Unification Meeting
August 11th @ 7pm
Nationwide Arena – Activities Center Boardroom (Easton is unavailable)
Attendees – Brock Klein, Tim Pennington, Bruce McClary, Cynthia Luallen, Jeremy Rogers, Sam Dahmir, Greg
Kirstein, Mike Rose, JD Kershaw, Andy Brim, Dave Gorgias
I.
Mission Statement
Our mission is to perpetuate continuous growth and quality improvement of youth hockey in Central Ohio by providing first
class developmental opportunities for every player at every level of play in a positive, affordable, inviting and safe
environment which emphasizes character building, personal development, education, fair play, sportsmanship and respect
for the game.
Our mission will be accomplished through competent hockey instruction, sound business management practices and strong
financial controls facilitated by a governance structure consisting of program members, The Chiller LLC and the Columbus
Blue Jackets.
a. Very little discussion during meeting; merely presented to all organizations for finalization next month
b. Once the mission statement is created, it will aid in defining job descriptions
II.
MOBHL
a. Set up by community
i. Develop the community experience
ii. Ease of commute; by location and car pooling
iii. Coaches not “recruiting” players
b. Concerns
i. Lack of ice time when coming from travel hockey
1. offset this by allowing teams to buy extra practice ice independently
2. Holiday weekends left open for teams to play in independent tournaments
c. League Setup
i. Begins with a seeding tournament followed by 18 game season (14 last season)
ii. ½ ice practices
iii. set practice / game times
iv. other ice offered for skills (open, not team specific)
III.
Recreation League
a. Set Up
i. Modeled similar to MOBHL, create the “community” feel by setting up teams by skill level and
area code.
ii. Discussed having two tiers created so there is a more competitive league as well as a “beginner”
league.
iii. Discussion on a name transitioned into discussion for the organization. Consensus was naming our
unified organization the Greater Columbus Hockey Association (GCHA)
1. If we felt the need to separate the travel and house, it would be the GCTH, and GCHL
2. People mentioned naming the organization after the Blue Jackets; anything involving CBJ
in the name will need to be approved by the CBJ president
b. Ice Time
i. ½ ice practice for all age groups (mini mite through MOBHL)
ii. ½ ice games for mini mites and mites
1. Discussed full ice starting in January for mites to prepare for squirts, but counter argument
involved confusion when returning mites go back to ½ ice the next season. I believe the end
result was ½ ice games all season.
iii. After season ice is allotted, extra ice will be used for skills sessions for those that desire more ice
time.
c. Scheduling
i. A committee from each rink will report to Jeremy Rogers, who will help allocate ice at
each rink
d. Coaches
i. Feels that we may have some issues finding coaches up front, but long term will be fine.
ii. With this being said, if this happens; please begin “recruiting” existing coaches for the first
unification year.
IV.
Next Month
a. Because we’ve discussed how coaching and training will occur, we tabled that topic and replaced
it with Mission Statement, Board of Directors, Organizational Structure for the October meeting.
b. Each president will submit their vision of a perfect BOD and OS. I will compile everyone’s
submission for distribution, review, and discussion at the next meeting.
i. I’ve received EYHA, still waiting CAHA and CCYHA.
V.
General
a. Proposed that we add the “Business” side of the organization to the agenda. I am for fitting this in
during the coming months. The current list of meeting dates and agenda items are found below.
Monday, October 13th – Mission Statement, Organizational Structure, Board of Directors (Dublin)
Mon, November 10th – Point of Entry / Ice Time (North)
Mon, December 8th – Referees (TBD – Easton Choice)
Mon, January 12th – Cost (Nationwide Arena)
Mon, February 9th – Announcement (Dublin)
Mon, March 9th – Reaction / Resolve Issues (North)
Wed, April 1st – Unified Organization (TBD – Easton Choice)
Proposed New Agenda Items: Business (maybe add in December?)
Tabled Agenda Items: Coaches / Training