May 8 2023
2021 SAVA AGM Notice
Annual General Meeting
Saskatoon Amateur Volleyball Association Corporation (SAVA)
Thursday September 16, 2021 @ 7pm
**As a result of constantly changing conditions regarding COVID-19, members are asked to submit their proxy as there will not be an in person meeting. See last page – cut and paste the Proxy text into an email and send it to vice.president@savavball.ca PRIOR to September 16, 2021 @ Noon. If you choose to attend, a link for the Virtual AGM will be posted here closer to September 16.
Please see the additional important NOTES added to the following Agenda below which includes information that would normally be provided during the annual meeting.
AGENDA
1. Call to Order (NOTE: In light of the circumstances surrounding COVID-19, the annual meeting will be virtual, with members encourage to submit proxies in lieu of attending an in person meeting. The Executive will briefly meet electronically to address the annual business of the Corporation).
2. Ascertainment of Quorum (NOTE: Proxies submitted by members will be used to establish quorum and complete the required annual business of the Corporation. This will include agenda item numbers 4, 5, 6, and 8. Please copy and paste the proxy form into an email from the website to vote.
3. Team Representatives / Admission to League (NOTE: Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Board made the decision that if teams from the 2019/20 season chose not to enter a team for 2020/21, they would still have an opportunity to register for the 2021/22 season. As the pandemic is still ongoing, we cannot confirm if new teams that registered in the 2020/21 have a spot until the Board meets after the AGM to determine how to move forward. Thank you for your understanding and patience.)
4. Motion 01-2021 Approval of Agenda
5. Motion 02-2021 Approval of the Annual Financial Statements for the years ending March 31, 2020 and March 31, 2021. (NOTE: The Financial Statement is included in this link. If you have questions regarding anything in the statement please contact SAVA Treasurer Brenton Darbyshire by email at treasurer@savavball.ca. Please see the proxy included in this notice to vote on this motion.
6. Motion 03-2021 Approval of Minutes from the previous Annual General Meeting held on April 16, 2019. (NOTE: The previous AGM minutes are linked here. An AGM was not held in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, just Board elections to keep the league functional. The 2019 minutes need to be approved, while the ‘2020 League Update & Election Results’ is linked here and does not need to be approved. Members with questions regarding anything in the minutes may submit these along with their proxy.)
7. (Interim) President’s Report (NOTE: See report below. Approval is not required).
Submitted by Russell Lawrence
On behalf of the Executive/Board, thank you for being patient as we continue to navigate through an unprecedented amount of change through this pandemic. The 2020/21 season was cut short, as was the 2019/20 season, so it has been very trying and tiring for the entire Executive/Board as we tried to navigate changes as they were being made at the provincial level on a day to day basis.
In light of the constant changes to public health orders in the fall, the Executive/Board saw the need to undertake an internal change that was needed for a long time: to move away from a paper based recordkeeping system that was very labour intensive, and into a much more automated one by moving the league to be based in the TeamLinkt app. This move has come with its own challenges, as they often do, but it is change for the better that reduces the volunteer time requirement on a week to week basis to capture scores and ensure necessary waivers are signed as was required by the provincial government under the public health order.
The next piece to help SAVA move forward will be a substantive update to the Bylaws. This update will shift the structure and rules, if you will, to be not in SAVA’s Bylaws, but in the SAVA leadership and with Volleyball Canada. A note on this change was sent out August 13-15, 2021 on its reasoning and there were 2 common points of feedback.
First was unrelated to the Bylaw amends, but that many of you never got the initial email at all; this highlights a problem that has been around for many years where the Executive/Board has had to send an email to the captains and then putting the responsibility on the captains to share league with their teams. Captains should be following up to ensure everyone got the information, but that's a stopgap of an underlying issue of the Executive/Board not being able to communicated with its membership. TeamLinkt gets us 99% of the way there with communication within the app because not everyone has a cell phone, but it’s better than the ~92% that email alone does.
Second was about the changes, that a lot of members like the idea of changing the Bylaws to give the Exec/Board ability to change the league as necessary, but there is concern that there will be no rules in the league.
My response: There will always be people that push the rules, no matter how strict they are. Part of what makes SAVA a quality league is that there are players giving their best efforts on the courts and we have qualified officials that uphold a standard of play. Sometimes, in the heat of competition, players make decisions in the moment that aren’t their best. I know I have. The rules of the league are not ‘going away’, officials are still going to be a part of play, and the spirit of the league is staying. The part changing is where that standard is kept. This Bylaw change would be to move that structure to the leadership, and not in the Bylaws.
The issue at heart is where the membership thinks the Executive/Board’s role lies. Historically, the Executive/Board's role was to attempt prevent an action from happening, or when that didn't work, to punish those members that did not follow the rules.
When the Executive/Board operates in the 'reprimand' role, regardless of the sport, it makes things infinitely more complicated. That model of governance makes sense from a High Performance perspective, such as athletes trying to get onto a National or Olympic team. The standard of conduct, and an associated disciplinary procedure, is set high in that pathway because every sport needs to ensure that when they have their chosen athletes on that world stage, that behavior isn't what costs Canada a gold medal. Those sports, however, also have full time administrative staff to handle these things. Volunteer board members do not handle disciplinary functions without support staff because they take so much time.
Is it the Board's job to police the membership? Or is the Board’s job to provide that basic structure to ensure that the league can operate?
Administering all of the current rules is burning out volunteers and making SAVA into this thing that is becoming increasingly difficult to even run. There will still be rules to the league, but those rules will lie within the Board/Executive and not in the Bylaws. This shift of structure and rules, rather than removal, moves the rules/structure and really, the spirit of the league, to the Board/Executive that have that knowledge. This change will still require people that care about the league to step up and give some of their time to being on the Board, but the hope is that this change will reduce that time requirement.
What we learned last year is that when asked to think of just playing volleyball, versus the alternative of no volleyball, we had very good buy in from all members on what was asked of them. We expect that we will see that support from the league in the future.
8. Motion 04-2021 Approval of Bylaw Amendments (NOTE: The proposed amended bylaws can be found here. Please see the proxy below to vote on this motion. After the email sent out to the membership on Aug 13-15, it was pointed out by astute members that we actually only need a majority vote by the attendees at the AGM, which in this case, is whomever sends in their replies prior to September 16, 2021 at Noon.)
9. Election of Board/Executive for 1 year terms. (NOTE: since there are less than 14 names, the slate below will be acclaimed; a vote is not needed.)
|
Brenton Darbyshire |
Tara Weisgerber |
|
Bruce Pearson |
Russell Lawrence |
|
Carrie Sadler |
Conor Kerslake |
|
Jaimie Piper |
Sophia Gray |
|
|
|
10. Other Business (NOTE: Members are asked to submit any questions they have along with their proxy).
11. Adjournment.
Cut and paste the text in blue to for your vote and send to the address below:
Saskatoon Amateur Volleyball Association Corporation (SAVA)
PROXY FORM
Members are asked to submit their proxy as there will not be an in person meeting.
I, ______________________, ______________________
Player Name Team Name
being a registered member of SAVA from either the 2019/20 or 2020/21 season, hereby appoint (choose any one of the following Executive members)
|
Russell Lawrence |
Lori Mills |
|
Brenton Darbyshire |
Brandon Mack |
|
Bruce Pearson |
Jillian Greenwald |
|
Carrie Sadler |
Sophia Gray |
|
Jaimie Piper |
Tara Weisgerber |
to vote on my behalf at the Annual General Meeting of SAVA on all matters that (except where my vote is directed below), or come before the meeting which is to be held on September 16, 2021. This proxy shall apply to the AGM and any adjournment of that meeting.
My appointed proxy is directed to vote as follows on the agenda items noted below (please mark your direction accordingly). Otherwise, by leaving any agenda items below blank, you choose to allow your appointed proxy to use their discretion to vote on your behalf.
Item #4: 01-2021 Approval of Agenda
___ In Favour ___ Opposed ___ Abstain
Item #5: 02-2021 Approval of Annual Financial Statements
___ In Favour ___ Opposed ___ Abstain
Item #6: 03-2021 Approval of Minutes from Previous AGM
___ In Favour ___ Opposed ___ Abstain
Item #8: 04-2021 Approval of Bylaw Amendments
___ In Favour ___ Opposed ___ Abstain
Please forward this proxy no later than September 16, 2021 @ Noon to:
Russell Lawrence
Interim President