Cents Elect New Executive Board
By Colin Oswin – Merritt Herald
Jun 13 2007
The Merritt Centennials will head into next season with a re-energized board of directors.
The new board was elected during the club?s annual general meeting at Merritt?s Econolodge on June 5. Radio NL?s Brian Wiebe was elected as club president, while new members Tom Reynolds and Cathy Frizzell were elected as vice-president and secretary respectively. Fred Riley retained his position as club treasurer.
Wiebe appreciates the vote of support from the other board members, and he feels proud to do his part for the Centennials.
?I do have a passion for the club,? he says. ?I feel bad that I can?t contribute financially to the team, so this is the way I feel that I can contribute as much as I possibly can.?
Patrick Lindsay, Gary Dixon and Keegan Goodrich all joined the board as new members, with Chris Langhaug, Rick Mettler and Brian Whitecross each returning for another term.
Wiebe plans to ask staff at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena to improve the building?s heating system to make it more comfortable for spectators. Many board members present at the meeting expressed a concern with the heating system, blaming the lack of ticket sales over the past few seasons partly on the chilly arena seating.
?If that hurts us at the gate, it?s something that we have to look at,? Wiebe says, ?to try and get fans back to the building.?
<p>Lindsay will use his experience at the Community Futures Development Corporation, as well as other volunteer boards, to help guide the Centennials onto more solid economic ground. He agrees with Wiebe that the club will have to build a sustainable economic plan to survive in the city.
?Because of the deficit that the Centennials are facing, they?re going to need some strong leadership to erase that debt,? he says.
With board members Betty Doberstein, Don Jones and Nonie Miyazaki stepping down and four new faces coming on board, Lindsay sees the club progressing this year. While past members have done a fine job, he says boards need personnel changes to bring in new ideas and approaches.
?This is probably 50 per cent of the board changing in terms of directors,? he says. ?So that?s pretty positive in my view.?
Outgoing president Saug Sekhon stepped down after four years in the top job due to a lack of free time. He plans to stick with the board as a director, but decided to step away from an executive position this year.
He is very happy with the board members he served with, and his only disappointment is with the low level of fan support in Merritt. He says Merrittonians don?t recognize the value of having a BCHL team in the city.
?We could never get a team like this in town again, with our population receeding and [the condition of] our arena,? he says. ?So we should be very fortunate that we have this calibre of product in our community.?
Sekhon will support Wiebe over the next few weeks, to groom in the new administration. He is confident Wiebe will be a fine president.
?He spends a lot of time with hockey. He knows the game, knows the players and he knows the operations,? Sekhon says. ?So I think it?s going to be a smooth transition.?
