AUCKLAND ICE HOCKEY ASSOCIATION INC. 2017 ANNUAL REPORT 2017 Annual Report Contents List of AIHA Officials Page 3 President’s Report Page 4 Vice President’s Report Page 5 Director of Finance’s Report Page 6-7 Head Coach’s Report Page 8-9 League 2 Report Page 10 League 1 Report Page 11 Senior Non-Check Report Page 12-14 Director of Ice Hockey’s Report Page 15 Director of Administration’s Report Page 16 Director of Marketing & CoMMunication’s Report Page 17 Referee-in-Chief’s Report Page 18 NZ Representatives Page 19 2 | Page 2017 Annual Report 2017 Board of Directors President: Tony Vesper Vice President: Paul Taillon Secretary: Mary Alice Simon Director of Finance: Mark BialiK Director of Learn to Play: Sheree Anderson Director of League 2: Jenn Jones & Janet Kidd Director of League 1: Wayne Curtis Director of Senior Non-Check Hockey: Karl Peni Director of Ice Hockey: Chad Croft Director of Administration: Chris Kelly Director of Marketing & Communication: Carl McIntyre 2017 Non-Executive Officers Head Coach: Csaba Kercso-Magos Referee-in-Chief: Al Tamepo Funding Coordinator: Maxine Corbett Equipment Manager: Ali Arandjus NZIHF Delegates: Tony Vesper Wayne Curtis 3 | Page 2017 Annual Report President’s Report – Tony Vesper Well, 2017 the initial focus for this season for the Board was to work towards delivering the best Ice Hockey we could to our players across all age ranges. Although we have had some issues, we feel that largely we have delivered on this goal with increased training time across league 1 and 2 and additional time for LTP on a Sunday morning. We are currently working towards tweaking this to improve it for next year. Financially viability was also top of mind. Having taken over the role last season with the bank accounts not in the best shape, we knew we had to watch the purse strings for 2017 but still deliver a quality product to our players without increased cost. I’m happy to say we have stabilised the ship and defiantly turned a corner in the control and our expenditure. The board is already working hard around the 2018 season looking for improvement in the standard of hockey and game time we deliver to our members. We welcome feedback for both parents and players as to how we can improve. The board: well what can I say? This group of parents and supporters have worked tirelessly throughout the season to achieve the best results I could have expected with untold hours of behind the scenes work to work on schedules, website rebuilds, updating player info, fundraising, managing finance, scheduling referees and scorebench, etc. The list is endless and it has been an absolute pleasure working with a dedicated team who have worked so diligently to grow our sport and ensure our kids have the best time and memories they can from a sport we all love. Congratulations to all those who played rep hockey this season. We achieved some great results and also huge congratulations to those who have achieved the honour of NZ selection. To those players, we say wear your jersey with pride and remember the hours and dollars your parents coaches and teammates have invested to help you achieve your goal. And finally, to the parents the endless trips to the rinks for games trainings off ice … thank you as without your commitment to the sport none of our kids would be learning and enjoying this amazing game. All the best for the rest of 2017 and I look forward to working with you all in 2018. Tony Vesper President 4 | Page 2017 Annual Report Vice President’s Report – Paul TaiLLon This was my second year on the Board and I think I can say that the 2016-2017 Board probably was one of the most successful in AIHA history. Every position, both elected and ex-officio, was filled and the people in those roles approached their job with commitment to building the sport of ice hockey in Auckland from the ice-up. I was especially impressed with the sense of team spirit and the variety of skills board members brought to their portfolios. As a result, no one was overburdened and the Board achieved a number of accomplishments, which will feature in the following board-member reports. As Vice-President, I looked after health and safety matters this season. My work in this area focused mainly on overseeing the implementation of policies the Board approved in 2016. I am happy to report that in the key area of on-ice safety, especially coaches wearing helmets during trainings—a major culture-shift for some of our coaches—we had almost universal buy-in. I have noticed a coach or two who have yet to wear their helmets consistently, so continued reminders will be necessary to ensure 100% compliance. Although the adoption of health and safety policies, as well as youth protection policies and codes of conduct, has been an important step forward in 2016 and 2017, there remain a number of areas in need of further development and implementation. Going forward into the 2017-2018 season, the Board will create a new ex- officio position of Health and Safety Officer. I also worked with the Director of Ice Hockey to draft and distribute codes of conduct for coaches and players. With these codes, the Board aims to set out standards of safe conduct and good sportsmanship for all members of our AIHA community. Turning to our club leagues, I would like to acknowledge our league directors Janet Kidd, Jen Jones, and Wayne “Spider” Curtis and all coaches and managers for their hard work this year. In the SNC program, Karl Peni deserves special mention for delivering another successful season. Auckland representative teams AIHA enjoyed a successful season the junior national leagues this year. The U14s turned in a 9-1-0 (one overtime loss) season and brought home the NZPIHL gold medal. The U17s struggled a bit this year with eight wins and six losses (two in overtime). Last year’s U20s finished in December 2016 with a convincing twelve-win season. The Women’s Representative team went 12-0 and brought home the NZWIHL gold medal. I would like to thank all representative coaches and managers for their dedication and hard work this year. As in the 2016 season, 2017 costs associated with national league competition remain a concern. The AIHA delegates to the NZIHF executive committee have pressed this issue and will continue to do so in 2018. Disciplinary I had no formal disciplinary matters to deal with in 2017. I would like to close by thanking my fellow board members for a very successful 2017 season. I look forward to building upon these achievements in 2018. Paul Taillon Vice-President 5 | Page 2017 Annual Report Director of Finance’s Report – Mark BiaLik Introduction: We have had lots of changes in the finance area. A lot of focus has been on preparing the 2016 financial accounts and checking how everything has been working in 2017 so that we could make necessary improvements as we went. People: Director of Finance – Mark resigned in October 2017, he held the position since March 2016. The position is currently vacant with it being filled in by board members as needed. Bookkeeper – We changed bookkeepers in February 2017, then again in July 2017. Income: We have continued to use Clubhub as our member database and invoicing sytem, along with Xero as our accounting system. We have gained a greater understanding of how the interface between Clubhub and Xero works which has helped with the accuracy of invoices. We no longer have issues around direct deposits into the bank account as these are being recorded regularly and this information is updating on Clubhub. This in turn has led to better accuracy for debt collection of League and Rep fees. At this point, we have $4,687 left to collect …. Some of which relates to the Womens League & U20s which starts in October and rolls into the 2018 financial year. At the beginning of term 1 we introduced the admission card system for Learn To Play. We have received good feedback from members as the transparency of paying as you go has benefited everyone. It has eliminated some of the Clubhub confusion for our newest members and has meant there is greater controls around payment of Learn To Play fees. These improvements are reflected in the increase in Learn To Play income recorded in 2017. Grants: We have been able to gain funding from: • Trust Community Foundation $15k • Four Winds Foundation $7k • Grassroots Grant $20k (in conjunction with Botany Swarm) • NZIHF for Ice Time for Skills Challenge & Womens Have a Go Day • NZIHF for Learn To Play Gear Expenses: Overall expenses are being closely monitored. We have had monthly meetings to approve invoices but we have found for some expense reimbursements or payments to officials it would be helpful to have a quicker process of approval. We have been trialling ways of speeding up the approval process over the last month and this will continue to evolve. Audit: We completed the 2016 audited accounts in September 2017 … the accounts for the year ending 31st October 2017 will be sent to the accountants this month and we hope to clear the audit process before Christmas. Cashflow: We have made some major improvements with cashflow through the changes discussed earlier. After paying the October Accounts Payable, we estimate that this year we will have $20,000 to cover the November ice time for Senior Non-Check & Learn To Play, Coaching, Accounting & Audits fees … all these invoices will require payment before the 2018 Season Registrations start next year.