CSRA
CONFERENCE CALL
12th
November 2004
Participants:
B. Gill (Pres.)
T. Troughton (1st V.P.)
E. Evans (Sec)
L. Eloy (Treas)
D. Cope ( Ont)
J. Licandro (Ont)
O. Konowalchuk (Man )
M. Simon ( Nfld)
R. Labrom (CSA)
Manitoba Report:
Orest Konowalchuk had recently become the new President
of the MSRA
and presented the report. They held their AGM on Oct 12th which saw
a number of new councilors elected. The past 12 months had been very successful
with 4 MS A sessions being held. A number of mandatory sessions had been tailored to
suit the various referee classifications. Assessment fees were $35 per game. No
fee was charged By Manitoba Soccer Association to sit the various upgrading exams. The
MSRA Awards Banquet was held 4 days after the AGM and saw Darci Konowalchuk receive
the Mario Perino Award of Merit. Paul Avis was scheduled to lead the seminar for
Class 4 instructors. The MSRA asked for and was granted a representative on the
MSA Board of Directors. Security for game officials was being improved at
indoor soccer venues, before, during and after the game.
CSA Referee Committee: Director Technical, Dick Labrom,
brought greetings from the CSA Referee Committee who continue to be very busy and
productive. During the various National Club Championships the turn out by
National Assessors had been extremely good with much valuable feedback resulting. The
committee had made budget gains this year which included an annual amount being
set aside each year to fund the bi-annual National Symposium, thereby evening
out the cost some what. There had been a good deal of positive feedback from the
participants at this year's symposium. Relations with CONCACAF have improved considerably.
Sonia Denoncourt and Charlene Douglas were currently in Thailand at the FIFA U-19
Women's Championship. The CSA will focus its
attention on standardizing the Class IV format and leading the National Program.
The provincial associations will be responsible for developing officials from
Class III up to the Nominated National level. The CSA Referee Manual is currently
being re-written. The A-League budget for game officials in 2004 had been very
tight and had not worked as had been expected. Bob Sawtell had gone down to the
U.S.
to discuss the problem and has resulted in more money becoming available and
will see
more cross border travel for officials.
Newfoundland: Director of Refereeing
Mario Simon presented the report.
The province had a number of concerns regarding the way
in which the Class I exam had been conducted last year and the lack of success
experienced by the Newfoundland candidates. It was proving difficult to have the
province's promising officials looked at and Mario wanted to know how
officials were promoted to the FIFA list. On the question of assessments; the
referee paid for one (game fee), the local soccer association and the provincial
association each paid for one. The provincial soccer association did not charge
a fee
for candidates to sit any upgrading exam.
David Cope presented the report with some additional
footnotes from Joe Licandro.
The OSRA would be holding their AGM in St. Catharines on
November 21st at which time Denise Robinson would be the guest
speaker. The CSRA annual general meeting would be held at the same location on
January 22nd. 2004 had been a tough year for the
association which saw one of their branches drop out over failure to achieve
agreement over a game fee issue with a league. Recruitment of new members was
encouraging. Communication with the Ontario Soccer Association still needs to
be improved.
A new referee development program now being introduced by the OSA was not well
understood, consequently, many officials have concerns over what little information they
have. One of the concerns is the annual fee of $300 to be part of the program
and what perceived benefits will ensue. OSRA definitely wants to be part of any program
involving referees in Ontario.
Tony Troughton filled in for BCSRA President, Elvio
Chies.
The BC Fall Council Meeting had just been held. B.C will
be nominating two officials this year to the CSA for Nominated National
classification. There had been a particular bad case of game scheduling abuse on
Vancouver Island involving an active referee who had assigned 35% of all games to
himself. Hard evidence was available as the game appointments were on record.
Secretary's Report:
Eric Evans indicated that he had been busy seeking
donations to the Meachin Award and advising all candidates of the deadline etc.
We would again reach our goal of raising $ 1000.00 this year for the Award. He
would be planning to contact a great many people for. our AGM in St.
Catharines and now we knew who the OSRA's guest speaker would be, the CSRA
had to choose one also. Arrangements are now complete for Hector Vergara to visit
Vancouver and Victoria on January 7th & 8th. Dan Greco has been
instrumental in making many of the arrangements. Hector still has $500
available from the Fund for further travel in Canada to share his Olympic experiences with
colleagues.
Treasurer's Report:
Larry Eloy indicated that both Alberta and Manitoba still
had some annual dues outstanding. Our current account stood at $3928.19. The John
Meachin Fund
contained $7165.56 with more potential donations possible.
The Secretary is attempting to contact representatives
of the Canadian Futsol Association and if anyone has the names of any contacts
to pass them on for follow up.
The conference call ended at 7:30pm
Pacific Time. The Executive remained on the line to discuss the AGM guest
speaker. It was decided to invite Sonia Denoncourt to address our AGM meeting.
The first notice for the AGM would be sent out immediately. The official notice
with the agenda and minutes from 2004 will be sent out no less than 30 days in advance of
the AGM
The OSRA held their annual general meeting on November
21st at which time it was unanimously approved that Emerson Mathurin
be nominated for Honorary Life Membership in the CSRA. As per the CSRA Constitution, an
application was submitted on his behalf by the OSRA outlining his qualifications in
order to determine whether he met all the necessary criteria. In order for the
induction ceremony to take place at our AGM in January 2005, a further conference
call was held in order to obtain the necessary approval.
CSRA Conference Call held Friday, December 3rd.
2004
Participants: Basil Gill (Pres.) Tony Troughton (1st
V.P & BC delegate)
Eric Evans (Sec)
Larry Eloy ( Treas. & Manitoba delegate )
Kevin Jones (Alberta delegate)
Joe Licandro ( Ontario delegate)
It was unanimously agreed that Emerson Mathurin met, and
exceeded, the established criteria for Honorary Life Membership in the CSRA and
that he be awarded such membership at our AGM on January 22nd, 2005.
