Minor Council Meeting Minutes

January 24, 2009

Sussex , NB.


Welcome
Attendance

         Andrew Allaby - V-P FNB

         Steve Drisdelle - CAMFA (will do voting for CAMFA)

         Bruce Watts - FMFA (will do voting for FMFA)

         Arliss Wilson - FMFA

         John Fitzgerald – FMFA

         Absent – Dan Fougere MFA  

Review of Voting Procedures

          2 of 3 of minor associations in attendance (CAMFA & Fundy) so a quorum is present.  

Additions/Acceptance of Agenda

          No additions to the agenda.

          Motion to accept the agenda. Steve Drisdelle 2nd by Bruce Watts. Motion passed.  

Minutes from last minor council meeting/ Acceptance of these minutes.

           No questions on minutes from last minor council meeting.

           Motion to accept minutes from last minor council meeting. Bruce Watts 2nd Steve Drisdelle. Motion passe

Association updates: ( 2008 Fall rap up, Clinics, Camps, etc. for spring/summer 2009)      

                CAMFA – V-P Steve Drisdelle

                               -    Just held their AGM on Jan. 19, 2009 and new president was elected (Andrew Allaby).

                               -    Plan to have a Community Sport – Novice Coach clinic in March 2009

                               -    Looking to send coaches to the Maine Coaches Association Seminar in March 2009 and to Football NS .

                                    Maritime Coaches Conference

    -    Looking to host a level I & II clinics in April and June respectively  

                FMFA   - V-P Bruce Watts or Secretary Arliss Wilson

-          Larry Harlow and Arliss Wilson have been certified as course conductors for the Community Sport – Novice Coach.

Would be available to conduct courses in the Capital Area or in Moncton

-          Have no plans for any clinics or camps at this time

                                            MFA     -         unavailable                                                                                                                                                                                    

Review of Official Footballs for each age group

                Tabled to next minor council meeting as there was a discrepancy in the actual official football
for each age group. To bring samples  of both footballs to this meeting  

New Business  

                Nova Scotia changing ages.

         The minor associations were informed that Football Nova Scotia and the minor association are looking at moving the ages of the kids playing minor football down one year. This would allow 15 year olds to move up to play high school football. This would be effective for the 2009 season.

         Some of the concerns of the minor associations were what do you do with the players that aren’t good enough to make the high school team. With this age change they wouldn’t have a team to play on  unless a midget league was created which in itself presents its own problem with getting enough coaches, fields, refs etc. Also high school teams may take the 15 year old to fill out there roster and would likely end up just sitting on the bench the entire season.

         Moncton minor football was completely against this age change. They felt there would be no benefit of the players moving up to the high school teams. CAMFA also shared these concerns. Fundy stated that they would have to take this to their executive on this coming Monday Jan. 26, 2009 . Will wait to hear back from them. We were at least able to agree that if Nova Scotia is doing this for the 2009 season that we should take a wait and see approach to the age changes to see what problems arose. If that meant suspending the Maritime Championships for one year then none of us had a problem doing that.  

Provincial voting structure

             Was explained that with new members joining Football NB that the present voting structure needed to be
 changed to accommodate theses new members. Under the new structure each member
 (league or association)
 would get one (1) vote each and the executive would not have a vote.
After discussion the two present minor associations were not in favor of the voting change.
It was brought up that either CAMFA or FMFA, who on the present voting system,
have 15 votes each (or 25.4%) because of their registered members.
However, on the new system they would only have one (1) vote the same as number of votes
as the Southern NB. Men’s Touch league.
They felt this was unfair to the minor associations as they have the most members.

             The minor associations were also told that the new system wouldn’t allow for a “block”
by two (2) of the associations to stop things from being passed. However, when looked at it was
stated that this wouldn’t be the case as six (6) of the old and new members were from the
Greater Saint John area and the others were from CAMFA and MFA. This situation could still
result in the same “blocking” that has been seen in years previous at Football NB.’s AGM’s.

             Therefore there was a motion put forth to decline the new voting structure as proposed by Football NB     Moved by Steve Drisdell 2nd by             Bruce Watts Motion passed.            
Also a suggestion was brought up that there should be no proxy voting allowed at Football NB.’s AGM.
It was stated that there should be only 1 person = 1 vote
(number of votes determined by registration numbers). If a sitting president or commissioner of a league or association couldn’t be present     at at an AGM that someone be sent in their place.

 All Play Policy

              The following motion was passed by Football NB. For FNB semi finals & finals teams must play
          all players a minimum of 3 plays from scrimmage per half. If a team has and maintains a lead of 18 or more   points, both teams cannot allow a player to play offence and defense in the same half.
 
If a team has less than 24 players you must change your maximum allowable players
 (ex. 23 players must change 11). FNB will provide each team with a monitor in these games.
For teams not adhering to this rule the penalty in the first half will be dismissal of the head
   coach for the remainder of the game. (Must leave the field). Second half would result in loss of the game and disciplinary action from FNB. Motion was passed unanimously.

               While the associations fully support the idea of having an all play policy many questions were brought up and think that the policy should be looked at again and reworked to come up with something a
little easier to enforce and monitor. Also felt that penalties were to severe.

               Motion was put forth that while the associations fully support an all play policy the present policy
 as passed by Football NB is not acceptable in its present form.
Moved by Steve Drisdell 2nd by Bruce Watts Motion passed.  

Two Tier Playoff System

               Liked the concept of a 2 tier playoff system. It would take the emphasis off of winning and
 on playing more games. Fundy at present already does this within their own association.
They would also like to keep this play down style just within Fundy as they have some
 weaker teams in their association and wouldn’t want them to play stronger teams from
outside. Mid week games played outside the local associations would also be a problem.
 As it is they have problems with St. Stephen and Sussex in scheduling games but said that
playing games on back to back days would be ok. Would like to see a revised playoff
format taking into consideration these issues.    

Spring Football              

                          Football NB ’s recommendation (skills & drills)

                                      8 weeks of teaching the JPD program and last two weeks for games.

                                      CAMFA was not interested in this for their spring program. They feel that their numbers would drop significantly if                                                

                         they didn’t offer the kids games and well as practice. CAMFA will wait to see what will be offered by the other associations. 

                         They plan to offer 15, 13 & 11 and under programs this spring. Plan to keep 13 & 11 and under within their own association

                         As far as games were concerned. Would like to run a 17 and under program. Will have to meet with the high school coaches    

                         to see if this is doable. The idea is CAMFA would look after all the administration aspects of it so the the coaches just have to show up and coach.

                         .            MFA isn’t happy with the present way the provincial teams are run. Thinks that the 3 associations should have one

                         team each (elite) at both the 15 & 17 and under ages and each team run a common playbook so that all players will be

                         familiar with the plays. This way the head coach of the provincial teams can evaluate all players the same on how they run

                         the different plays. These teams would play games against each other and Nova Scotia and at the end of the spring season

                         the coaching staffs of each team would pick the top 20-25 plays for a common camp to practice as a team and at the end of

                         the camp the provincial team would be picked. Moncton ’s spring plans are to run a 15 and under program. They will have

                         an elite team and a developmental team. The elite team would be available for games, however the development team would

                         not have games till the jamboree they have at the end of their season and MFA’s executive would have to vote to allow teams

                         from outside their association to play games in it. Will be running programs at 13, 11 and 9 and under. A couple high school  coaches expressed interest in running a 17 and under team(s).

                                        As for FMFA they stated that they would have to wait till their executive meeting on Monday Jan. 26, 2009 to see

                         what is wanted for Spring football. As in years passed it was mentioned that they always have problems getting fields for

                         practice and for games. Also have trouble getting coaches out in the spring.  

                                        No consensus could be reached with spring football programs other than not in favor of the JPD program being run       in place of games and practices.     
 

Football NB AGM Date

         April 18, 2009    Hosted by Fundy Minor Football Association. AGM would start at 10am with the luncheon and awards

 beginning at noon . The AGM would start up after at 2pm . Where the AGM and Awards luncheon is to take place has yet to be determined.  

Football NB Awards

         The minor associations were informed of the yearly awards handed out at the AGM weekend. Awards would be handed out in the following categories:

         Bantam volunteer of the year

         Pee Wee volunteer of the year

         Gridiron Award

         Adult Touch volunteer of the year

         Adult Tackle volunteer of the year

                                    Lifetime Service Award

                                    The minor associations were to come up with one nomination for each award (excluding the Lifetime Service Award) and

                            forward them with supporting information of the person to Larry Harlow on or before Feb. 28, 2009 . Once that happens the

                            nominations will be sent to the awards committee to vote for the winners.                   

           Old Business

                           Review of Coaching Requirements for Fall 2009 season

                                    The associations felt that because of a lack of coaching clinics put on by both FNB and the minor associations that the

                           coaching requirements for this fall would be hard to meet and ask that FNB look at this policy to see if the dates could be pushed back.

           Next Minor council meeting

                           TBA – likely sometime in July or early August.  

           Motion Motion to adjourn. Steve Drisdelle 2nd by Bruce Watts ( 2pm )