MAY 5, 2024 WORKING TEAM MEETING

1. Branding and Identity – Katie Roeder, Tyler Wilsey.

   1. How do we do the next steps?

      1. Consensus is to come up with a strong 1 and 2 pick and then regroup on feedback. 

   2. Designs and Creative

      1. Some options were shown.

         1. Good detail and feedback shared.

         2. Want to get more hockey specific details

         3. Anticipating having some mockups/designs in the next week. 

   3. Give out a quick zoom meeting with more frequency.  Need to come up with more feedback more quickly.

   4. Secure website and social media space for our Co-op to go live on June 9th at our Ice Cream Social.  Secure Instagram, Facebook, and web URL.

   5. What Spirit Wear company should we select to run our new wearables through?  We have a proposal from one vendor, will work on getting other vendor’s pricing/programs.  

2. Hockey Operations

   1. Teams - John Seidl & Dan Stefaniak

      1. Team designations have roughly been planned.

      2. Question with D8, when will the 15u schedule be developed?  Closer to the Thanksgiving? 

      3. Our intention is to have (1) A Team, (1) B1 Team, and (2) B2 Teams in the 10 and 12U levels.  15’s our intention is planning an A and B team.  These are all subject to change prior to the season but we feel this is the best projection at the moment.

      4. Meeting with Girl’s Directors and Districts to happen third week of May to go over details and get clarity about assigning teams to districts.

   2. Coaches - Kevin Dolan & Ben Young

      1. We have created online job applications.

      2. Our goal is to have the document go live on June 1, we will then allow a few weeks to complete.  It’s a super simple document.

      3. Not all applicants will get an interview to be head coach.

      4. Co-op will pick head coaches, then a list of assistant coach candidates will be reviewed with the coaches after evaluations. 

      5. Goal is to have someone responsible for goalie training or goalie coach dedicated on each team.

   3. Players - Jeff Blaido & Mike Reif

      1. Player evaluation

         1. Need to find a truly independent evaluator service outside of what WSP or Caps have used in the past. 

   4. Development - Amber Rall & Adam Sager

      1. Can we develop a move up policy?

         1. What is our policy and what can we do to minimize our move ups for skaters. Our goal is minimal move-ups if very little.  Goalies will need a little more flexibility in move up policy due to needs at different levels.

      2. Can we make sure that goalies are being developed at 8 or 10U level?  

         1. Can we get a guideline to make sure the multiple girls get the opportunity to play goalie?

         2. Can we schedule the goalie to be at the same time as locker room parent? 

3. Community Engagement - Michelle Henningsgard & Autumn Platz

   1. Integration events

      1. Create a signup genius or Google forms to get numbers from our membership on who is planning or not planning on attending the ice cream social.

      2. Flyers needed to pass out to family and friends regarding the co-op ice cream social on June 9th.  Hand out to schools for weekly folder inclusion in schools.

         1. Must be in English/Spanish for inclusion in the folder.  

      3. Create an online contest with our social media to get the most recruitment and buzz.  

   2. Recruiting

      1. How do we amplify our message to the Community?

      2. Schedule a Try Hockey for Free Dates in September and February to recruit more girl’s players. 

      3. Gear Up Grants link shared.  Ben to fill out for WSP.

4. Administration

   1. Working through the proposed registration fees for the upcoming season

      1. Our Goal is not to increase the price of hockey for our membership.  There’s a few fees (jerseys, tournaments, clinics) that we need to work through to solidify our plan.

   2. Ice - Chris Kawaters & Katie Murphy

   3. Tournaments – Kevin Dolan & Ben Young

      1. Kevin and Ben are working on this. Registration start to open soon.

         1. 15u Away tournaments are secured. We are working through the other travel teams to get their tournaments signed up. 

   4. Policies - Ted Kronschnabel & Scott McMahon

      1. Which policies control? Rely on registering association's policies, create co-op policies, or both?

         1. Ted, Scott, and Chris are working on comparing and reconciling existing policies among associations. 

   5. Technology - Julie Bustos & Ben Young

Meeting Concluded at 9:15PM. 

APRIL 21, 2024 WORKING TEAM MEETING

1. Introduce Jason Platz – new Riveters Coach

   1. Goal is to get the Riveters and co-op kids out on the ice together

   2. Open to working together to understand how our 15s & JV/HS numbers impact one another as we get closer to the season 

2. New items

   1. The 15U co-op with MVI is not continuing. Please ensure 15s are contemplated in all workstreams.

3. Mission & Agreements - Julie Bustos, Kevin Dolan, Ted Kronschnabel, Ben Young

4. Identity - Katie Roedler & Tyler Wilsey

   1. Opening up the approach and added team members: STP: Adam Sager and Dan Stefaniak; WSP: Angie Hanzal and Amber Rall

   2. Showed some mock ups and received some feedback: keep it simple, clever

5. Hockey Operations

   1. 12U logistics – talked about the need for goalies and how we can get more: (1) reach out to associations with goalies but no home program. Julie to put the feelers out on that. 

   2. Teams - John Seidl & Dan Stefaniak

   3. Coaches - Kevin Dolan & Ben Young

   4. Players - Jeff Blaido & Mike Reif

   5. Development - Amber Rall & Adam Sager

6. Community Engagement - Michelle Henningsgard & Autumn Platz

   1. Integration events

      1. Ice cream social is scheduled for 6/9 from 4-6pm at West St. Paul Arena. Unbakeable food truck is booked. WSP to check on ice availability to include a fun skate. 

      2. There will also be an Aug/Sept event at Highland Arena. The goal will be to have swag to hand out/sell

   2. Recruiting

7. Administration

   1. Team fees were discussed. Ideally we can achieve parity between associations though recognize that the finances of each could challenge this. 

   2. Ice - Chris Kawaters & Katie Murphy

      1. Since STP is in Ramsey County, there is an advantage to packaging RC co-op ice into STP’s purchase as STP gets priority purchasing. STP will submit initial ice request to RC by May 1.

   3. Tournaments – Kevin Dolan & Ben Young

      1. Kevin and Ben are working on this. Registations start to open soon.

      2. Zoom Meeting scheduled for week of April 29

   4. Policies - Ted Kronschnabel & Scott McMahon

      1. Ted, Scott, and Chris are working on comparing and reconciling existing policies among associations. The handbooks are largely similar and much of the co-op-specific content has already been delivered by other committees. Recommendation for a co-op board comprised of both association presidents, girls leads, and one additional rep from each (could be a non-board members). Concept of a co-op liaison that attends the other association’s board meetings. Katie pushed for a timeline for this and other workstreams as the work defines the co-op and needs to be shared with each board. WSP board meets first Monday of each month. STP board meetings third Tuesday of each month.

      2. Conduct

      3. Discipline

   5. Technology - Julie Bustos & Ben Young

      1. League Management / Crossbar & SportsEngine. 

         1. STP confirmed Crossbar will be free for the co-op if we choose to use it.

Meeting Concluded at 9PM.

APRIL 7, 2024 WORKING TEAM MEETING

1. Identity (Katie Roedler & Tyler Wilsey) 

   1. Results from Name Submission Survey

      1. 42% of the vote was for a derivative of the name that was initially suggested prior to the survey. Leading name/branding was 2x the number of people that suggested the second place name for comparison.

      2. Preliminary mockups have been sent from the designers.  Early stages of the design process. 

2. Hockey Operations

   1. Teams 

      1. 6U/8U level planning (Adam Sager, Dan Stefaniak & John Seidl)

         1.  “We are aligning our 8U program with our boys Mite program” 

      2. 10U/12U level planning (Autumn Platz, Mike Reif, Michelle Henningsgard) 

         1. 4 Teams are the plan at both 12U - Proposed Play District 8.

         2. 4 Team are the plan at 10U - Proposed Play District 2. 

      3. Team declarations:

         1. Team Counts are due to District 8 in August. Final team declarations are due in September. 

   2. Coaches (Ben Young & Kevin Dolan) 

      1. Coach selection:

         1. Our deadline for Coach’s will be prior to Team Selections 

         2. We have discussed including a panel for coaching selection to go beyond the Girl’s director to include key stake holders to help us select our coach pool prior to evaluations. 

         3. We discussed having coaches in the arena during the evaluations so they could keep notes but not interact with Evaluators, they would have to be on the other side of the rink/arena. 

      2. Coach training

         1. Ben checked with District 8 and they confirmed that helpers and people on the bench need to have at least USA Hockey Level 1.

         2. December 15th is the deadline for coaching certifications.  

         3. Follow up on tryout dates aiming for first week of October.

         4. Clinics/warmups to start in September.

   3.   Players (Jeff Blaido & Mike Reif)

      1. Player evaluation

      2. Team selection

         1. Coach’s input parameters.     

         2. Committee selection with Coach’s input for Bubble Players.

            1. Director’s, President’s, and Level head coaching. 

               1. Conflict of interests leave the room.

         3. Find independent evaluators.  Not associated with either Caps or WSP. 

         4.  Development (Adam Sager & Amber Rall) 

            1. Framework (e.g., development expectations, tools, support)

               1. OS Skills for our teams.  Front end our schedule for October/November.

3. Administration

   1. Ice Schedulers:  Meeting took place on 4/3 with WSP and Caps.  It seems like we are in good shape with ice time for next year between the two. 

      1. Buying

      2. Scheduling

   2. Tournaments – We will pick up this workstream at the next meeting.  May is when tournaments start to open, but the bulk around June 1.  WE need information on hotels and what tournaments we liked and which one’s we didn’t like. 

   3. Policies (Chris Morissette, Ted K) 

   4. 3rd Party Platform (Julie and Ben)

   5. Recruiting & Promotion

4. Coop Integration Plan (Autumn Platz & Michelle Henningsgard) 

   1. Spring Kickoff– First one at WSP arena and the second event (centered around spirit wear at Highland Arena in the late summer).

      1. Ice cream truck for girls - WSP. 

      2. Scavenger hunt to get to know each other. 

      3. WSP Date is June 9th.  4-6 PM

Meeting Concluded at 9:20PM.

MARCH 24, 2024 - WORKING TEAM MEETING

The March 24 working team meeting has been cancelled due to weather.

MARCH 18, 2024 - ICE SCHEDULER MEETING

The March 18 ice scheduler meeting has been rescheduled due to key attendee scheduling conflict. Exploring April 3 as the new date.

MARCH 3, 2024 - WORKING TEAM MEETING

The team spent the first 45 minutes discussing the branding as Katie/Tyler attended and shared their ideas. The rest of the meeting we went through our workstreams to talk about what we have discovered and to ask any questions that might be out there.

1. Identity (Katie Roedler & Tyler Wilsey)

2. Katie and Tyler presented a concept in name to the group. It was well received but to make sure they have done their total due diligence, they will be creating a one week survey to send out to Girl’s families to see if any other names are recommended out there by the public.

3. Hockey Operations

4. Teams

5. 6U/8U level planning (Adam Sager, Dan Stefaniak & John Seidl)

6. Adam, Dan, and John went over their thoughts on 8U/6U planning. Key idea is shifting from A/B to 1/2/3/4 level teams as other associations do. Main goal is providing an optimal development environment for as many players as possible. Discussed outside development with OS. Will vet ideas against ice time availability and other constraints. 

7. 10U/12U level planning

8. Autumn Platz and Mike Reif both volunteered to work on the 10U and 12U levels, organizing the numbers and team projections.

9. Team declarations

10. Chris to check with D2, Ben to check with D8 about the timing of rosters needing to be submitted.

11. Coaches (Ben Young & Kevin Dolan)

12. Coach selection:

13. Ben reviewed overall notes that Kevin and he wrote about coaching philosophy. There is a strong desire to have equal representation from each association. Also reviewed how coaches may be involved in the evaluation and team selection processes.

14. Coach training

15. Follow Up: What requirements do each District have relative to 6U/8U Level 1 coaches? D2 requires full coach certification for all 8U levels. Need to confirm D8's requirements.

16. Players (Jeff Blaido & Mike Reif)

17. Player evaluation

18. Jeff and Mike are working on a consolidated player evaluation process and will solicit feedback from coaches in their associations for player evaluations.

19. Team selection

20. Team is working on team selection details, including timing and how to pool players so we have a reasonable number of players on the ice per session.

21. Using TeamGenius software and independent evaluators remains the plan.

22. Development (Adam Sager & Amber Rall)

23. Framework (e.g., development expectations, tools, support)

24. Adam and Amber are working to document a development framework and can share at an upcoming meeting.

25. Administration

26. Ice (Ice Schedulers) - Meeting is scheduled for March 18 at 7PM Green Mill STP.

27. Buying

28. Scheduling

29. Tournaments (down the road)

30. Home tournaments

31. Local tournaments

32. Away tournaments

33. Policies (Chris Morissette, Ted K)

34. Discussed creating a co-op policy handbook to handle 99% of the issues that arise, otherwise issues like discipline would be sent back to registering association.

35. Coop Integration Plan (Autumn Platz & Michelle Henningsgard)

36. Summer activities –

37. 2024-25 12U families have been notified that there is a summer co-op skate at VMCC in IGH they are welcome to join.

38. Ben is checking on a similar option for 10Us at West St Paul Arena

39. Considering a Spring Kickoff Event around our new brand to kickoff the new coop. Ice Cream Social was an idea.  Also a personal scavenger hunt where we could split the girls up by age group to find out information about each other and to start building relationships.

40. Fall kickoff fun for the adults and kids to start the season with co-op spirit wear, etc. 

The next meeting will be rescheduled to Sunday, March 24th because of the St. Patrick's Day holiday.

We are excited to announce our intention to create a Girls program co-op between the St. Paul and West St.  Paul to begin with the 2024-25 season. For the past year, members of the St. Paul and West St. Paul boards  have been working collaboratively to explore what a long-term co-op of our Girls hockey programs could look  like. Both programs are well-established and share similar size and values. Our communities are close in  proximity, culturally similar, and share a public high school Girls hockey program together. Perhaps most  importantly, each association values the development of our athletes and gives them the opportunities to  realize their goals in the game of hockey and in life. Both have been challenged by numbers in their Girls  programs and through this co-op, we believe our combined numbers position us extremely well to be able to  deliver age- and skill-appropriate player development, teamwork, appropriate competitiveness, and continue to  deliver a positive and engaged Girls hockey environment.  

Before making this announcement, we did due diligence to confirm compatibility and alignment with both  boards, District 2 & District 8 and Minnesota Hockey. On Sunday, we kicked off an expanded organizing team to  move this co-op forward. This organizing team includes an equal number of representatives from each  association. We took care to include different viewpoints, including managers, coaches, parents, and board  members with a variety of different tenures within their organizations. This group will be working through how  this co-op should come together focusing on things like: 

• co-op mission and culture 

• player development philosophy 

• naming and identity 

• ice time scheduling 

• policies & procedures (e.g., player evals, coach selection) 

• etc. 

Together we are focused on building and cultivating an environment built on shared values and philosophies.  We will keep you updated as things progress. 

Thank you on behalf of St. Paul and West St. Paul Hockey Associations, 

Julie Bustos, Kevin Dolan, Ben Young, and Ted Kronschnabel