JANUARY 2008

Welcome to 2008, and welcome to the first of BHA's Newsletters for 2008. Please take the time to read it through as it contains important news and information for all members. Initially, only those members who are on the General  Secretary's emailing list will have received this Newsletter directly. Shortly a form will be enabled on the BHA Website allowing anyone visiting the Website to join the mailing list. All members should be encouraged to join. In the meantime, current recipients should forward this Newsletter on to other members, inviting them to join.

Your Association has a new President, Greg Swann. Greg is well known throughout Brisbane Hockey, having been associated with several Clubs and through his association with the Brisbane Juniors. Greg takes on this important role from the former President of three years, Colin Murphy. Colin was unfortunately not able to continue as BHA President due to the ongoing demands of his "day" job. You can read Colin's report in the 2007 BHA Annual Report (5.5Mb PDF).

Paul Saunders renominated for the Board and will continue as Director of Finance (Treasurer). The other members returning to the BHA Board are: Phyllis Hawgood, Russell Marsden, Peter Harten and Jacqui Brodin. Newcomer, Anthony Kenny, also joins the Board. Todd Fuller and Daryl Sahli did not renominate for the Board. The individual portfolios have yet to be finalised. Congratulations to all!

At the 2008 AGM (held last month) Norman Ludwig's Life Membership of the Association was confirmed by the General Committee. Norm was nominated for Life Membership in recognition of his many years of voluntary service and commitment to the Association. Well done and well deserved!

Both BHA and BWHA have been asked to provide a club representative from each First Division Team/Club to participate in a 50 metre sprint during half time of the Hockeyroos v Great Britain game at the SHC on Thursday 21st February 2008.

Therefore each of the BHL1 Clubs are invited to nominate a sprinter. There will be one men’s race and one women’s race. The winning man and woman will each receive a $100 shopping voucher and their Club will also receive $100 cash. It is important that the clubs support this activity and come along to the game to cheer on their nominated runner.

Each BHL1 Club is to nominate a runner, including their contact details by Thursday 17th January 2008. Each of the runners will be contacted by a representative of QHP or HQ to advise them of timings and further details of the activity.

The likely commencement date for the BHL1 competition (10 teams) is 29th March 2008. Other divisions (8 teams) may start a week or so earlier. BHA is continuing to work with BWHA and the venue operators to confirm these dates. CHL (grass) and the Junior divisions are also likely to commence on 29th March 2008. All Clubs will be advised as soon as these dates have been finalised.

In the meantime Clubs are requested to provide their team numbers for all divisions in 2008. This information is required urgently by the Director of Competitions in order for work to commence on the 2008 Fixtures. Club Secretaries are to use BHA Form 13.1 which can be found on the BHA Website in multiple formats under "BHA Forms" (link). This form should be completed and returned no later that Friday 18th January 2008.

A meeting has been called with the express purpose of forming a Rule Change Sub-committee to review the BHA Competition Rules & Requirements for the 2008 Season. The Sub-committee will report its recommendations to the BHA Board. Only one Delegate from each Club shall attend, preferably a person with a good knowledge of the rules. The Junior Committee has developed a recommended set of rules for J Grade also for consideration by this committee.

The initial meeting, which will be chaired by the BHA Dir of Competitions, Russell Marsden, has been scheduled for 10am, Saturday 19th January 2008 at Finsbury Park, NEWMARKET. Refer to  BHA Meetings - General Committee  on the BHA Website for further details and links to supporting documents. Club Secretaries should advise (email) the BHA General Secretary immediately the name and contact details of their Delegate to this meeting.

Monday 28th January 2008 - refer to BHA Meetings - General Committee on the BHA Website for further details.

All junior clubs are strongly encouraged to develop recruitment proposals for consideration for grants from the BHA Junior Recruitment Grant Scheme in 2008. Some promising proposals have already been submitted, in particular the Pine Hills Hockey Club initiative to take hockey to Samford through the Samford School.  This initiative recently featured in the local Quest newspaper (link).

Recruitment of more hockey players to our junior ranks is one of the most important initiatives for us as a hockey community.  We need to grow the number of people playing hockey and this starts with junior players.  To do this we need all clubs to be developing new initiatives to attract more players and the grant scheme is a commitment by BHA to support clubs in opening up new opportunities to attract players.

BHA and BWHA will also be running two Hook In2 Hockey programs in March 2008 at the State Hockey Centre and at Burringbar Park.  These programs will be supported with publicity through Queensland Hockey Promotions (QHP).  Information will be available for clubs at their sign-on days. More information will be provided shortly.

BHA has also booked an advertisement in the Quest Newspaper's "Join Our Club" promotional feature that will be run the week commencing Monday 21st January 2008.  The advertisement will include all Junior Club Sign-on Days and contact details as in previous years.

Over the next weeks the BHA Website will be purged of 2007 data and updated with content relevant to 2008. Please be patient as the process continues and return often to look for new and updated content.