Guidelines for Ice Convenors:

1. All Ice Convenors shall notify the Scheduler of ice allotments for the season via email to ringette@shaw.ca.
   
   
2. Teams play 16 league games per season, 8 in each half; 4 home and 4 away. WRL policies state that the WRL Scheduler must be provided with a minimum of 5 ice slots per half for each team entered in league play. If it is possible to give an extra slot or two for each team per half it allows for a better schedule for the teams. Also it is important that appropriate ice be provided.
• Bunnies no later than 7 pm start time and preferably weekend games 
• Novices no later than 7:30 pm start time 
• Petites no later than 8 pm start time 
• Tweens no later than 8:30 pm start time
• Juniors no later than 9 pm start time 
• Belles & Open late weekday ice preferred and no early morning Saturdays or Sundays
  
  
3. First half - Friday, Oct. 29th to Wednesday, December 22nd 
   Second half - Sunday, January 2nd to Sunday, February 20th 
   City play-offs - Thursday, February 24th to Sunday, March 13th. City Districts should provide as much play-off ice as they have available.
   
   Ice allotments forwarded to the scheduler outside of those dates will not be recorded in our scheduling records and will not appear on our lists of “Ice Not Used”.
   
   
4. The districts will be advised of first half ice not used in the WRL schedule by October 22nd (sooner if possible) and for the second half by December 20th. Every attempt will be made to use ice supplied for the early part of both the 1st and 2nd half schedules, but we cannot guarantee that the ice will be returned within the City’s guidelines. Any special requests that teams have should also be submitted by October 1st and December 3rd
   
   *** Districts, teams or community centres not meeting the deadline will be fined $ 1.00 for each hour of ice, for each day the ice is late. If the amount is $ 10.00 or less the fine will be waived. (If a community centre submits 20 hours of ice 5 days late, the fine will be $ 1.00 for each of the 20 hours, which would be $ 20.00 per day for 5 days for a total of $ 100.00)
   
   
5. District Associations have the overall responsibility to ensure that sufficient ice is being provided for the number of teams registered through their Association, even if the community centres are sending in the ice allocations direct to the WRL. In previous years there have been too many instances where scheduling has been delayed because insufficient ice has been provided. Any inadequacies for ice allocations will be immediately turned back to the Association to deal with and scheduling of that Association’s teams will cease.
   
   
6. The district shall remain responsible for these ice allotments. When the schedule is prepared, the District Ice Convenor should check all details of the ice used in the schedule against the ice allotments they provided. Any errors in the ice details on a schedule shall remain the responsibility of the district. Any additional costs incurred caused by the errors in the statement of those ice details on a schedule shall be borne by the district providing the ice. ALL ICE COVENORS SHOULD DOUBLE CHECK THE GAME SCHEDULE AS SOON AS IT IS POSTED FOR ANY ERRORS.
   
   (This means that if you give us a start time of a slot as 7 pm and a stop time of 8 pm and we make an error and enter the start time as 8 pm and the teams show up an hour late and the ice is burned it is the district’s responsibility to provide a new slot and pay for the ice burned. The schedule is done very carefully but mistakes happen and we depend on others to help catch those mistakes as we try to catch errors in ice provided in the first place.)
   
   
   
7. If you are assigning ice to specific teams, please be attentive to the game requirements that may necessitate level 2 officials and/or shot clock operators. Wherever possible, ice should be provided for multiple, consecutive games where shotclock operators and/or senior officials are required. We will attempt to work with how you have assigned teams to time slots, but cannot guarantee that these assignments will be kept intact. It is dependent on the ice being provided by the other teams in the loop as well.
   
   
8. Please make your teams aware of the following procedures for requesting to “Opt-Out”.
• A team may request only one opt/out per half season for a maximum duration of 7 consecutive days.
• The opt-out request must be forwarded to the scheduler at ringette@shaw.ca 
• The subject line of the email must state “Opt-Out”
• The team requesting the opt-out must be clearly stated 
• The time period being requested must be clearly stated
• The person requesting the opt-out must be the coach, assistant coach, or manager, and must be clearly identified with return email address and telephone number
• The email must deal with no other matter than the opt-out request
• The team may make their opt-out requests for both the 1st half & the 2nd half in one email
• The scheduler will confirm receipt of the opt-out request within 24 hours 
• Unless the team is in possession of a confirmation from the WRL Scheduler, the WRL will take no responsibility for the opt-out request
• A maximum of 4 teams per loop may be omitted on any given weekend. Not all requests may be able to be accommodated
• Opt-Out deadlines are: October 4thfor the first half and December 6th for the second half. Every effort will be made to accommodate opt-out requests made after these dates, but once the scheduling of a particular loop has started, then any opt-out requests for that loop will be denied.
  
  
9. It is estimated that schedules for the first half will be posted on the website by Friday, October 22nd.
   
   
10. The Town Hall Meeting will be held on Monday, October 25th, 2009 at 7:00 p.m., location to be advised. Each team is responsible to send at least one representative to that meeting. 2010 - 2011 rulebooks will be supplied to each team, along with game sheets, and other important information will be announced and discussed.