MACHA ANNUAL MEETING

3) GK asked if there were any corrections to the minutes of the last MACHA annual meeting which was held on March 25, 2006. As no one had any inputs, Brian Corley made the motion to approve the minutes which was seconded by Bill Misiak. Motion approved by raised hand vote.

4) Bill Misiak notified those in attendance, that effective July 1, 2007, McKendree College was changing its name to McKendree University.

5) GK congratulated Missouri State and Illinois State for winning the respective Gold and Silver MACHA championships. GK also recognized and thanked Brian Chamberlain and Northwestern University for hosting the tournament.

6) GK briefly recapped last year’s board meeting mentioning the adoption of league bylaws, the number and description of MACHA Board of Director (BOD) assignments and the term limits of the BOD’s.

7) TREASURER’S REPORT

a) MACHA Treasurer Larry Thatcher (LT) presented to all teams and the BOD, the most current treasurer’s report, which included a thorough description of the league credits and debits for the 2006-2007 season. LT also included a proposed budget for the 2007-2008 season, based on his best estimate. LT mentioned that a Certificate of Deposit had expired recently which gave the league 300 dollars in interest. Bob Hughes (BH) made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report, which was seconded by Brian Chamberlain. Motion approved by raised hand vote.

8) COMPETION COMMITTEE REPORT

a) Benjamin Alexander of the competition committee discussed the results of the questionnaire that was sent to the MACHA teams. The general consensus was that the member teams preferred to limit the number of teams in the MACHA to 18-20 while maintaining the current two-division alignment.

b) BA notified the teams that Missouri State would be adding a second team to the Silver Division starting the 2007-2008 season.

c) Brian Corley of Illinois State said that ISU has an interest at adding a second team, but after a brief discussion, his decision was that ISU would hold off at this point.

d) Clarence Edwards of Wheaton College notified the teams that Wheaton would be rejoining MACHA for the 2007-2008 season in the Silver Division.

e) BA mentioned the teams listed below as possible league members, but said they have not been contacted yet, nor were invited to the meeting as he wanted to discuss the future makeup of the league with the member teams first.

University of Illinois
University of Illinois – Chicago
Lake Forest
Purdue
Loyola – Chicago
Kansas
Nebraska

f) After a brief discussion, the general consensus of the team membership was to let teams approach MACHA if they have any interest in joining the league.

g) It was also decided by general consensus, after discussion, to leave the MACHA divisional alignment in its current state.

h) A lengthy discussion then ensued concerning guidelines for ranking teams that should perhaps move up, or down in a division. The first proposal was for the bottom two teams in the Gold to automatically move down to the Silver, while likewise, the top two teams in the Silver to automatically move to the Gold at the conclusion of the MACHA season and playoffs. The second proposal was for the competition committee to look at the aforementioned bottom two and top two teams and evaluate long term trends, strength of team, head-to-head play, etc. then only bringing a suggestion to league membership concerning which, if any teams should be moved up or down. No decision on either proposal was made.

i) Requests then were made by the following team to make a move to the other division for the 2007-2008 season.

Illinois State requests to move from Silver to Gold
Marquette requests to move from Gold to Silver
Palmer requests to move from Silver to Gold
Missouri State’s second team requests to enter the league in the Silver
Wheaton requests to re-enter the league in the Silver

A motion was made by BH and seconded by Bill Misiak to make the alignment changes as requested and discussed. Motion approved by raised hand vote.

j) To ensure teams were playing in the division of their preference a poll of the teams was taking prior to the power ranking. The results were as follows:

9) RULES AND DISCIPLINE (R&D) REPORT

a) Cameron Estes (CE) introduced the R&D committee, which is comprised of himself, BH and Craig Buntenbach (CB).

b) CE handed out to all teams a report of the incidents R&D addressed throughout the season. CE made a verbal brief of the report and explained the incidents and R&D findings and disciplinary action of each incident. CE mentioned that a couple of minor incidents took place, but R&D took no action.

c) A motion was made by Gene Neighbors and seconded by BH to accept the R&D report. Motion was approved by raised hand vote.

10) TOURNAMENT COMMITEE REPORT

a) LT thanked Northwestern and Brian Chamberlain for organizing and managing the MACHA tournament.

b) A lengthy discussion then took place concerning the location of the MACHA tournament. Many ideas were tossed around, including, but not limited to a set, primary location year after year. The International Ice Arena, where the most recent tournament was hosted, has offered a 5-year contract, commencing in 2009, with fixed ice time costs for the duration of the contract. No decision was made at this time about this proposal. It is to be reviewed in length by the tournament committee. In the meantime, the teams are encouraged to make additional suggestions.

c) Discussion then proceeded concerning the host site for the 2008 MACHA tournament location. As no teams brought applications or proposals to host the tournament, LT, manager of the East Alton Ice Area, offered to host the 2008 tournament.

d) LT then made a suggestion to host the MACHA tournament prior to the ACHA Regionals. Mike Radakovich, ACHA DII Commissioner, has already informed LT that the regionals are going to be February 22 and 23, 2008.

e) A motion was then made by Tony Fry and seconded by Bill Misiak to move the MACHA league tournament to the weekend of February 15, 16 and 17, 2008, with the caveat that if the ACHA regionals were to be held that weekend, the MACHA tourney would be moved to February 22, 23 and 24, 2008. Motion was approved by raised hand vote.

f) BA then proposed that the tournament committee could put together tournament guidelines concerning game start and conclusion times, days and length of tournament and other pertinent tournament related guidelines.

g) LT proposed an idea that MACHA could make the league tournament more of a festival environment, by including a league meeting on Saturday and a banquet on Sunday. These events, in addition to the standard tournament schedule of games. The thought is that it will encourage more teams to attend and participate in the tournament events, including non-tournament eligible teams.

h) The topic of expanding the tournament schedule was discussed in length. Many pro’s and con’s to adding additional games were introduced. Pro’s included the opportunity for a losing team to play more than a single game after traveling a long distance. Con’s included the additional costs to the league, the tournament schedule perhaps extending over 3 days.

Many idea’s were tossed about and it was determined that the teams would vote on 3 proposals for the tournament format: 1) 6 teams from each of the gold and silver division would now make the tournament, 2) a consolation game would be added, or 3) continue with the current format. A roll call vote was taken and the results were 13 teams were in favor of proposal 1, no teams were in favor of proposal 2 and 4 teams were in favor of proposal 3.

A motion was then made by BH and then seconded by Bill Misiak to adopt a 6 team tournament format with the 2008 tournament to be hosted by the East Alton Ice Arena. Motion was approved by raised hand vote.

i) The tournament committee has been tasked with developing a tournament format including guidelines. Points to consider included setting a standard for game start and stop times, potentially establishing a central location for the tournament and how to manage the events should a team choose not to participate in the tournament or cannot play on a tournament day, such as a Sunday.

11) WEBMASTER REPORT

CB reported that there continues to be an issue with teams submitting their scores on a timely basis, if at all. A few ideas were tossed about to how to mitigate this issue, including fining teams, but it was decided the first action would be to post a “bad boys” list on the MACHA website listing those teams who have not submitted their scores.

Also, since so few teams submitted their team statistics, the webmaster reported that from now on the MACHA stats page would now be directly linked to the ACHA website stats page.

12) REFEREE LIAISON REPORT

BH reported that he had not received any recent news from the ACHA.

13) ACHA LIAISION REPORT

a) BA reported that Koronis was no longer a sponsor of the ACHA. This due to the rash of problems teams experienced during the season with getting their jerseys from Koronis.

b) The ACHA regional tournament is scheduled for February 22 and 23, 2008.

c) The deadline for submitting proposals to the ACHA for the annual convention is April 1, 2007.

d) The ACHA annual convention is coming up in Naples, Florida in April 2007.

e) BA requested that any questions or concerns about ACHA issues be emailed to him.

14) OLD BUSINESS

a) It was decided that the league would no longer be issuing MACHA patches or ordering stickers for the helmets.

b) BA will order and distribute ACHA helmet stickers to all teams. These stickers are to be affixed on the back of the helmet.

c) Web Sports Radio expressed interest in continuing to broadcast the MACHA championship games. They submitted a proposal which includes a sharing of revenue between WSR and MACHA. A motion was made by BA and seconded by Clarence Edwards to allow WSR to continue to broadcast the games, but any expenses incurred would be paid by WSR. Motion was approved by raised hand vote.

15) NEW BUSINESS

a) Since the tournament was expanded to 6 teams the idea of adding an all-star game was terminated.

b) BA made a suggestion that the league should purchase a league banner for use at the MACHA tournament. Shannon Elliot made a motion which was seconded by Bill Misiak. Motion was approved by raised hand vote.

c) BA spoke about his interpretation of the appearance of our organization. He pointed out that is was important that we convey a professional appearance, especially during the tournament. He has noticed teams wearing mismatched jersey and socks at the tournament. This, and lack of prudence to ensure that we have scorekeepers and other support staff in place, makes us look less than organized.

d) LT urged every team to be proactive with their rink management and stress to them that their team is a valued customer. He suggested that every team have a banner in their home rink, which included the MACHA website address.

e) BA has been tasked with researching the cost for a MACHA banner for each team’s home rink.

f) GA reiterated the need for teams to take ownership and be prudent about updating their websites on a regular basis. This not only benefits MACHA, but team’s can use their sites for recruiting purposes.

g) Following ACHA policy, a point for an overtime loss was eliminated.

h) GA presented the league awards.

i) The next league meeting will be held on March 29, 2008 at Bradley in Peoria, IL.

j) The meeting was adjourned at 12:45 with the teams commencing the scheduling meeting.

MACHA Board Members Present: Greg Killoran, Bob Hughes, Larry Thatcher, John Lamond, Benjamin Alexander, Cameron Estes, Craig Buntenbach, Brian Neighbors (Player Representative, non-voting)

1) MACHA President Greg Killoran (GK) called meeting to order at 10:00 am

2) The following teams were present and represented:

a) Iowa

b) Northern Illinois

c) Missouri State

d) Bradley

e) Eastern Illinois

f) Palmer

g) RMC-Springfield

h) SIUE-Gold

i) SIUE-Silver

j) University of Missouri

k) Northwestern

l) Illinois State

m) Western Illinois

n) Marquette

o) McKendree

p) Wheaton