Meeting of the Executive

Feb 4, 2008

7:00pm - Stanley's



MINUTES



1. League Fees



All teams either have paid in full or have promised payment before their next game. Teams failing to make final payment will be subject to suspension.





2. Final Rosters:

Final Rosters are now due. No new players may be added to their rosters. Teams playing players not on the roster will face automatic forfeit of that game. All players must be registered with name, address, phone number email (optional) and date of birth. Players playing while not registered do not get credit for game played. Players must have credit for 7 games played to be eligible for the play-offs



Due to struggles of certain teams, leniency will be given to final rosters. Teams with available spots (up to 22 skaters) will be allowed to play new player until they have filled their rosters.





3. Disciplinary Action

Re: January 24th game: Cowboys vs Eagle - Rob Wilson/Rich Niebuhr

An incident in this game, involving the above players resulted in a fighting major to both players, plus a minor face mask infraction to Rob Wilson and a minor body checking penalty to Rich Niebuhr. Following the game the Eagles lodged a complaint appealing for additional games to Rob Wilson based on the manner of the infraction and the past history of Rob Wilson.



The Eagles have proposed Rob Wilson be given, in addition to the automatic suspension, a total of 2 games, 1 game to be served immediately and both players serving 1 game on the night the Eagles and Cowboys next play. (Rich Niebuhr's suspension to be deferred until that time.) The Cowboys accept this proposal.



The above proposal was retracted and instead the Disciplinary Committee ruled that Rob Wilson of the Cowboys receive a 6 game suspension and a serious warning. A full report s available on-line.







4 Play-off Format:

This season the RIHL play-offs will be changed to assume an Memorial Cup/Olympic style round robin format. This format has a number of advantages:

- It eliminates the chance that a team can win the play-offs without even playing a team that has defeated them all year.

- A 4th place finishing team, although not given a better chance to win the championship, will have a more even opportunity to compete.

- It allows for a predefined schedule with only one "if necessary" game. This means we will all know when the final game will be played.

- We can schedule an awards night for the same evening as the final game, making for a better drawing card for both events.



The format goes as follows:

- Every team plays each other once (6 games).

- The 1st place finishing team advance to the final game.

- The 2nd and 3rd place teams play in the semi-final.

- The 4th place team is eliminated.



In the likelihood of a tie-breaker, the win will be given to the team who finished highest in the regular season standing.

The final game will be scheduled to coincide with Awards Night, provided we are able to book an appropriate ice time.





5. Next Season:

As we are all well aware, the RIHL has a problem of parity with the league being extremely polarized between the 1st place Guns (who have not lost a game) and the last place Eagles (who have not won a game). This kind of situation has been a problem in this league for quite some time. Age has a way of eventually equalizing things from the top, but last place teams are falling off the bottom. If a team remains at the bottom for more than a couple of years, we lose them.



We need to correct this situation. There is little value in 10 - 0 games, and I think we have an opportunity next season to reduce this likelihood. We have an chance to pick up an additional ice time, 9:30pm on Wednesday nights. If we are able to find 2 more teams, and keep our existing teams, I propose we create two 4 teams divisions. The divisions would play an unbalanced, interlocking schedule. This would mean the Guns would play the Eagles only once or twice in a season.



There are a number of details to be worked out with this format, but regardless of whether we expand or not, we need to actively seek out new teams for next season as we are certain to otherwise lose at least one team or more.



An amount up to $500 will be allotted to advertisement for new teams.





6. Other Business:



No other business was discussed.