To all Cyclones members and interested parties

New Website

As you can see we have a new look website.

Sherlock software through Phil McGuiness has sponsored the Central Coast Cyclones website for some time. Phil McGuiness e-mailed the CoM on 5 June 2008 indicating that he was unable to continue this sponsorship after 30 June 2008. The COM and club members would like to thank Sherlock Software through Phil for this support. We would also like to thank Craig Air who has been our indefatigable webmaster for so long.

The website will continue, but as Phil has indicated that he will not allow us to use the code for the web site we are redesigning and adding features. Keep checking back to see the progress we would like feedback on the new look and additional functionality, after all this is your website.

Summer Hockey

We made contact with the rink on 4 May 2008 requesting ice time for the Cyclones to run a Summer in-house competition. We indicated that we wished to know whether they would be running an in-house competition or would it be possible for the Cyclones to run an IHNSW sanctioned competition. At that time it was not urgent, but a friendly reminder to the rink that we needed to start organising things and therefore needed their returned communication and support.

The rink did not reply to this e-mail until 13 June 2008 after we had prompted them for their reply. The rink management has indicated that they would be running their own in-house competition.

As we, as a CoM, have made it very clear to the rink that we do not wish to compete with the rink for customers nor ice time and that we are, and always have been, willing to work with and never against the rink, at this time the decision has been made that we will not be running an in-house competition over the summer.

The Cyclones CoM offers any support and help to the rink that they may require and would be happy to work with the organisers in any area that our affiliation with IHNSW allows us to. As always we offer our support and help in any endeavours at the rink and by the rink management. We anticipate that our members will follow this lead.

The rink has indicated to us that it has already started the organisation for this competition so you will need to confirm this situation with the rink when they put out their information. Please remember that as for the winter in-house, you will not be covered under IHNSW insurance while playing in this competition. If you have any concerns about insurance or fees you will need to find out from the rink organisers.

Concerns

We would also like to take this time to speak to our members candidly on a matter of concern.

We have concerns about the many lies and rumours being spread about and around the rink. We request that all Cyclones members refrain from unsubstantiated statements and rumours and if you have any questions or comments then you should contact the committee directly. As there are many people, both members and non-member who don't seem to understand that the CoM would like to leave the playing of games to on the ice.

We all know that the Cyclones indirectly use a great deal of ice at the Erina rink. Our training time is only a small proportion of this time, as without Cyclones (or an affiliated club) IHNSW would not be able to run their many games on the weekend and IHA would not be able to run their Rhino's games. Therefore we request that our members do the right thing by the rink and its management and enjoy their games on the ice and not get caught up with silly 'games' off the ice.

We have already had one resignation of a whole committee and getting new members for the positions on the committee was very difficult. The club will not exist without a CoM and we are simply volunteers giving any spare time that we have to ensure that our members can play hockey under IHNSW/IHA affiliation. While between us we have many skills to offer and many criteria by which we must abide, we are volunteers, we are not a business for profit, we are a sporting club which is not-for-profit, which would like to ensure the continuance of a local business, the rink, and that our local people on the coast have opportunities. This includes both keeping our young 'off the street' - to coin an old phrase - and to allow us oldies to enjoy some fun playing games and enjoying the recreation of playing ice hockey.

As many at our rink know wasteful rumours and lies are the best way to destroy an organisation and business and all we really want is to enjoy playing hockey on the coast.

As always we are endeavouring to ensure that both our club members and other interested parties are kept up to date through our website and our new look is coming soon.

Thank you for your time