Well, another season is pretty much behind us! The Gloucester Tournament, then the All Ontario Provincial Championships - both wonderful accomplishments that GRA members can be proud of. Many thanks to the people who made these happen. Both were truly memorable events to mark the beginning of a new millenium.

Now to business. The purpose of this newsletter is twofold.

• First - to urge you to attend the Annual General Meeting that will take place in Hall D - Orléans Recreational Centre from 7:30pm to 9:00pm on Thursday May 4, 2000. This is your opportunity to hear and have a say about how your association is run.     (At the end of the Annual General Meeting a name will be drawn from the list of voting members (18 & over) present. The winner will get 2 tickets to a future Senators game.)
• Second - to provide you with facts about the state of the management infrastructure of the Gloucester Ringette Association. Our job is to provide you with the facts. It will be your decision whether to act on this information.

There are a number of areas within the association that suffered this year due to the shortage or absence of members in important positions. Many of these jobs are not high demand, but clearly contribute to smooth operation of the organization.

We all know that a healthy house league is the backbone of a strong sport organization. Unfortunately we operated this entire season without a VP House League - and except for the Novice level, not a single convenor at any house league level. Executive members covered the best they could - but it was in addition to the duties of their regular positions.

The end result is that minimum attention was given to our house league programs this year. In addition, identifying house league coaches in the last couple of years has been largely a "last minute" ordeal. Our house league players expect better, and certainly deserve better.

In addition the positions of President, Secretary, Treasurer, and both the Director-at-large positions become vacant following this year’s Annual General Meeting. The fact that they are becoming vacant is not unusual - executive positions are for a specified term. What should concern you is that no-one has stated their intention to run for any of the positions. Five out of seven executive positions! The VP Competitive and the VP Administration will be continuing in their positions for the coming year.

All outgoing members of the executive have expressed their willingness to assist and train incoming executive members. Having said that, they have all dedicated several years to the GRA executive, and will be following through on their commitment to move on after the AGM.

Other duties and positions have been "covered" by executive members, but require additional help. For example:

Provincials Tournament Chair, Promotion and Publicity, House League tryouts, Summer Programs and Camps, and the administrative side of the Learn-to-Skate Program have all been carried by members of the executive in addition to their regular duties. Clearly this cannot continue! Not only is it an unreasonable burden on a small number of members - it results in all of the jobs getting inadequate attention.

You now have the facts. Help is clearly required at every level of the organization if we are to look forward to a healthy organizational future.

It is now in your hands. We INVITE you to come to the meeting on May 4. Even if you can’t serve on the Executive - you can help spread the word - or the workload.