BCB, stamina is a primary stat on just about every piece of gear now. It doesn't matter if it has more stamina than intellect -- as long as it has more intellect than what you're currently wearing, it's basically an upgrade. I'm not exactly sure what the stat priority is for a fire mage (that's what you are, right?). Just remember that mages have no use for spirit, and you will probably find that on a lot of useful gear. So reforging the spirit out will give some extra haste or mastery or whatever it is you're looking for. I'm much more familiar with arcane mages, I've never done fire.
As far as the guild losing members because they wouldn't let 2 lvl 81's go....actually, I hate to say it, but they probably weren't geared enough. (I know that sounds odd, but at 80, I was in all 264 gear, which was much better than fresh 81's in todays world who are still wearing some LK blues and Cata greens). But having said that, since they only wanted "experienced" people, they could have easily carried a guildie or two through it if everyone else knew what they were doing.
We carried a level 82 through it and his gear was crap (that just means his dps isn't up to par, he dies faster than he should, etc). But heck we can and have 7 manned most of ICC. It was only when we got to LK that we had to bring in that extra dps.
So while your guild leader or raid leader is making a point that those lvl 81's don't belong in ICC (and he'd be correct), it's pretty crappy of him because if you can do it with empty slots, there's no reason he couldn't bring at least 1 (possibly even both) along.
And congrats on 82!!! Keep on rollin!!