OTFA Board Minutes
OTFA
Annual General Meeting - 2000
Minutes of the Board of Directors Conference Call Present: Earl Farrell (Chair), Denis Landry, Roman Olszewski, Dennis Fairall, Albert Tschirhart, Gary Crossley, John Craig, David Watt (joined at 8: 25 p.m.) 1. Cecil Smith currently represents the sport with respect to the Toronto Track and Field Centre at York University. With his retirement from the OTFA, he wondered if he should continue to be our representative at meetings. Cecil has an interest in securing a legacy for the sport from the 2008 Olympics, including a covered grandstand at the Track Centre, with rooms beneath for physio, officials, showers etc. Roman suggested that eventually it would be to the sport's advantage to have a representative who is active as a coach at the Centre. The Board agreed to ask Cecil to continue his position at York for the time being. 2. There was discussion regarding Nick Stewart and his status with regards to the 2001 Canada Summer Games. Roman will seek advice from Andy Buckstein and follow up with information from Suzanne Leroux. 3. Roman asked for a rule change regarding records set by athletes not registered with the OTFA, which would allow club affiliation to be shown retroactively. Specifically, he referred to a request by Lightning Athletics Club to have the club name associated with a record set by Heather Hamilton (B-12) indoors. Heather was not an OTFA member at the time the record was set, but was competing as an athlete with the club. The club name will be recorded beside the record provided that Lightning Athletics Club submit a written request, along with a fee equal to the OTFA non-discounted registration fee for the athlete for the year in which the record was set. Roman will follow up.
Motion # 1 D. Fairall / G. Crossley Carried 4. Volunteer Screening. John gave a brief explanation of the program and where it currently stands. The program will require some scrutiny and participation by the Coaching Council since it will likely affect the coaches more than any other group. John will continue to represent the OTFA at planning meetings, and Jennifer Kopplin has agreed to represent the OCC. 5. Newsletter on OTFA Website. The newsletter generates some revenue for the OTFA, but the information should be more widely circulated. The process of putting the newsletter on the OTFA website, however, is difficult. There was general agreement that we should post what we can, and re-evaluate the situation in September to see if we can expand and include more. 6. School relay teams. The Board considered a proposal to allow high school relay teams to enter OTFA competitions during the summer. The idea is born from the concern over a lack of opportunities in schools given the withdrawal of most extra-curricular programs across Ontario. Most on the Board felt this defeated the idea of registering kids and allowed clubs and athletes to side-step the OTFA registration process. Also noted was that several competitions, including the Great Lakes Series competitions, will allow school teams to compete by using the one day membership fee. 7. Summer League Meets. Because three regions already have series meets (Ottawa, Hamilton and the Great Lakes Series), the staff felt the money should be spent in the North to try to re-activate a League. Earl, although supportive, thought it would be difficult to rationalize the use of grant money in this manner to the government and suggested it would be better to stick, if possible, with the proposal as written. John will see what the Ministry will fund in this respect, and John, Roman and Earl will form a committee to work on this. 8. Ontario Sports Awards. At Enrico Toscano's suggestion Jim Griffen was nominated by Roman for the Special Achievement Award. John will see if the Canadian International Marathon has any sponsors that should be nominated in the Corporations sector. Gary will check to see if the Kitchener Record should be nominated. Denis will make a similar inquiry about Nordion in Ottawa. 9. Universal Registration. A working group, headed by Roman, will consider this concept. Gary and Albert will also assist. Roman will do some initial work and send ideas and questions to the entire Board. 10. Office re-structuring. John and Roman left the call. The Board agreed to use the office re-structuring draft drawn up by the staff regarding roles and responsibilities for a 6 month period. At the end of this period Denis and Albert will meet with the staff to assure that everything can be accomplished under the guidelines of the Draft and that all staff members are happy with their roles. After the review a final Draft will be developed and approved by the Board. Motion: That all members of the OTFA staff receive a salary increase to reflect the additional responsibility resulting from the office restructuring. D. Landry / G. Crossley Carried Meeting adjourned. Minutes Prepared by John Craig |