Formal Process for Dealing with Parent/Family/Player Complaints
BMHA’s mission is to maximize the potential of all participants by providing high quality, fun, hockey programming. However, in a large association with well over 1,000 players and a season covering 7-8 months of the year, issues do arise from time to time. This process is meant to fairly address those issues in order to ensure a fair, open and fun environment for players, their families and our volunteers.
Points of Note:
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BMHA will always attempt to have an issue resolved within the team. Using the form to escalate an issue to the Board for resolution should be viewed as a last resort.
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Recurring issues with the same parties or team will face increasing sanctions. Moreover, nuisance complaints filed without justification may result in sanctions against the complainant.
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The Director of Parental Involvement or League Director may assign a delegate to deal with an issue at their discretion or in the circumstance where a conflict exists.
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Members of the coaching staff should not be approached with a complaint less than 24 hours after an incident. Coaches are entirely within their right to reject hearing a complaint within that time frame. The Parent Rep / Convenor is the sole person that may contact the coach within the 24 hour period if they determine it is necessary.
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All AAA, A and MD teams are required to have a Parent Rep. Parent Reps are to be fairly selected by the family members of the team at the season opening parent meeting. They are not to be appointed by the coach. House League and Select Convenors will be appointed by BMHA.
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With few if any exceptions, complaints that have not been actioned by the Parent Rep and, where required, discussed with the coach will be referred back to the team without further action by the Board. If there is an issue with the manner in which the Parent Rep/Convenor handled a complaint then the person is encouraged to contact the League Director. However, if the Parent Rep / Convenor took all reasonable steps to address the complaint and found that further action was unwarranted then BMHA will not likely intervene.
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BMHA will, at all times, comply with requests from legal authorities to provide any and all information gathered under this process. If the incident involves a potential criminal code violation then the police should be contacted immediately.
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The Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario has advised BMHA that they will NOT respond to any complaints until they have been addressed in all respects by the process outlined here. Any complaints made to the Alliance will immediately be referred to BMHA for their action.
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The vast majority of the individuals that make BMHA a success are volunteers that selflessly give up their time to support others. There is NO justification at any point for acting belligerently toward those individuals regardless of the circumstance. Incidents of inappropriate behaviour or beratement, including on social media, toward the volunteers of BMHA will be dealt with in a harsh manner up to including the removal of the player and his/her family from BMHA.
Process:
This process is designed to formalize the steps that all parties are required to take when dealing with an issue. To ensure consistency and fairness, deviations from this process will not be accepted.
A Parent/Player that wishes to log a complaint about a coach or other person should observe the following:
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The person with the complaint should clearly document the specific details surrounding the issue including dates, names, location, bystanders, and actions.
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The complainant is expected to first raise the issue with the established Parent Rep for the team (in the case of Rep teams) or the Convenor (in the case of House League/Select).
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All parties should wait 24 hours after the incident takes place but, if they feel strongly, they are permitted to contact the Parent Rep / Convenor at any time. The Parent Rep / Convenor will use their discretion in terms of how to proceed.
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Once the form is submitted, it will be forwarded to the Director of Parental Involvement with a copy to the applicable League Director (AAA, A/MD, HL). An incomplete form, for example, lack of specific details regarding an incident, will cause the complaint to be returned without action until further details are provided.
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If resolution is not readily available, a meeting may be called by the Dir. of Parental Involvement at his/her discretion. If warranted, the Director will escalate the complaint to the Disciplinary Committee. This final escalation is a serious step. Once escalated to the Disciplinary Committee, they are granted full discretion and authority to deal with the matter as they feel appropriate and they are empowered to take whatever steps are necessary to come to an appropriate resolution. In the absence of mitigating circumstances, BMHA will normally accept their recommendation as final.
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If the final resolution determined by the Disciplinary Committee is not satisfactory to any of the parties involved, that party may formally appeal to the Board of Directors. Note that unless there are unknown, material facts or mistakes, an appeal is unlikely to be successful.
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In the extreme event whereby a very serious problem directly or immediately threatens the ongoing safety of a player or the continued viability of the Association then the President of BMHA will be notified and he/she has the unilateral authority to take immediate action to nullify that threat regardless of this process.
Issues that will NOT be Considered under this Process:
This process is meant for serious complaints such as negligent endangerment, player safety, harassment or other egregious behaviour that serious enough to bring question as to the ability of an individual to continue to be a part of the team. Below is a list of some of the complaints that may be referred back to the team and will not receive further action from the Board.
- Parental Ice Time frustrations do not warrant a Formal Complaint and any parental submissions that relate fundamentally to ice time will be dismissed without action. When a parent has an issue with the ice time their child is receiving then they are to contact the Parent Rep or Convenor for discussion and resolution. If the Parent Rep/Convenor feels that the coach is contravening the ice time policies of BMHA then they may lodge a complaint against the coach in that circumstance.
- This form is NOT meant for simple disagreements or personal conflicts between individuals. Baseless complaints filed with the sheer intent of besmirching a coach or other individual may result in sanctions against the complainant.
- Submissions that lack specific details about an alleged incident will not be actioned until all details from both sides are assembled.
- Complaints will only be accepted using a fully completed Complaint Form obtained from the BMHA website. Unsolicited emails or other contacts to Board or Staff members will be summarily dismissed. Forms lacking details will not be actioned.
- Anonymous complaint forms will be immediately disregarded.
- Complaints against referees using this form will be rejected. Such complaints must be entered using that form; also available on the BMHA website.