Brantford Minor Lacrosse Newsletter!

Happy New Year Warriors Players and Families!

With the Holidays behind us and a new season of lacrosse right around the corner, I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on some of the changes you can expect to see in the upcoming season.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
Our 2019 AGM was well attended and saw a big change in composition of the Board. Some Directors have remained however, under new positions (Christa Martin, Kris Martin, Nicole Bishop, Hilary Visheau and Mark Bussink) and some have returned from previous years (Jessica Bates, Hayley Christilaw). Welcome to Gwen Bussink, in her new role. Resignations were accepted from Kelly Severn and Owen Freeman and terms ended for Jay Vey and Tom Lacroix. We would like to thank these members for their volunteer service over the years. 

All told, we did have 10 volunteers to make up the 2020 Board. Unfortunately, we have already accepted the resignation of one of these volunteers due to pressing family commitments and we wish them all the best in the coming months. Your 9-strong BMLA Board is listed below.

Chair – Hilary Visheau	President – Christa Martin
Registrar – Nicole Bishop	Media Director – Hayley Christilaw
Treasurer – Gwen Bussink	Secretary – Jessica Bates
Rep/Technical Director – Kris Martin	Equipment Director – Steve Berrill
Development League Director – Mark Bussink

STRATEGIC PLAN:
In the early fall, the Board began working on a Strategic Plan which we will use as our operational road map to provide a framework for future board decisions for the next 3 years. During our strategic planning sessions, we identified a number of challenges that we will be working to address in the up-coming months. The Strategic Plan can be found on our website for anyone who is interested in reviewing it. 

WORKING TO INCREASE ENROLLMENT:
One of the challenges we noted during our strategic planning sessions was a decrease in the number of young players registering for lacrosse. This is consistent with what the Ontario Lacrosse Association has experienced across the province. Some of the barriers to registration that we have been able to identify are a lack of knowledge about the sport; fear of violence and concussions; and, the amount of travel required for games. 

In an effort to address these concerns we have decided to limit paperweight to development play only which will allow our youngest players to learn the sport without the fear of body contact. In addition, we hope to offer both a development league team and a rep level team for our tyke and novice-aged players so that those players not quite ready for body contact can continue to learn and enjoy the game of lacrosse while building their confidence level. Development league play has limited travel for those families that wish to remain closer to home as well.

We have also worked with our fellow Zone 8 Associations to play Owen Sound and West Grey rep level games out of Centre-Wellington, eliminating the extensive travel for our rep teams. Thanks for Centre-Wellington to agreeing to host these games!

Increasing numbers is always a difficult task that has involved hosting clinic nights in past seasons. We are looking to offer these “Try Before you Buy” style sessions again in the coming weeks are also looking to have information circulated in the schools and are reaching out to the OLA to tap into their Try It! Lacrosse program. Of course, word-of-mouth recruiting is always an effective and welcome strategy. Please continue to tell your friends and neighbours how much you love our sport.

COACHING:
Another issue identified during our strategic planning session is the lack of support offered to our coaching staff. Our coaches are an integral part of your players’ development and it is important that they receive the training and support they require to develop players into competitive athletes. To this end, our Rep and Development Directors will be working together this season to create player and coaching plans which will ensure consistent player development year-over-year. As well, more support will be offered to coaches throughout the year in the form of practice assistance and training/planning meetings. We also hope to be able to bring in guest coaches and offer focused training sessions. The Board is also looking at the possibility of adding more floor time to our 2020 budget for additional practice and/or strength and conditioning training, which is an exciting opportunity for all of us!

With this in mind, our 2020 Coaching Application is now online at: http://brantfordminorlacrosse.com/page.php?page_id=82463

If you are interested in volunteering as a coach we encourage you to apply. Also, if you know of someone who you believe would be an asset to our coaching staff, we strongly encourage you to forward an application on to them. We will require 7 Head Coaches in total - 5 Rep Head Coaches and 2 Development Head Coaches. The Board will be reviewing the applications and conducting interviews. 

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:
Another issue identified during our planning session was the lack of team cohesion amongst our rep teams. This is partly attributable to the fact that team composition changes every other year, as well as not stressing the contribution made by all players on each team. To this end, we will be working with our coaches to ensure that team play is emphasised and that the contributions of all players is recognized. Furthermore, we will be working towards strengthening our policies and procedures so that we can proactively deal with any team issues. 

LOGO:
As you may or may not have noticed, last year we voted to do away with the previous BMLA logo in order to ensure that our association was respectful of all cultures and inclusive of all players. To this end, we are in search of a new logo. We have reached out to the Brantford Junior “C” Warriors and requested permission to adopt their logo. It is our belief that this will create stronger brand recognition and promote stronger club affiliation. The Brantford Junior “C” Warriors board of directors has agreed to discuss this at their next board meeting and provide us with a response. We will keep you updated on this initiative. 

SPONSORSHIP:
We will be actively seeking sponsorship support this season to assist our growth with the funds raised being applied to such things as increased floor time, uniforms and development sessions. We understand that we have some big goals for this season and beyond and that these are expensive. Part of keeping lacrosse accessible is to keep our player costs low. We hope to be able to offer as much as possible to your kids without creating the need for large fee increases. If you know of any local businesses that might be interested in supporting our Association this season, please email Christa at christamartin80@gmail.com for more information. 

WHAT NOT TO YELL:
What Not to Yell is a free, live, 60-minute webinar to learn how you can provide feedback using the SAID Feedback Model in a constructive and controlled fashion. This Webinar is targeted to team managers, parent representatives, coaches, Board members and parents. We feel that this is a great opportunity for some self-directed learning for any of our member families and is in line with the sense of community and team cohesion we are looking to create this season. For more information, please visit the following link:
https://www.whatnottoyell.com/webinar-jan-22-20/ 

We look forward to the 2020 Season being one of our strongest yet and we appreciate the support of our Warrior friends and families to make it happen!

Sincerely,

Christa Martin
President – BMLA