The Humboldt Broncos put the finishing touches on their 2017-2018 season, with an unprecedented annual general meeting.
The club held their year-end meeting at the Uniplex on Aug. 6, and after typically using one of the smaller Uniplex meeting rooms in previous years, this year’s meeting was held in Jubilee Hall.
More than 200 people flocked to the Uniplex for the meeting, prompting city staff to add extra seating for the evening.
“This community cares deeply about the Humboldt Broncos. They are invested deeply in ensuring that the team, as they have in the past, continues to move forward,” said Broncos president Kevin Garinger.
The large numbers extended well beyond the crowd for the green and gold as well.
After carrying an eight-member board for the 2017-2018 season, and seeing two members elect not to come back, and a third seeing his term expire, the club had as many as seven openings on the board.
Fourteen members of the community, including past board members all announced intentions to sit on the board.
The club was required to hold an election, just the second in team history.
Jamie Brockman, Sheila Cochrane, Lee Dufort, Regan Kelly, Andre Kruger, Maury Simoneau, and Curtis Wacker were elected.
Having a full board, for the first time in many years, is great says Garinger, who notes the board will not have to be stretched so thin anymore.
While the Broncos were able to add to their board, the club could not provide financial statements during the meeting.
Due to the April 6 collision, and the circumstances surrounding the last four months, the Broncos’ financial statements have been delayed this year.
After the crash, donations came flooding in and with the team unprepared for such an event, the donations were put into a special account.
Annette Magus with HSA said the club currently has $2.4 million in that account, but says they are currently working through where those funds are to be distributed.
Some expenses accrued from the April 6 crash were also paid from that account, she said.
While concrete numbers could not be presented, Magus did say that the club’s operations were consistent with previous year’s.
Prior to the April 6 accident, the club was trending towards putting a dent into the debt they carried into the start of the year, said Garinger, who said the rough guess at the time was that they would sit approximately $30,000 to $35,000 in debt, down from the $51,000 they started the year with.
With the records not yet out, Magus did note during the meeting that the Broncos have four months to file their statements, and with a May 31 year-end, those statements would be due by the end of September, a date Garinger says the club fully expects to reach.
“I just got some information that way and more will be coming out we expect hopefully by the end of this month or certainly in September… There’s no question that it will happen… we just have to make sure that we tie up all those loose ends and I know that we’re working hard to do that and I can’t thank those people in the community enough.”
