Annual General Meeting - Tuesday, November 27th

This is a reminder that our AGM is scheduled for next Tuesday, November 27th, starting precisely at 7:00pm (doors open at 6:30) in the Esplanade Room at the Harry Jerome Arena (the room that sits above the ice surface at the east end of the rink.) This is your best opportunity to have a say in the operations of your inline hockey league.

The Annual General Meeting is a requirement of the provincial government that all not-for-profit societies must conduct each year. It's an important meeting that shows the collective strength of the organization, so we encourage all members to participate by coming together for what is planned to be a one-hour event. In the past few years, we have had as many as 70 members attend. Of course, we know that some of you come for the $20-per-child discount that we offer (especially those with more than one child in the league), but we also know that many of you come to support the volunteer board of directors in trying to make this a better league year after year.

You should have received formal notice of the event last week via email. The attachments provided in that email are important documents that will be discussed in the course of business at the AGM, so please print them out and prepare questions if you have concerns or need clarification. If you did not receive the email and would like to access those documents, please email Scott Cronshaw at .

Please register early in January (registrations are scheduled to open January 2nd). Last season we had to wait-list lots of returning players who failed to take advantage of the early notice. In some cases, former players missed the entire season because there was no room left for them. Online registrations are processed on a first-received, first-served basis, so failing to register early can leave your child on the outside looking in. With record-number registrations last year, we are anticipating that the league is going to fill in record time this year.

If you have 500 square feet of year-round, dry, lockable storage space that you don't know what to do with, we have put money aside in our 2008 operating budget for storage rental. Please contact Ruben, the NSIHL Equipment Manager, at .

There are still some ‘rogue’ league jerseys and goalie equipment lurking in the hockey bags of some members and they need to find their way back home to us. If every member could sneak a quick peek into that bag (it should be dry by now!) and let us know if you find something that looks like it belongs to the league, it will be very much appreciated. It’s expensive to have to go out and buy a whole new set of team jerseys because a couple of them are missing. Please contact League Manager, Greg Crompton, at .

While you’re checking out your child’s equipment for league jerseys, please keep in mind that we will be conducting our league swap meet in the Spring again, a few weeks before the league begins. This is the perfect time to set aside a box of outgrown equipment that can be recycled through the inline hockey community, saving other members some money from having to buy new, and turning that into cash in your pocket. The league’s % share of sales for running the swap meet then goes into subsidizing registration fees for those children who might not otherwise be able to afford playing inline.

We are looking for an experienced ‘hockey person’ to help represent the NSIHL on the board of directors of the BC Inline Hockey Association. If you would like to find out more about this opportunity, please contact our League President, Mike Smith, at .

Our older boys’ teams stood out at the provincial championships near Victoria in late June, bringing home the champion’s trophies in the Peewee AAA, Peewee AA and Bantam AAA divisions. Our younger players in the Mite and Squirt divisions added some silver to the medal haul. In mid-July, things reversed as we saw our Mite team take gold and the Squirts take silver at the national championship tournament near Edmonton.

As the national tournament conflicted with the dates for the North American championships in Florida, several of our teams decided to head south. Once again, we weren’t disappointed as our Bantam-aged girls’ team, Mission Outrageous, brought home the gold and bronze in the Girls’ Platinum and the Women’s Gold divisions respectively.

Congratulations to all of the players and coaches who participated in these prestigious tournaments; they worked hard in fundraising and did the NSIHL proud. Thanks go out to the parents too, who sacrificed a lot of time, effort and money in preparing for and travelling to the various tournament locations.