Aug 15, 2019 | Brian Jubenville | 937 views
ELMHA AGM motion regarding tiering of local league shared with LMLL
At our annual AGM in May our members proposed and carried a motion in support of tiering local league at all levels with an action of sharing the motion with the Lambton Middlesex Local League (LMLL) Board. On August 6 an ELMHA representative shared our motion from our AGM in support of tiering of LMLL with the LMLL Board.
There were some significant concerns at the onset of the discussion, possibly because some may have incorrectly misinterpreted that ELMHA voted to tier our teams for this upcoming season, which is currently against league rules. It was clarified that the motion is rather suggesting a new direction for the league in upcoming seasons. LMLL has agreed to further discuss and explore this idea this year; while noting that any change to organizing the league or changing league rules would require a motion at the next LMLL AGM.
Members of the LMLL board shared a few concerns for our membership to consider:
- Many centres only have one LL team, so we need to consider how this influences tiering.
- An AGM motion does not necessarily represent the beliefs of an entire membership. Were the families of the players likely to play the “C” tier represented in this vote?
- One association expressed support of the tiering concept from a development aspect, but concern about finding coaches for the “C” tiered team(s).
- One association expressed concerns about player retention for the “C” level players/teams.
- Some tiering is already planned for Novice this year and potentially Atom in future years through Hockey Canada initiatives.
Suggestion:
Members of ELMHA form an ad hoc committee (with representation of at least 1 member of the ELMHA board) for this season to explore tiering at the local league level. This committee could investigate other local leagues that tier in Ontario and/or perhaps make a plan to work with another association or two to explore tiered exhibition games this season.
Possible questions to explore: How and when would we conduct the selection/tiering process? How can practice time be used to explore the value of tiering will still allowing individual teams to develop as a team?How do we continue to collect data/information from our players and their families regarding the impact tiering has on player development and enjoyment? Examples: Do we measure possession time per player?; count puck touches?; Player and family opinion surveys?