the organization, we need to start filling more committee positions. The officials committee needs a few more members, but competitions and AD Are also not full. We also want to start working with a finance committee (including the Financial director of all clubs) so we can get a better grasp on money in the province. Further on the topic of committees we are looking to resurrect our Club and Membership Development committee. We had a great man in charge for a few years however no committee under him and no direction for him to follow. This is an important committee for growing the sport in the province. Plans for the near future involve putting together a ad hoc job description for this position and hoping to entice someone.

As mentioned before the organization is going to look at drawing income from other sources or saving money in areas. We have had initial discussions with some Paramedic associations in New Brunswick to try and get a contract for our meets. There are areas we can save and/or earn money without hindering the our membership and we need to look for and utilize these open doors.

Conclusion In my second year as Chairman of the Board of Speed Skate New Brunswick I was thrilled to be surrounded by the volunteers we had. This includes club level and board level. The volunteering in the province and sport is phenomenal and inspiring. There are many positives to look at over the last two years, but none that can be dwelled on. Our organization will continue to press forward to improve the experience of our officials, coaches, volunteers and athletes of all ages; all of whom are critical to the development and ongoing of our beautiful sport.

Newfoundland Speed Skating Association

No report received

Northwest Territories Amateur Speed Skating Association

The mission of the NWTASSA is to deliver programs and services that promote the sport of speed skating to residents of the NWT.

Membership and Programs:  Our strong Special Olympics program in Yellowknife produced several medals at the 2012 Special Olympics Canada Winter Games in Alberta. On the basis of her results, one member has been selected to the Canadian team preparing for the World Championships in South Korea next season.  Skater development programs included at least one training camp at each of our 6 clubs. These programs were aided by a grant from the territorial government.  A territorial summer camp and a local Christmas camp were held in Yellowknife.  Short-term school introductory programs were offered in 2 communities.  Our membership experienced an 8% loss over last year’s totals. The drop in numbers was distributed across the majority of our clubs, although the clubs in the smaller communities experienced a greater percent of decrease than our largest club in Yellowknife.  Michael Gilday, our national short track team member, did presentations at two NT schools and two NT speed skating clubs this spring when he returned home during his off-season.  After a one-year hiatus, we will again have skaters training at the Oval in Calgary next season.

Financial:  We are in a reasonably strong financial position at our year-end, and have applied for a couple of government grants to assist our skater development and coach development programs in the coming season.  The scope of responsibilities for a territorial sport association president is becoming too great for a volunteer position, and steps are being initiated to research the gradual implementation of paid personnel.  Mat replacement in our smaller clubs is proving problematic due to high costs and significant shipping charges. Two clubs are operating with second-hand mats that are beyond their best-before dates. Local fundraising is taking place but at $1000 per mat, it is slow going.

Competitions:  The new LTPAD age groups and distances were used in all competitions except Arctic Winter Games, which has its own age groups and distances. Lots of positive feedback was received on the new formats from parents, skaters and volunteers.  NWT Speed Skating team won 32% of Team NWT medals at the Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse.  Skaters had successful experiences attending Canadian Short Track Championships, Canada West Championships plus 2 other out-of-territory competitions.  Our National Short Track Team member finished his season with 5 world cup medals.

Coach Development: 48

 One speed skating specific coach-training clinic was offered in NWT this season (Intro to Competition A).  There is an increasing challenge to find qualified learning facilitators (LF) to deliver our coaching courses since we have no locally qualified LF and must hire from southern Canada.  Several problems have been encountered with the changeover to the new CAC site, The Locker. These are being resolved slowly but are often time consuming and convoluted. We appreciate the help of SSC and Sport North personnel in trying to deal with these issues.  We are looking forward to the completion of the SSC Comp-Dev models, which we hope will allow our interested coaches to complete their studies in the NWT.

Officials Development:  Formal officials training has not taken place for the past two seasons. It is hoped that this will be remedied in the coming season, as several key volunteers may be lost in the near future due to retirement.  It is anticipated that SSC’s new model of Minimum Requirements for Officials Qualifications will be costly for NWT members pursuing certification above Level 1 since we currently have no Level 3 officials to perform evaluations and cannot offer SSC sanctioned meets in the NWT due to first aid requirement restrictions. This means that prospective Level 2 officials will have to travel to meets outside the NWT for their practicals and performance evaluations.

Summary: This was a busy and successful season for the NWTASSA and its many volunteers. Our members recently won 4 territorial sporting awards (Coach of the Year, Youth Male and Female Athlete of the Year, Community Contributor Award). This is a fine example of the high quality of our volunteers and the programs they offer in our communities.

My thanks go to our dedicated board members and tireless club organizers as well as to Sport North and SSC personnel. I also acknowledge the many volunteers from other branches (Alberta, Manitoba and BC) who put on successful and fun events for our skaters this season.

Pam Dunbar President, NWTASSA

Speed Skate Nova Scotia

It has been a year of significant change for Speed Skate Nova Scotia. The Oval is now a permanent, active facility in the Province and we have a full time long track coach -- Todd Landon - based in Halifax. Todd's role is to work with all Atlantic provinces from his base in HRM.

He started work in January and immediately connected with Atlantic based stake holders. We look forward to new growth of the sport of speed skating thanks to HRM's commitment to supporting the Oval as well as Todd's efforts to build capacity. SSNS is very thankful to Speed Skate Canada and Canadian Sport Centre Atlantic for supporting this regional capacity building initiative.

Making the most of the Oval, NS will host a series of camps and competitions.

Since the Oval is a resource for the whole region NS will host weekends that would be worthwhile for skaters from the Atlantic Provinces to come in for training and competition.

In addition to the camps, NS will host public racing events which celebrate and promote all skating sports.

On the club level, we have seen significant growth in the Halifax Speed Skating Club. We also have a long track club forming in Halifax and we have met with a group of interested people in the Valley region who want to start a speed skating club in the Valley.

Our Sydney and Yarmouth based club continue on a steady course.

Lastly, we are working closely with HRM staff to ensure the long track is of the highest technical standards so SSNS can be positioned to host national speed skating competitions which will grow our sport throughout the region.

Yours in sport,

Troy Myers President Speed Skating Nova Scotia

Speed Skating Nunavut

This year has been a time of both success and challenge. We explore the problems and the best hopes that unite us, we suffer through our tribulations, and we rejoice in our optimisms. We have identified several needs and expectations for renewal and change. We will continue to work on the development of a new generation of competitive skaters. We are committed to renewal and change within the sport of speed skating, especially the new Long Term Athlete Development agenda of Speed Skating Canada. The Canada East Speed Skating Championships have provided us with new opportunities for relevant competitive experience. Our skaters reached podium level performance this year at two of the Eastern Ontario Regional meets and also at Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse. Our appreciation to the organizers of those meets who gave our skaters from Nunavut a very warm welcome. Also, we would like to express our huge sense of gratitude to the New Brunswick Summer Speed Skating Camp organizers for including our skaters in their camp. We experienced stability in membership numbers in both our major clubs in Iqaluit and Cambridge Bay. We had some exciting events this year with the Territorial Championships in Iqaluit and with our new annual event, the John Sands Inspirational/Iqaluit Interschool Championships. The John Sands meet was made possible through the generous support from our benefactor, John Sands. This meet gives many school children from the four elementary schools in Iqaluit to get a wonderful introduction to the sport of Speed Skating. A huge THANK YOU to John and Micheline! Since this year will be neither an Arctic Winter Games nor a Canada Winter Games year, our primary focus have the major impetus to advance our coaches and officials in their certification through workshops and seminars. We encourage collaboration from all branches to coordinate some of these training opportunities. An issue that will require support and lobbying from all parties concerned is the issue of inclusion of the sport of Speed Skating at Arctic Winter Games for 2014 and 2016. We are concerned that despite the success we have contributed to the games, there may be a worry that our sport may not be included, especially for 2016. Greenland wishes to host the games, but has no intention of developing any ice surfaces and the host organizers see only the need to accommodate ice hockey. We would like to express our appreciation and gratitude to Speed Skating Canada for their support in supporting us this season. We would like to acknowledge all our volunteers and supporters, without whom we would not have survived! And good news at last for those who surf the web: The Nunavut Speed Skating Association is proud to advertise website. Check it out: You can look at the beta website: http://www.nunavutspeedskating.ca/index.html

Thank you very much,

Respectfully submitted,

John Maurice, President- Speed Skating Nunavut

Ontario Speed Skating Association

Ontario’s skaters, coaches, officials and volunteers worked together to make 2012 another successful skating season.

OSSA continued to provide financial and coaching support to Ontario’s top skating prospects as they competed in competitions across Canada. Ontario’s very best skaters, like Jordan Belchos and world champion Christine Nesbitt, continued to inspire Ontario’s younger skaters to train hard and improve.

A slight decline in total member registration was anticipated in this between Olympics season and Ontario’s financial situation remain healthy despite the Provincial Government’s ongoing program of reducing OSSA’s base grant support. Ontario welcomed a new club from King City into the Association and is happy to recognize the hard work put forth by the volunteers who worked hard to make the new club a reality.

Changes in Ontario’s administrative personal have allowed our Association to place a greater emphasis on Sport Development. The OSSA Board has made qualifying more coaches and officials a priority in the coming season and we will be looking for ways to work with our clubs to continue to increase the number of core volunteers who make our sport possible.

The changes to Ontario’s competition format necessary to implement the principles of LTPAD continue to be a matter of discussion and debate within our Association. To date the major changes have taken place at Ontario’s Provincial Championships but it is expected that additional changes will be implemented at competitions throughout the 2012/13 season.

Speed Skate PEI

Membership and Program Speed Skate PEI experienced a very successful 2011-2012 skating season in terms of growth and results. We had a total of 106 registered skaters in 2011-2012, a 16 percent increase over the previous year. We also had 19 Provincial records broken including the senior men’s 500m by Scott Beamish in a time of 42.735.

We offered skating programs for all levels of skaters including: Competitive A, Competitive B, Development 1, Development 2 and a learn to skate program. In addition, there was a weekly recreation group of speed skaters.

Financial Our revenue was up over last year by approximately 13%. This was due mainly to increased registrations, additional amateur sport funding from the Province of Prince Edward Island and a generous grant from Intact Insurance. We ended the year with a small surplus.

Coaches Development Phil Byrne continues in the role of Head Coach providing excellent leadership and direction. We had a slight increase in the numbers of on-ice parent helpers. Our cadre of assistant coaches remained the same. Finding new coaches is an ongoing challenge and where we are most vulnerable.

Competitions and Special Events Skaters attended a total of 8 off -Island meets including Maritime meets, Eastern Canada Regionals and the Canadian Short Track Championships. The Club hosted two fun meets which were structured similar to a regional competition to provide our younger skaters the experience of a formal meet. We also hosted a major meet, the annual Atlantic Cup, where 113 skaters from Atlantic Canada participated.

Summary Speed Skate PEI continues to provide high quality skating programs for skaters of all levels and abilities. This is my final report as President as I will be stepping down in June 2012. My family has been involved in the sport for twelve wonderful years and has benefited greatly from this experience. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Board of Directors of Speed Skate PEI for their tremendous support during my tenure. I would also like to thank our talented volunteers, especially our coaches for their time and commitment to speed skating in PEI. And last but certainly not least, a big thank you to the Board and staff of Speed Skating Canada for their ongoing support.

Respectfully submitted,

Wendy Francis President Speed Skate PEI

Fédération de patinage de vitesse du Québec

Our mission: To organise and coordinate our sport in Quebec for the progress of our members and speed skating.

The values supporting the mission of the Federation are: - Pleasure/fun - Volunteering - Respect and Integrity - Personal development - Healthy and Safe Environment

Our Vision: To make Speed Skating one of the great winter sports in Quebec and in Canada.

By Robert Dubreuil, General Director 54

Introduction

This 2011-2012 report from FPVQ includes its organisational structure, the outcome of year 3 of the 2009-2013 Strategic Development Plan, some information associated to other important operational sectors and finally, some appendices.

This report only summarises the last season’s highlights and obviously, does not cover all details.

Organisational Structure - the 2011-2012 Season

The staff and committees members are also included in the appendices but to show the organisational structure in a different way and doing so, making it clearer, there it is, in its traditional form.

General Director Robert Dubreuil

Assistant to the Administrative Agent General Director Nicole Godbout Isabelle Gélinas

Competitions Programming and Sport Development Coordinator Mentorate Coordinator Coordinator Maryse Poudrier Marie-Pier Charest Frédéric Tremblay

Competitions and Statistics Assistant Guy Jacob

The 2009-2013 Strategic Development Plan

The Plan’s 7 strategic objectives, were again this season, sometimes met and at other times not, amongst our weekly activities.

Beyond these objectives, still many decisions were made and actions were taken with our focus on the vision.

This vision is: To make Speed Skating one of the great winter sports in Quebec and in Canada. As for the objectives, here is a summary of the actions taken and results obtained during the last season: 55

#1 Speed Skating Membership Increase

Concerning the membership increase, there is nothing special to highlight in the 2011-2012 season. Our total membership reached a new record level but shows an increase of only 45 new members for a new total of 5872 members which represents a smaller proportional increase than past years.

No new club was founded and SCC’s cancellation of its program financially supporting new clubs definitively did not help the issue.

We will have to work harder and be more efficient on this last year of our Plan for that objective.

#2 Implementation of the Long Term Athletes and Participants Development Model

In the spring of 2011, we implemented seven (7) recommendations from the Federation’s Sport Orientations Consultation Group (FSOCG) and were put into action on the competitions circuits for the 2011-2012 Season. Amongst others, was the use of the 100m track, as a trial test, the introduction of the points races and relays as new sport events and the hosting of the Eastern Short Track Canadian Championships.

The positive feedback on the overall initiatives became the new food for thoughts for the members of the FSOCG in the pursuit of their work which lead them to propose major modifications to our Short Track Speed Skating competitions Circuits which was approved at the Federation’s last AGM.

Also, the creation of the Canadian Regional Training Center (RTC), in a partnership effort with SSC, will permit a better implementation of the LTPAD. This Center will meet with tomorrow’s champions needs for supervision and training.

#3 Training and keeping coaches in our sport

We formed a working group to study and evaluate the overall picture of the problem in training and certifying coaches. Our President himself, Mr. André Beaulieu, chaired this study group. Also, two employees from the Federation were involved: Isabelle Gélinas and Marie-Pier Charest. It resulted in many progresses, some of which are already implemented like promising tests projects in training and mentoring.

Although much work remains to be done to assure training accessibility for coaches and keeping them active in our sport, we still can show increases in training and certifications of coaches for the 2011-2012 season, as shown in Table 1:

2011-2012 2010-2011 COURS Formé Certifié Formé Certifié J'aime Patiner-Moniteur 58 n/a 45 n/a J'aime Patiner-Entraîneur 42 25 21 5 JP-Entraîneur - direct Introduction à la compétition 7 16 5 5 INC (mentorat) 3 Niveau 3 2 Niveau 4 110 43 71 10

#4 Accessibility to the facilities.

The covered oval project in Quebec City keeps going its way but in spite of many progresses, no official announcement involving the three levels of Government has yet been made.

Moreover, other projects were implemented or are on their way to be accomplished, one of which the “Béton Provincial Center” in Matane, equipped with an international size rink which hosted am “Espoir” level meet on last February and a new Ice Sports Center in Laval, which will be equipped with 3 rinks, one of which with international size and boardless.

New projects were also developed, one of which is the promising oval project involving artificial ice in the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

And finally, a file that still needs to be worked on is without a doubt the accessibility for the existing clubs to practising hours on the ice which are essential to the development of their activities and skaters.

#5 Risk management and Safety

The FPVQ Safety Committee has been fairly busy in 2011-2012. Its members have worked well with the participation of the new Sport Injury and Medical Emergency Committee (SIMEC) and also SSC’s Innovation and Development Director, Robert Tremblay, in the field of protection mats for instance.

Still in the safety area, Dr. Marie-Andrée Cantin, an FPVQ Safety Committee member, has become a member of a working group of SSC’s SIMEC, focusing on helmets.

#6 Promotion of our sport

Our sport has been fairly covered by the medias in 2011-2012 but obviously never enough for us, real fans of speed skating.

In the years 2000-2010, Medias have been more than ever present through many new tools like: specialised channels television, Internet and more recently, social medias. We now have to think differently for promoting our sport. For that reason, we have accepted this proposition from Bélanger Communication to come up with a new magazine on the Internet called the FPVQ

Webzine “atoutevitesse.net”. We already issued three (3) numbers during the season and comments are quite encouraging.

#7 Funding and marketing

On the funding side, we learned about two excellent news in 2011-2012: two important sponsors offered their support and the Québec Government announced a new financial support program called Placement Sport which aims at helping provincial sport federations which are more autonomous with their own funding.

We hope that the participation of our two new sponsors: Antoine Laoun Opticien and Apogee will not only be the beginning of a new era that will last but become a bigger marketing effort for our sport which will increase resources and capacities, promotion and awareness, as much as passion and development.

Other important sectors of activities

Competitions

As shown in the appendices, the FPVQ 2011-2012 competition calendar, our fall 2011 and our winter 2012 have been quite busy, as it is each year.

Last October, an international event was held with flying colors, in our province. It was the ISU Short Track 2011 World Cup hosted by Saguenay. The success of our Canadian athletes, combined with the exceptional knowhow of the Organizing Committee under Roger Fradette’s direction and the local public participation resulted in a unique event to be remembered by all.

Many other national events have been held with great success in Quebec: the Short Track National Trials in Montreal, on September 2011, the Canada Cup #1, held in Quebec City, on December 2011, the Canadian Short Track Open Championships held in Saguenay, on January 2012 and the Eastern Short Track Canadian Championships held in Sherbrooke, on March 2012.

With such a loaded calendar of competitions, keeping us busy each weekend from the beginning of October to the beginning of April, each year, on all levels of competition may be it, local, regional, provincial and national, we may proudly say that we have given our sport one of the best speed skating development network of competitions in the world.

Here are some statistics concerning our competitions for 2011-2012:

Circuits compétition de total Nombre Alma Amqui Baie-Comeau Charlesbourg Chateauguay Chicoutimi Dolbeau Dollard-des-Ormeaux Drummondville Jonquière Labaie Mitis La Lasalle Laval Lévis Longueuil Matane Mirabel Ahuntsic Montréal Gadbois Montréal International Montréal Montréal-Nord St-Michel Montréal Normandie Montréal Maîtres Patineurs Pointe-aux-Trembles Portneuf Québec Lanaudière de Région Rimouski Roberval Rivière-du-Loup Rosemère Sherbrooke St-Félicien Ste-Foy St-Jérôme Ste-Julie St-Hyacinthe Trois-Lacs Trois-Rivières Val-des-Monts Victoriaville Brunswick New Ontario CNCP PVC/Talent PVC/END PVC/EN Élite #1 117 2 6 0 1 1 3 4 1 1 9 29 1 5 6 2 1 1 6 10 1 5 3 2 1 4 10 2 117 Élite #2 107 2 6 0 1 1 3 4 0 1 9 24 1 5 6 2 1 1 6 13 1 4 4 1 1 3 6 1 107 Élite #3 87 1 6 0 2 1 3 4 1 1 8 14 1 4 7 3 1 1 6 9 1 2 4 1 1 0 1 3 1 87 Élite #4 95 1 8 1 2 1 3 3 1 1 9 13 1 6 7 2 1 1 5 10 0 1 4 2 1 1 1 6 3 95 Moyenne de participation 102

Espoir #1 121 1 2 3 12 1 0 2 2 7 4 2 0 3 7 0 4 9 8 1 2 3 2 6 7 10 4 6 3 0 1 0 0 7 2 121 Espoir #2 118 1 2 3 11 1 0 2 2 9 3 2 0 5 8 0 2 7 3 1 4 1 3 6 6 15 4 4 3 0 3 2 0 4 1 118 Espoir #3 143 0 1 3 14 1 1 2 2 10 4 2 1 6 8 0 3 8 7 1 4 3 3 8 8 14 4 5 4 2 3 1 1 8 1 143 Espoir #4 119 0 2 1 11 1 1 2 1 8 4 3 1 5 7 0 1 7 4 0 4 2 4 8 9 11 3 2 4 0 2 1 1 9 0 119 Moyenne de participation 125

Développement #1 A 105 2 5 0 9 15 5 0 2 1 5 13 9 0 17 4 18 105 Développement #2 A 116 8 0 0 7 21 8 4 3 3 4 10 8 17 6 17 116 Développement #3 A 110 7 2 2 6 16 8 4 3 3 4 12 4 17 6 16 110 Développement #4 A 114 5 2 2 7 14 9 4 3 5 3 12 8 16 6 18 114 Moyenne de participation 111

Développement #1 B 130 3 9 12 12 1 9 2 13 6 27 8 9 14 5 130 Développement #2 B 145 5 9 14 14 1 19 1 16 6 21 9 11 13 6 145 Développement #3 B 137 5 6 14 16 1 16 2 18 6 21 8 8 12 4 137 Développement #4 B 132 4 6 19 12 1 17 0 12 10 22 7 6 13 3 132 Moyenne de participation 136

Développement #1 C 86 1 3 2 19 15 0 14 15 0 4 13 86 Développement #2 C 101 3 4 5 21 1 20 0 11 18 3 7 8 101 Développement #3 C 101 3 4 3 19 1 21 0 12 17 3 6 12 101 Développement #4 C 92 3 4 4 17 1 22 1 10 14 3 3 10 92

High Performance Development

This sector of activities may not be the one which affects most athletes in our sport but requires many hours of work and many responsibilities.

Sport Elite usually is better financially supported by governments than Sport Mass and Sport Development and administration. Sport Elite is gratified with many athletes, coaches and training groups oriented programs.

FPVQ makes a selection of the Québec Teams athletes who will participate to the national meets and organises the trips for its teams. This last season has been particularly a busy one with our Quebec delegations throughout the country, in short track as well as long track: six (6) trips to Calgary and trips to Saskatoon, Richmond and Fort St-John, B.C.

As known, Quebec usually comes out in good positions at these national meets. Here is a list of our winners/champions in 2011-2012: 59

Championnat canadien ouvert Saguenay ; 13 au 15 janvier Valérie Maltais La Baie Charles Hamelin Ste-Julie

Championnat canadien junior courte piste Calgary ; 3-4 décembre Yoan Gauthier Rivière-du-Loup

Championnat canadien junior longue piste Saskatoon ; 3-5 février Toutes Distances François Déry Lévis

Championnat canadien courte piste (Junior/Néo -Senior) Richmond ; 23-25 mars Junior B Junior A Catherine Desjardins-Lecavalier Montréal Olivier Godin St-Hyacinthe Championnat canadien courte piste de l'Est Sherbrooke ; 24-25 mars 11 ans Marianne Laberge Laval 12 ans Catherine Mailloux St -Félicien 13 ans 13 ans Rosalie Tremblay St -Félicien Marc-Olivier Lemay Montréal 14 ans 14 ans Genève Bélanger Montréal Maxime Laoun Montréal 15 ans Samuel Girard La Baie

Championnat canadien longue piste par catégorie d'âge Fort St.John ; 11-12 février 11 ans Maïka Robertson St -Félicien 12 ans 12 ans Béatrice Lamarche Québec Étienne Béland Trois-Rivières 13 ans 13 ans Carolane Gingras Québec Marc-Olivier Lemay Montréal 15 ans Laurent Marcotte Pont -Rouge

At the international level, we kept climbing the podiums in short track especially at the ISU Short Track World Cup in Saguenay where our Quebec athletes from the national team made some double and triple podiums. Furthermore, we have to highlight Olivier Jean’s performance at the 500m distance where he has been the leader the whole season and also Valérie Maltais’s second place on the cumulative ranking helped by her crushing victory at the 3000m at the World Championships.

We should point out through our many successes, on the World Cup, the victories of Olivier Jean, Marianne St-Gelais, Charles Hamelin, François-Louis Tremblay and Guillaume Bastille.

At the Short Track Junior World Championships, in Australia, almost the whole team was from Québec. Alexandre St-Jean is the one who had the most success with a bronze medal at the 500m and a 6th place at the cumulative ranking.

In long track speed skating, Muncef Ouardi came 3rd at the first 500m, at the World Sprint Championships, a promising performance for the future and also, some excellent results at the World Cup by Mathieu Giroux (13th place at the 1500m in the World Championships by distance), Philippe Riopel and Alex Boisvert-Lacroix. Finally, Laurent Dubreuil, who ended greatly his junior career in becoming the Junior World Champion in the 500m, on a distance he has already finished 4th in 2010, and 2nd in 2011. In Salt Lake City, at the Senior World Cup, he established a new junior world record in the 500m with a time of 34.66 sec. He broke the old record held by the Olympic medalist Japanese skater Joji Kato since 2003. Laurent Dubreuil then, finished at the 4th place at this senior meet.

Finally, we should mention the excellent performance of our juniors in 2011-2012 when a triple podium was made at the Canadian Junior Championships by our men’s team in the cumulative ranking and also the qualifying of 5 Quebecers to go to the Junior World Championships, in Japan. We have not seen such a deed for quite a long time!

Conclusion

This 2011-2012 season has been again a fulfillment for the FPVQ’s Board of Directors, its staff and its committees, but also gratifying, looking at the position our sport holds on the Provincial and Canadian sport chess board.

Looking at the Jeux du Québec coming up in Saguenay and the ISU Short Track World Cup in Montreal, in 2013, the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia and many other opportunities which would give some more occasions for our sport and our skaters to show their knowhow, without a doubt, we have in our hands other possibilities to do better in the future.

APPENDICES

Adhésion des membres - Saison 2011-2012

Catégorie d'affiliation PROV INIT ANAT APROV TOT. Diff. TOT. TOT. TOT. TOT. TOT. TOT. TOT. TOT. TOT. TOT. TOT. TOT. TOT. TOT. TOT. TOT. 31-mars 10-11 09-10 08-09 07-08 06-07 05-06 04-05 03-04 02-03 01-02 00-01 99-00 98-99 97-98 96-97 95-96 Drummondville DRU C-Q 6 113 9 0 128 20 108 87 93 58 53 40 30 51 83 105 101 95 68 67 83 72 Normandie NMD C-Q 3 59 7 0 69 17 52 39 65 68 63 31 42 50 44 37 39 30 33 39 42 53 Sherbrooke SHE C-Q 64 461 20 38 583 44 539 411 429 424 424 406 382 381 401 344 288 278 286 242 254 291 St-Hyacinthe SHY C-Q 25 57 10 4 96 -1 97 71 61 62 67 52 50 40 40 12 Trois-Rivières TRI C-Q 17 125 14 0 156 3 153 148 71 109 119 101 76 79 88 106 92 94 84 54 60 54 Victoriaville VIC C-Q 7 170 10 0 187 28 159 164 163 207 172 188 135 152 156 140 175 159 192 223 222 183 122 985 70 42 1219 111 1108 920 882 928 898 818 715 753 812 732 695 656 663 625 661 665

Amqui AMQ E-Q 9 37 7 0 53 -16 69 69 66 62 73 75 54 45 22 43 30 45 48 39 63 48 La Mitis LMI E-Q 1 29 12 2 44 1 43 36 32 19 0 Matane MAT E-Q 8 26 13 10 57 -11 68 74 62 74 79 89 87 99 90 80 61 65 66 54 60 71 Rimouski RIM E-Q 18 63 11 0 92 4 88 77 71 75 72 61 56 43 38 Riv. du Loup RDL E-Q 29 71 22 0 122 -16 138 129 153 148 138 119 99 112 115 98 83 88 96 76 79 87 65 226 65 12 368 -38 406 385 384 378 362 344 296 299 265 221 174 198 210 169 202 206

Châteauguay CHG O-Q 5 22 6 1 34 16 18 Dollard des Ormeaux DDO O-Q 9 44 3 0 56 -13 69 53 60 48 81 61 83 98 82 57 37 23 22 20 27 Lasalle LAS O-Q 6 53 8 0 67 -2 69 75 70 71 71 32 54 54 63 79 52 39 58 40 40 47 Centre rég. Laval LAV O-Q 9 0 6 0 15 -8 23 17 20 20 23 18 Lav. Centre LCE O-Q 12 148 17 0 177 5 172 182 168 202 182 180 150 194 161 129 142 119 121 83 51 71 Lav. Fabreville LFA O-Q 4 98 15 0 117 15 102 128 136 111 87 87 94 85 72 64 70 52 37 27 24 19 Lav. Ste-Dorothée LDO O-Q 6 132 10 0 148 18 130 113 133 121 84 76 66 61 70 29 32 0 Lav.St-François LSF O-Q 6 90 15 0 111 23 88 84 67 65 70 46 60 68 48 41 44 59 53 41 64 60 Longueuil LON O-Q 30 362 18 0 410 -24 434 332 356 336 294 135 55 75 97 57 55 63 59 54 44 39 Maîtres patineurs Mtl PMM O-Q 3 45 0 0 48 -4 52 42 42 28 49 33 12 Mirabel MIR O-Q 0 22 2 0 24 3 21 12 0 Mtl-Ahuntsic MAH O-Q 23 56 7 0 86 -18 104 82 78 80 79 77 78 69 53 46 54 59 56 51 61 77 Mtl-Centre-Sud MCS O-Q 1 45 6 0 52 20 32 44 49 62 63 57 54 51 50 39 45 39 10 12 21 37 Mtl-Gadbois MGA O-Q 46 67 12 0 125 32 93 87 66 67 75 61 62 61 54 58 70 67 74 69 62 59 Mtl-Inter. MIN O-Q 32 0 11 0 43 0 43 49 61 63 70 74 78 49 72 70 65 74 79 82 95 87 Mtl-Nord MNO O-Q 5 50 4 2 61 -1 62 59 56 50 55 60 48 39 51 52 58 44 42 41 26 24 Mtl-St-Michel MSM O-Q 34 122 12 4 172 -8 180 167 148 146 156 91 106 151 129 128 126 135 112 117 95 107 Pte aux Trembles PAT O-Q 25 33 19 0 77 -20 97 133 122 113 126 101 100 136 127 102 114 114 92 94 107 128 Rég.Lanaudière /Rep. RLA O-Q 22 184 10 2 218 23 195 144 143 87 92 85 126 150 163 114 136 51 94 114 85 67 Rivière Rouge RRO O-Q 0 8 4 2 14 -6 20 Rosemère ROS O-Q 37 144 13 9 203 -22 225 170 184 193 197 154 150 151 138 115 100 84 66 47 42 55 Ste-Julie SJU O-Q 14 123 10 1 148 18 130 98 115 106 119 69 74 93 61 45 70 75 88 109 90 63 St-Jérôme SJE O-Q 3 63 7 0 73 7 66 45 29 33 0 0 3 52 52 71 Trois-Lacs TLA O-Q 9 41 9 6 65 -10 75 46 45 38 36 0 Val-des-Monts VDM O-Q 16 45 7 0 68 -6 74 61 46 48 56 54 50 51 26 357 1997 231 27 2612 38 2574 2223 2194 2088 2065 1551 1500 1636 1517 1225 1270 1097 1066 1053 986 1011

Patineurs Maîtres Qc CRO QUE 6 69 75 4 71 91 22 23 28 27 24 28 38 28 6 6 12 38 51 42 Charlesbourg CHA QUE 16 70 5 0 91 -20 111 103 63 80 84 80 78 81 73 73 72 65 60 85 261 268 Lévis LÉV. QUE 39 157 23 12 231 4 227 177 212 212 229 208 199 200 192 157 179 136 131 108 102 104 Portneuf POR QUE 13 31 5 49 1 48 36 36 41 49 38 41 40 37 34 44 40 37 47 50 47 Québec QUE QUE 30 120 20 1 171 21 150 170 125 124 128 104 100 113 113 102 112 138 146 122 114 127 Sainte-Foy SFO QUE 42 166 18 0 226 -28 254 217 240 166 95 91 90 100 82 92 88 127 124 73 90 80 146 613 71 13 843 -18 861 794 707 646 613 548 532 562 535 486 501 512 510 473 668 668

Alma ALM S/L 13 105 9 0 127 -10 137 123 126 104 70 42 63 74 71 59 39 49 48 43 41 36 Baie-Comeau BCO S/L 5 38 16 59 2 57 57 68 67 78 64 80 Chicoutimi CHI S/L 39 187 21 81 328 -40 368 333 212 156 200 180 187 214 189 200 201 179 157 182 221 296 Dolbeau DOL S/L 9 17 12 1 39 -10 49 53 59 50 54 45 40 37 37 36 40 41 29 27 25 23 Jonquière JON S/L 1 38 4 43 -19 62 40 58 48 64 66 67 79 66 74 64 75 83 74 46 61 La Baie LBA S/L 5 32 8 45 14 31 38 20 41 33 30 38 39 37 42 42 49 41 42 38 20 Roberval ROB S/L 0 12 8 20 -7 27 33 33 40 59 58 58 46 49 62 65 51 33 26 26 29 St-Félicien SFE S/L 13 52 11 76 7 69 70 73 55 65 71 80 62 52 45 28 28 27 44 29 33 85 481 89 82 737 -63 800 747 649 561 623 556 613 551 501 518 479 472 418 438 426 498

Total des régions 775 4302 526 176 5779 30 5749 5069 4816 Membres à vie 5 0 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 **Indépendant** IND 0 0 86 2 88 15 73 68 57 84 85 74 103 71 60 60 45 35 36 30 28 30 TOTAL 2011-2012/ niveau 775 4302 612 178 0 TOTAL des membres / saison 5872 45 5827 5142 4886 4714 4670 3904 3771 3879 3702 3242 3164 632970 2903 2788 2971 3078 PROV = Patineurs CP Développement et + / LP niveau Provincial et + INIT = Patineurs niveau initiation CP/LP ANAT = Associé national APROV = Associés provincial

Calendrier 2011-2012 DATE TITRE Organisateur Endroit SPORT SEPTEMBRE 16-18 Sélection des Coupes du monde d'automne CODEM Aréna Maurice-Richard CP OCTOBRE 8-9 Circuit niveau espoir #1 CEPVRQ Centre Bruno-Verret CP 15-16 Circuit niveau élite #1 Lévis Centre Bruno-Verret CP 22 Circuit niveau développement #1, secteur A Rimouski Colisée de Rimouski CP 22 Circuit niveau développement #1, secteur B Sherbrooke Aréna Eugène-Lalonde CP 22 Circuit niveau développement #1, secteur C CRCP- Laval Aréna Mike-Bossy CP 21-23 Coupe du monde courte piste Salt Lake City - États-Unis Anneau de l'Utah CP 27-30 Sélection des Coupes du monde d'automne Calgary Anneau de Calgary LP 28-30 Coupe du monde courte piste CODES Centre Georges-Vézina CP NOVEMBRE 4-5-6 Camp provincial longue piste CEPVRQ Anneau Gaétan Boucher LP 5-6 Circuit niveau élite #2 CODEPS Aréna Eugène-Lalonde CP 12 Compétition longue piste - format hydride #1 Sainte-Foy Anneau Gaétan Boucher LP 17-20 Can-Am Calgary - Alberta Alberta LP 19-20 Circuit niveau espoir #2 Chicoutimi Centre Georges-Vézina CP 19-20 Marathon des maîtres Maîtres de Québec Anneau Gaétan Boucher LP 26-27 Compétition provinciale par distance #1 CODEC-AGB Anneau Gaétan Boucher LP DÉCEMBRE 2-3-4 Coupe Canada #1 CODEC-AGB Anneau Gaétan Boucher LP 3-4 Championnat canadien junior Calgary - Alberta Alberta CP 8-9 Qualification nationale Calgary Anneau de Calgary CP 10 Circuit niveau développement #2, secteur B Trois-Rivières Complexe Sportif Alphonse-Desjardins CP 10 Circuit niveau développement #2, secteur C Rosemère Aréna de Rosemère CP 17 Compétition longue piste - format hydride #2 Sainte-Foy Anneau Gaétan Boucher LP 17-18 Compétition provinciale toutes distances CODEC-AGB Anneau Gaétan Boucher LP JANVIER 5-8 Championnat canadien par distance / Coupe Canada #2 Calgary - Alberta Anneau de Calgary LP 7 Circuit niveau développement #3, secteur A Charlesbourg Arpidrome de Charlesbourg CP 7 Circuit niveau développement #3, secteur B Pointe-aux-trembles Aréna René-Masson CP 7 Circuit niveau développement #3, secteur C Région Lanaudière Aréna de Terrebonne CP 13-15 Championnat canadien ouvert / Sélection nationale #1 CODES Centre Georges-Vézina CP 14 Festival de patinage de vitesse longue piste CODEC-AGB Anneau Gaétan Boucher LP 21-22 Circuit niveau espoir #3 Drummondville Olympia Yvan Cournoyer CP 20-22 Championnat canadien ouvert / Sélection nationale #1 CODEM Aréna Maurice-Richard CP 28-29 Circuit niveau élite #3 CEPVRQ Pavillon de la Jeunesse CP FÉVRIER 3-5 Coupe Canada #3 - Championnat canadien junior Saskatoon - Saskatchewan Anneau de Saskatoon LP 4 Circuit niveau développement #4, secteur A Québec Centre communautaire Michel-Labadie CP 4 Circuit niveau développement #4, secteur B Portneuf Aréna de Donnacona CP 4 Circuit niveau développement #4, secteur C ARPVM-MHA Aréna Marcellin-Wilson CP 4-5 Défi des Plaines d'Abraham Pentathlon des neiges Anneau Géatan Boucher/Plaines d'Abraham LP 4-5 Championnat canadien des maîtres Fort St-John, Colombie-Britannique Fort St. John Pomeroy LP 11-12 Championnat canadien longue piste par catégorie d'âge Fort St-John, Colombie-Britannique Fort St. John Pomeroy LP 11-12 Championnat nord-américain Calgary - Alberta Anneau de Calgary LP 11-12 Circuit niveau espoir #4 Matane Colisée Béton Provincial CP 18-19 Circuit niveau élite #4 CODEPS Aréna Eugène-Lalonde CP 25-26 Compétition provinciale par distance CODEC-AGB Anneau Gaétan Boucher LP 25-26 Marathon nord-américain Sylvan Lake - Alberta Alberta LP MARS 3 Festival des vives lames Lévis et ARPVQ Centre Bruno-Verret CP 10-11 Championnat québécois Chicoutimi Centre Georges-Vézina CP 9-11 Sélection nationale #2 Calgary - Alberta Alberta CP 13-18 Coupe Canada #4 / Finale de l'oval Calgary - Alberta Anneau de Calgary LP 17-18 Championnat provincial Rivière-du-Loup Centre Premier Tech 64 CP 23-25 Championnat canadien courte piste (néo-senior, Junior A et B) Richmond, BC Anneau Olympique de Richmond CP 24-25 Championnat courte piste de l'est du Canada Sherbrooke CODEPS, Aréna Eugène-Lalonde CP 24-25 Championnat de l'ouest Longueuil Aréna Olympia CP 31-1 Championnat de l'est St-Félicien Centre récréatif St-Félicien CP 22-déc-11

TARIFICATION SAISON 2011-2012

PREMIERS CODE TOTAL FPVQ PVC RÉGION ORG. DESCRIPTION SOINS ADHÉSION DES MEMBRES Patineurs CP développement et + / LP niveau provincial et + PROV 79,00 $ 56,00 20,00 3,00 Patineurs niveau initiation CP/LP INIT 23,00 $ 17,00 5,00 1,00 Associé national ANAT 22,00 $ 16,00 5,00 1,00 Associé provincial APROV 5,00 $ 3,00 1,00 1,00

Tarif réduit (après le 1er janvier) Patineurs niveau initiation 15,00 $ 9,00 5,00 1,00 Transfert patineur niveau initiation à développement 34,00 $ 17,00 15,00 2,00

Club 250,00 $ 250,00 2 premières années d'existence 125,00 $ 125,00

SANCTION D'ACTIVITÉS FPVQ - PVC / Compétitions internationales CP/LP 250,00 $ 250,00 FPVQ - PVC / Championnats canadiens 100,00 $ 100,00 FPVQ - PVC / Compétition CP niveaux élite et espoir / LP style olympique 100,00 $ 100,00 FPVQ - Compétition CP niveau développement / LP niveau provincial 75,00 $ 75,00 FPVQ - Compétition CP niveau initiation / LP niveau régional 20,00 $ 10,00 10,00

INSCRIPTION AUX COMPETITIONS Compétitions nationales CP et LP (Frais déterminés par Patinage de vitesse Canada) Circuit élite CP 81,00 $ 33,00 33,00 15,00 Compétition de 2 jours courte piste 69,00 $ 27,00 27,00 15,00 Compétition d'un jour courte piste 46,00 $ 19,00 19,00 8,00 Compétition de 2 jours longue piste 54,00 $ 27,00 27,00 Compétition d'un jour longue piste 38,00 $ 19,00 19,00 Festival des vives lames de l'Est / l'Ouest 36,00 $ 9,00 19,00 8,00 Niveau initiation CP / régional LP (Frais déterminés par l'association régionale) * Si une ou l'autre des compétitions (Championnat de l'Est/l'Ouest - Festival des vives lames de l'Est/l'Ouest) doit se tenir sur deux jours, la tarification sera modifiée comme 61,00 $ 19,00 27,00 suit : 15,00

STAGE DE FORMATION D'ENTRAÎNEURS J'aime patiner - Moniteur 50,00 $ 50,00 J'aime patiner - Entraîneur 230,00 $ 230,00 J'aime patiner - Entraîneur / reprise de cours 75,00 $ 75,00 (chaque) Introduction à la compétition 270,00 $ 270,00 Niveau 3 technique 325,00 $ 325,00 Module - Prise de décisions éthiques 35,00 $ 35,00

DIVERS Gommette "Moi, je patine" 0,20 $ 0,20 (chaque) Certificat "Moi, je patine" 0,50 $ 0,50 (chaque) Feuilles jaunes pré-coupées - compétitions 15,00 $ 15,00 paquet de 500

Toute autre tarification sera émise par le Conseil d'administration de la FPVQ

Juin 2011

CONSEIL D’ADMINISTRATION 2011-2012

PRÉSIDENT André Beaulieu SECRÉTAIRE-TRÉSORIER Denis Leclerc ADMINISTRATRICE Michelle Casoni ADMINISTRATEUR Denis Paradis ADMINISTRATEUR Robert Bourassa

PERSONNEL DE LA FÉDÉRATION 2011-2012

DIRECTEUR GÉNÉRAL Robert Dubreuil COORDONNATEUR AU DÉVELOPPEMENT DU SPORT Frédéric Tremblay COORDONNATRICE AUX COMPÉTITIONS Maryse Poudrier COORDONNATRICE PROGRAMMATION ET MENTORAT Marie-Pier Charest AGENTE ADMINISTRATIVE Nicole Godbout ADJOINTE À LA DIRECTION GÉNÉRALE Isabelle Gélinas ADJOINT AUX COMPÉTITIONS ET STATISTIQUES Guy Jacob

COMITÉS 2011-2012

Groupe de consultation sur les orientations sportives

Robert Dubreuil Maryse Poudrier (responsable sous-groupe compétitions) Frédéric Tremblay (responsable sous-groupe encadrement) Marie-Pier Charest Bernard Beaupré (sous-groupe compétitions) Marie-Andrée Cantin (sous-groupe compétitions) Frédéric Blackburn (sous-groupe encadrement) François Pepin (stagiaire) Robert Bourassa (invité sous-groupe compétitions)

Comité courte piste Comité longue piste

Coordonnatrice Maryse Poudrier Coordonnatrice Maryse Poudrier MEMBRES Richard Thériault MEMBRES Carmen Cameron Danielle Breton Gregor Jelonek André Vincent Ghislaine Roy

Comité de développement de l’excellence Comité de sécurité

Coordonnateur Frédéric Tremblay Président Robert Dubreuil MEMBRES Jean Pichette MEMBRES Marie-Andrée Cantin Jeffrey Scholten Alain Gauthier Mathieu Turcotte Sylvette Lemieux David Simard

DES ACCOMPLISSEMENTS RENDUS POSSIBLES, AVEC LE SOUTIEN DE NOS COMMANDITAIRES OFFICIELS MERCI !

Circuit élite courte piste Antoine Laoun Opticien Commanditaire officiel de l’Équipe du Québec Reconnaissances Antoine Laoun Opticien ------

Commanditaire officiel de l’Équipe du Québec

DES ACCOMPLISSEMENTS RENDUS POSSIBLES, AVEC LE SOUTIEN DE NOS COMMANDITAIRES, FOURNISSEURS ET PARTENAIRES MERCI !

PATINAGE DE VITESSE CANADA

SPORTS-QUÉBEC VILLE DE MONTRÉAL INSTITUT NATIONAL DU SPORT DU QUÉBEC VILLE DE QUÉBEC REGROUPEMENT LOISIR QUÉBEC et les autres municipalités partenaires ÉGALE-ACTION de nos activités

PATINAGE DE VITESSE CANADA

Saskatchewan Amateur Speed Skating Association

In Saskatchewan our primary focus has been to develop a better governance model for our board and to completely embrace LTPAD by putting the athlete front and center in our Sport’s committees.

Club Membership: There are currently seven affiliated clubs in Saskatchewan (Humboldt, Melville, Moose Jaw, Nipawin, Prince Albert, Regina and Saskatoon). There has been a decrease in our overall membership from 627 to 477. There seems to be a noticeable gap amongst our older skaters. The board has recognized this issue and will have membership development as their primary goal for the next couple of years.

Financial Status: SASSA continues to remain financially stable through the oversight of the Board of Directors and our continued support from Sask Sport, our membership and Speed Skating Canada. Part of our risk management is to decrease the dependency on Sask Sport by increasing our fund raising ability.

Staffing: SASSA now has two fulltime employees; Shawn MacLennan continues to be our Executive Director and we just hired Tim Comfort as our Performance Coaching & Technical Director of Speed Skating.

Governance: Saskatchewan Speed Skating is into our first full year of our new board structure. Our Board Structure has two main structures: Standing Committees of the Board and Sport Development Committees. The Standing Committee structure made up of three standing committees - Governance, Human Resources and Financial Oversight has improved upon our governance model. Our Governance committee has rewritten our Blue Book to clarify positions on the board and to redefine the terms in office to help with board continuity. Our Human Resources committee rewrote our two staffing positions to clarify their roles and to assist them with better direction from the board. And our Financial Oversight committee has now taken on the position of budgeting, risk management and audit which was previously left to our Executive Director.

The Sport Development Committees structure — Active Start-FUNdamentals-L2T , Train to Train, High Performance and Active for Life— which promotes a bottom-up approach to LTPAD implementation has finally been populated and met. From the initial meetings many ideas and questions have flowed from them. For the older skaters the idea of having a mentorship program from our skaters who have achieved success has been suggested. In the younger program the idea of establishing an optimal meets for each age class and adjusting it to fit Saskatchewan’s unique situation is beginning to be worked on. A final point, when we posted our ad for a Performance Coaching & Technical Director we had several candidates from Europe and Canada apply for the position. The number one comment we received from these candidates for applying for the position was how impressed they were on our organizations governance and the outline of the job description.

Season’s Events: Saskatchewan hosted seven provincial competitions over the course of the 2011-2012 season. The Saskatoon Lions Speed Skating Club once again hosted a very successful Canada Cup III/Canadian Junior Championships. Many of our athletes participated and were successful on the Canada Cup Circuit this season. We had a very small but successful team travelling to Fort St. John, BC for the Canadian Long Track Championships, bringing home 6 medals. We also had a small team compete at the Canadian Junior Short Track Championships and Canadian Short Track Championships in Richmond, BC. At the Canada West Short Track Championships in Winnipeg, MB Saskatchewan had 2 class champions, 17 medals and won the most improved province award.

On the international scene: Our athletes and officials represented their province and country with great class and zeal. Kali Christ, Lucas Makowsky, Justin Warsylewicz, and William Dutton represented Canada at International Competitions. We had Kali Christ and Lucas Makowsky on the National Team; William Dutton, Mykola Makowsky and Justin Warsylewicz were members of the Nation Development Team. Kali Christ was awarded the Saskatchewan Female Athlete of the Year for her strong performance on the national and international scene. We are very proud of all our athletes that compete and participate at all levels of speed skating.

Respectfully submitted,

Steven Krueger, SASSA President

Yukon Amateur Speed Skating Association

The 2011/12 season was a true test to Yukon speed skaters. We started our season on a real low with our beautiful facility having been grossly damaged in an act of arson that resulted in all our safety mats being destroyed. We not only had the immense challenge of replacing them but also had to overcome the hurdle of limited ice for the first 3 months of our skating season. However, in true northern fashion we fought these battles and won! Support from our local business, government and individuals was overwhelming. YASSA received immediate response from our skating community and territorial government, with special thanks to Yukon Government, Speed Skating Canada, Nunavut Speed Skating, and New Brunswick Speed Skating. We received donations from BC, Alberta, NWT, PEI and Nunavut and were able to raise $115,000 in 3 months, to replace the 160 safety mats and all our supplies lost in the fire.

In March 2012 we hosted the Arctic Winter Games. We had speed skaters from NWT, Nunavut, Alaska and Northern Alberta in an unparalleled event bringing northerners from across the world together. These were a huge success with a few of AWG long standing records being broken; one of them by our own skater, who then went on to win a bronze medal at the Canadian Age Class in Richmond later that month.

YASSA continues to have the single affiliate membership of Whitehorse Rapids Speed Skating Club. Its membership has been steady in last years, with 37 skaters (11 Fundamentals, 11 Train to Train, 2 High Performance at the Calgary Oval program, and 13 masters) as well as affiliate members. YASSA was pleased to recruit 7 new skaters in 2011-12. Although training is based out of Whitehorse, YASSA’s members travel upwards of 2 hours one way from nearby communities just to enjoy our sport.

Throughout the season we made it our goal to develop new officials and coaches. We hosted a Level 1 Part A coaching clinic in the spring of 2010 and were able to complete Part B this spring with all 5 participants completing both. YASSA hosted 2 officials’ clinics where new officials were trained and certified Level 1 following 4 days of volunteering at Arctic Winter Games. YASSA hosted a Level 2 Starters clinic and supported YASSA member to travel out to take a Place Judge clinic. We hope to carry on with our development of coaches and officials and look to the future for possibly hosting another national level event.

I think this season showed everyone that faced with a challenge we don’t sit down but stand higher than usual and carry on. I am so proud to say I am a part of this organization and want to thank all the members of WRSSC, YASSA and our SSC family who stepped up and tirelessly helped us through our battle to survive. We did it and we should be proud!

Respectfully Submitted,

Laini Klassen President, YASSA

Organizing Committee Calgary Report Annual General Meeting June 2012

I. Overview The Essent ISU World Sprint Championships returned to Calgary on January 27 & 28, 2012. The Organizing Committee Calgary was honoured to host and organize this prestigious ISU Championships which was the focus of another successful speed th skating season. This was the 27 World Cup / Championships that OCC has produced on behalf of SSC.

II. Committee The Organizing Committee Calgary (OCC) is a non-profit association registered under the Societies Act of Alberta. The events are managed by a volunteer-based group of approximately 200 dedicated volunteers. The Executive Committee consists of a Chairman and eight Vice Chairs. Part-time contract staff also provide an integral role in the structure of the Committee.

Essent ISU World Sprint Speed Skating Championships There were 61 athletes from 20 countries who competed in this event. From the teams’ airport arrivals and the Opening Draw and Reception to the Athletes’ Closing Banquet, every effort was made to provide the participants with the best possible environment for their competition. The World Champions were Stefan Groothuis from the Netherlands and Jing Yu from China. The top Canadian performance was by Christine Nesbitt who claimed the silver medal overall and set a new 1000m world record. Two of the three Canadian men were in the top 10 overall.

Opening ceremonies were attended by Bal Gosal, Minister of State (Sport). Calgary Mayor, Naheed Nenshi attended the press conference and the competition weekend. The two world champions skated a final victory lap accompanied by a group of six very enthusiastic young skaters from Alberta speed skating clubs. This was a weekend highlight with the crowds, the champions and the young skaters who skated a lap with their heroes.

There were over 60 accredited media representing print, radio and television. CBC provided domestic host broadcast; international feeds went worldwide.

Partners Many corporate partners continued their ongoing commitment to the Committee with over $120,000 supplied as donations-in-kind. Local suppliers included Xerox, The Calgary Herald, Mediaco, Best Western Village Park Inn, CTV, Rogers Radio, West Canadian, Pepsi and McAra Printing. HBc, USANA and General Mills provided valuable support through Speed Skating Canada sponsorships.

Corporate ticket sales and hosting opportunities were once again offered to corporate Calgary with several groups from last year returning. Several corporate partners used the event for hosting clients and employees. Speed Skating Canada’s key sponsor Intact hosted 30 team members per day in the Champions’ Lounge. Essent, a Dutch energy company, held the event’s title sponsorship through their long-term agreement with the ISU. The marketing rights for the World Championships were contracted by Referee Sportsmarketing in an agreement with the ISU 72

which gave them the rights to all of the advertising in the rink area for their international partners.

Funding was received from the ISU, Sport Canada, Tourism Calgary, the City of Calgary, Travel Alberta, the Alberta Olympic Legacy Project and the Alberta Lottery Fund. Other revenues were generated through ticket sales, merchandising, corporate sales and other sponsorships.

A new initiative with this event was the successful and popular Club Corner. Tickets were sold by Alberta speed skating clubs who retained one half of the sales as a fund raiser for their clubs. The group sat together in their reserved corner near the 500m start and added a lot of enthusiasm and excitement to the venue.

Officials’ Development The Committee continues to be interested in assisting with new recruitment and retention ideas for technical volunteers and supports the training and upgrading of officials at all levels. III. Future International Competitions to be organized by OCC

The Committee is very much looking forward to organizing the Essent ISU World Cup to be held in Calgary on January 19 & 20, 2013. Marketing strategies such as the Club Corner will continue and expand to include more regional speed skating clubs in fund-raising or revenue-sharing that will benefit the clubs and engage increased numbers of spectators in the exciting atmosphere of the World Cup.

In closing... Over the past 23 years, OCC is pleased to have developed an excellent working relationship with SSC, the Olympic Oval and the ISU and their partners. These strong relationships will no doubt continue to provide a substantial legacy for speed skating in Canada and contribute to the positive environment required to develop world-class skaters. The Organizing Committee would like to acknowledge the support of the Olympic Oval staff at the University of Calgary. The Olympic Oval has maintained a very high standard for fast ice in an outstanding venue and together with the Organizing Committee continues to attract worldwide recognition for high caliber competitions.

Our team of volunteers is looking forward to the future. We always depend on the continued dedication and commitment of our experienced volunteers, as well as the new volunteers who have joined our team. We would like to thank them all for their exceptional contribution to the success of the World Championships. We look forward to working with all of them again next season.

Respectfully submitted,

Organizing Committee Calgary Executive: Alice Humeny – Chair Nannette Ho Covernton – Vice Chair Sport Production Janice Dawson – Vice Chair Administration Gregg Planert – Vice Chair Technical Catherine Humeny – Vice Chair Event Support Jim Kelly – Vice Chair Finance Mark Messer – Vice Chair Telecommunications Lynn Nixon – Vice Chair Operations

Staff: Lynda Murch – Manager Administration Eryn Paterson – Manager Volunteers & Website Antonio Faiola – Manager Business Development Nathalie Smith-MacInnis – Manager Special Events

SPORT CANADA UPDATE - SPEED SKATING CANADA

June 2012

 New Athlete Assistance Program (AAP) carding quotas – Sport Canada has recently revised its AAP carding quotas and has informed the National Sport Organizations of their new allocations. This new quota will be in effect for the nominations for the organizations’ next carding cycle. The Summer sports’ quotas will be reviewed after the 2012 Summer Olympic Games to take into consideration the results of the most recent Olympic Games, while the Winter sports’ quotas will next be revised after the 2014 Sochi games. More information on this process will follow.

Each NSO’s final Quota is a combination of an objective and a subjective allocation process, with the former based on World Championship and Olympic results, and the latter based on recommendations made by Own the Podium, Sport Canada Program Officers, and Managers from the Sport Support Program and AAP Divisions.

The Subjective Allocation Process is based on the following considerations and may have increased or reduced the Objective Quota of a sport: o Targeting AAP resources to priority sports, that is, those sports which have the greatest potential to contribute toward Canada’s goals at the Olympic/Paralympic Games; o The quality of National Team/HP programming based on an assessment of the National Team athletes competitive and training programs and monitoring process; o The demonstrated adherence of the NSO to its responsibilities under the AAP; and o The degree to which the organizational structure (governance) of the sport facilitates excellence in the area of high performance.

 Budget 2012 – Budget 2012 cited a few sport‐specific impacts related to the delivery of services and programs. Specifically, the Economic Action Plan promoted the continued support of ParticpACTION and Le Grand Défi Pierre Lavoie as well as $450 million for the 2015 Pan American and Parapan American Games in Toronto. Furthermore, sustained support is being provided to Special Olympics Canada.

Following the budget review process internal to the Department of Canadian Heritage in support of Budget 2012, Sport Canada’s budget for its three funding programs remains unchanged, but will focus more on initiatives that support athletes and athlete development. Funding delivered through the Sport Support Program, the Hosting Program and the Athlete Assistance Program will continue to establish Canada as a leading sport nation at home and abroad, where all Canadians and their communities enjoy, value and celebrate the benefits of active participation and excellence in sport.

 Sport Funding and Accountability Framework (SFAF) for Summer NSOs – the SFAF is now entering its fifth iteration for summer NSOs. The eligibility phase applications have been received, and any outstanding items are due by August 31. Assessment is now underway, with applications due May 31. This will determine which NSOs will be funded and at what levels,

1 With new funding reference levels being put in place for the 2013‐14 fiscal year. A new accountability framework is being developed – it will be identical for all Sport Support Program clients (NSO, MSO and CSC), and will focus on the areas of sport development (including governance and official languages) and high performance. NSOs will be invited to consultations on the new framework mid‐June 2012.

A similar process will begin in spring 2013 for Winter NSOs to determine eligibility and funding levels post‐2014 Olympics.

 National Accountability Standards – Accountability (national standards) is the last stage of the SFAF. A Sport Canada workgroup is currently developing a new set of standards, for use for the 2013‐2017 quadrennial. It is proposed to cover the areas of sport development (including governance and official languages) and high performance. Information will be provided to NSOs shortly, and all will be invited to participate in a consultation during the month of June.

 The new Canada Not‐for‐Profit Corporations Act (NFP) officially came into force on October 17, 2011. The Act establishes a new set of rules for federally incorporated not‐for‐profit corporations, replacing Part II of the old Canada Corporations Act. Every federally incorporated not‐for‐profit corporation will have to take action to make the transition to the NFP Act.

Please note that it is not acceptable to take no action ‐‐ a detailed transition process has been outlined in which corporations must replace letters patent and by‐laws with new charter documents. Corporations will be allowed three years to complete this transition, with October 17, 2014 becoming the in‐force date. Failure to transition under the new Act by the deadline will result in the dissolution of the corporation.

Sport organizations are encouraged to consult the Corporations Canada section of the Industry Canada website for further information relative to the legislation and the complete transition process. Information is also available at the Carters Professional Corporation website: http://carters.ca/.

 Canadian Sport Policy (CSP) renewal – F‐P/T Ministers gave the go‐ahead in February 2011 for the development of a successor policy to the current CSP which ended March 31st 2012. Consultations within the national sport community were held by Sport Canada and provided input for the conceptual structure of the renewed CSP. Discussions were held by the F‐P/T Ministers at the national gathering in April 2012. Guided by these discussions, F‐P/T Ministers Responsible for Sport, Physical Activity and Recreation will formally conclude the CSP Renewal Process at the Ministers Conference on June 26‐27, 2012. It is expected that the draft policy and action plan will be approved at this time.

Full details of the CSP draft (dated February 14, 2012), process and background materials including the discussion paper “Towards a Renewed Canadian Sport Policy” can be found on the Sport Information Resource Centre (SIRC) website: http://sirc.ca/csprenewal.cfm.

2  Governance Support for Sport Organizations – Sport Canada has provided support to SIRC for the development and distribution of resource tools and information in the area of governance.

As a significant supporter of sport development, performance and capacity‐building at the national level, Sport Canada recognizes the importance of national organizations establishing and maintaining sound governance practices. If responsible organizations are to be successful in achieving their objectives, good governance is simply a 'must have' in today's environment. Keeping this in mind, Sport Canada has designed a set of Governance Principles for Sport Organizations that outline the expectations of the Government of Canada in the area of sport governance. The principles are applicable to all funded NSOs, MSOs and Canadian Sport Centres and the aspects of governance will be considered in the section of accountability within the SFAF framework. They are:

1. High Standards of Ethical Behaviour 2. Commitment to Vision, Mission, Values and Guided by a Strategic Plan 3. Clarity of Roles and Responsibilities 4. Effective Financial Control 5. Sound Human Resources Management 6. Transparent and Accountable for Results

Sport Canada and partners such as SIRC and the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) have committed to provide more support in the form of education, tools, workshops and consulting expertise. In early December 2011, SIRC launched a web portal, housed within the SIRC website (www.sirc.ca) as a source of information, reference material, webinars and examples of good practice for use by staff and volunteer leaders in the sport community.