FPC Meeting April 19/09

heather cunningham wrote:

FPC Meeting April 19/09

From: heather cunningham [hezcunningham@hotmail.com]

Sent: April 19, 2009 7:32 PM

To: FPC

Subject: FPC Meeting April 19/09

Follow Up Flag: Follow up

Flag Status: Flagged

Attending:

Tom Goodwin, Heather Cunningham, Priscilla Yu, Adam Elliotson, Tim Muirhead, Brian Gardner. Skype Warren Scheffer, Cell phone Ray Henderson.

1. Craig and Greg are off the committee. Warren is putting together a list of specific rules so teams know consequences of actions that happen. There is a list on the website, but it needs to be more thorough. Warren requests input re: what has worked ad what has not worked. Discussed having more set rules ie: 5 min major you get set number of games. This is what they do in the edmonton league. True north has a list on their website we can use on their website.

Appeals can be submitted, but we need more internal guidelines to help efficiency when appeals are received.Plan would be to circulate a rule book to GMs over the summer.

2. Prepare FP agenda. Priscilla says monthly meetings to start. Once rule book is developed, go to quartely.

3. Adam is looking into FP star awards over all for each division.

4. Make FP website easier to navigate.

5. First game of the season FP greeters - also hand out player waivers and have them sign it then.

6. Incidents to be addressed:

Niagara Crystal Beach Comets:

-1 player yelled at being kicked out and "freaked" out. THis is similar to Cribbin's 2 game suspension.

- Next incident a player (Dustin) entered the penalty box to fight dom. Tom suggests 4 min suspension minimum for any 5 min major. Brian suggests that 5 minute major means there is an intent to injure. This should be taken seriously. There should be a "2 strikes rule"?. Ray will email them to say his is out for the season.

7. Morningstars: Paul Steenhuison - not allowed back next year. Brian to email them. Yelling at Ashley, swinging stick over boards at players.

8. Brian to email dirty grips. Warren suggests that the team is told to police the 2 individual status, failing which they will be dropped to exhibition status. Brian and I suggest the 2 guys (stef and jordie) are out. If not then they go to exhibition status. Warren thinks this may be too drastic, maybe we should email them to ask what they are going to do. Adam thinks they should just be gone as feedback all year in the dressing room has not changed them at all.

Note message from Sue Vanstone:

"CCCP plays them in the playoffs starting this weekend, and frankly I loathe the thought of these games cause some of those guys are totally nuts. There was a fight in our last game against them, and their on-ice behaviour has been totally inconsistent with the league's principles all season. I actually stayed off the ice for the last six minutes of our last game against them because their aggression was so elevated - not something I've ever done before."

Conclusion: Email dirty grips to change their attitude. Identify the 2 players that are "cancerous". Tell them their full team membership is under review - based on what they are going to do about it, timeline til end of May.

9. Porcs and Lads also have high PIM.

10. Brian suggests at start of each season having a conversation with the refs about what we expect from them. He also suggests the timekeeper talk to refs after each game to pick out problem players.

11. Shane Nuttley: Game misconduct last night - shot puck after buzzer. Needs a min. 2 games susp.

Actions to be done:

1. Rule Book - Warren

2. Season Opener Greetings - all

3. Ray to email Niagara after we get emails from them. Tell them the 2 players in question don't dress again.

4. Brian to email Dirty Grips. (Adam will email their names)

5. Need someone to be the person who communicates with the league.

6. Brian to Email Easy Co. re Shane Nuttley 2 games.

Fairplay Meeting December 2, 2008

Attendance:

Priscilla Yu, Adam Elliotson, Tom Goodwin, Heather Cunningham, Warren Sheffer, Greg Simone.

Missing: Craig Barnes, Dan Hickox, Luis Freitas, Jen Sek

Communication:

Among FPC

-quick e-mail access/communication is a must.

Between FPC and players/teams/league

-create a comprehensive spreadsheet for all league contacts (post to Google docs with access for admin only).

*Tom has a googledoc that he shares with Julie Martin and Jen Pearce (stats and book keeping people) that he can share with the FPC. Greg suggests having ONE spreadsheet to contain all info eg logged events, demerit points, who their manager and team are etc. Tom is planning to have a player database in the future. It will be set up where certain people are privileged to different levels of information. It is being built now – Heather should be able to add certain info to it to get started.

There is concern with people’s names being on the website – other aspects of life eg jobs etc could search them and see this info. It might be necessary to have agreement on each player agreement to authorize their name and info to be on the internet. If they don’t want to, they should email us to be removed. Warren suggests league members be given access to some googledocs groups, with a “soft” statement that they don’t share info with anyone outside of the league. Other option is to keep info closed to FPC, make it accessible to who wants to see it, as asked for.

For now, info re Fairplay should be pulled off the internet. Priscilla will print it off and attempt to delete it. She will put it on googledocs and restrict access to FPC. Then email GMs with other memos from this meeting re the changing.

FPC Executive (Membership, etc):

1. Currently: potential new members should come out to the first available meeting to get a feel for the issues and processes we manage. If they feel they can contribute and the FPC feel they can contribute constructively, they will be permitted to join. If necessary, the FPC may discuss and review the contributions of various members to ensure they are contributing constructively (we should establish a system for this).

*This isn’t necessarily a priority but should be established in the future.

2. If the issue arises that another member wishes to chair the committee, perhaps this option should be made available by some democratic means (like a vote amongst the executive).

*For now, Greg is chair. If he needs to stop (time issues) OR a member or members feel he is no longer suited for the position, a new nominee can be voted in.

*When we work making the committee better known. Perhaps we should have team reps more openly invited to each FPC meeting. Also we could share info re decision process with them. Likely this should be the GM. We will post meeting minutes as a googledoc and send an email to GMs.

Meetings:

Greg suggests 3 or 4 meetings per year. Late August, Mid season and Easter.

FPC members’ roles:

Greg (chair): rule development, initiating review process and meetings, initial ruling on incidents.

Heather: leading investigation, communication with teams/players, presenting information and opinions during review process, logging (and recalling histories/records of players).

Priscilla: leading investigation, communication with teams/players, presenting information and opinions during review process.

Warren: assisting with rule development, legal consultation.

Dan: communicating with game officials, presenting information and opinions during review process.

Jen: consultant.

Tom (convenor): oversee FPC operation, consultant.

Craig: communicating with game officials, assisting with rule development, presenting information and opinions during review process, consultant.

Adam: Director of positive incentives (Dopi). Will take care of tallying FP stars and will select winners at the end of the year. Dan or timekeeper will have each GM pick a FP star from the opposing team.

Adam will start a game report checklist. He will email the FPC to establish what criteria we want on it.

Luis: MIA

What we need:

-1 or 2 members that will spearhead fun and positive FPC initiatives (come up with positive incentives for players, help with development of FP hockey pool?)

*heather scanlan can make fairplayer awards. Got 3 gift certificates for stampede for fairplay stars. Priscilla will ask Julie Martin if she can enter FP stars on each game report. See Adam’s role above.

-1 or 2 members that will take care of certain paperwork (hard or soft), such as creating incident reports, updating FPC news online, taking meeting minutes, etc.)

*Game report: Once established, timekeeper ask refs brief summary after each game.

- need someone to take on posting meeting minutes and contacting teams with our new developments. (Heather)

-Do we need more support in the area of logging? (development of league spreadsheet) – to happen with new system.

Piloting Demerit Points:

This season we will implement the demerit point system when issuing warnings and suspension, however, we will do this do this unofficially in order to gauge and assess its effectiveness. We’ll plan to commence the system officially next season, and apply retrofitted points (to 2 years) to suspended/warned players.

1. Should we continue to inform offending players of their points this season?

*we should start trying it out this year to see if we agree with the system. All teams need to be notified about the system and that it will be put into place next year.

*can ask for feedback from GMs.

2. How can we continue to discuss the system with the league community?

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Incident Reporting:

Web link/e-mail – make known more to GMs

Hard copy (timekeeper) – Adams log/report may take care of this

-We should only consider complaints that are initiated as complaints (not retaliatory complaints). Tom says someone being reviewed may have other input – Heather thinks all input deserves consideration. Greg said that we should at least have a window of time for such feedback. FPC agrees on that point. Further discussion to follow.

Investigation/Review/Ruling processes:

-discuss and establish specific roles of FPC members during the review process

*Need to be reported within a certain timeline.

Warnings/Suspensions:

-

Appeals:

-Appeals must be submitted to the FPC in the form of an e-mail letter (between 50-100 words? – perhaps call it “concise”? Greg may come up with something for this soon) within 48 hours of the ruling. *This should be added to our ruling letters.

-Appeals should only be considered if they are presenting new information or evidence.

-The FPC should be conservative in regards to modifying a ruling after an appeal? Hard to decide now, may be case by case. But we do need new information presented.

-Anything can be appealed, but should we have a format? Warren and Greg will try to establish this.

Logging:

New system may start later

Greg mentioned:

Spoke to Craig Barnes re ‘grey area’ reffing calls, ie if puck hits goalie in the head, should play be whistled dead. This is an international hockey rule, not a CHL rule. Some feel this should be left to the ref – depends on status of goalie. This should be discussed later.

Players in the crease: Dan McNeil calls if a player is in the crease, play is blown dead, faceoff outside. This is after one warning to get out of the crease. Perhaps we should adopt this rule from International rules officially.

A goalie shooting puck over the glass? Dan McNeil thinks to make it a call everytime. Craig and Greg support the idea of one warning – to the goalie. Players won’t be called on this.

Tom suggests having an action list to see who did what at each meeting, so we can refer back to it and that we set the next meeting date. Possibly one should be scheduled in January and again in March. Greg to send proposed dates.

Also to consider in the future, FP coordinators for the tournament.

Here are abridged notes from the last FPC executive meeting. Greg will publish more detail soon.

Thurs, Aug 21, 2008.

FAIR PLAY SKYPE MEETING TOPICS

Website:

Finish the online updates:

-Two separate Rules pages (League Rules and Game Rules)

-Update Fair Play page with link to Demerit Point System and Appeal Process info

Demerit Points:

Retrofit current GTHLA players with demerit points to two seasons.

Implement system and upload info to website.

Remind the league at the upcoming GM meeting.

Making Rulings Faster:

See the attachment I sent out recently.

Team PIMs Rule Update:

Team PIMs-per-game average may not exceed 4.5 over 2 years.

Incident Reports:

Draft an Incident Report Form for the timekeeper’s booth.

Positive Initiatives (Hez & Priscilla?):

Fair Player Awards

Changeroom reminders about league values on opening day.

GTHLA General Fair Play Meeting – May 5th, 2008

GTHLA General Fair Play Meeting – May 5^th, 2008

In Attendance:

Heather Cunningham, Tom Goodwin, Duncan Fremlin, Greg Simone, Dan Hickox, Priscilla Yu

We defined what credentials are needed from someone involved in the Executive:

1. Executive Credentials:

Has to have time to be “on duty” occasionally to deal with issues as they arise.

Repeat offenders should not participate, they demonstrate a lack of understanding of the league’s core values. And weaken the Committee’s credibility.

Access to online, can respond in a timely manner

Unbiased

Commitment to attend meetings

Strong management skills with mediation skills

Objective… non political.. without agenda… thick skin...

Highly principled...Analytical skills… Problem solving skills.. proactive… Knowledge of league values, history and goals

Discreet

Enforces Solidarity

2. Chairperson - Greg, Heather, Priscilla and Dan volunteer

Keep the committee moving, initiate that incidents get reviewed, develops the committee

One chair at a time for a term, then rotate...3 months each...Greg( May, June, July) Heather, (November, Dec, Jan) Dan (August, Sept, Oct) Priscilla (Feb, March, April). We’ll re-evaluate Chair terms before the end of this 12 month cycle.

Greg- fine tune point system and letters

Heather - solicit and co-ordinate feedback , e-mail each team to fill out game report - and send link to fairplay site with each e-mail, Fairplay comittee to go into changeroom at beginning of year...quick discussion about Fair Play - Heather and Priscilla

Dan - time keeper to make notes if any incident occurs….might not have the same time keeper week to week, to contact the refs and timekeepers to find out what happened in incident, have “incident form” (Greg) in timekeepers bag, Dan to co-ordinate. Refs and timekeepers must continue to have the most weight in discipline decisions. If Dan is not there - he needs to find a replacement for that night. The team representatives are equally responsible to make sure this process is carried out after an incident.

Incident must be dealt with immediately.

keep clown nose in penalty box

how to get details electronically? Teams need to go online and enter details within 24 hours? Team’s responsibility to enter.

4.Game Reporting

channel where people can voice positive or negative opinions...need to keep a report

try to also get more positive feedback

need to figure out a data system

Greg

5. Fair Play Point System

Award ceremony - September...give out a fair player award at the beginning of next hockey season, sets a good tone for the season...opening day...help establish the spirit..have fair play committee award...maybe have winners be on committee...or recruit them to the committee...they need the necessary skills.

Tom’s interpretation of the Actions that will be taken:

Greg will be responsible to supervise the Fair Play Committee and make sure all its tasks are accomplished. At the end of his term as Chair, he will ensure that his replacement (Dan) is aware of his responsibilities and the status of all the tasks currently being worked on and assist him. (Greg can we set regular scheduled phone calls to keep up to speed on all the tasks that the Committee is working on?)

1. Finish writing out the expectations and attributes a Fair Play Committee Executive must have.

a. Develop standards for what commitment is expected from each member

i. Meeting attendance

ii. Involvement in email discussions

2. Develop system that keeps the Fair Play Committee maintaining and improving its productivity and effectiveness.

3. Before April ’09 the Committee must re-evaluate the most effective term for the Chair of the Committee.

4. Solidify the incident review process. Write it out and post it.

a. The system must be effective and quick

5. Make sure the teams are aware and understand the process.

6. Refine system for general feedback on Fair Play issues from the membership (delegated to Heather Cunningham)

a. Solicit email game reports from teams

b. Establish awareness of game reporting link on website

c. Introductory speech from the Fair Play Committee in each team’s dressing room at their first game of the season. (delegated to Heather & Priscilla)

7. Develop system for timekeepers to follow when a Fair Play incident occurs in a game (delegated to Dan Hickox)

a. Get immediate feedback from the referees.

i. Make an incident report form that the timekeepers or refs can fill out. (delegated to Greg Simone)

b. Make sure team reps know the email address to send their report on the incident.

8. Improve database system for tracking players involved in reviewed incidents and players reported on negatively and positively in general.

9. Develop Fair Player point system. (delegated to Greg Simone)

10. Figure out who to give Fair Play Awards to at the new season opening party in September. (delegated to Fair Player Award Sub-committee)

11. Recruit Strong new candidates for the Committee.

Meeting Notes from Jan. 16th

Great meeting folks. Awesome input from everyone.

Sorry I had to split about half way through.
This is what I recorded from the meeting.

S.

Participants: Stephen O'Sullivan, Craig Barnes, Greg Simone & Tom Goodwin

1. Are there still any unresolved incidents from the last Summit? Jenn has to check the game sheets, they're in Peterborough right now. As far as I can remember, these incidents have been dealt with already: Meat, Nightmares, CCCP, Easy Company, Morningstars' ejections. Were there anymore? Jenn?
   

Jenn has game sheets in Peterborough. We think that we have dealt with everything.
Sully will ask Jenn to see if there is anything unresolved from Summit.

2. The Gas Station Islanders made a formal complaint about an incident in their Finals last Summit. I said I would follow up with it, but haven't. I wanted to open up a quick discussion with Bandapart, the other team, to remind everyone of our core values of fun and safety on the ice and the players' responsibility to manage this. No ejections resulted from the incident, however, there were 2 back to back unprovoked nasty cross checks. Can we write a note to the 2 teams to this affect?
   
   1. Protocol.
   2. Goalie asked to leave Montreal league.
   3. Follow up with Gas Station to clear up any unresolved issues.
      
   4. Send a note to Gas Station that this has been discussed at the executive level and we are willing to discuss it in person. Let them know Bandapart is not returning to the tournament in 2008.
      

3. I want you guys to take charge of organizing the Fair Play management at the Summit. This would mean…

A. Communicating with all the team Fair Play reps before the weekend to establish what our expectations are from them when they are on duty

B. We need a FPC rep on duty throughout the games who these team reps can check in with when they start and end their shift and the FPC rep can work with them to address and resolve any incidents. Please discuss the best system to help us resolves incidents effectively and immediately. Obviously we want a pro-active and positive system too.

Be clear...if a player is ejected (not because of 3 penalties), they are out for the tournament.

Must formulate an on-duty system/ schedule to deal with Fair Play issues as they arise.

Need to specify and clarify game duties for persons watching games

4. What are our next actions for implementing game reporting team feedback after games?
   

24 hr. period to weigh in with feedback
electronic is preferred for admin. purposes
Do we need to move forward on this immediately?

Website vs. in rink survey?
Sully will put a survey together. Get GM's to approve.

5. What's the latest on the Fair Player awards? Can we promote them on the league website?
   Talk to Heather.
   Dan Hickox has been making an effort to keep track of Fair Players after games.
   

6. Did we get much feedback from the teams on what to do about consistent poor behaviour from players?

We are getting adequate feedback re: poor behaviour players.
Need GM's to continue and take ownership for poor behaviour players on their own teams.
FPC needs to set clear expectations for players. Put it together and publish it.
Ties in with # 10 on agenda.

FPC are arbitrators. GM's/ players should be administrators.

7. What issues do we want to address at the next GM meeting

Greg's Demerit system discussed

• less demerit if team administrates it
• team making decisions v. us making decisions
• Greg detailed proposed point system
• establishes protocol
• manages league discipline
• propose at GM meeting
• remember protocol for feedback on incident so people feel included in decision making

Added:

Important that refs have pristine record as players

Rishor mentioned that players shouldn't be refs. Non-issue with bias.
Proposed that player/ refs don't ref in-division games during playoffs.

FPC Star: refs should play key role in choosing FP Star.
Ask timekeepers to consult with refs prior to each game.

League Hockey Pool? Groovy.

8. When will the next general FPC meeting be? When will the next executive meeting be.

9. I don't think we should stereotype division fair play. We definitely have more work to address in the Eh Division, but I think we should always approach league issues putting everyone under the same standards. We have to do our best to clarify the league's expectations and administrate effectively when our expectations aren't met. Which we are getting better at, thanks to you guys. I'm sorry I haven't read it yet, but Greg's demerit system sounds like an effective way to help us manage our expectations and communicate better with our membership in a more objective way on how we're addressing poor behaviour. I'll read very soon.

Instruct refs to become stricter leading up to tournament. Help teams prepare and get closer to league mandate.

CHUCK:
Mentioned that Marek's pm's didn't show up on website.

Priscilla collecting game sheets and locking stats.

Teams are encouraged to check for accuracy.

Whenever there is an incident, we need to check game sheet before it is submitted.

Ejections hurt personal record more than team record.

Meeting Minutes from meeting on Nov. 4, '07

Fair Play Committee General Meeting
Nov. 4, 2007

Present: Tom Goodwin, Craig Barnes, Jeremy Harris, Andrew Marriot, Geoff McPeek, Jack Mazeika, Priscilla Yu, Heather Cunningham, Mike Mazeika, Dan Hickox

- The Fair Play Committee so far has been a reactive committee administering suspensions on behalf of the league. This will continue more or less as it has been with improvements made as we go along.

- This year we need to add proactive elements to the committee.

- One proactive element will be for the teams to elect a player to receive a 'fair player award' that will be handed out by the Fair Play Committee. A sub-committee was struck to work on this project. The chair of the sub-committee is Heather Cunningham. Mike, Priscilla, and Dan volunteered to help and Heather is looking for more volunteers.

- Another proactive element that was discussed was game reports filled out by the teams after each game. Jeremy is going to write a proposal asking the GM's if there is interest in this. Another sub-committee would need to be formed if there is sufficient interest.

- The Fair Play Committee and referees are asked why certain players who show consistent poor behaviour are playing in this league. Currently we have no way to answer these queries. The game reports were suggested as a way to help answer these questions. Also it was suggested that the GM's look to the referees for their input. It was noted that the referees already have a verbal list of players who are problematic. Craig asked that the teams decide if they want referees input and how they would like to do it. Craig also asked why the GM's are not dealing with these players as it is ultimately the responsibility of the GM's to have positive teams? Geoff volunteered to write a proposal asking the GM's how they want to deal with players who consistently take away from the positive nature of the league.

Actions:

1) Fair Player Award working group formed with the goal of handing out the first annual awards in the 2007-2008 season.
2) Ask the GM's about their interest in game reports.
3) Ask the GM's about dealing with players who consistently take away from the positive nature of the league.

Meeting Minutes from Executive Meeting - Early Sept. 07

A) Make-up of Executive

• possible scenario to include, but not limited to Convenor (which will eventually become 2 seats : 1 convenor, 2 founder), referee coordinator, and at least 2 Fair Play delegates. The number of FP delegates could be 6.
• these positions (not including founder/ convenor) would be 2 or 3 year rotating seats
• suggestion that GM's be Fair Play liasonswith team
• meetings to be scheduled as follows:

EXECUTIVE MEETING: Prior to a pre-season, mid-season and post-season league meeting to discuss agenda for league meetings

GENERAL FAIR PLAY MEETING: Twice yearly

• at this point, a member of the Fair Play Executive still needs to be nominated by Tom Goodwin

B) General Fair Play Communication

• internet is good, not always most efficient
• need more phone/ in person communication

C) Team report cards

• approved idea
• perhaps present as a pilot project for this season, and mandate in 2008/ 09
• present idea to GM's at next league meeting

D) Player and team agreements

• Prepared by Ray Henderson and Tom Goodwin
• May include role of FPC to moderate conversation between opposing sides

E) Fair Player awards

• This was tabled, still awaiting response to motion

F) What do we put on the Fair Play page on the league website?

• Role of FPC to moderate conversation
• contact information
  

Meeting on June 10, 2007

Fair Play Committee
Meeting Minutes
June 10, 2007

Attendance: Craig, Tom , Steve
Regrets: Jenn, Heather, Ted

The Year In Review:

What worked: - teams filled out Gamesheets for each game. Penalties, points and attendance were recorded. Gamesheets are the historical document for each game. It is very important that they are used correctly and the league does a great job of this
- When game ejections occurred the FPC responded promptly with good quality letters. We will keep this system and now have a decent template of letters to use for the future.
- The appeal process worked well and was fair.
- Heather logged all the incidents into the un-fair player database for future reference.

What did not work: - The FPC needs an up to date and accurate contact list for each team. We recommend that each team elect a ʽfair play representativeʼ, which will be the contact person. This person may or may not be the team GM.

Incidents: - We more or less followed the CHA rules for handing out suspensions and gave out stronger punishments when we felt necessary or if there was a repeat offender. This is a good system to follow.
- There are letter templates to use for next year.
- Suggested to have an ʽat most 2 suspensions and you are expelled ruleʼ.

The Year Ahead

New Initiatives: - Promote positive behaviour by setting up a ʽFair Player Awardʼ system for each team. It was suggested that Heather could be in charge of this.
- Issue a team and player contract explaining the values of the league and what is expected from the teams and each individual player. Individual players are primarily responsible for their behaviour and the teams need to work to uphold and sustain the league values.
- Suggested that the teams can write up report cards on-line after each game summarizing how the game went. This information can be used to track un-fair behaviour through the year. The team fair play representative would be responsible to go on-line and do this after each game.

Meetings: - Executive needs to meet a few times over the summer (in person and/or by conference call). There will be a meeting with all the team fair play reps and executive in July or August and then 2 or 3 meetings throughout the season.

Communication:

- The league needs to communicate more clearly the league rules and commitment to fair play. This will be done through the team and player contract that can be issued this year. Steve mentioned that he could get his students to design a brochure and player contract with the text that we provide.
- The FPC will be more formalized this year and everyone will know what it is and why it exists.

FPC Constitution:

- Suggested to have a 7 member committee. Also suggested that 2 spots be fixed. One would be the league commissioner (Tom), and the other would be the referee co-ordinator (Craig).
- Still need to determine the executive duties and team rep duties more clearly.
- We have a good start on the FPC terms of reference (the document we sent around earlier this year). This document just needs final edits.

Other:

- There are 3 sides to every conflict: the two opposing sides and the side of the community. The idea of the Fair Play Committee is to get everyone onto the third side and do what is best for the league.
- 3 words to remember: communication, inclusiveness, and fairness.