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1. 2005 Annual General and Partner?s Meetings

The 2005 Annual General Meeting and Partners Meetings were held in Ottawa, 27-29 May.

This year?s AGM saw a close run for the President?s position. The voting was close with Reg Plummer the newly elected President. Reg is a past men?s national team player having competed in the 1976 and 1984 Olympics and on the administration side was also the past Chair of the men?s national team committee. John Green, leaves the association in very good shape both in terms of effective governance and good financial standing. The Board and Provincial representatives thanked John for his dedication in supporting all areas and regions of hockey across Canada, for his sound guidance as President and hard work on implementing the new governance structure and Championing international hosting in Canada.

There were also elections for three Board of Directors positions with Jean Forrest from BC and Mario DeMello from NS being newly elected to the Board and Mary Cicinelli from Ontario being re-elected. JoAnn Perry and Sue Phelps are leaving the Board. JoAnn has made a generous contribution not only to the Board but also in the areas of governance and development. Sue Phelps, along with the many Board tasks, has worked to strengthen the policies of FHC. The Board and Provincial representatives thanked Jo and Sue for all their dedication over the last several years.

In the area of High Performance, Beth Ali was appointed to fill the role of HP Director. The High Performance Unit structure includes National Team Men and National Team Women programs, and a HP Support group, which will be guided by the High Performance Board Member, who monitors progress and reports to the Board on the High Performance Unit. The entire unit works as a team, sharing and supporting the other parts of the whole.

The 2006 AGM and Partner?s Meeting dates and sites are still to be determined.





2. 2006 National Championships

The National Championships workshop, led by Tony Stewart the Provincial Presidents? National Championship liaison, and the other provincial representatives resulted in developing a new framework for the 2006 championships. Tony along with Mary Cicinelli (Board of Directors) will continue to lead the review and refine the details around the hosting of the 2006 events as follows:

Senior: A tournament structure for the 2006 Seniors was discussed by the partners. It was agreed that the nationals must be a showcase event and that it be a venue where the national coaches get to observe players for selection purposes. Therefore, the best players that we have and current National Team players would be required to attend the event. With the provinces at different stages of development and only 2 or 3 able to field competitive Senior teams, there will be ongoing discussion regarding having combined teams attend this event. Further information on the 2006 Senior National structure will be circulated to the provinces and posted on the FHC web site as discussions progress.

Under 18 Women: East - QB and Under 18 West - BC
Under 18 Men: West - BC

The Board thanked the Provincial Presidents? working group consisting of Tony Stewart (Chair), Madge Johnson and Trevor Martin for all their work on the tournaments this year. Please watch for further information relating to FHC?s 2006 National Championships to be posted on the web site and circulated via email info.




3. Athlete and Coach Development Models

The Athlete Development Model (ADM) which can be found on FHC?s website was reviewed and Sherry Doiron, Development Coach, also provided an update on the transition from the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) to a Competency-Based Training and Education program (CBET). At last year?s AGM, the provincial associations were each provided with a CD-Rom of the presentation for their use back home. This year Sherry outlined the Community Coach program that was currently being piloted in New Brunswick by 16 coaches. The Community Coach piece is forming the foundation for the new coaching development model as relates to the ADM. It involves a resource package to include such things as ? video, practice sessions, rules and other related materials to help a new coach get started. Sherry?s presentation to the provincial representatives will be posted on the FHC web site shortly under Coaches as well as distributed to each Province.




4. Women's National Team

Sally Bell, the new women?s national coach, reviewed the work done since her arrival 4 weeks ago and the squad has been centralized in Vancouver on 2 May. John Green recognized Sally?s great start as Canada?s new coach and thanked her for attending the Partner?s meeting and outlining her plans for everyone. Sally?s report can be found on the FHC web site http://www.fieldhockey.ca/e/administration/meetings.


John Green acknowledged all the hard work Beth Ali and the national team women?s group has put into the women?s program in the absence of a full time coach. Australia will be in Vancouver to scrimmage with the Canadian women from June 13 to 19, please see Australia Series on the web site for dates, venues and times.




5. Sport Canada

From Sport Canada, Gwen Prillo provided an update at the meeting. Sport Canada will announce the fiscal year?s (April 2005 ? March 2006) funding mid June. The Sport Funding and Accountability Framework (SFAF III) is being rolled out soon and national sport organizations will have an opportunity to review and validate this material. The current focus in Canadian sport funding is on Winter Olympic and medal potential sports toward 2010 and 2012. Funding team sports in Canada has always been a challenge that federal and provincial governments and other funding agencies like the Canadian Olympic Committee have struggled to do. As a result, Canada has not typically had a leg up on other nations in team sports except for a smaller group of winter sports and new (on the Olympic program) women?s sports.





6. International Hosting

There was great excitement over Canada winning the bid to host the 2008 Women?s Olympic Qualification tournament. Madge Johnson, President, FHBC indicated Cheryl Taunton has agreed to Chair the Qualifier. Cheryl has a wealth of experience in organizing large events such as the Vancouver Marathon. FHC thanks Cheryl for her generous offer to Chair the Organizing Committee and the message is that all of hockey in Canada is behind making this event a huge success. A copy of the bid package was circulated at the meetings and John thanked Suzzanne Nicholson, Senior Manager, Judy Broom and Sue Jameson, FHBC and Matthew Coyne, Tourism Vancouver for all their hard work on the bid package.

Canada is also hosting the 2005 PAHF Indoor Cup this December in Kitchener-Waterloo and Phil Hignell is taking the lead in putting together the Organizing Committee for this event. It is hoped as many as eight women and eight men?s teams will enter this tournament.




7. General Discussion and for Future Follow Up

Some of the other items discussed at the meetings were the Canadian University Sports (CIS), Canada Summer Games and additional work being done in Development relating to provincial assessments that were being conducted that weekend to determine where each province is at, what resources each has available to them, how they need help, etc.

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