Written V. PRESIDENT’S REPORT Ray Carmichael

As our holiday season winds down I wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year. Although this is a time of joy it is always with a touch of sadness that we think of those members and friends of our hockey family that have suffered a personal loss in the past year. HNB lost Life Member, Gerald Martin (2005) in December.

2017 marks the beginning of a new era for HNB as we approach the 50th anniversary as an independent Member or Branch of Hockey . Initial thinking is in progress for the kick off in June 2018. So now is the time to recognize this milestone as events are planned for the 2018-2019 hockey season.

Since our September meeting I have represented HNB at the Winter Congress, Sport NB Annual meeting, Hockey Canada Level 6 male and Level 5 female upgrade seminar. Along with the HNB Committees, I have consulted with the Executive Director and Minor Chair over several complaints of various types and appeals to Hockey Canada.

2018 is a year of celebration for Hockey New Brunswick, it our 50th anniversary as an independent Member or Branch of Hockey Canada. I am sure you all have seen the logo recognizing this as we approach the official the kick off in June. A significant highlight of the year will be hosting the World U17 Championships in Saint John and Quispamsis Nov.3-10. This will be the first international event hosted in NB since the last U17 in 1995. Additional events and programs are in the planning stages. The next few months will be busy for all Standing Committees, Councils and Commissions as we approach the March 31 deadline for submitting Constitutional amendments. All organizations must continually strive for improvement which starts with the review of our Strategic Plan on Sunday and a Policy Governance Model and Board Structure workshop lead by Dr. Byers. The elimination of Councils by Hockey Canada will certainly change the responsibilities of our Chairs as we have known them over the past. Serious thought must be given to the new Task Team structure and the information flow to and from Hockey Canada. For the upcoming season Hockey Canada has established five Task Teams; National Programs (Chair Bob Deap), Program Delivery, Recruitment (Chair Todd Pye), Retention, and Female.

Aside from the Board roles, responsibilities and structure we need to give serious consideration to the various operational responsibilities within each ROC and the definition of membership. Issues arising season have exposed to two types of issue that are not adequately addressed presently. These involve governance within Minor Associations and fiscal responsibility within our membership as now defined. On the operational side there seems to be a reluctance on the part of many to take “no” for and answer or accept a given rule passed by our members and a readiness to appeal all the way to Hockey Canada. These protestations and appeals are time consuming taking staff and volunteer time from more important activities. More specifics will be brought forward in our meetings.

Finally, a big thank you to our staff for the excellent work and dedication they continually demonstrate through work and dedication.. A job well done.

Ray Carmichael, President “If you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always got”

Written VI. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT Nic Jansen I’d like to welcome everyone to the 2018 HNB Semi-Annual meeting. In October, Saint John / Quispamsis was selected as the host site for the 2018 World U17 Challenge. This will be the first International event hosted in New Brunswick since 1995. Seven Canadian Tire First Shift programs were hosted this fall in NB – Bathurst, Edmundston, Hampton, KV, Woodstock, Moncton and Fredericton. Fredericton will also be hosting a winter program. In November, Hockey Canada announced an insurance rate increase effective the 2018-19 season. The insurance rates will go from $16.15/participant to $21.30/participant. The Miramichi Panthers (female) & Lancaster Bombers (male) won a trip to participate in the Hockey on the Hill event. The event was funded through the Government of Canada / Ottawa Senators and included flights, accommodations and meals. The Miramichi Panthers came home with a Silver Medal. Parent behavior has been a challenge for us this season. We’ve had a number of off-ice related incidents involving parents, and their conduct in the arena. Congratulations to Marlene Boissonnault on being selected to the Hockey Canada Female Development Team. The Elsipogtog Hawks Senior team will represent HNB at the 2018 – the event will be held April 9th-14th in Rosetown, SK. This season we’ll be hosting the Bell Aliant Peewee AAA Atlantic Championships in Edmundston, NB from April 5th-8th. The host team for the event is the North West Pioneers

X. COUNCIL REPORTS All i. Officials Mike MacMullin

At the time of writing this report all leagues are operational and we have very few issues as the leagues begin to head into the playoff portion of the season.

July 2017 we had 3 officials selected to attend the Centralized OPOE in conjunction with the Hockey Canada Program of Excellence.

August we hosted our senior officials fitness testing and SRD examination at the Moncton Coliseum where we had 80 officials attend.

September we hosted our provincial POE program with 25 male and 7 female officials in attendance. This program is used to identify up and coming officials and they take part in fitness testing, on ice testing and an SRD examination.

October 2017 we hosted the Atlantic Challenge Cup which was once again a tremendous success as we had officials from all four Atlantic Provinces attend. Once again Thank you to the folks at HNB for the work you put into making this a first class event. We also hosted the annual Monctonian Midget AAA tournament and the officials from zone 5 once again took on a heavy workload to see that this event was a successful one. Thank you to Tim Skinner and all the officials in zone 5 for their commitment to this event.

November 2017 we once again hosted along with HPEI and HNS the Hockey Canada Officiating Male Level 6 and female level 5. This event is a huge undertaking and requires considerable volunteer support which we once again received form the officiating group in zone 5 who volunteered to shuttle officials to and from game in NB,PEI and NS. Thank you again for your help with this event it was greatly appreciated.

January 2018 we hosted the Provincial Level 3 upgrade seminar in Fredericton. We had 30 officials attend this seminar which we would have to consider an integral piece of our development process for our officials. The seminar is structured to mirror our elite level seminars in an effort to prepare our officials for future events. We have seen a solid improvement in our base officials since we implemented this process as a provincial endeavor. A special thanks to zone 3 and all the folks who took the time to instruct and give their time in any manner for this important seminar.

In December we lost a very important member of our group with the passing of Scott McKay from Miramichi. Scott was one of the longest serving members of our council and was a role model and mentor for many young people in the Miramichi area through hockey and . His dedication to his community and his family was very noticeable and he will be missed by all who had the pleasure to know him.

In closing I would like to Thank all of the members of our council who work tirelessly every day for the betterment of the game of hockey. Also I would like to Thank all the folks at HNB and the HNB Board of Directors for their tireless work and their continued support for the officiating branch of this great game.

Sincerely;

Mike MacMullin

ii. Senior Phil Huckins

No report submitted.

iii. Minor Todd Pye

Minor Council and the District Directors have been active since our Fall Forum. I attended the HC Winter Congress in November and I participated in three HC conference calls. Unfortunately, I have also been a part of several hearings and HNB/HC appeals over rule violations and the fact that people don’t understand the definitions of “bullying”, “Harassment”, and “inappropriate behavior” and the words “can’t” or “no”.

Adult behavior and Incidents of conflict never seem to disappear. Incidents not only involve parents but coaches and off-ice players as well. Video recordings in the rink are on the rise. Social media has made it possible for incidents to be viewed around the world. At times there doesn’t seem to be any sense of responsibly. People believe hockey is a right not a privilege. This type of negative behavior has to continue to be a strong Branch focus. We have to continue to take steps to change behaviors including updating our Constitution to give us authority to deal with these issues. These type of repeated issues and issues (with the same people) that continue over the course of the winter are taking their toll on our volunteers. This topic will be on the Minor Agenda this weekend as well as:

1. E-mail voting - Response 2. Complaints/How do we deal with them? / Response time 3. Novice Workshop Summary 4. Zone/Provincial Regulations 5. Zone/Provincial Hosts 6. NOM’s HNB Constitution 7. NOA’s to the Operations Manual 8. RIS Parent/Team Rosters - Missing certifications/Carding/Someone to Review 9. March Conference Call 10. May Face-to-Face

In closing, I would also like to thank everyone for their continued efforts. Thank you and Happy New Year.

iv. Elite Hockey Todd Pye

Elite Hockey continues to be busy. The EHC Semi-annual meeting was in Fredericton mid- December. We have another conference call the end of this month and a face-to-face meeting planned late February.

The EHC is working on the following:

1. First year evaluation of the Major Midget Franchises.

2. Pros and Cons of having an Elite Hockey Commission Registrar (first year).

3. Standardized Template for Team Budgets. 4. UNB Research Study.

5. Exceptional Player Status: • Female Hockey 6. 2018-19 HNB EHC Strategic Plan: • Peewee AAA (Number of teams) • Success of the Bantam Minor Program • 3-5 vision for Female Hockey at the Elite Level • Hockey NS’s Minor Midget Program

I would also like to thank everyone for their continued efforts and Happy New Year.

iv. Female Commission Anita Scott

This season we have three Midget AAA teams. They are playing out of the league. We are in hopes that PEI will join us next year and eventually we will be able to create a AAA league with all three provinces.

We have four Bantam AAA teams this season. They are playing out of the league in NB but are doing some exhibition weekends with PEI. We are also looking at having NS join in this with us next year to create the same league as Midget.

We have six female associations on the province this year. One association, Central, was unable to create any teams for this year but the rep in that area is still doing Esso Fun days and other female events in hopes that next season they will have teams in their area. SEFHA has created two zones to house their teams. River Valley and Miramichi continue to run as they have in the past. Western Valley, one of our new associations, has three teams and hopes to expand on that next year.

Miramichi and SEFHA teams play in coed leagues in their areas. The rest of the associations and coed associations that host female teams play out of the SNL. This league is struggling to find volunteers to run it so it is being run by the members involved in the league. This is going well.

We requested to be able to host Jamborees throughout the season from the board and were granted permission to do so. So far, we have had one. It was hosted in Moncton in December. It was a U13 run jamboree. There were fifty-four girls present. We hope to host another one in March. The vision we see for this is to see the talent that will be coming up through into our U 15 and Bantam AAA programs for the coming years. We would like to see if NS and PEI would be interested in putting the same sort of events on in the future. Our vision would be for the three provinces to create teams to play each other a couple times throughout the season to see the development we are all creating. We are still looking at creating a new structure to have female run under female. We will continue to work on this structure to hopefully implement within the next couple of seasons.

v. Development Commission Ron Arbeau

1. IP FUNdamental Demo Days – Our second season where HNB staff will go to associations and demonstrate best practices for our IP coaches. Players will receive an HNB jersey and coaches who help out on the ice will receive a hat. We will also be discussing IP/Novice operations at the Regional meetings.

We have currently held 12 IP demo days across the province with one more scheduled early 2018.

2. Skills Camps – We hosted 8 skills camps in the 2016-17 season and have hosted 4 to start the 2017-18 season. We are currently working to secure 3 all female camps over March break. Locations we are currently working with are Keswick, Moncton, and Miramichi.

3. LTPD – will continue to work with all associations on the LTPD Model.

4. Specialty Clinics – we will be offering specialty clinics this season for those associations that request them. We will be offering checking, shared-ice, Developing Defenceman, skating/skills clinic, and Goaltending. Currently we have held a Goaltending level 1 clinic in Fredericton and will be hosting more clinics in 2018.

5. Sledge Hockey – we hosted a weekend jamboree last season with Quebec, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. We will look to take part in this again this coming season. Currently working on an event in late January which will be similar to last year with other provinces attending.

6. Male & Female Under 13 Program – We hosted both a Male and Female U13 development camp this year. The male was in May and the Female in August. These were a huge success with 70-80 players attending each group. They were all skill and small area based and we will be continuing with this program going forward. We are planning to host both events this year in May on the same weekend.

7. Coach Clinics – Coach Clinic season has completed. We had a total of 17 Coach 2 Clincs (457 Attendees), 1 Coach 1 Clinic (85 Attendees), and 5 Development 1 Clinics (71 Attendees).

8. High Performance Program – We made some changes with the layout of our Hockey Development Festival this summer in adding a practice as well as some more tests on the fitness side of things. We also developed a curriculum for the coaches to follow to ensure this camp develops our High Performance athletes throughout our entire process. This was very well received with our coaching staffs.

9. Novice Hockey – The Commission worked hard to develop some playing guidelines for both IP and Novice which were circulated to the membership in October.

vii. Junior Commission Bernie Leger

I attended the Hockey Canada Congress in Ottawa in Nov., it was a pleasant experience.

In Junior hockey the World Junior A Hockey Championship was hosted in Truro N.S. I watched the finals between Team Canada West and U.S, the Canada won 5- 1 the Canada East Team finished in 5th place which was very respectable, former Junior A player with the originally from New Minas N.S. has been chosen to play for Team Canada at the 2018 World Junior Championship in Buffalo.

The move of the former Dieppe Commandos to Edmundston looks very positive as far as the standings and the support they get, only issue we no longer have a Junior A Team in the Moncton area this is certainly a setback for this region.

We had discussions about 16 year old players wanting their release from a junior A Team as there was a player with that wanted to go back to his Midget Team in Moncton he eventually did so we said we would review the 16 year old agreement for the MJHL in the New year.

Two Players from the MHL have been chosen to participate in the CHL Prospect Game for team East on Jan 23rd in Mississauga Ont., Evan White of the St. Stephen Aces and Logan O’Neil of

Junior B is running well with the interlocking with PEI works great some games will need to be made this was due to University exams and snow storm. I have sent the proposed changes to the DJC which we discussed at the Winter Congress in Ottawa to the 3 NB Teams which we will review at the HNB Semi Annual Meetings for comments and changes if any, I believe that in April at the DJC which is hosted by the Kameron Junior Minors in Memberto N.S. the agreement will be finalized and ratified .

The Junior C division of the NBJHL is also doing well some games will need to be made up this was due to snow storm but I am sure they are working hard to make this happen. The Maritime Championship is being hosted in PEI by the South Side Lynx , April 4 – 8 2018 .

XI. REGIONAL OPERATIONS COUNCIL All REPORTS Jacques Poitras i. ROC 1

Minor: Luc and the association presidents are doing a good job. Issue in the fall was mostly around registrations in rural areas (Haut-Madawaska and Restigouche West). Overall, registration would be higher than last year if we were to include NBIAA (St-Quentin has a team this season and did not last year). Respect in sport was well managed once again this year. Shared ice being implemented for IP levels, and jamborees started last week-end. Novice and atom (rec) are playing their games within the district. Pee-Wee to Midget, they continue the partnership with District 2 and it seems to be working well thanks to all the effort put in by Luc, Mark, Craig and Doug. Canadian Tire First Shift was not a success with a low number of registrations. Feeling is maybe to apply / host every 2 years. Question of timing always comes-up (would prefer earlier). I had a discussion with one member involved to see if a “floor ball” program in September would be a better tool to recruit. Waiting to hear back.

Female: Not a lot of activity with low registration in female association. All girls playing in boys teams within home association. Skills sessions are organized for female. Group continues to work on ways to recruit girls to hockey and they are still planning on having a female hockey camp next fall.

Senior: League is well balanced. Only 7 points separates first and seventh place with about 7 games left for each teams. St-Basile is more competitive than last season and Grand-Falls is struggling to get enough players even for home games. St-Basile and St-Jacques have seen lower attendance to games more than likely due to Junior starting this season. With playoff starting soon, they expect attendance to increase again.

Officials: Marc Ouellet and his group have hosted many clinics in the fall. Registration is down slightly. One region seems to have more issues to recruit and retain officials. Marc is working hard to help out.

EDZA: Pee-Wee and Bantam minor are having good seasons. Bantam major is struggling a little but remains competitive. Works on-going for the Bell Altantic Pee-Wee AAA in April.

Junior: Blizzard is the right name… they came out strong and everybody is talking about them. New facility, new level of hockey, great partnership with the community. Add all those ingredients and it’s a success. Of course, the winning record does help. They also contributed to raise hockey awareness in the region and Edmundston has seen many new registrations in October/November.

ii. ROC 2 Dawn Shaw

All hockey in ROC 2 is going well with little to no issues reported.

Minor Overall our minor membership has remaining the same throughout the district.

Our Novice initiative has gone very well again this season. Our model has been sent nationally through a Novice working group and the response has been positive. Several other provinces are adopting similar models for Novice hockey.

Was some struggle with one of our associations with an Association President being removed but replacement found and things are progressing without further issues.

Start-up was a slight struggle with disputed over player move requests but once settled all associations now are operating smoothly.

The First Shift Program held out of Woodstock had 26 participants with 4 of 6 ice sessions completed. It was once again a very positive experience and resulted in a few additional minor hockey registrants. We look forward to applying and holding another session next season.

Officials Number of officials remained about the same and have had a decent season start. No major issues to report.

We do have a female official we are looking to get further exposure to more levels of hockey with the Atlantic Challenge Cup. Also, looking to expose more officials to Level 3 clinic with potential for ROC funding support toward costs.

Female We now have a female association, Western Valley Female Hockey Association. It its inaugural season there is 1 Pee Wee, 1 Bantam and 1 Midget team with all 3 teams playing out of the Southern New Brunswick Female League. Games and practices hosted in Woodstock, Hartland, Florenceville-Bristol and Perth-Andover. There have been some difficulties getting regular ice schedule but the communities have been helpful in assisting by offering any ice time turned back by other user groups.

WMHA offered early ice time to WVFHA which allowed for 6 weeks of programming and allowed for exposure to new players and coaches/volunteers.

We hosted an Esso Fun Day in September which included office session and information on equipment and on ice sessions targeted towards new players of all ages. Experienced players from the WVFHA volunteered to be group leaders and on ice demonstrators. There were 23 players registered for the day and roughly 80% then registered with WMHA, CMHA and WVFHA.

Further plans are for community awareness and fundraising opportunities for WVFHA. Plus, continued promotion of HNB Female opportunities including U14, U16 and U18 development camps and female officiating training.

Junior Games in Junior C with Western Valley Panthers are going well with mostly good competition. Might be a consideration to re-evaluate whether the Southern Sting should be at B team going forward. However, everything seems to be going well.

Plans are being made with approval for Panthers to host the Maritime Hockey North Championships in 2019 at Ayr Motor Centre in Woodstock.

Senior Very few issues to report. Brian Shaw frequently speaks with Andy Savoy and as of yet nothing requested for help.

Caliber of the hockey and entertainment of Senior game is the region is impressive.

There is a pending player eligibility/categorization dispute in process but awaiting league resolution.

Otherwise, all is good in the Senior hockey world.

iii. ROC 3 Neil Jacobson

ROC 3 held its first meeting in early fall and second meeting in December with a full agendas. The season started strong with a solid turn out for new officials and a new female association set to begin. A new arena in Doaktown is also promising.

The Central Female Hockey Association became operational with a skeleton crew of board members in the summer of 2017. While meetings were held regularly over the summer months to keep people motivated for success there were not many active members driving the association. Registration was held in September for all age groups and ice time was secured at the Tri-County Complex. Open ice skills sessions were held with the hope to draw more interest. By the start of minor hockey in all associations, the only age group close to forming a team within CFHA was Bantam. Given the disappointing results, it was agreed at the December ROC meeting that the Chair would send a letter to the CFHA president requesting their strategic plan. During follow-up correspondence, it was learned that most executive had resigned and its president was going to leave in January 2018. It will be back to the drawing board to help the association and determining how we grow the female game in the capital region.

District 3 officiating has been very strong from the ongoing development of experienced officials to the recruitment of many new officials. Close to 60 new officials participated in level 1 clinics in Fredericton. Many new officials are only getting 1 or 2 games a week given the high number. There are regular on ice skills sessions for official in FYHA. The ROC has secured some funding to support the ongoing development of officials who are advancing their levels. The Junior Rep. has noted that they have some concerns about officials not taking control of situations/altercations on the ice. This has lead to some further altercations and suspensions. The Junior league appears to be running well. All teams are pleased with the season to date. Tri County has put in to once again host the Maritime North Championships 2018-19.

There is nothing to report on Senior hockey locally.

Kevin Pottle has joined the ROC as the Development Representative. In 2018, we will be a very positive year young athletes and coaches in District 3 with Kevin’s background. Kevin has been involved in the HNB Development Committee meeting working to develop guidelines for the introduction of IP and Novice Programs in the province keeping in line with Hockey Canada direction; Development Weekend – provided some suggestions to Keswick Valley and North York regarding possible resources. I also met with the General Manager and Technical Director of FYHA to discuss a format and plan that could be followed along with possible personnel; and, Representing HNB and the Development Commission as part of the New Brunswick Quality Sport Initiative initial meeting focussing on the development of a Strategic Plan looking at long term player development.

There are four new minor hockey association presidents within District 3 including FYHA, OMHA, GLMH, and Central Female. Registration numbers are steady and the season has been going well.

ROC 3 has received its funding this year. Funds received area focused in the area of Administration, Leadership and Training.

Finally, I would like to that the members of ROC 3 for their commitment and tireless efforts in building the game. Neil Jacobson, Chair, ROC 3

iii. ROC 4 Barry Farnsworth

Objectives

Organization & Administration • Provide support as needed towards success of HNB’s Strategic Plan o Each ROC member has been provided a copy of the Strategic Plan. Its contents are reviewed annually and our next ROC meeting will include our NB Sport and Recreation Consultant to identify specific plans / objectives / tasks for our Region. • Maintain regular communication with Council and Commission members within the Region o Regular quarterly ROC meetings are being held and the next meeting is scheduled for January 17, 2018.

Leadership Training • Provide support / resources for players o Looking for feedback from local minor associations to identify needs • Provide support / resources for officials o Work in progress • Provide support for skill development clinics for leaders / coaches o Work in progress.

Athlete Development • Support development opportunities to grow the membership base and increase participant opportunities o Efforts continue through Top Corner program to expand its reach and numbers through sponsorships and awareness. v. ROC 5 Maurice Thériault

Minor Hockey

• Reports indicate that all Central Leagues and Recreational Leagues in our area are running smoothly. Playoffs are starting soon. • Everything is going smoothly in the zone. The players registration on the HNB-HC System has been approved and also all the team's affiliations. • The annual Timbit Jamboree is coming up at the Coliseum January 12-14 and players from Districts 6 & 7 all have fun in attending a Wildcats game. Monies raised are distributed to local Community Clubs. Special thanks are extended to Tim Horton for their immense contribution in our area. • All our teams in EDZHA East are enjoying a great season. Playoffs just around the corner.

Female

• Both the Bantam and Midget AAA Rockets female teams are doing extremely well. • The DQ largest Female hockey tournament is being hosted January 4-7. Eighty six Female teams are participating in all divisions.

Referees

• The officials are very busy in the Moncton and surrounding area. • We have the largest numbers of registered officials in the province.

Senior and Junior

• Both Junior and senior hockey in the region are going well.

Development:

• Many coaching clinics were held thus far in our region and they were well attended.

vi. ROC 6 Mike Rutter

MINOR The 2017-18 season got off on the wrong foot when a controversy erupted with the North Shore Hockey League over the Miramichi Atom Comp. team. A formal complaint was issued by the Acadia-Penn organization.....the Miramichi was believed to be too strong, and the manner in which the two teams from District 8 were selected came into dispute. Bottom line, the Miramichi Atom team has withdrawn from the North Shore league, and will begin as part of the Central Atom League commencing in January. Likely more to come...... Registration numbers are down approx. 7% from last season in the District 8 area, from 740 to 687. However the younger age groups are on the rise in Miramichi, 42 first year IP players, and 40 more 4 year olds in the system looks promising for future growth in Miramichi. The outlying areas are not quite as rosy, the IP and Novice numbers continue a slight decline. The District 8 ‘C’ League is off and running, a full slate of teams from Atom thru Bantam, and the competition appears to be excellent. Once again there is no Midget classification, the high schools in Miramichi, Sunny Corner and Blackville have absorbed what players were available. Both Miramichi and Rogersville have fielded a team in the North Shore Midget ‘C’ league. The Christmas break is upon us, many teams have entered tournaments over the holiday period. Miramichi will be hosting the Ivan Matchett tournament for ‘C’ league players commencing on December 27th.

There has been a marked improvement in the parent participation portion of the Respect in Sport. Although 51 players have been released from their rosters, there were 178 released at the same time last year...... painful progress is being made.

JUNIOR The Timberwolves have performed well and currently sit in second place in their division. Still not happy with attendance for home games but are working at it. The Sunny Corner Thunder are currently in last place in their division but have noticed an increase in attendance. The Thunder are looking forward to a stronger finish with a more consistent roster as they push to move up in the standings.

FEMALE The GMFHA has one Atom and one PeeWee team both operating out of Sunny Corner. Congratulations to the PeeWee team on winning the trip to Ottawa and also winning a Silver medal. On the Elite side we have girls participating in Bantam and Midget categories.

SENIOR There is 1 team participating at the Senior level in ROC 6, the Baie-St. Anne Navigators. They participate in the Acadia-Chaleur Senior League and are currently in 5th place. Some concerns have been brought up regarding officiating as of late.

OFFICIALS There is no officials report due to the death of Scott Mckay. The Miramichi hockey community has lost one of it’s valued members and he will be sorely missed. Justin Waye will be Scott’s replacement for the rest of the year.

vii. ROC 7 Daniel Roussel

Meeting: We meet as a group on October 26. We got an email meeting in November and phone meeting in December. Our next face to face meeting is planned for Thursday January 25 in Bathurst. I welcome Luc Foulem as the new district director in district 10.

Minor Hockey: Minor hockey is going on. We got two new president for BMHA and AHMBDC and a new president for the NSMHL. Tournaments were held in BDC, Bathurst and Néguac regions. Those tournaments went well with no major problems. Many tournaments would be held in January and February at atom, pee wee and bantam level in Acadian Peninsula. We got problems recruiting teams at the competitive and C levels in Pee wee tournament in the Acadian Peninsula. For the HNB week end, we had a skills clinics in Bathurst. In the Acadian Peninsula regions, we held a stick handling and shooting clinics for competitive players in Caraquet; a stick handling clinic for C players in Shippagan and Tracadie. We held a goalie clinics for ROC 7 in Tracadie. We got a goaltending clinic in conjunction with the Titan running from November to febuary.

Minor hockey teams: Competitive teams: C teams Atom 3 teams 9 teams Pee Wee 3 teams 7 teams Bantam 3 teams 5 teams Midget 0 team 6 teams

We got one community hockey program going on in the Acadian Peninsula based of Tracadie. For development hockey, we got 2 pee wee teams, 1 bantam minor team between Miramichi and Acadian-Peninsula, 1 bantam minor between Restigouche and Chaleur, 1 bantam major, 1 bantam female, 1 midget female and 1 major midget team for EDZA North. Bantam minor provincial tournament would be held in Shippagan and Lameque on the week end of March 16-18, 2018.

Senior hockey: Acadie Chaleur league has decided to join Hockey New Brunswick. With the lost of Lamèque team, we recruit 5 teams at senior level (Chaleur, Caraquet, Tracadie, Shippagan and Néguac). That it’s a big plus for our ROC.

Officials: They were 6 clinics held in ROC 7. We got around the same numbers of referees registered as last year in Acadian Peninsula and a little increase in Chaleur.

Clinics: Coaching Clinics: Coach stream were held in Lameque and Bathurst.

Goals for 2017-2018 - Implementation of half for initiation and Novice in ROC 7. (Rink dividers in all the regions)

- Skills clinics for players and goaltenders

- Retention of players - Retention of volunteers (better formation)

- Make sure all parents got their respect in sports

viii. ROC 8 Todd Williams

Happy New Year everyone! Hope everyone brought in the New Year safe ,happy, and healthy. Brian Arseneault has arranged two I.D. camps in our area as well as meetings with parents. Once again there appears to be much parental interest for female hockey in our area, and we will continue to work to give the female players in our area,the opportunity to play Female Hockey.

Brian has been discussing ice time with RNMHA, and there is a possibility that RNMHA will provide ice time for Female Hockey once every second week.

Brian has also stated that there are females from our neighboring Chaleur area that also has shown interest in playing Female Hockey. There was discussion about having a Draft tourni over Christmas for our players and the Chaleur Players, but details could not be finalized. Jeremy Irvine said that they are short staffed this year. Jeremy stated that although they have one new official this year, they have 4 officials from last year that did not return(2 young officials, two adult officials).

Jeremy stated that he hopes to send one of his Senior Officials to the Supervisor Clinic in Moncton on the weekend of January 13,2018.

Bobby Frees attended the Hockey Canada meetings this past November, as HNBs' representative for Senior Council.

In ROC#8, Bobby also arranged a Coaches 2 clinic, which had 15 participants. He also arranged the Development Clinic that was given to coaches in EDZA North.

Eric Pelletier stated things are going well with his duties as Minor Director. Eric stated that there were only a couple of new parents who had not completed the "Respect in Sports", and a message was sent to RNMHA. Eric believes that all of our parents did finally complete this requirement, because he did not receive any notification that the Association had to remove players from their rosters.

Sterling continues to be an important resource for the JR.A Tigers. The Junior A Tigers are continuing to have a decent year in the MHL. Fan support has been good, and there has been a very positive vibe in the area in relation to the Tigers. Best Wishes to everyone in the New Year.