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 Canada. 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 Hockey Canada 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 Allan Cup – 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 baseball. 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.