HURL membership meeting
November 12, 2003
Agenda
1. Approval of the agenda (Paul Reed)
2. Statement of the meeting purpose (Todd MacAulay)
3. Review of the mandate from the last AGM (Todd MacAulay)
4. Non-profit organization status update (Paul Reed)
5. Presentation of the HURL by-laws and business plan (Kandace Terris)
6. League update (Mike McAllister)
7. Financial update (Ed Fong / Kandace Terris)
8. Any other business (Paul Reed)
In attendance: Todd MacAulay, Mike McAllister, Paul Reed, Kandace
Terris, 21 other HURL members (more arrived as the meeting progressed)
Meeting called to order 7:24 pm
By-laws, business plans, and agendas were distributed prior to the
meeting start.
1. approval of agenda:
- add CnR update (Ed Fong)
- consider agenda approved now.
2. statement of meeting purpose and 3. review of the mandate from the last AGM
- Last year's AGM provided direction for the new exec: plan for
property and field ownership, become a member of Sport Nova Scotia,
become a non-profit organization. This is what the current exec has
been working towards.
- To become official, we need to create by-laws and a business plan,
register with the registry of joint stocks, get insurance, and then
apply to Sport Nova Scotia.
- This meeting is to update the membership on our status and timelines
and on the leagues. It is not an AGM. The budgets provided are not
the final ones nor is the information provided intended as financial
statements.
- We are moving the AGM to the summer. In the fall, it is a challenge
to get quorum. We want the whole membership to be involved so we will
change the AGM to when the membership is most active. Also, the shift
in AGM date will mean that the first duties of the new exec will be for
the smaller fall league rather than the larger summer league.
- The by-laws sets the year-end at the end of April. We have 3 months
after that to hold the AGM.
4. NPO status
- The membership told us to plan to buy land. For this, we need to
accumulate funds and protect ourselves (the exec). We were also told
to register with Sport Nova Scotia. All of these require that we be an
official organization, have by-laws, and have a business plan.
- The name search for the society is being done. After that, we must
file the appropriate papers. We expect this to happen over the next
couple of weeks.
- Rob Cowan is helping the exec with the by-laws.
5. by-laws and business plan
- The by-laws were put on the HURL web site last year for review and
again this year. Send us any comments that you may have (none were
received last year).
- The question was raised about requiring members to be 19 to be HURL
members and how this affected the by-laws. The exec discussed the
membership age. We need to see what other leagues have done for
younger players before we proceed. We can update our by-laws once we
have a solid plan in place. Junior members are certainly in our
long-range plans. The age of 19 was selected based on age of majority
law.
- Changing the by-laws can be accomplished at any meeting. It is
outside the scope of regular meeting events (listed in article 5.5) so
it falls under the scope of special business that would have to be
passed by special resolution. We would require quorum at the meeting
(article 5.6). Also, any group of HURL members can have a meeting
called (article 5.3) to handle events.
- To do any work with junior members, individuals need certification.
Without certification, HURL cannot help. We expect to get access to
the certification courses through Sport Nova Scotia once we are
registered with them.
- The by-laws provided are not official yet so we have a chance to
update them still. They become official when we file them as we form
the society.
Business plan
- The exec felt it necessary to have a business plan because of the
number of items for which the exec was responsible. We will need to
produce a business plan on a yearly basis. It provides us with the
opportunity to prioritize our activities.
- The current plan is for the fiscal year ending April 30, 2004 so some
of the items were recaps of what we have done already. We wanted to
provide it now to the membership so that they know our direction and
have time to give us feedback.
- In the promotion and growth category, co-ed ultimate is not mentioned
since it is well underway and doesn't need as much attention to grow.
Juniors was put on the long-term list rather than the immediate one
since we didn't see ourselves accomplishing much before the end of this
business plan. The list does not include touring teams since HURL
makes no claim of jurisdiction over touring teams.
- The business plan currently has a long-term section for things that
are important and we are looking for opportunities.
- Liane Johnston asked whether the money that HURL currently holds
could be better invested. The answer is that we cannot do investments
properly until we are an official society.
- Ramzi requested that we re-word the items on mens and womens ultimate
to be support the development of mens and womens programs.
- In the future, we may split out two societies: one for Halifax and
one for Nova Scotia, each with different membership and
representations. For now, there isn't the need.
6. League update
- Summer league has grown since last year. We have added one division
and 11 teams.
- We continued with what was started last year: allow teams to sign up
as a group. This summer, we had 25 out of 35 teams sign up as groups.
- Team sign-ups raises a problem that we need to fix: how do you get
new players involved in the Halifax scene? Hat teams are the current
option. We have enough men for the teams, but women are scarce.
- The summer league had planned to use the mainland commons fields and
used condensed games for B division as a temporary measure. However,
the mainland commons fields didn't become available until this fall.
- This fall we used the all-weather mainland commons fields, which
extended our playing time from the first week of October to November
6th. It also let us play in inclement weather.
- In the fall division, some of the teams, particularly hat teams, had
a hard time getting going and not defaulting.
- Winter league is looking to start on December 6th and end at the end
of March. We are looking to have 8 teams play for 1.5 hour games at
the Stadacona gym.
- With the Stadacona gym, players will need to sign-in to the base. We
will have a list of pick-up players for captains to draw from. If you
aren't on a team and aren't on the pick-up list then you won't be able
to sign into the base.
- The exec had not discussed whether or not players could split a
league fee for winter league. They will debate the pros and cons.
- There was a general discussion about the possibility of getting a
bubble over a field for winter. Apparently, Fredericton ultimate is
looking to divest itself of a bubble. Rumours also have it that Dal
might be interested in a bubble over Wickwire field. Gregor will keep
an eye out on coordinating Fredericton and Dal and keep us appraised of
any possibilities.
- Over the summer we went to online registration. For various reasons,
we did not go for online payments. In the end, the exec ended up
spending too much time chasing down payments. This process will have
to be fixed for next year.
- The exec gratefully acknowledges the help of many players over the
year. In particular, Rob MacLeod and Jacky Li ran the beginner
clinics, Mark Beasy and Claire Oswald were fall league convenors, and
Jason Sweeney will be helping out as a winter league convenor.
- Todd MacAulay spoke briefly about a chance of getting time back at
Exhibition Park. There has been another change in the management team
for Exhibition Park and Todd is trying to get in contact with them
again. We were cut out at the last minute last year. If we got back
in, it is likely that we would lose our seniority and would not get
enough time for the league this winter.
7. Financial update
- Ed Fong provided a statement of activity. This does not constitute
financial statements or final books.
- The league has brought in roughly $30,000 across its activities
including disc sales, jerseys, membership fees, and league fees. This
does not include CnR. Ed provided an overview of where the costs were,
reaching a total of approximately $17,000. This gives a rough profit
of $13,000 to add to the starting bank balance that was around
$13,000.
- From a tax standpoint, it is important that we earmark this money for
a specific purpose as a growth fund for fields or otherwise. As a
non-profit organization, we cannot make a profit unless it is targeted
for a specific purpose.
- If we eventually acquired fields and chose to rent them to others,
the income would have to come back into the society and be accounted
for somehow, such as field maintenance or for other projects like
organizing nationals.
- The audience raised the question about organizing Canadian Nationals.
- The next opportunity is to bid for the 2006 Nationals. The exec is
already talking to CUPA about it. CUPA is interested in hosting it
out East in Halifax. We said that we think that we could do the
organization but our fields need work so we're talking to the city
about them. As another alternative, we are looking at the Moncton
MUCBowl fields. The exec has been corresponding with Moncton folk
about it. Moncton thinks that they might get 10 to 12 fields in the
area and are developing more. They might be able to get another 6
fields through Mount Allison University. The issue from our end is
whether we want to attempt to have it in Halifax. If we coordinate it
with Moncton, what is our vs their responsibility. We would also want
to get Fredericton involved then too. CUPA people may want it more in
Halifax as an attraction for people from out west.
8. Any other business
- Catch 'n' Release update from Ed Fong.
- We had 16 teams including one US team. Total cash in was $4825. Ed
itemized the revenue and costs of the tournament resulting in an
anticipated surplus of about $590. The CnR committee will discuss what
to do with the surplus. The past practice of CnR had been to donate
any surplus to a local charity.
- We want to get the CnR party back into the Citadel next year.
Meeting adjourned at 9:05 pm.
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Winter League Registration |
Winter Indoor: Closed |
Pick-up: Open |
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