The President’s Blog for April 28

By Jim Mullin

I wanted to take a moment to bring you up-to-speed on what we are doing at Football Canada as we work through the issues which all of us are working through across the country.

As it relates to our members and registrants, we continue our suspension of all football activities established in March. Both Executive Director Shannon Donovan and I have touched base with all the Provincial Sport Organizations either through phone calls or email over the last two weeks to get a better understanding of your situation and to update you on ours.

FUTURE OF 2020, 2021 CHAMPIONSHIPS:

May 15 is the date established to determine if we proceed with staging our national tackle championships through July 31. Candidly, I can tell you that these events including the Canada Cup will likely not be played. We will continue consultations before coming to a decision on these events. We will wait until June to determine the fate of national and regional flag competitions and the Women’s tackle championship. We are looking at various scenarios if there is a window in the calendar. However, we are also aware to the reality of the hesitancy of individuals to compete during COVID-19 and we are taking these concerns into consideration during the discussions.

After consulting with some of the PSOs on the issue of cancelled events, we will provide hosts of a 2020 event to host the same event in 2021.

AGM RESCHEDULING AND PROCESS:

As you may know, the AGM is in the process of being rescheduled. The ability to discuss items and the integrity of voting is central to the process. The AGM will be a series of online meetings over two weeks.

• Opening Weekend: President’s Meeting, Executive Director’s meeting.
• Second Weekend: Discussion regarding agenda items with Presidents/BoD/Staff and EDs attending. This will be a moderated discussion with the microphone opened up by a director at the instruction of the chair.
• Third Weekend: Voting
• Voting event set up by Sport Law and Strategy Group (SLSG) on Simply Voting
• A voting list template for us to use to compile our list
• A motion script to use for our meeting
• Oversight from a parliamentarian lawyer on our voting only.

This process has been reviewed in consultation with Bill Johnson from Football Manitoba who will employ a similar AGM plan in May. We will duplicate from points for the second and third weekends. It will also allow for Shannon Donovan or myself to discuss the agenda items before and after the President/ED meetings if participants require further clarification on agenda items. We will review Manitoba’s experience before moving forward and make any required adjustments.  Dates will be determined at the next FC BoD meeting in mid-May.

Given the economics of meetings moving forward we will likely need to move to online meetings with the exception of the 2021 AGM, scheduled for Newfoundland and Labrador.

FEDERAL SUPPORT DURING COVID-19:

In our discussions with members, some of you are pursuing government programs to sustain operations. Football Canada continues investigate and apply programs.

I suggest if you haven’t considered federal government support, please consider the following if it applies to you:

• Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS, 75 cents per employee) https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/subsidy/emergency-wage-subsidy.html
• Temporary Wage Subsidy for COVID (10 cent per employee) https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/campaigns/covid-19-update/frequently-asked-questions-wage-subsidy-small-businesses.html
• Canada Small Business Loan – https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/csbfp-pfpec.nsf/eng/h_la02855.html

There have been enquiries about a potential grant from Heritage Canada and how it may apply to PSOs and Leagues. We are currently waiting for details from Sport Canada on how these funds are being applied.

RESTARTING FOOTBALL:

Deactivating the game may have been led by the NSO, but the reactivation will be led on a one-by-one basis led by the PSOs. The PSOs will need to receive clearance from their provincial ministry responsible for sport and provincial health authority. From a Football Canada position, we need to ensure any reactivation of the sport is compliant to participant safety within our Code of Conduct and communicated via our platforms.

We would like to suggest that any PSOs or associations with youth programming in tackle contemplate some outside-of-the-box thinking. If there is an opportunity to play football in August or the fall, the opportunity may rapidly come to a close if there’s a second wave of the virus. It is important to place an importance on how a league or association stops the function of a league on short notice. In addition, all sport will experience a negative impact on registration if there is a restart during the August-to-September window. You may want to consider the following:

• Scalable football. If some teams can field 12 a-side rosters but others face a challenge with enrolment, consider some games played with fewer players on the field such as nine a-side within the same league.
• Six a-side football. This will ensure players hit the field and compete. It also provides the opportunity for single day or weekend tournament football which increases exposure to more varied competition and declares a tournament winner. Canadian six-man football allows for “the big player” as there is one ineligible receiver committed to line play.
• Half games, twice a week while increasing exposure to competition and allowing a league to complete an eight-game season within a month. This could also be applied to any season when required.

STRAT PLAN:

The Football Canada Business Development Committee continues to work on a five-year strategic plan for the organization. A copy of the document will be made available to the members in advance of the AGM process, and BoD members will be available to answer your questions in the run up to the event.

BY-LAW REVIEW:

Thank you to the members who responded to our Bylaw survey. It was refreshing to see that the vast majority of you were open to change and expanding the scope of the organization. The work of the Bylaw Subcommittee starts again in two weeks on details regarding membership, with further checks by the Governance Committee and the BoD. A full copy of the draft changes will be made available to the members in accordance with the current bylaws in advance of the AGM.

FINAL NOTE:

Our staff has worked diligently on online instructional programs, certification and “Football From Home” to be launched in early May. Please check the website at footballcanada.com for updates.

As always, I am only a phone call, text or email away if you want information on what we are doing at Football Canada. Given the ever-changing dynamics around the pandemic and our sport it may take a few days before I get back to you, but rest assured, I will get back to you.

-JM