05/19/2026
To Our Members,
Allow me to start off by saying thank you to Lauren Collister, Amy Dickman, Brendan Scanlan, Chrissy Thorton, and Jessica Komaraski, who are all departing board members. Your dedication and selflessness will always be appreciated.
At this week's board meeting, I was selected by my peers to be the next president of our club. This is a role that I actively pursued for many reasons. The most prominent, Auburn Hockey Club has been a part of my life since I was four years old. It’s an organization that is very important to me and my family. And this is a role that I will always give 100% effort toward. My intention is to make every decision based on the best interest of the club. It is my intention to remain the president for the next five years. If at any point the board feels someone else can do a better job I will have no problem at all relinquishing my position as president and still helping the club in any way possible. I intend to step down and spend my last year on the board mentoring the next president to ensure a smooth transition.
The second reason I think this is an inflection point is, as a club, we are faced with difficult financial times. Prices are going up and participation has gone down. Ice time has almost doubled in the past two years, and next season will be the biggest rate increase on ice by the city we have seen in the club’s' history. However, I am confident with responsible spending and more great work from our members in fundraising, we will be able to withstand these increases with the standard 20% increase in dues. The city is set to hold their annual budget meeting in June and immediately following that we will be able to set prices and open registration within a few days of that.
As it stands right now, we have sound commitments for the levels of 8u,10u (tryouts completed and team named), 12u and 16u/18u which will be enough for rosters. At the 14u level, we are still actively looking to bring a few more players to the club to have enough for a roster. We have, unfortunately, seen some players leave for other clubs in recent years, and this is something that we need to address if we want the club to have a strong future for our kids. My hope is that we can foster a community that supports our current players, nurtures growth of our club, and encourages people to stay in Auburn. My plan is to make sure every kid that plays hockey here wants to stay here and make sure that they feel like they have a place.
Because I feel transparency is a key component to our club's success, I plan to post monthly updates on anything that is actionable or informational for the club. My feeling is this is an area that impacted the aforementioned issues with players’ satisfaction. My phone number is 315-209-7290 and my email address is [email protected]. If you
have any questions or concerns about anything, please reach out.
In closing, one of the strengths of this board is the dedication to our kids. We will be looking to add some committed board members with three open spots currently available. Each of them is a one-year term. I’d like to say thank you to this year's board for trusting me to have the club's best interest in mind. I will do my absolute best to make sure this is a decision you won’t regret. To our members, I look forward to meeting those of you I have not, and I look forward to spending time with all of you as we all try to give our
kids the best experience possible.
Sincerely,
Joe Plis
