Just an update for everybody, just in case the email didn't find its way into your inbox.
Most of you would have received an email from me earlier after you originally registered about us gauging interest in an international trip during the 2024/2025 season. If you signed up a little later than most then you may not have received that email.
Now we are looking for families to solidify their interest with a down payment of $500 (per player if you have multiple players interested). Note: You did not have to show initial interest by filling out the form in order to now put your deposit down. Also if you have reconsidered and are no longer interested that is also not a problem.
The deposit is due Sat Sep 10th and will need to be ETransferred to
treasurer@elmvaleminorhockey.ca. I know it is a tight turnaround and all these other fees related to regular hockey are coming due as well, but we need to move to the next stage quickly as well which will be to determine if we have too many or too few truly interested and determine if we want to recruit others or possible look at a team selection process. And eventually get to the fundraising part of this thing.
The deposit is fully refundable at this point.
There are no additional trip details as the group will plan their own experience with the help of the travel agents. I will say that a small majority had Scandinavia as their preferred option, but we are not locked into that destination at this point.
I will reiterate the process and requirements from my previous message:
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The process will look something like this:
- Assess Interest (This is where we are at). We will need enough players / families interested in order to make this feasible.
- Confirm Interest. If there is seemingly enough interest we will ask that families confirm their interest by providing a refundable deposit. At this point, not many details of the trip will be known other than the destination & dates.
- Team Selection. The last time we went, there wasn't a need for this step but it's possible that not everybody that wants to be a part of this trip will be able to be. Although we will make every effort to include as many as are allowed & are manageable. We have not set criteria yet for team selection, and will only do so if necessary. After this point the deposit becomes non-refundable.
- Fundraise & Plan
- Travel
The idea is that steps 1 and 2 will be completed prior to this season. If step 3 is necessary then that will take place during the month of Sep in some fashion as we need to get to step 4 as quickly as possible. The goal will be that all players' trips will be completely covered by our fundraising efforts. Parents and other family and friends will need to pay their own way.
A couple of items:
1 - Players must be committed to playing in Elmvale for both the 2023/2024, and 2024/2025 seasons.
2 - All players will need to have an adult 'in charge' of them while on the trip. If you would like for your player to be involved but cannot commit to going yourself you will need to figure out an alternate solution for your player to have somebody looking after them while on the trip.
3 - This is not just for 'Rep' kids. We encourage all players interested to express that interest formally. When we went a couple of years ago only a handful of Rep kids participated. The team was mostly comprised of AE and LL players. Our tour providers will try their best to match us with comparable teams when we play.
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