HFSA Happenings-May 2019

We hope everyone is enjoying their Spring, and looking forward to some beautiful days ahead! Even though we haven’t been on the ice, there has still been a lot going on in the skating world and we want to make sure we keep everyone updated. We know it is a lot of material, so grab a cup of coffee, water or your favorite beverage and snuggle in for some informative reading!

HFSA Changes
Although it is during our “off-season”, May is a big month for HFSA! We have our annual board elections in May, where we welcome new board members and also sadly say goodbye to outgoing members.
At our meeting on 5/1/19, we had to say Goodbye to board member Marilyn Minnick, who has been a vital part of our HFSA board for 9 years in many roles including general board member, Co-President and most recently Secretary.  We will certainly miss Marilyn’s exemplary memory and documentation (if you were ever at a board meeting, you know Marilyn could find information from the past faster than anyone else- I still don’t know how she does it!), and her ability to see all points of view. Thank You Marilyn, for all of your time and dedication to HFSA!
On the flip side, we are happy to welcome three new members to the HFSA board! We are excited to have Megan Karg, Michelle Kopesky and Julie Witte join the HFSA board as new members. These ladies will bring wonderful new perspectives, ideas and excitement to the board, and we look forward to working with them in the next two years! Deb Paulson has also taken on the role of Secretary, and we know she will do a great job!
With these changes, we are happy to present your 2019-2020 HFSA board of directors:

• Jeremy Powell- President
• Jolene Dennis- Vice President
• Sally Johnson- Treasurer
• Deb Paulson- Secretary
• Kirsten Staples- Board Member
• Michelle Uecker- Board Member
• Megan Karg- Board Member
• Michelle Kopesky- Board Member
• Julie Witte- Board Member

We are also excited to welcome Leslie Alberts back as an HFSA coach! Leslie has many years of skating and coaching experience, and we are happy to have her available to work with our skaters!

Along with these changes, we will also be operating without an HFSA Director for the upcoming season. There have been many discussions with the HFSA coaches and board, and from this the decision was made that our coaches and board would be working closely together to keep our club moving in the direction that is most desirable to our skaters. We have a wonderful staff of coaches who are excited to have the opportunity to serve our skaters, and have offered to take on additional tasks as needed. As we move forward, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to reach out to any of our board members or coaches (contact information can be found on the HFSA website.  

Water Carnival Parade
An email was sent to all HFSA and PRCE members regarding the Hutchinson Water Carnival parade. SouthPoint Financial Credit Union has graciously offered to sponsor our float this year, and we are grateful to them for the opportunity! The parade is June 16th, 2019 at 1:00pm. We would love to have as many skaters as possible join us to represent our skating club, by either walking, roller blading or riding on the float (or a combination of the above).  Please email Jolene Dennis (cjdennis79@gmail.com) if your skater is able to join us. If you have a skating shirt (pink skating shirt from last year’s parade, show shirt, etc.) we ask that you wear it during the parade.

Volunteer/Fundraising Opportunities
The words that we know everyone dreads, volunteer hours and fundraising ☺. Every year this is a topic of discussion at our board meetings, and every year we struggle to find the best balance. While we know everyone is busy, we also have to look at opportunities to participate in activities that will help our club function at its best, as well as bringing in funds to keep our costs consistent and avoid raising prices. We do our best to avoid price increases each season, and participating in a day or two of fundraising is the biggest way we are able to accomplish that. Trying to find that balance is always tricky! We are always looking for new and different fundraisers, but need your help in carrying them out. Many of these fundraisers are also a great way for our skaters to get to work together and get to know each other better, in a sport that can often be “individual”. In order to try to maintain this balance, the volunteer hour requirement will increase from 10 hours per family per season, to 12 hours per family per season. Hours for the annual ice show will still be separate from the 12 regular season hours.

You should have received an email from Doreen Ziegler regarding the red phone book fundraiser. If you have not received this, please contact Doreen at doreenziegler4@gmail.com.  Remember, the red phone book fundraiser is a mandatory fundraiser that is not included in the 12 hours of volunteer time for the season. If you do not complete a phone book route, there will be a fee of $125, payable before your skater can get on the ice for the next ice session.
Each year we find the rink monitor spot left open during many of the sessions, which makes it difficult for our coaches to try to give our skaters the best lessons possible while trying to juggle playing music, making sure skaters check in and keeping skaters safe at the same time. We really need everyone’s help with rink monitoring, starting the first night of lessons!  

This year we were presented with a new fundraising opportunity that we believe can be a great team building activity for our skaters!  Sunday, June 23rd we have the opportunity to prepare and serve food to guests at the Little Crow Riders horse show, at the McLeod County Fairgrounds. The board has been discussing what will be prepared and served this day, and how we will execute our first year to make it successful. This should be an exciting one-day fundraiser for our group, so please watch your email for additional information on signing up for a shift to help this day. We look forward to working with you to make this day a success!

We will participate in the Cash Wise brat stand fundraiser, as we have for many years. This year’s dates will be Thursday, July 18th- Saturday, July 20th. We are lucky to get this opportunity, as this is a major fundraiser for our club. However, we can not continue to participate (and avoid HFSA cost increases) without member help! If you have not participated in the brat stand in the past, it is a great way to work with other HFSA skaters and families! The shift includes grilling hot dogs/brats/hamburgers, replenishing food items as needed from inside the store, taking orders from customers and serving the public. Cash Wise does a great job of organizing this, and is happy to help with any questions while we are serving. Please watch your email for shifts to sign up to help!

Summer Skating
Due to ice availability at the rink, Summer skating will be in July this year, running from July 8th through July 26th. Registration will be open within the next two weeks, and a notification will go out when it is ready.

Communication
We all know that communication is the key to success, so we want to make sure all HFSA members have the opportunity to communicate in several ways.

• All members are always welcome to attend HFSA board meetings, whether you have an item you would like to discuss, want to get more information on what is happening in HFSA or just want to see what the meetings are all about! Board meetings are held the first Wednesday of each month, in the conference room in the East rink at 6:00.
• You can always feel free to contact any HFSA board member with concerns, ideas, thoughts, or anything regarding HFSA. We are here for you, and are always happy to hear and discuss your thoughts. All board member contact info. can be found on the HFSA website (hutchfigureskating.org).  
• We will be starting to utilize our website more, trying to reduce the number of emails sent out. This will hopefully make things easier to find in one central location, as well as make things easier to search for if you are looking for something specific.  
• Multiple forms can be found on our website, including Parent/Skater/Coach/Board member expectations as well as documents that can be used if an issue arises and a grievance needs to be filed. These are located under the “About” tab/”Skater Forms and Documents”. Thankfully we don’t have a lot of issues within HFSA, as we have a great group of skaters and parents, but we want to make sure there are steps in place in the event that an issue does arise. Please take a minute to review the following (and any additional items there as you’d like!):
  • HFSA Parent/Skater Agreement
  • HFSA Grievance Policy and Procedure
  • HFSA Grievance Report Form
  • HFSA Disciplinary Policy

 Whew! That was a lot of information, but you made it! Thank You for taking the time to review everything, and continue to keep an eye out as we get closer to Summer!