Juvenile Presentation
1. Challenges of the juvenile program
a. We played 2 home games last year and 3 away games last year other then tournaments
b. We have 27 registered players on our roster which all used the juv ice allocated
c. There are very limited number teams for us to play. Last year we had only Nanaimo (they quit playing the rep team in early Oct) and Pennisula and distance is a problem for both teams. The year before Port Alberni had a team in addition to Nanaimo.
d. We want to be able to offer an opportunity to anyone who wants to still be involved in minor hockey at the juv. level.
e. We want to offer a higher level of hockey to those who want it. Even though we had no real competition on the Island, we still had a "good" showing at the provincials and we had potential to win 4 out 5 games. This is considering the 4 strongest lower mainland teams play 35 or more games at a very high level all season long.
f. We want to make a proposal that we feel will allow the juv program to grow and survive even if we have limited teams to play.
g. Determine a "fair" cost for juveniles based on our actual cost to OMHA
Proposal
1. Allow juv to form a team in the Premier men's league. We would still have coaches with this team. This would be mostly the "carded" team and it would allow to develop more hockey skills to compete in the Provincials. BCAHA and CARA have approved us being insured at 2 places. Depending on the number of players who register and their abilities would determine which players play in this Premier league.
2. Reduce the amount of ice for juv. with OMHA in order to reduce the cost. If we had 1.5 hours of ice per week, the cost would be $2800 minus sponsorship ($500) or approx $85 per player (assuming 28 players). The cost of mutual aid and carding costs would add another $50 per player for a total cost of $135. We would request some additional game times and we would pay for that ice and official's costs in addition. We are proposing making the juv reg fee reasonable as we don't get the games that every other OMHA team gets and we want to keep players playing for as long as possible. (note, with adult coaching who can help mentor kids instead of just sending them to "beer league").
3. REP fees. We would propose no rep fees as we expect to pay all of our costs. Rep fees are intended to cover the 'extra' ice and official cost and we are proposing that we pay all of our actual costs. General administration costs can be covered with Gaming proceeds which is normally $80 per player approx. The Provincial travel fund was raised over the past 15 years and no money has been added to the fund over the past 5 years approx. Therefore for the next couple of years the players playing juv. have contributed to the fund. At some time replenishing the fund needs to be addressed.
4.. Late penalties in registering. We ask that any late fees be waived for juvenile. We are a small group and basically the coaching staff would handle the entire division. We indeed to allow any and all interested players the opportunity to the limited juv OMHA ice time. The high proposed reg fees scared a lot of players off even though we told them to register. Also, with juv, they are finished high school and often have no idea of their specific plans in Sept. They are much more focused on post secondary school options or work options then hockey. Again, all other divisions in OMHA do not have this problem as the kids are still in school.
We need to get the above proposal approved at the AGM in order to have the program continue. There are a number of players who are registered but if they have no games like last year or if the reg fees stay as high as they are or if we are asked to pay rep fees again, then they are not interested in playing.
We also need know ASAP in order to join the Premier League. (note we would look after all of the organization of this and OMHA would not have any work in this matter)
HOCKEY REGISTRATION FOR 2009 
