the game broken?”
Very simply, I would answer the question by saying, “You know, the game has a Band-Aid on it. And my opinion, there are some serious issues that need to be addressed.”
Do the best you possibly can.
Get involved with every level of development that is made available to you, and remember that at the end of the day, you’re doing this for children. You owe it to them.
Chapter Nine
VOLUNTEERISM
T here are 4,500 volunteers inside the system of minor hockey in Calgary. It’s a wonderful thing that minor sports can be run by volunteers. Parents and community members are getting involved in the lives of their kids; what could be wrong with that? The problem only arises when you look at why a small percentage of these people volunteer.
Because there is always a need for volunteers, we have become complacent, and if someone puts a hand up and says, “Hey, I want to be a volunteer,” they literally get accepted for the role on the spot. Even in the most senior roles in the system, where people are choosing not to be involved for whatever reasons, if a warm body lifts an arm and says, “I’ll do it,” the association will respond, “Yeah, he's got a pulse. Put him in the job.”
This reckless lack of regulation of volunteers in minor hockey is quite frankly the number one problem in the sport.
The way I see it, here is how it breaks down: there are three kinds of volunteers. Let’s start with the positive.
Volunteers in Group #1 are there for the right reasons. They have the skills and competencies to do the job they volunteer for, and they show up when they are needed.
Volunteers in Group #2 are there for very different reasons. They are there for the jacket, the badge of honor, or a benefit from their corporation. They literally do nothing. They may have the skills and competencies for the job, but they aren’t interested in being involved past what will get them an achievement on their wall or on their resume.
Volunteers in Group #3 are there to make sure that their child always gets an edge. In many cases, their child doesn’t want or need their help to achieve that edge. But the parent is there anyway. They say to themselves, “Boy, if I’m on the Board, or the Evaluation Committee, I can make sure that my son, Johnny, will be on the most elite division.” The way that works is, if that parent is on a committee that evaluates a certain coach, that coach will make sure that Johnny gets plenty of ice time.
Volunteer #1: There for the right reasons
A man I will call Charles was on the Board of Hockey Calgary at the same time as I was, and he’s the perfect example of a volunteer who is always there for the right reasons. He has a dozen years of volunteering under his belt, and he absolutely loves the game of hockey.
Charles’ role on the Board was to manage and administer discipline inside the game of minor hockey in Calgary. In other words, he was the guy who dealt with investigation of any issues that came to the Board, from coaches who said something to an official, to coaches screaming at other coaches, players being mistreated, and anything else that demanded further attention.
Charles would come to each Thursday night hearing equipped with the most comprehensive reports you could imagine. Coming from many years of corporate experience, at the end of which I was the president of a large company, I can say this with confidence: I would have died for reports like that inside the corporate environment! He did an incredible amount of investigative work, and it made the hearings a cinch. We would arrive on Thursday nights, have discussions about the cases, verify and validate some of the information he gave us in his report, and then we would be able to go home to our families, satisfied that we had made the right decisions.
It was a delight to work with Charles. He is an unbelievable individual in the right job, doing work he has the skills and competencies to do very well. If
Very simply, I would answer the question by saying, “You know, the game has a Band-Aid on it. And my opinion, there are some serious issues that need to be addressed.”
Do the best you possibly can.
Get involved with every level of development that is made available to you, and remember that at the end of the day, you’re doing this for children. You owe it to them.
Chapter Nine
VOLUNTEERISM
T here are 4,500 volunteers inside the system of minor hockey in Calgary. It’s a wonderful thing that minor sports can be run by volunteers. Parents and community members are getting involved in the lives of their kids; what could be wrong with that? The problem only arises when you look at why a small percentage of these people volunteer.
Because there is always a need for volunteers, we have become complacent, and if someone puts a hand up and says, “Hey, I want to be a volunteer,” they literally get accepted for the role on the spot. Even in the most senior roles in the system, where people are choosing not to be involved for whatever reasons, if a warm body lifts an arm and says, “I’ll do it,” the association will respond, “Yeah, he's got a pulse. Put him in the job.”
This reckless lack of regulation of volunteers in minor hockey is quite frankly the number one problem in the sport.
The way I see it, here is how it breaks down: there are three kinds of volunteers. Let’s start with the positive.
Volunteers in Group #1 are there for the right reasons. They have the skills and competencies to do the job they volunteer for, and they show up when they are needed.
Volunteers in Group #2 are there for very different reasons. They are there for the jacket, the badge of honor, or a benefit from their corporation. They literally do nothing. They may have the skills and competencies for the job, but they aren’t interested in being involved past what will get them an achievement on their wall or on their resume.
Volunteers in Group #3 are there to make sure that their child always gets an edge. In many cases, their child doesn’t want or need their help to achieve that edge. But the parent is there anyway. They say to themselves, “Boy, if I’m on the Board, or the Evaluation Committee, I can make sure that my son, Johnny, will be on the most elite division.” The way that works is, if that parent is on a committee that evaluates a certain coach, that coach will make sure that Johnny gets plenty of ice time.
Volunteer #1: There for the right reasons
A man I will call Charles was on the Board of Hockey Calgary at the same time as I was, and he’s the perfect example of a volunteer who is always there for the right reasons. He has a dozen years of volunteering under his belt, and he absolutely loves the game of hockey.
Charles’ role on the Board was to manage and administer discipline inside the game of minor hockey in Calgary. In other words, he was the guy who dealt with investigation of any issues that came to the Board, from coaches who said something to an official, to coaches screaming at other coaches, players being mistreated, and anything else that demanded further attention.
Charles would come to each Thursday night hearing equipped with the most comprehensive reports you could imagine. Coming from many years of corporate experience, at the end of which I was the president of a large company, I can say this with confidence: I would have died for reports like that inside the corporate environment! He did an incredible amount of investigative work, and it made the hearings a cinch. We would arrive on Thursday nights, have discussions about the cases, verify and validate some of the information he gave us in his report, and then we would be able to go home to our families, satisfied that we had made the right decisions.
It was a delight to work with Charles. He is an unbelievable individual in the right job, doing work he has the skills and competencies to do very well. If
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