NSBO PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Spring General Meeting, April 28, 2002

Preamble
Upon finishing year one as President, my first two thoughts are totally opposite.

One week after being elected last April I read in the local paper that the AUS had decided at their AGM, in conflict to our existing agreement, that they were going to a 2-person system. My brain instantly screamed---What am I getting into? As we are all aware, after numerous discussions and emails, they decided to honor the agreement and life, and my summer, went on.

My other thought is 100% positive and that is my appreciation for the people I have had contact with in the operation of the NSBO day to day business. It still amazes me the amount of work the members of the Executive, Provincial Positions and Area Supervisors, put into the Association-----as volunteers.  Working with these vibrant, and opinionated, people in committees, or one on one, brought out some great, and at times, tenuous discussions. Bottom line we kept moving toward the betterment of the Association.

From all this involvement with these persons I feel much more confident going into my second year and feel I will be able to, over and above administering the various committees and areas, I hope to be able to be more involved in addressing some personal concerns.

Registration/Personal Information
I again complement Angela Weld on the work she is doing to improve and maintain our data base. Be aware that email is the way we are communicating and if you are not on line be sure you have a buddy who is or you will miss updates.

NSBO Web Page
Thanks to Paul Hanson for the work he does in maintaining:
http://www.accesswave.ca/~nsbo
Our goal is to have an up to date and historical venue for all meetings, reports, Constitution, Rules and Regulations etc.

AUS Negotiations
I am extremely pleased with the process followed by the committee (Ted Wallace, Garry Balcom, and Jon Hunt), taking their mandate from our Fall General Meeting, contacting/negotiating with the AUS representatives, and bringing a motion for a new agreement to our Spring General Meeting.

NSSAF and BNS Agreements
Both of these agreements have one more year to termination. My hope is we handle similar to the AUS agreements----Mandate our negotiating committees at the Spring General Meeting and go into the fall with a pro-active agenda.

Personal Goals
I still have a wish to develop/improve on week to week contact, discussion line with, and between, the Area Supervisors so all areas can input and receive information.

I also would like to see more clinics, and dispensing of information by senior people, in the more isolated areas. I will try to coordinate.

I have a goal to have more of a day to day contact with the Presidents, Directors, etc., of the various Organizations and Associations we serve, trying to get a feel for what we are doing good and where we can improve our service.

Continue Area Supervisor/NSSAF pre-season meeting/clinic.

As some of our more senior officials cut down on the games they do I wish to identify areas we can keep them involved in mentoring, development, and assessing of young, up and coming officials. My first thoughts are perhaps this may be a use of Professional Development Funds.

Personal Thanks
Reiterating my comments in my opening pre-amble, I emphasize my thanks to the Executive and all the work they do. I will not attempt to identify all the stuff they do, READ THEIR REPORTS, and go a bit out of your way to thank them.

Bruce Duffy
President, NSBO
duffy.bruce@ns.sympatico.ca