Firelands November 20, 2011 Annual General Meeting Minutes:

 Pete Winzig called the meeting to order.  Began by thanking the membership for their hard work.  Joe nor Pete had any negative calls or reports this season.

 Roll call: Board:  Pete, Rob, Jim, Ron, Steve and Joe were present   State:  John, Kevin and Ben were present.  Trustees:  Chris and Matt were present.

 Old Business:

Pete motioned to suspend last year’s minutes; Chris seconded.  Motion passed 22-0.

 Reports:

Ron Galauner provided a Treasurer’s financial report: 

  • Rev:  $7060;  Exp:  $8619;  Deficit:  $1559 
  • We have about 200 members. 
  • Matt motioned to accept Ron’s report; Kevin seconded; motion passed 22-0.

 Jim Stegmaier shared he has joined Ben Manlou who is leading a committee to study referee ethics.  They will also review the by-laws; Steve noted  we have a sexual harassment document on our website and encouraged everyone to review it.  

 Rob Spies shared the news about the new website, our move to communicate via mail chimp and recently via facebook and invited everyone to “Friend” Firelands Referees.

 Steve Zeise provided an OHSAA Secretary’s financial report: 

  • Rev:  $2390;  Exp: $1808;  Surplus: $622. 
  • We have 65 OHSAA officials; 8 new officials; we lost 3 for a net gain of 5. 

Firelands is tenth in size out of 23 associations in Ohio. 

 Joe Blackham reported we had a good year.  Other comments included:

  • The last two weeks of rain made it tough.
  • Brett Thompson from Amherst noted the past two years have been great as far as officiating.
  • LC all star game asked Joe to keep the ref fees the same as last year for the August preview.
  • He stressed the referees NED to know the rules.
  • Joe will be adding tips to Arbiter
  • Joe needs more officials
  • He takes a recent school loss personally and is now more focused than ever on assigning the best refs to the best matches.
  • Joe also made time to recognize Steve and his 17 years of dedication to Firelands

 Kevin O’Brien shared news about recertifying:

  • Registration is on-line
  • The test will be on-line
  • 3 hours on-line
  • 2 hours classroom
  • Grade 7’s and higher will be in person and separate
  • 2 classes in Jan, 2 classes in Feb, 2 classes in Mar with dates TBD
  • Ron and Kevin will run a recert for young referees
  • Go to OHRefs.org for more info
  • Kevin plans to identify the most missed test questions for the membership
  • John Hill will summarize the recert process for the organization as to appeared to be a bit confusing to some.
  • Ben also mentioned assessments are required every other year; pay in advance.
  • Ben also noted most questions come from the ref handbook with 25 on offsides and 25 on restarts  (Note:  this can be found in the Firelands website under USSF)

 Pete moved to nominate the Board; Chris seconded.

  • President:  Pete volunteered for another year.  Asked 3 times for a nomination from the floor.  Steve motioned; Jim seconded.  21-0.
  • Vice President:  Jim volunteered for another year.  Asked 3 times for a nomination from the floor.  Steve motioned; Ivie seconded.  21-0.
  • Treasurer:  Ron volunteered for another year.  Asked 3 times for a nomination from the floor.  Jim motioned; Ivie seconded.  21-0.
  • Secretary:  Rob volunteered for another year.  Asked 3 times for a nomination from the floor.  Chris motioned; Ron seconded.  21-0.
  • Trustee: 
    • Chris nominated Ivie who accepted
    • Ron nominated George who declined
    • Joe nominated Jason who accepted
    • Vote:  14-7 in favor of Ivie.
    • OHSAA Assignor  Joe volunteered for another year.  Asked 3 times for a nomination from the floor.  Ben motioned; Chris seconded.  21-0.
    • OHSAA: Tim Church volunteered for the role. 
      • Steve offered insight into some of the responsibilities:
        • All communications between Firelands and Columbus
        • Local rules meetings
        • Maintaining attendance, upgrades, paperwork
        • Attend 3-4 meetings in Columbus
        • Instructional clinics
        • Steve will mentor the new officer
        • Asked 3 times for a second nomination from the floor.  Steve motioned; Moxie seconded.  21-0

 Other business:  Ron would like to run a family picnic this summer at Concordia.  The membership agreed.

 Rob motioned to adjourn; Moxie seconded 21-0