Post by slapshot on Mar 5, 2008 18:04:27 GMT -5
Just a follow up to the story on Mark Frankenfeld and his new job with the Alliance Youth Hockey Organization. As of Monday evening Mark Frankenfeld had been fired from his new job of Hockey Director. www.alliancehockey.org
Alliance/DJHA Merger and Texas Hockey Club
In the past few weeks, many meetings and discussions have occurred regarding the most significant changes to the Alliance program in its 7 year history. These meetings and discussions were held without the knowledge of at least 5 of the 9 current executive board members.
The Alliance President (now former President) has during this time made representations and commitments on behalf of Alliance and the Executive Board, not only without its approval, but also without a majority of its members’ knowledge. Regardless of the resulting decisions since made by the executive board after discovering this information, this type of leadership is inappropriate for Alliance, and Shannon Smith has been relieved of her duties with Alliance for this reason.
Mark Frankenfeld and certain Alliance coaches also had negotiations with DJHA and others outside the Alliance organization without our knowledge and approval, as it relates to a proposal for Alliance to “merge” with DJHA and create a new AAA organization named the Texas Hockey Club. This is NOT what Mark was hired to do, and Mark Frankenfeld has since been relieved of his duties with Alliance for breach of contract in this regard.
In other words – we were kept in the dark until those proposing the “merger” felt it was too late for us to do anything about it. They were almost right.
After more thoroughly reviewing the proposed arrangement, it became clear to us that as a result of the proposed plan, Alliance would cease to exist, and DJHA would be completely running the new organization. The reasons we believe this are as follows:
1. A new organization was to be created for 10 AAA teams, which would include at least 5-6 current Alliance coaches, and most, if not all of our Tier I players, and many of our Tier II players as well.
2. The creation of this new organization would have created such a drastic change in the shape and form of the existing Alliance program as to deem it in need of a complete overhaul, if there were even enough players and/or coaches to still have it.
3. In fact, with Alliance having fielded 14 teams, and the new AAA organization fielding 10 next season, we didn’t see the need for another Tier II organization. If there was one, you’d have to add more teams (14 Alliance - 10 New = 4 left over).
4. Even if someone was to still try to have a Tier II program, the name for the new program would have to be changed as well, considering it would no longer represent anything close to what the old Alliance program had come to be known, both locally and across the country.
5. One of the primary reasons for the DJHA part, which we never could get a clear or total picture of the reasons for this, was that at least one and possibly more of the coaches wanting to be a part of this were tied to DJHA, and it had to be a DJHA thing for them to be able to participate.
6. The Alliance board and DJHA never met to discuss any of this, and it was clear they would have many fingers in the pie, were involved in the design of this proposal, and this was also something to which Frankenfeld and the former Alliance President had agreed to and committed to on behalf of Alliance – again without our knowledge or approval. It was going to be a DJHA run program – Alliance, “thanks for the help, see ya later”.
Another problem with the “merger”, given more thought afterward, was the status of the hosting of the 2009 USA Hockey National Championships. With no Alliance, what would happen to them? Brief discussions with USA Hockey about the situation revealed that they would most certainly go to the next city that was 2nd on the selection list, not Dallas. With this in mind, we felt this would not be in the best interests of Dallas or Texas youth hockey, and this was another factor in re-thinking the decision to “merge” with DJHA.
After initially considering what we as board members thought was acting on behalf of a majority of our coaches and what they believed was best for Dallas hockey, we began to realize that it was not. Alliance would go away, Attack would go away, and DJHA would be in control completely, along with the coaches. We felt this could lead to some serious problems, potentially disastrous for many players and families.
It also appeared that the folks proposing this arrangement had not given much, if any, thought to the significant business side of the proposition, and were expecting those they were forcing this arrangement upon to take care of those things for them. The business/legal/financial consequences of the proposed merger would not only have been very complicated and difficult to accommodate, they had not been considered as far as we could tell. In addition, the 2009 National Championships would be gone to another city, something else they had not considered or knew anything about.
We would be turning over the complete control of the running of these programs to the coaches, who when faced with having to earn a living off the youth hockey programs, might not always have the best interest of the players in mind, but be more concerned with how much money they might or might not earn.
Another reason to stay and take corrective action is that it appears that part of the motive/incentive behind the actions of some of the folks proposing these changes is that the by-product of these changes would very likely severely damage the Attack/Ice Jets program (possibly eliminate the Attack altogether), and clearly strengthen DJHA beyond anyone else. We know this because at least 2 people involved in the proposal stated as such.
What we also saw as an almost certain result would be an increase in the animosity between the Alliance/DJHA/New AAA program and the Attack/Ice Jets. We wanted to see something that would bring people together in a positive way, not drive them farther apart and create even more tension than there are already is between them.
We will probably never keep everyone happy or content, but we believe there is a better way towards that goal than what was proposed. We also believe that in addition to money, plenty of egos were a part of the driving force behind this proposal, not doing what is best for Dallas youth hockey.
Even though 4 of the Alliance executive board members were going to take the opportunity to retire from youth hockey based on the timing of all this, we began to realize that we would be doing a dis-service to many of those depending on us to represent them as leaders of Alliance.
Alliance/DJHA Merger and Texas Hockey Club
In the past few weeks, many meetings and discussions have occurred regarding the most significant changes to the Alliance program in its 7 year history. These meetings and discussions were held without the knowledge of at least 5 of the 9 current executive board members.
The Alliance President (now former President) has during this time made representations and commitments on behalf of Alliance and the Executive Board, not only without its approval, but also without a majority of its members’ knowledge. Regardless of the resulting decisions since made by the executive board after discovering this information, this type of leadership is inappropriate for Alliance, and Shannon Smith has been relieved of her duties with Alliance for this reason.
Mark Frankenfeld and certain Alliance coaches also had negotiations with DJHA and others outside the Alliance organization without our knowledge and approval, as it relates to a proposal for Alliance to “merge” with DJHA and create a new AAA organization named the Texas Hockey Club. This is NOT what Mark was hired to do, and Mark Frankenfeld has since been relieved of his duties with Alliance for breach of contract in this regard.
In other words – we were kept in the dark until those proposing the “merger” felt it was too late for us to do anything about it. They were almost right.
After more thoroughly reviewing the proposed arrangement, it became clear to us that as a result of the proposed plan, Alliance would cease to exist, and DJHA would be completely running the new organization. The reasons we believe this are as follows:
1. A new organization was to be created for 10 AAA teams, which would include at least 5-6 current Alliance coaches, and most, if not all of our Tier I players, and many of our Tier II players as well.
2. The creation of this new organization would have created such a drastic change in the shape and form of the existing Alliance program as to deem it in need of a complete overhaul, if there were even enough players and/or coaches to still have it.
3. In fact, with Alliance having fielded 14 teams, and the new AAA organization fielding 10 next season, we didn’t see the need for another Tier II organization. If there was one, you’d have to add more teams (14 Alliance - 10 New = 4 left over).
4. Even if someone was to still try to have a Tier II program, the name for the new program would have to be changed as well, considering it would no longer represent anything close to what the old Alliance program had come to be known, both locally and across the country.
5. One of the primary reasons for the DJHA part, which we never could get a clear or total picture of the reasons for this, was that at least one and possibly more of the coaches wanting to be a part of this were tied to DJHA, and it had to be a DJHA thing for them to be able to participate.
6. The Alliance board and DJHA never met to discuss any of this, and it was clear they would have many fingers in the pie, were involved in the design of this proposal, and this was also something to which Frankenfeld and the former Alliance President had agreed to and committed to on behalf of Alliance – again without our knowledge or approval. It was going to be a DJHA run program – Alliance, “thanks for the help, see ya later”.
Another problem with the “merger”, given more thought afterward, was the status of the hosting of the 2009 USA Hockey National Championships. With no Alliance, what would happen to them? Brief discussions with USA Hockey about the situation revealed that they would most certainly go to the next city that was 2nd on the selection list, not Dallas. With this in mind, we felt this would not be in the best interests of Dallas or Texas youth hockey, and this was another factor in re-thinking the decision to “merge” with DJHA.
After initially considering what we as board members thought was acting on behalf of a majority of our coaches and what they believed was best for Dallas hockey, we began to realize that it was not. Alliance would go away, Attack would go away, and DJHA would be in control completely, along with the coaches. We felt this could lead to some serious problems, potentially disastrous for many players and families.
It also appeared that the folks proposing this arrangement had not given much, if any, thought to the significant business side of the proposition, and were expecting those they were forcing this arrangement upon to take care of those things for them. The business/legal/financial consequences of the proposed merger would not only have been very complicated and difficult to accommodate, they had not been considered as far as we could tell. In addition, the 2009 National Championships would be gone to another city, something else they had not considered or knew anything about.
We would be turning over the complete control of the running of these programs to the coaches, who when faced with having to earn a living off the youth hockey programs, might not always have the best interest of the players in mind, but be more concerned with how much money they might or might not earn.
Another reason to stay and take corrective action is that it appears that part of the motive/incentive behind the actions of some of the folks proposing these changes is that the by-product of these changes would very likely severely damage the Attack/Ice Jets program (possibly eliminate the Attack altogether), and clearly strengthen DJHA beyond anyone else. We know this because at least 2 people involved in the proposal stated as such.
What we also saw as an almost certain result would be an increase in the animosity between the Alliance/DJHA/New AAA program and the Attack/Ice Jets. We wanted to see something that would bring people together in a positive way, not drive them farther apart and create even more tension than there are already is between them.
We will probably never keep everyone happy or content, but we believe there is a better way towards that goal than what was proposed. We also believe that in addition to money, plenty of egos were a part of the driving force behind this proposal, not doing what is best for Dallas youth hockey.
Even though 4 of the Alliance executive board members were going to take the opportunity to retire from youth hockey based on the timing of all this, we began to realize that we would be doing a dis-service to many of those depending on us to represent them as leaders of Alliance.
