Wisconsin-Minnesota Hockey League

 Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

The Greens, Sparta

Respectfully submitted by Terri Lenselink, Secretary

Meeting called to order by President Bob Pitel, 7:30 PM

Members Present:  Bob Pitel (Pres., La Crescent), Dan Lenselink (VP, West Salem), Terri Lenselink (Sec., WS), Del Scanlon (Girls Rep., Reeds.), Brent Henry (Tom.), Dawn Bernamann (Selects Dir., Sparta), Dave Long (Stat., CRGH), Tim Flood (Ona.), Tom Steele (Vir.),  Timm Klemm (Baraboo), Gary Brenizer (Altoona), Stuart McNames (Dells/Delton), Kelly Richert (BRF), ),  Fran McDevitt (Winona), Ron Bryant (La X), Mike Gargaro (Treas.,Ona.),

Members Absent:  Fritz Degner (Sparta), Chris Wolf (Port.),

I.  Introductions.

II. Secretary’s Report as submitted by Terri Lenselink.  Motion by Tomah; Second by West Salem to Approve, motion passes.

III. Treasurer’s Report.  Monthly Financial Statement handed out.   Motion to accept Treasurer’s report by CRG; Second by Onalaska, motion passes.

IV. Committees

            A.  League Statistician; per Dave Long.  He has been tracking the fair play/penalty minutes to determine if they are useful or make a difference in standings.  It is all currently on a spreadsheet which he will e-mail to all the reps.  

            B.  Girls Coordinator; No report per Del Scanlon.

            C.  League Selects; per Dawn Bernamann. The schedule will be out on the WMHL website tomorrow (Mar. 16) for the Squirt II tourney. Each level will have 1 practice during the week. There will be 5 teams of squirts so each will get 4 games.  The games will start on Friday.  (Mar. 24).  At the level I tourney the numbers are lower so there will only be 3 teams at each level, therefore, 2 games for the weekend.  The numbers for Bantams were still coming in.  Motion made by BRF to make sure Sparta gets paid for the number of games bid on, second by WS, motion carries.

D.  WAHA; No report, Fran Finco not present.

            E.  Website; per Bob Pitel.  Will revamp over the summer to make links more accessible, especially contacts for each association.   

V. Old Business

A.  Anybody needing Blue Line Patches let Bob know.

B. Annual Meeting:  Scheduled for Wednesday, April 12, at The Greens in Sparta.  Cocktails 6:30PM, Dinner 7:00PM, meeting to follow.  Menu will consist of: Tips & Gravy, Fried Chicken & Gravy, Mashed Potatoes, Vegetable, Salad Bar, Brownie.  $15.00 per person including tax & tip.  Cash Bar.  League will pay for Reps & spouses, Association Presidents & Spouses, Association President Elects & Spouses, and President Award Winners.  Price based on 60 people guarantee. 

C.  President’s Award:  Bob has received nominations from Baraboo, La X, La Crescent, BRF (2), Reedsburg, Tomah.  Anyone else with nominations get them to Bob ASAP.

VI. New Business

A.     Unresolved game issues:  Baraboo PW I parents want to know what is going on with the Onalaska PW I team.  Ona. forfeited 3-4 games and it appears they were all down in that area.  Giving the impression they don’t think it is worth it for them to travel down there.  The Ona. rep explained that the PW coach wanted to concentrate on tourneys this season and thus as schedules filled up it became hard to reschedule league games and then Ona. reached the maximum number of games their assoc. allows and they were unable to play  those league games.  WMHL is going on record as being very disappointed.  One of the conditions of being in the league is the agreement that league games take priority.  Not doing so has a negative impact on the league.  Associations and teams need to have a commitment to the WMHL.  The Ona. rep. will go back to his Board with this information.  Other game scheduling problems; per Dawn Bernamann (Sparta).  Wanted clarification on when a forfeit can be forced due to game times running late.  The WMHL has no rules on if a game can be forced to be forfeited if an arena is running late with games.  The teams go on the ice when the preceding game is finished.

B.     Division Winners:  Mite I:  Red Division Co-champs:  Baraboo and La Crosse, White Division:  Onalaska.  Mite II:  Altoona,  Squirt I:  West Salem,  Squirt IIA:  Winona, Squirt IIB:  Dells/Delton, PeeWee I:  Baraboo, PWII motion by BRF to award a 3 way tie to La Crosse, Onalaska, Tomah,  second by Tomah, motion carries.  Bantam I:  Onalaska, Bantam II:  Onalaska, Midget:  West Salem, U12:  Black River Falls, U14:  Altoona.  Motion by CRG to approve all winners, second by Tomah, motion carries.

C.     Proposed by-law and /or rule changes:  Fair play points?  Winona sees it as a positive.  The MAHA already has them in place.  Easy to put into the stats.  Each level has a penalty minute standard; if you are below the standard you get a point, if above it you aren’t awarded one.  Lots of questions; what do you do with forfeits? Do they really have an impact on standings?  Are penalties called differently?  We could set it up however we would want.  Motion by WS to add Fair Play Points for next season, motion withdrawn.  Tabled for proposal at annual meeting.  Go back to our associations to get input.

D.     Slate of new officers for 2006-2007:

                        President:  Bob Pitel

                        Vice President:  Dan Lenselink

                        Secretary:  Terri Lenselink

                        Treasurer:  Mike Gargaro

                        Statistician:  Open

                        Selects:  Dawn Bernamann

                        Girls Coordinator:  Jim Shafer

E.      Other new business:  None

Motion to adjourn by Baraboo, second by CRG, meeting adjourned, 9:00 PM

Next Meeting:  Annual Meeting, April 12 at the Greens