Hi All, With the arrival of March, we know that the hockey season is coming to a close.  Recently, the Board has received many questions about why teams must self-fund their practice and game ice time for this month.  Please let me explain how the Board did this years budgeting and our financial position. During the budget process, the BOD worked very hard to keep registration fees as low as possible.  One measure we took was to state, at the beginning of the season, that each team would be provided practice and game ice through to the end of February.  Beyond February, teams would be personally responsible for ice fees.  We adopted this policy because last year the Association lost $6000 due to buying ice in March that was not budgeted.  We run on a tight budget and cannot afford such losses year after year. Last July, when we established this years budget, we thought that the end of February would be a safe cut off point for ice because Travel Sectionals are usually done by then, UNYHL McKie Cup tournaments are often at that time, and so are the JAMs.  However, this is not how things worked out.  We made a mistake with respect to Midget Travel because none of us understood that their State Tournament playdown starts later in order to accommodate High School schedules; so, Midget Travels Sectional was the first weekend in March.  During the fall, the Snowbelt Association moved the PeeWee and Midget JAMS to the first weekend in March.  Late in the fall, UNYHL moved the McKie Cup tournaments to the second weekend in March. This pushed the regular season for all of these teams into March and we were way past registration time. In addition, Bantam Travel and PeeWee Travel both qualified for States, a wonderful accomplishment which has us all excited, but it pushed their seasons into March as well.  This meant that, for the first week of March, we had 8 teams who had not finished their season.  All have worked hard this year and would be representing the Association in their respective tournament championships during the month.  In this, the second, week of March, we have 5 teams still practicing for their tournaments, either State Tournament or McKie Cup.  In addition, either or both of the Bantam Travel and PeeWee Travel teams could advance to Nationals, which pushes the schedule later into the month. The Board felt strongly that we could not say yes to one team and provide March ice and then say no to another.   Also, with so many teams advancing into March, we could not say yes to them all.  Consider how fast this all adds up at $150/hour of ice: 1st week of March: 3 Travel teams @2.5 hours = $1125.00 3 UNYHL teams @2.25 hours = $1012.50 2 Snowbeltteams @1.5 hours = $450.00 7 ice cuts @0.25 = $262.50 2nd week of March: 2 Travel teams @2.5 hours = $750 3 UNYHL teams @2.25 hours = $1012.50 6 ice cuts @0.25 = $225 Total for March =  $4837.50 Please remember that the only fundraising dollars that went to the Association this year were $500 from each tournament plus $320 from the Give It Your Best Shotprogram at Cornell two weekends ago.  This gives us $1820 to date.  This is the first year that we turned tournament profits back to the participating teams, which reduced our fundraising income thus leaving us with less of a reserve at the end of the year.  The fundraising money that we gathered this year is earmarked for new jerseys as we still need 2-3 more sets at approximately $1400 per set. So, I hope this helps you and your team to understand the Boards position.  If you have any more questions, please let us know.  Also, please remember that our budgeting is done during a public board meeting.  Everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate in these decisions for next year. Louise Watson IYHA President