CHILLIWACK CURLING CLUB
MINUTES
The
Spring General Meeting of the Chilliwack Curling Club was held on May 28, 2009
at the Chilliwack Curling Club.
President Chris Godwin called the meeting to order at 7:10 pm. There were 43 members present.
President’s
Remarks:
Chris Godwin
I
have had the pleasure of acting as the Club’s president for the past year. It has been an eventful year, as you will
have experienced and as you will hear from me and others through this meeting
tonight.
The
Club has had a good year from a financial perspective, thanks in large part to
those who continue to curl and consume food and refreshments in the Club. Thanks in particular to our treasurer,
Lenneke Bowles who has taken responsibility for submitting grant applications
to the BC Gaming Commission which has resulted in the Club being awarded
significant sums of money toward capital improvements and operating expenses
over the past few years.
As
most of you are aware, in this electronic age an organization’s website of
often the first thing someone sees when they become interested in the
organization. There are a great variety
of websites out there for business and non-profit organizations like ours. This
year Larry Legault became the official webmaster of the Chilliwack Curling Club
and Larry has done a wonderful job with improving the website. Our website is something that we can all be
proud of.
In my
view the most important thing we have accomplished this year is the development
of a detailed and progressive Strategic Plan for the Club. Thanks to Dick Allan’s persistence and the
assistance of Curl BC most of the members of the Board and several other
members of the club devoted an entire weekend to brainstorming to come up with
an initial draft for submission to the facilitator who led the meetings. A Strategic Planning Committee led by Jamie
Newton fine tuned the document until it was approved by the Board in March
2009. This plan will guide the Club
over the next five years and will result in a complete revamping of the
Committee structure within the Board and hopefully changes for the better, many
aspects of the operation of the Club.
I
would like to offer my personal thanks to Dick, Jamie and the other members of
the Strategic Planning Committee and those members of the Board and Club who
participated in the process of developing the Strategic Plan.
In
addition, I would like to thank our Manager, Bruce Renwick, out ice Technician,
Ed Gilchrist for their outstanding efforts during the year. I would like to thank all of the members of
the Club who gave their time and energy to volunteer when called upon. I would like to thank those members of the
Board who have completed their term and are now stepping down. Thanks to those members of the Club who have
agreed to let their names stand for election tonight.
With
the availability and guidance of the new Strategic Plan I look forward to an
exciting year at the Club next year. I
am convinced that the changes that are about to be made will be for the benefit
of the Club and its members and will allow us to continue to prosper as a Club
for many years to come.
Minutes:
Motion:
Made
by Larry Legault, seconded by Lenneke Bowles,
The
Minutes of the 2008 Spring Annual General Meeting be adopted as read by Jane
Arden. Carried
Financial
Report:
Keith
Britz presented the financial report on behalf of Meyers, Norris & Penny.
Copies
were given out to members for review.
Discussion followed.
Motion:
Made by Vic Martens seconded by Laura Watson,
The
financial report be adopted as reviewed.
Carried
Manager’s
report: Bruce Renwick
League participation was about the same as
previous year. Pro Shop sales were
similar to last season. This past
season was used as a clear out year where we lowered our overall profits but
got rid of inventory that has been around awhile.
Once
again we had many private rentals when our Club isn’t being used for curling
functions.
Dick
Allan was very instrumental to getting the Business of Curling Seminar here.
Through
the hard work of Dick, Jamie Newton, Jane Arden, Jane Adam and Wendi Prinse
along with contributions from others, the Club now has a strategic plan which
can be viewed on our website. This is
an exciting thing for the club and I am sure that with the new ideas and
strategies we will fill our leagues and keep our club strong and viable.
One of the things we are going to institute
is “Club Bucks” program to reward those who do extra volunteer duties. We are also going to run the Friday night
league until Christmas and create five “corporate Nights” for those nights after
Christmas. The planning committee has a
volunteer organizing committee and I am sure you will all be contacted soon to
help out. Larry Legault has taken the bull by the horn and has a large list of
improvements that he will make our Club even better.
We
have hired a new Ice Technician, Jayson Gill who has made ice in the northern
part of the province and now resides in Agassiz with his wife who works for the
District of Kent. I am sure you will
give him a Chilliwack Curling Club welcome and help him feel comfortable in his
new surroundings. I would like to thank
Ed Gilchrist who did an outstanding job with our ice considering he worked full
time elsewhere. I would like to take a
second to thank Kris, Lou, Stephanie and Mark who helped make my job easier. Also to the Board of Directors an
outstanding job and I look forward to working with some of them again next
season.
COMMITTEE
REPORTS:
Strategic
Planning Committee: Dick Allan
In
October 2008, five Board members and five members of the CCC met with Jack
Bowman, facilitator from CurlBC, to develope a Strategic Plan for the CCC. If our Club does not have a vision of where
it wants to go, it is difficult to know how to get there. The Strategic Plan is a guide, which will
help us, achieve that. The plan is
flexible and will need constant revision and updating as we move through
it. It is not written in stone.
At
this time, the Board recognized the need for the Club to address problems that
we, along with many other curling clubs were encountering or would soon be
facing.
The
issues that were discussed at this 2-day session included membership,
volunteers, operating costs and revenues and the curling facility/building.
We
looked at our weaknesses and threats to our club as well as our strengths and
opportunities.
Arising
from this, we developed a set of values and established a vision for our club
and its curlers which include:
1)
Building
and Facility Enhancement
2)
Management
Structure and Communications
3)
Revenue
Generation
4)
Membership
Recruitment and Retention
5)
Volunteer
Management
6)
Programs
and Services
These
areas will form the basis of our new Committee structure but will also include
these present Committees: Finance, Ice Conditions and Strategic Planning.
The
Strategic Plan has specific goals for each of these areas as well as time lines
and priorities for every goal and objective.
This plan takes us over a 5 year period and each goal has been given a
priority of being High, Medium or Low.
We
have already accomplished and met some of our goals in some areas involving
building/facility, revenue, membership and volunteer management. The introduction of Club Bucks is an example
of a new program we will be implementing this coming year with regards to
volunteers.
The
Strategic Planning Committee will also be measuring our performance in each
area as we progress through the Plan to find out if we are, in fact, meeting
our goals and objectives.
Members
of the Strategic Planning Committee are:
Jane Arden, Jane Adam, Wendi Prinse and Dick Allan.
When
the new Board is elected one other Director will join this Committee.
The
committee has a great deal of work ahead of it during the coming 4-5 years and
hopes to be able to assist the Board, its Manager and the membership towards
keeping our Club strong, active, welcoming and enjoyable.
Building
& Maintenance: Larry Legault, Jamie Newton
The
Club went through a lot of changes this last year, both cosmetic and
functional. Thanks to the members of
the committees that made this possible.
The
new storage room off the back wall was completed and we were able to clean up
the equipment from the backboard area.
We mounted the scoreboards onto the walls and replaced the carpeting.
We
painted the ceiling tiles that were needed, the laminate along the glass
upstairs was painted, shelving was installed in the office, and banners for our
provincial winning teams were hung.
Plans
for the future include:
Cosmetic painting and patching
Cleaning out the store rooms upstairs
Removing the air exchanger ducting upstairs
Building a new store room upstairs for tables and
chairs
Moving the liquor compressor to reduce noise levels
Installing lighting in the new store room
Replacing hinges on the home end boards
Installing new hacks
Removing the dividers from hog to hog between sheets
Raising and replacing the remaining dividers
Building a jig to condition rocks
Replacing the furnaces
Replacing the chiller and associated pumps and piping
Relocating the heaters in the ice area
Building new lockers in Men’s Locker room
Ice
Conditions:
Larry Legault, Dale Morgan, Peter Lui
Ice
conditions improved. We had much
thicker ice and Ed did a great job maintaining the ice for us. Thanks to all the volunteers who helped out
nipping and pebbling. The springs on
the nipper blades were repositioned over the Christmas break, clearing up some
of the problems we were having with runs.
Care must be taken when handling the nipper so the springs do not get
dislodged.
The
rocks were conditioned again in February.
We are going to build our own jig so that we will be able to condition
the rocks ourselves on a regular basis.
Draws
and Bonspiels: Dick Allan
During
the past curling season three major bonspiels were held – the Chilli Spiel,
Men’s Open and Spring Mixed. The Chilli
Spiel was held in January and was organized and run by a committee from the
Business Girls League. It was well
attended and very successful as it has been in previous years.
The
Men’s Bonspiel was held in February and 28 teams participated including several
from out of town. The event winners
were A Event- Carey Prinse team, B Event – Laurie McLellan team, C Event –
Britz team.
The
prizes, banquet and the good ice conditions all contributed to a very
successful bonspiel which was also a financial success for the CCC.
In
March the Spring Mixed was held and attracted 32 teams. Winners of the Events were the Ford,
Marshall and Clark rinks. Again a
number of factors helped make this a success – good ice conditions, prizes,
food and entertainment.
A
Fall Mixer was held in November and despite the low number of teams that
entered a good time was had by all.
Hopefully more teams will enter this Mixer next fall.
In
addition to these major CCC bonspiels a number of other smaller spiels were
held including those put on by the Ladies, Masters and Mixed Social. The CCC also hosted the ICBC spiel in
January.
The
Bonspiel committee and the manager have had to work hard to promote our
bonspiels and to encourage teams to take part.
There has been a gradual decline in the number of participating teams
over the past several years. We are
aware of this trend and will be working hard to keep our numbers up in the
coming years.
I
would like to thank our Manager, Bruce Renwick, who has put forth a great deal
of effort towards getting teams to take part.
Kudos go out to Larry Legault and Dennis Bailey, two members of the
Bonspiel Committee who have worked hard to make sure our bonspiels are a
success. Thanks to the volunteers who
have taken on various jobs during the bonspiels – bartenders, 50/50 ticket
sellers and many others who have contributed their time.
Membership
and Social: Dale Morgan
There
were 28 new members to the Club during 2008/09 season. This is a major concern as most clubs
participation is down. Action taken by
director Peter Lui was to set up an information booth at the Chilliwack Mall in
August to attract new members. We are
going to repeat this promotion at the Cottonwood Mall in August of 2009. We would like to encourage our members to
bring new curlers into the club.
The
Top dog Contest was held in October and had 35 participants, Keith Britz
winning the Top Dog receiving a nights curling fees and a designated parking
spot.
A
Halloween dance was held October 31.
Seemed to be a fairly good success.
Drain
the Keg night was held last Friday of March.
Trevor MacDonald provided the music, pizza was provided, and the evening
was well attended.
A
reminder the annual golf tournament will be this Sunday at Aquadel. Texas scramble, tee time 9:00 am.
We
will be looking into other social events for our members, any suggestions are
welcome.
Advertising: Lynne Wejr, Jane Adam
Bills
were sent out in the summer to all our customers that advertise in the club,
with self addressed envelopes for easy return.
These bills were for in ice and score board advertising. A follow up in the fall with the reminder
that the ads were in place.
Junior
Curling & Clinics: Laura Watson, Jane Adam
The
Junior Curling program at the CCC experienced a banner season. Thirteen curlers that have been involved in
the junior program represented the Club at four provincial championships and
under 18 International Optimists championships.
Junior
Men: skip Ryan Bogle, third Kevin Jones, second Matthew Prinse, lead Adam Dyck,
coach Rick Jones. The team qualified
for provincial championships in Kelowna by placing third in the Pacific play
downs in Sidney. They finished in the
middle of the pack of the eight team field.
Ryan, Kevin and Matthew have been identified as high performance curlers
and will start their quest for provincial championships in June with meetings
and training. Good Luck guys.
Chilliwack
Secondary School Girls’ and Boys’ teams qualified for the BC High School
Championships in Smithers by capturing the Upper Fraser Valley Championship
held at CCC in February.
Boys:
skip Matthew Prinse, third Gavin Woodfine, and second Andrew Graham; lead Keith
Moredon, Coach Peter Lui
Girls’
skip Kayleigh Alendal, third Stephanie Prinse, and second Paige Cote, lead Emma
Graham, and coach Laura Watson.
Congratulations on a third place finish two years in a row.
Juvenile
Girls’: skip Stephanie Prinse, third Emma Graham, and second Brianne Dyck, lead
Ali Renwick, coach Laura Watson This was a fabulous experience for these young
curlers. They participated in a high
performance clinic on the first day with some of Canada’s top coaches and had
excellent competition from the top U-18 teams from Canada, USA and Japan.
Thanks
to the parents and grandparents for all their support at this event.
All
these young curlers have spent many years in the Junior program as well as
curling in Adult leagues, bonspiels and helping the young curlers, they should
be congratulated for their performance and representing the CCC. in an
exemplary manner.
The
regular junior program began with a two day clinic for the new curlers. Older junior curlers and volunteers from the
club gave instruction to about 20 young curlers. The Monday program continued to offer great experiences for
children ages 6-18. Sixteen Little
rockers took part in the program and were helped by parents and volunteers from
the Ladies and Masters Leagues. Our
recommendation for the next year is that all curlers turn eight by December 31,
2009, unless they were in the program the previous year. The physical and emotional maturity of these
young curlers presented many challenges.
The number of curlers involved in the
4:30
– 6:00 program was down from last season.
There were about 36 curlers getting instruction from the club members
and experienced junior curlers for the first 4 weeks. Teams were then made up and games were played each Monday. Commitment from all the curlers was
sometimes a problem. The second last
day of junior curling was “bring a friend” day. We had a number of new curlers out and volunteers decided to incorporate
this idea early in the season to try and boost the numbers in our junior
program.
A
number of junior curlers, volunteers and other club members had the opportunity
to attend the world Junior Championships in March at the Olympic venue in
Vancouver. It was a great experience
for all.
Special
thanks to all members of the CCC who helped out with the junior program. I hope more members will find the time to
get involved in this great venture for young kids.
Good
Luck and thanks to Peter Lui who will be taking over the reins of this program.
The
club will be hosting the BC High School Championships February 3-6, 2010. Be a volunteer.
Presentation
of awards for the Club league winners was made by Larry Legault.
Elections:
Bob Burke
Directors
elected: Kara Biersteker Darryle Leavesley
Bob Morrison Neil Sulkers
Allan
Vanderveen
Directors
returning: Jane Arden Dennis Bailey
Lenneke
Bowles Chris Godwin
Larry Legault Peter Lui
Dale Morgan
Thanks
to Bob Burke for conducting elections.
Motion:
Made
by Ed Duffy, seconded by Terry Bodman
The
ballots of the election be destroyed.
Carried.
Appointment
of Accountants:
Motion:
Made
by Bob Morrison, seconded by Larry Legault
Continue with Myers, Norris & Penny as
accountants for the upcoming year, 2009-2010.
Carried.
Chris
Godwin adjourned the meeting at 8:30 pm.
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