Disciplinary Committee:

Make up:  The committee will be comprised of the vice-president (who will be the chairperson), and two nominated volunteers from teams in the league. The volunteers cannot be members of the chairperson’s team. Two alternate nominated volunteers will be selected to act in the event that a conflict of interest arises within complaints.

Roles:

• The chairperson (the vice-president of the league/ or in case of conflict of interest, the president of the league) is the entity that would receive all written or email complaints about other players within the league. (Complaints about referees should be sent to the referee coordinator, Lindsay Metruk; complaints about game scheduling should be sent to the game schedulers, Stephanie Dornn or Tilda Fortier.) She would then ascertain whether the complaint has any merit and should proceed to the committee for disposition. If in doubt, the other two members would be consulted and a decision will be rendered.

• The two other members, one of which would act as a secretary, would keep notes on the proceedings and write up the final decision. The second member would act as the fact gatherer, collecting statements from all the parties involved.

Process:

• Complaints must be in written or email form and sent to the chairperson. The complaint should contain as much detail as possible in regards to the issue. This should include the nature of the complaint, the names of the individuals involved, the names of any potential witnesses, locations, times, dates etc. Any complaint needs to be sent no later than two days after the occurrence.

• After the complaint has been filed and the chairperson has decided that the complaint has merit, the committee will be notified that they have a complaint to investigate.

• The fact gatherer will contact the other parties involved for their statements. Teams must respond to the fact gatherer’s inquires within 3 business days. Failure to do so will result in a “no comment” to be submitted and the ruling will be passed.

• The executive will be notified that a complaint is being investigated, but the discipline committee will not reveal the nature of the complaint.

• The committee would then have 7-10 working days to investigate the complaint and render a decision. Any decision has to be in writing and submitted to the executive who would then make a final approval/amendment/rejection. The executive will then notify the parties involved of the final decision of the committee.

• Appeals can be made to the executive in writing within two days of receiving the committee’s final decision.

• Should the decision not to proceed in investigating the complaint, the complainant could still file directly with the executive for their consideration. If the executive decided that the matter needed attention, it would be sent back to the disciplinary committee for further action.

Throughout the complaint process, confidentiality must be upheld. If confidentiality is breached by the complainant, then the complaint will be dismissed by the committee.

All members of the committee are bound by confidentiality and should not discuss complaints filed with other persons not on the discipline committee. To do so will result in an automatic dismissal of the member from the committee.

Note: The disciplinary committee deals only with players, coaches and officials. Should a spectator be an issue, the matter would go to the executive body for evaluation.

All red cards issued will be subject to a review by the discipline committee.

Clarification on cards:

1. Three yellow cards accumulated over the course of games = red card= one game suspension

2. Two yellow cards accumulated in one game = red card +game ejection = one game suspension +review by discipline committee

3. Red card accumulated in one game = ejection from game + one game suspension

4. Red card issued for abusive/violent conduct = three game suspension + review by discipline committee

5. Yellow card and then red for abusive/violent conduct – three game suspension + review by discipline committee

The chairperson of the discipline committee will keep track of yellow cards and will contact teams when a player accumulates 2 yellow cards. The chairperson will also contact the teams involved in the following games and the next game ref with suspensions involving players.