Vice President’s Report
The past season was business as usual for the VP chair.
There were several matters of concern that were dealt with in terms of discipline matters and suspensions were doled out on three occasions as well as letters of reprimand placed in the files of the offending NSBO members.
In this age of accountability, I ask all of you to use common sense and caution when you are taking care of business. What worked 10-years ago does not work today and you must re-think how to handle difficult scenarios in an effort to avoid them.
Nick Morash, the author of our Code of Conduct and I have worked together in recent weeks to bring our Code of Conduct up to speed in several areas to place discipline matters in the hands of the area supervisor prior to them being forwarded to the VP as chair of the discipline committee. Several additions were made to the Code and minor changes were required in our Constitution to accommodate those. I will be asking Nick to speak on those later in the meeting and will be making a motion to accept those as presented at that time.
This is likely the best part of anyone’s portfolio and a job I enjoy doing. Getting the research the history and sometimes the future of members of organization is a fulfilling task and it’s nice to put names and faces together when handing out these awards.
This year we have four members of NSBO who have achieved the 25-year mark in their officiating careers. It is my honour to award 25-year plaques to the following members who have made significant contributions in their years of service to:
Alfred Legere – Cumberland
Don Berry – Yarmouth
Bill Doyle – Yarmouth
Peter McAllister – Halifax
We also hand out two major awards, not necessarily on an annual basis. This year both the Frank Baldwin Memorial for significant contributions to the growth of basketball in the province and the Rod Shoveller award, handed out to an up and coming official were both awarded.
Men’s Commissioner Garry Balcom award the Baldwin Award on our behalf in February to retired official Hughie Bruce prior to a game at Acadia University. Hughie and Frank were great friends and I’m sure he would be proud of his selection.
The second award, the Shoveller Award is one that goes to an up and coming official who demonstrates tremendous potential for growth in officiating. This official has shown a commitment, integrity, professionalism and enthusiasm towards the game of basketball that the committee felt made him deserving of this honour. We are proud to award the Rod Shoveller Memorial Award to Larry MacKenzie of Colchester Region.
WINK WILLOX AWARD
In addition, in attendance today is a part of NSBO’s great legacy of basketball officiating in this province. Each year it is a pleasure to research many of our officials from past generations and send their name forward to our national body for consideration for the Wink Willox Award. This year’s selection was simple. This man met all the criteria as he was a Good floor official by local standards, has a significant length of service, varied forms of that service, and played a key administrative role. He was responsible for starting the careers of several people in this room including Roger Caulfield and for whatever reason he saw fit to give Roger his first teaching job.
NSBO is proud to honour this fine gentlemen for his valued contribution to officiating in Nova Scotia and would like to congratulate Doug Stockman of Berwick with this award.
NSBO will be a different board next season as one of our long serving warhorses has decided to retire from officiating. For over 30-years, this official has served in a capacity of roles that included most recently women’s college commissioner. It is our honour to present Ted Wallace with this significant service honour for his dedication to the improvement of basketball officiating in the province
A second service award is also for a person who has made a significant contribution to the growth of NSBO in his tenure as an executive member. In his role as vice president he set a precedent of handling contentious issues among our members and as president, his vision has helped shape up into the solid organization you see before us today. While he is moving on to other ventures, the work of Jon Hunt will have a lasting effect for years to come.
Sam McNeish
Vice President