2023 Annual General Meeting Summary

The 2023 OAWA AGM was held on Saturday June 10, at the Oakville Holiday Inn. 

1. The meeting was attended by about 30 people both in person and by ZOOM, with approximately 20 clubs represented.

2. A Motion to provide the members with an option to elect Board members for a third two-year term if desired at a future AGM was passed.

3. Elections to the Board of Directors:  

  • Jason O’Neil was re-elected as President 

  • Ashley Menagh was elected as the new Vice-President Administration

  • Bob Parsons was re-elected as Vice-President Technical

  • Alishah Depass was elected as the new Vice-President Diversity and Inclusion.  

  • Marcus Niemann was re-elected as Vice-President Communication

OAWA welcomes the new members to the Board. Thank you to outgoing members Laura Jones-Summers and Kelsey Dayler. Thank you to those Board members re-elected.

4. The members appointed Kreston GTA LLP as Auditors for the 2023-2024 fiscal year

5. The members approved the Audited Statements for 2023-2023

6. Provincial Championships. The members approved the following:

  • London was approved as the host City for the 2025 Ontario Junior Championships, pending confirmation of facility arrangements for 2024 and 2025 to be approved by the Board of Directors.

  • The Markham Pan Am Centre will be the site for the 2025 Ontario U-17, U-19 Championships, and U-23 Open pending satisfactory hosting of the 2024 event at the same location.

  • Orillia will be the site of the 2025 Ontario Youth Wrestling Festival.

  • Niagara will be the site of the 2025 Ontario Senior Open.

7. The members participated in a brief introduction on Beach Wrestling. OAWA will sanction the hosting of Beach Wrestling events, including an event planned for the Lake Erie/Turkey Point in August.  Watch future OAWA Coach/Club mailings for full details.

8.Starting immediately, Clubs hosting events which use a red-dot weight verification system will be required to weigh-in at least half the members of each team. This will also be done for any OAWA event using red-dots.

9. OAWA staff and the Board of Directors will work on updating Hosting Guidelines for OAWA Sanctioned events.

10. Beginning with Provincial events for the 2023-2024 season, the OAWA will issue Coaching Accreditations and lanyards to Coaches in advance. Coaches will be required to bring these to events or a replacement fee will be required. Only Coaches who are fully accredited, qualified and have their lanyards will be allowed on the Competition Floor for OAWA events. Parents and spectators will not be allowed on the floor and Clubs will be asked to cooperate in enforcing this. 

11. Beginning with Provincial events for the 2023-2024 season, OAWA plans to use a fully online registration system for events that will require all payments and registration to be done in advance with no collection of entry fees or documents at the event.

12. The members approved the 2023-2024 Budget.

13. The members elected for OAWA to work on hosting the 2024 OAWA AGM in Niagara Falls and to return to hosting a social. Watch for details.