Back in the saddle at the EFCL Board as your Londonderry District B Rep

Hello it's been a while since I've written a blog report on what's happening at the EFCL. As many of you I made my first foray into politics running for Ward 3 in the civic election. I stepped down as president of the EFCL to do that and I took a short leave as your district representative.

I must say running for office is one of the best community education programs you can enroll in! We knocked on 9,000 doors in our end of town and today I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have a much clearer idea of where I live in our great city and who I share our community with. I also must say running for office is the biggest, most intense volunteer project you will ever take on and I am deeply grateful for the 100-150 volunteers who helped my campaign. If you curious about the results check out the city's website. We garnered 6,063 votes, but it was still 500 votes shy of enough.

My congratulations to Dave Loken for winning a second term and to Hakin Isse and Rob Bernshaw for their campaigns in Ward 3

The election is over, now back to
work on community issues.

The best part about running for office, especially for a compulsive community volunteer such as myself, is it represents a fantastic opportunity to make new contacts in cultural, arts, union, business, political and many more communities. I feel like I have a much better idea of who we are as Canadians in our community of communities.

If you are curious what our campaign looked like check out our website at daviddodge.ca and our Facebook page.

My congratulations also go out to the incumbents and new city councillors Scott McKeen, Andrew Knack, Michael Walters, Bev Esslinger, Michael Oshry and Mike Nickel. 

Andrew, Bev and Michael have served recently on community league boards with Andrew and Bev having served as presidents. This is quite a different council from a community perspective. I look forward to four years of excellent collaboration with th City of Edmonton and City Council.

EFCL DISTRICT B NEWS:

Leagues Alive - Nov. 16 register now!

David Dodge and David Gibbens
with now former councillor Kim
Krushell at Leagues Alive 2012.

Don't missing this wonderful opportunity to network and learn at the Leagues Alive Conference on November 16, 2013. See EFCL Leagues Alive webpage.

Here is a list of all of the sessions. Check out a detailed list of sessions in this PDF. As of today there is still room in many of the sessions. There is also a chance to have lunch with your favourite city councillor as well. Don't miss this awesome event.

8:45 AM	For the Love of Winter
8:45 AM	Managing Your Assets
8:45 AM	Role of the President
8:45 AM	Role of the Treasurer
8:45 AM	Understand and Utilize Your Website and Social Media
8:45 AM	Working With the City 1
10:30 AM	AGLC Use of Proceeds
10:30 AM	Board Structure for Smooth Sailing
10:30 AM	Role of the Secretary
10:30 AM	Social Events and Recreational Programs
10:30 AM	Take a Tour!
10:30 AM	The Abundant Community
1:00 PM	Boosting Board Productivity
1:00 PM	Communications, Newsletters, E-News and Facebook
1:00 PM	Conflict Conundrums Detangled!
1:00 PM	Fundraising and Grant Writing
1:00 PM	Park Redevelopment
1:00 PM	Working With The City 2

EFCL RGM HIghlights

The RGM was on Oct. 29 You can still get the RGM meeting package (PDF) here!

If you missed the EFCL regular general meeting there are some big changes occurring at the EFCL and news about projects too.

Staff Changes

• The EFCL is pleased to announce that Elaine Solez will be our community planning advisor for the next 11 months. She is filling in for Bev Zubot, who is joining her husband Bob on a sabbatical in Lyon, France;
• The EFCL is also pleased to welcome to its team Amanda Henry, who will be filling the position of Board Development Officer;
• Also Shahriyar Kahn, our Community Development Office is leaving the EFCL for a position with the City of Edmonton. 

EFCL Community Development Program

Shahriyar was working on some very good projects for the EFCL including these three:

New Neighbourhood Recreation Model

The city is proposing a new model for delivering sports and recreation programs at the neighbourhood level. The EFCL has met with the city about this, and obviously the community leagues are one of the biggest deliverer of programs at the neighbourhood level. It's not clear year how this will work and whether it will be better than the way it was run in the past. However, being the optimist I sense there may be a tremendous opportunity for community leagues to play new roles. We'll see.

Cultural Inclusion Program

The EFCL is working with the Bredin Institute to connect newcomers with community leagues. This follows on the success of the program we ran a few years ago. Most other levels of government agreed we made tremendous headway in connecting people in cultural and immigrant communities with community leagues when the EFCL was able to hire five part time cultural outreach workers from various communities. This idea was fantastic and it demonstrated very significant potential but has had no funding to hire workers since. My hope is this program will continue to evolve and grow because community leagues have enormous potential here.

Traffic Safety - Can an integrated approach help neighbourhoods slow cars down?

Time and time again when I was running for election I found roads in the communities where people have constant problems with drivers speeding down roads in the community. There are 1,400 collector roads in communities. With the help from the UofA a Traffic Safety Assessment Tool has been developed that would look at statistics to help determine problem areas. This is useful, but I also think new strategies are needed to address the problem where the statistics won't flag a concern, but local residents are experiencing problems. Some community people are actually taking matters into their own hands and putting signs on their own property. (read more in the RGM report).

When you think about these programs and the other reported in the RGM package there are many very positive initiatives underway that demonstrate a very significant potential for community leagues to play new and interesting roles in shaping our communities and our city.

EFCL 100 Anniversary Project News

Also at the general meeting members had an oppportunity to provide input on the 100th Anniversary project that seems to be proceeding nicely. Two concepts have been produced that emphasize different aspects of what we had hoped to do in this community league feature at Hawrelak Park. You can still provide input by filling out the EFCL 100th Anniversary Project Survey at the EFCL 100th Anniversary Project webpage.

EFCL 100th Anniversary Park Project - Update

Hi Everyone,

Click to enlarge.

I heard some folks at Area 17 would like an update on the EFCL Community Leagues 100th Anniversary Parks project.

• Kris Morra of the EFCL will come to the Area 17 meeting in March (replacing me) to give a report on the parks project;
• There are regular reports on this project in our board package, newsletter and website:
• Fall newsletter: http://www.efcl.org/news/efclnewsletters/tabid/91/default.aspx
• Webpage on project: http://www.efcl.org/EFCLActivities/100thAnniversaryProject/tabid/414/Default.aspx
• Feb. Board Package: http://www.efcl.org/Default.aspx?TabId=74&xsfid=51
• The project is generally proceeding well.

The main issue that arose was that we had hoped to integrate our community league plaza and stream components with the beach component that the mayor and city are talking about doing. We are disappointed that it does not look like these are being integrated, but regardless of whether the projects are connected, we plan to go ahead with phase 1 (the community plaza) and phase 2 (the stream component) of the EFCL project is going ahead and we are actively working on it. Of course there are many steps in the process as leagues are well aware from their own park projects.

Check out the resources liked above. If you are in Area 17 Kris Morra will be at the next meeting to answer any questions you may have.

David Dodge

EFCL District B (Londonderry) Rep.

EFCL February Board Meeting Notes

February Board Meeting Notes 

Hi Everyone, you can download the Feb. 2013 board package.

Here are some notes from the February EFCL Board meeting. Please feel free to send me your comments, questions or any issues you would like me to raise at the EFCL.

First, here are a few photos from the Kilkenny and Evansdale Communtiy Family Day events in District B. 

1) K Days Parties For Leagues

The EFCL is pleased to announce that it is teaming up with Edmonton Northlands on some key promotions.

The first is a party package that will be available to four community leagues in June.

On four different Saturdays, K Days will sponsor a K Days party at the league that would include food, entertainment, games, ride, prizes etc. Interested leagues are to fill out an application through Northlands, telling why they are such a great community and why they deserve to party. They will be asked logistical questions about the facilities, green space and the number of people expected. Northlands is hoping to award these parties throughout the city and not just to BIG leagues.

Once the applications have been received by Northlands, the top 10 will be put on their website and the public will have an opportunity to vote online for their League. The top four vote getters will host the parties.

Applications should be ready by the end of February and a contest deadline will be set in April. Winners will be announced in May.

A second promotion, still in the development stages, involves the inclusion of parade floats from various organizations in the K Days summer parade. K Days wants to work with a number of organizations, including the EFCL, to develop floats for the 2014 summer parade.

2) EFCL Hosts Volunteer Recognition Night

The EFCL is encouraging all community leagues to send their hard working volunteers to a free evening of entertainment and socializing at the Myer Horowitz Theatre at the U/A.

Set for Tuesday, April 23, the evening will feature a keynote speech from Laurel Vespi, a local inspirational speaker who has written a great book called Spontaneous Combustion.

We are working with Nancy Rempel and Shaw to procure the video clips that Nancy has done on community league programs over the past year. We will be showing these clips, and possibly others, to showcase what the Leagues have done over the past year. We will also be running a slideshow of League photos at the reception following the keynote address

Myer Horowitz holds over 500 people which will allow us to thank many league volunteers.

3) EFCL Develops Civic Election Strategy

The EFCL is beginning to gear up for the fall civic election. At last week’s board meeting, the federation has decided to interview all of the key mayoralty candidates, to bring them up to speed on key federation initiatives and solicit their support. It also intends to prepare and send a backgrounder on its key initiatives to all of the candidates seeking a seat on council and will be encouraging leagues to hold all-candidates forums, with a focus on league issues, prior to the Oct. 21 vote.

4) EFCL To Connect with Leagues Without Halls

The EFCL has decided to survey all of leagues without halls to determine what they are doing to meet their space needs and whether or not the EFCL can be of any assistance. Once the survey results are in, the federation intends to hold a meeting with these leagues to discuss their situation in more detail.

The EFCL has approximately 30 leagues that do not have a hall for regular meetings or league programs. This number has been growing in recent years, as the membership of the EFCL grows and very few new halls are built.

5) EFCL To Review Role In Planning and Civic Matters

The EFCL has commenced meetings with senior city staff to discuss the federation’s role – as well as that of community leagues - in working with the city on planning and other civic policy matters.

No question this is a complex subject that will require a significant analysis, as the leagues and the federation are involved in a wide variety of issues in an equally varied number of ways. Trying to build consensus, often on short notice, is a significant challenge and finding the resources to properly research matters is another.

It also important that the involvement of the EFCL and its leagues be seen in a constructive light, given the importance of maintaining a strong working relationship with the City of Edmonton. 

6) Cultural Inclusion Project Reaches Out to Southwest Leagues

The EFCL was pleased to see a number of southwest Edmonton community leagues and city settlement agencies turn out for a meeting to explore ways to engage more recent immigrants in league activities.

Discussion focused on the lessons learned by Duggan Community League, which recently reached out to a significant number of Bhutanese residents living in their area, as well as people from other cultural backgrounds. The league executive is now extremely diverse, with members from a variety of cultural backgrounds.

Representatives from the Welcome Centre for Immigrants (which is now serving all of south Edmonton), as well as Catholic Social Services and the Mennonite Centre for Newcomers noted that they would be happy to work with leagues on this initiative.

One suggestion that surfaced was for leagues to hold an international pot luck supper as one way to meet newcomers, initiate friendships and determine who might be interested in getting involved in the league.

7) Leagues Support New Swim Time Booking Arrangement

The vast majority of leagues attending the federation’s recent swim booking night were quick to throw their support behind a new community swim concept the city has proposed.

Instead of signing a rental agreement, leagues will now sign up for a community swim program offered by the city. Provision of lifeguards will be included in the program and the city will calculate the program fee, based on seasonal enrolment. Leagues or Area Councils will be billed monthly.

The community swim program will be seen as a continuous program where leagues will remain enrolled until they notify the city of their intent to withdraw.

To help facilitate participation in this program, the city will issue the EFCL bar codes that will be attached to all community league membership cards. This will make it easier to identify league members and keep track of the number of swimmers coming from each league.

8) MP Laurie Hawn challenges SOCAN tariff

The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues is pleased to see Edmonton Centre MP Laurie Hawn has taken up its cause against SOCAN’s tariff #21. Mr. Hawn informed us that he brought the subject up at a meeting of the Alberta caucus of MPs last week and will coordinating the fight against this tariff on behalf of all Alberta organizations.

Community leagues with halls are obliged to pay SOCAN a levy of $185 per year for the right to play music at hall events, under the tariff approved by the Copyright Board of Canada. The EFCL and a number of leagues have asked the board to exempt non-profit organizations like community leagues from this tariff. We have been told that the board intends to review the need for this tariff in the coming months.

9) Abundant Communities Initiative Underway

The EFCL is pleased to see that work is underway on the Abundant Communities pilot project in the Highlands neighborhood. Former league vice president Howard Lawrence has been hired as the Community Connector and is in charge of locating neighborhood interviewers. The interviewers will meet with residents on their block to determine the kinds of programs and events they would like to see happen in the neighborhood. Apparently, a handful of interviewers have already been lined up and a series of one-on-one meetings have been held.

The EFCL has offered to help publicize this project and do what it can to make it a success. It is our hope that a number of other leagues will be able to initiate a similar program, should the pilot project prove successful.

11) EFCL Applauds Victoria High School Decision

The EFCL is pleased to see that the Edmonton Public School Board has decided to give priority to local children who want to attend Victoria High School. The federation sees this as an important practice that helps citizens connect with each other in their own neighborhood. It appears the board responded to concerns raised by local residents, community leagues and the federation.

12). EFCL and Leagues Work Hard On Low Density Zone Amendments

At least 30 Community Leagues wrote City Council asking for further consultation and outlining concerns with the proposed amendments. The EFCL also provided a report, summarizing the concerns its heard during three workshops that were held on the subject. In addition, a number of people spoke at the Feb 11th Executive Committee meeting of City Council.

Although Council did not direct Administration to do more consultation prior to bringing the amendments to the Public Hearing, March 18th, they did ask Administration to address the sunlight, privacy and mechanical noise issues. It also appears that Administration will be bringing amendments to Council which will drop the previously proposed changes to the Mature Neighbourhood Overlay rear setbacks and will lessen the changes to the front setbacks. In addition, the EFCL has been told that a collaborative citizen/city infill group will be created to continue dialogue regarding infill housing.

That's it for now.

If you have any questions or comments please send them to me at president(AT)efcl.org

David Dodge

District B, Londonderry Rep.

EFCL January Board Meeting Notes - Call District B Londonderry?

1. EFCL Backs Family Day Unplugged

The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues is encouraging all of its leagues to support the city’s Family Day Unplugged campaign.  The idea is to encourage Edmontonians to turn off their electronic gadgets – such as computers, televisions and cell phones - and focus on family-related activities on Family Day (Monday, February 18).

This week the city announced that it would offer family passes to city rec facilities as prizes for the league that convinces the most members to turn off their gadgets and attend a family day activity.

Registration details will be provided at the EFCL’s General Meeting on January 30 and in communications to the leagues in the coming weeks.

2.    Community Connector Pilot Project Approved

Remember the good ol’ days, when neighbors knew neighbors and did a variety of activities together on a regular basis?

Well the good news is that more people may get to experience this feeling if a new City of Edmonton/EFCL pilot project proves effective.

Called the Abundant Community, the project focuses on hiring a community connector, whose job it will be to bring people together block by block and encourage the development of local activities.

“It could be a dog walking program, a choir group, a men’s hockey night - anything that appeals to people in the area,” noted Highlands Community League president Howard Lawrence.

“Some of the activities might be run through the local community league.  Others might simply happen between residents living on the same street.”

With the support of the city’s community services department, Highlands Community League will soon be spearheading the pilot project in its 100-year-old neighborhood. However, the EFCL would like to know if other leagues would like to give this a try and will soon set up an information night for any league that is interested. The federation sees this initiative as a great way to engage local citizens and will be releasing more details of the initiative at its January 30 General Meeting at Royal Gardens Community League.

3.    EFCL looks forward to an Action Filled 2013

The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues has put together a promotional plan that features fun activities and events from one end of the year to the other.

Beginning this month, it is starting with a great toque giveaway for any leagues holding winter festival events.  The black EFCL emboldened touques can either be used as prize giveaways or as a thank you to hard working volunteers.

Later this month the federation will also be announcing the recipients of this year’s Living Local Arts and Heritage Program award winners.  Successful leagues will be employing a local artist and/or historian to develop a project that celebrates the historical character of their area.

This spring, seven leagues – along with the EFCL – will see their building adorned with solar energy systems, as the federation seeks new ways to make community leagues more energy efficient.  This will be followed by the announcement of this year’s CLIP grant recipients, where the city will be providing $3 million in grant money to leagues interested in building new facilities or repairing existing ones.

Volunteer Recognition Night Set For April 23

One of the premier events of the year will be held on April 23, when the federation  invites community league volunteers to a gala affair at the Myer Horowitze Theatre on the U/A campus.  Delegates will be treated to an engaging speech entitled “The Power of One” by the popular speaker Laurel Vespi, along with some interesting videos on community league projects and a wine and cheese reception.

Later this spring the federation will team up once again with the City of Edmonton to host the Good Neighbor Awards, where citizens across the city will be recognized for helping others in their immediate area.

Balconies In Bloom Set to Blossom

Another new initiative planned for 2013 is Balconies in Bloom, where residents of apartments and condominiums will be recognized for work they do to dress up the balcony of the unit in which they live.  Designed to be an extension of this year’s Communities In Bloom contest, the contest will be run as a pilot project this year by interested community leagues.

This summer the EFCL intends to do a bang up job on its Heritage Days booth in Hawrelak Park.  A key feature will be a new exhibit, describing the federation’s 100^th Anniversary Project in the park.  Visitors to the booth will be encouraged to view the plans and offer their design suggestions as the federation completes the conceptual phase of this program.

The month of September will once again be dominated by Community League Day, where leagues across the city will be encouraged to host an event on the third Saturday (Sept. 21).  Once again the federation is planning to provide promotional and event materials for the leagues and this year is making plans for a Community League Day Video, to document the activities at leagues across the city.  The video will be used as an information and promotional tool in future years.

Rounding out the year will be the return of the “Leagues Alive Conference”, where delegates will be treated to a variety of educational seminars on topics pertaining to community league operations.  The November event will once again feature a luncheon members of city council.

4.    Federation Starts Work on Five Year Business Plan

The EFCL eagerly looks forward to the creation of a new business plan, now that it is nearly finished with the five year plan created in 2008.

Last week the board of directors approved the hiring of a consulting firm to do some research and provide some guidance.  The consultant will interview community league reps, city councillors, senior city administrators and other key stakeholders in an effort to evaluate current initiatives and plot new directions over the years to come.

One area the federation wants to take a hard look at is the manner in which it handles civic issues, such as planning matters, social housing policies, traffic safety programs and crime prevention measures.  Trying to act as the spokesperson for a large number of leagues is a very challenging task for the EFCL and the stances it takes on controversial issues often affects the relationship it has with government and private industry partners.   Consequently, the federation is looking for new ways to handle this portion of its mandate effectively.

5.    Swim Allocation and Consultation Meeting held January 23. 

The first change is to stop referring to this program as a rental.  Given that the city is providing the community swim supervisors, not the renters, it wants to start referring to the community swim nights as a community swim program, and manage it in a similar fashion to other city programs.

With this in mind, community leagues will no longer be required to sign rental contracts. Rather, communities will be asked to acknowledge their interest in being involved in the community swim program in their local pool. The City will calculate the program fee based on the

enrollment seasonally, and leagues/ Area Councils would be billed monthly (there will be no change in how monthly rates have been calculated currently).

The second change is to view community swims as a continuous program where leagues will remain enrolled until they notify the City (Facility Booking Unit) of their intent to withdraw. 

It is hoped that the restructuring should remove a number of barriers and facilitate a smoother transition into and out of seasons.

6.    Three Board Development Workshops In The Works

The EFCL has three more workshops lined up to help league executives hone their skills.  Here they are, in chronological order:

Tools for Treasurers: Thursday, February 7, 2013, 5:30pm, at the EFCL office.  This workshop will follow the EFCL budget meeting set for January 30/13, where we will discuss community league budgeting practices - so we expect a full class.  Linda Crosby, EFCL Financial Assistant, and I will work closely together to further expand on key concepts introduced during the Leagues Alive 2012 session, with a strong focus on the necessity of having a budget and how to work within the budget the community league board has set

Social Media 101: Thursday, February 21, 2013, 5:30pm, at the EFCL office, presented by Joseph Carma, technology & social media consultant.  Joseph has generously offered to present this session, in order to provide an opportunity for those community league board members who may have missed L.A. 2012.

Volunteering Recruitment & Screening: Thursday, March 28, 2013, 5:30pm, at the EFCL office, presented by Milena Santoro, Volunteer Management Certification instructor with Volunteer Alberta, and owner/operator of MS Productions.  As all community league boards are run with volunteer energy & input, the need to recruit the “right” individuals is an important & timely issue, along with how to ensure the new board volunteer is the correct fit for the league and job(s) at hand. This session will look at ways to recruit new volunteers, as well as methods involved to screen potential volunteers.

7.    Socan Saga Lurches Along

According to the Copyright Board of Canada, the review of an application by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) for a new tariff in 2013 never proceeded last summer as planned, due to the high number of objections and complaints received.  Instead, the board is putting together a review process to accommodate all parties and will apparently let us know when the hearings will be held.

In the meantime, we are told that the 2012 rate of $185.07 will remain in effect until the board conducts its review and certifies a tariff for 2013 or beyond.

Consequently, we continue to receive reports from community leagues that are being pestered by SOCAN reps to pay tariff #21, which allows them to play music in their hall.

8.    EFCL Decides to Name Each of 12 Districts

The EFCL has decided to name each of its twelve districts, in order to make it easier for everyone to understand where the districts are located.

Last week the board decided to invite feedback from its leagues on a draft list of suggested names.  It intends to finalize the names at its meeting in March.  The names are as follows:

District A: Castle Downs/Calder.

District B: Londonderry

District C: Clareview/Horse Hills

District D: West Edmonton

District E: Meadowlark

District F: Downtown

District G: Highlands/Beverly

District H: Terwillegar/Riverbend

District I: Greater Strathcona

District J: South East

District K: Southgate/Heritage

District L: Mill Woods/Meadows

What do you think. We will still call our area District B, but to help folks who don't know what area that refers to we are considering referring to our area as District B: Londonderry? There is the pool, a mall and a community league of the same name. Does this work for you? Let me know what you think.

Cheers,

David Dodge

District B Rep. 

Thanks to Allan Bolstad for the notes that have been adapted

EFCL Community League Day 2010

More than 90 community leagues hosted events across Edmonton today! Ten community leagues in in District B held events today.
Belvedere held their 6th annual Membership BBQ event.  They had a great turn-out, and sold almost 100 memberships today!
Rosslyn Community League held a big bin garbage event and sale and sold memberships at a sale price today and had a great turn-out too.
I visited Rosslyn, Glengarry, Northmount, Lago Lindo and Belvedere communities today and saw events going on also at Kilkenny and Killareney. Steele Heights is hosting a movie night this evening and I will be attending Killkenny's 50th Anniversary as well. Congratulations Killarney!
Flickr slide show of Community Day in District B
The EFCL has already booked the 3rd Saturday in September as Community League Day for 2011!
See you then.

EFCL Board Package March 2011 - District B Report

Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues District B Report
David Dodge, District B Rep., March 11, 2010
districtb@efcl.org
Download the March 11 Board Package

District B Community Leagues: Lago Lindo, Kilkenny, McLeod, Evansdale, Northmount, Londonderry, Steele Heights, Balwin, Killarney, Delwood, Glengarry, Rosslyn, Belvedere

Notes from the March 11 Board Meeting

Hi everyone, here are some notes about things that caught my attention in the March 11 Board Meeting Package.

6.1 Free Memberships (pg 11)

The idea is to offer free memberships to new residents to introduce them to the benefits of community league membership. Of the two recommendations to the board (see page 11) the board opted to support the second which reads: “That the EFCL encourage community leagues to provide free memberships to new residents and that the EFCL survey all its members to see how many support a policy of giving free memberships to new residents in their neighborhood.” As an example, Duggan CL has provided free memberships for newcomers and free soccer registration for newcomers as well.

DD COMMENT: this is a great idea. This would capture new members that may not even know that community leagues exist. We rope them in, introduce them to the benefits of community leagues and renew them in the second year. The board opted not to put a resolution to the membership to “require” all leagues to participate because we did not think it will fly. That’s too bad, this is a good idea. What do you think?

6.2 EFCL Annual General Meeting Agenda (pg 12)

The EFCL AGM is April 19 at Athlone Community League (13010 129 Street)
Registration and Dinner 5:30 pm, Start time: 6:30 pm Finish Time 9:30 pm
We still do not have a District B representative on the EFCL Planning Committee. This is a great opportunity to make a difference on City-wide issues from a community point of view. The committee is presently working on defining Family Friendly Housing, side yard transition policy, Artificial Lighting Policy, Affordable Housing, Social Housing, Group Home spacing, and much more.

DD COMMENT: It would be great to have a representative from District B, ask around, we probably have some great candidates in our region.

6.3 Planning Committee (pg 13)

The EFCL is putting the final touches on side yard transitions between low density and multi-unit housing. The key recommendation is to retain a 7.5 m side yard between apartments and housing instead of the 3 m being recommended. The committee is also recommending side yards not be relaxed based on sun shadow studies until the City has adopted minimal sunlight standards. And finally the RA* Apartment Zone (up to 6 stories) should not be adopted to reduce them from 7.5 m. (See page 13)

The EFCL Planning Committee is also working on an efficient lighting policy. The board liked the presentation that was made (page 14), but sent it back to committee to specifically acknowledge community security concerns and how it can be dealt with in the context of an efficient lighting policy.

DD COMMENT: This is a great idea, but we must acknowledge and look after community security concerns right in this policy. The police tell us to light everything all the time, and this sometimes completes with energy conservation and light pollution concerns of some. The idea is to look after security and conserve energy at the same time. Apparently, more light isn’t always the answer. More on this alter I am sure.

6.5 School closure position (pg 16)

The EFCL Recommendation:
March 11, 2010 6.5 – School Closure Policy Position Allan Bolstad, Executive Director

1. That the EFCL ask each public school board to step up its efforts to keep schools open by working with the local community to find partners for vacant space before announcing any closures and by taking steps to eliminate vacant space.
2. That each school board be invited to join the EFCL’s Living Local campaign by promoting the concept of students attending schools close to where they live.
3. That the EFCL go on record as opposing the process currently used to close schools and communicate its concerns about the impact of school closures to the school boards, the City of Edmonton, the Province of Alberta and other key stakeholders.

DD COMMENT: I whole-heartedly supported this position and so did the board. Schools are the heart and soul of a community and inner city neighborhoods are about to face a blizzard of proposed school closings. The current process results in schools being named for closure and then the community rises up and declares war on the closings. The problem is the decision is all but made at this point. The EFCL is not happy with the process and is actively working to work with board(s) to get notice of schools at risk so communities can receive notice and start work on plans to save their schools well in advance of the fatal day. It is hoped that creative arrangements can save as many schools as possible, both in recognition of the vital role they play in the fabric of the community and in the sense that as the city evolves there is a good chance with changing demographics and densification that these schools will be needed again some day. The EFCL received notice that the process has started to close Eastwood School, McCauley School, and Parkdale School. This added some urgency to this issue. More later. (see page 18 and 40)

8.3.2 Report on First Time Home Buyer’s program (pg 25)

You will recall the City rammed through a program to build “affordable homes” on surrendered school envelope sites around the city and designated 20 vacant sites for a pilot program to build affordable housing. Walter Trocenko answered a number of questions we had about how that program is doing – you really should read this on page 25.

DD COMMENT: essentially this program is going nowhere fast, since the demand for the housing is not high.

8.3.3 Group HOme Distribution (pg 26)

The EFCL Planning Committee has formed a sub-committee to look at the distribution of Group Homes in Edmonton. An enquiry was submitted by several ward 3 councillors and there will be a report on the spacing of group homes to the City’s Executive Committee on March 18. DD

COMMENT: The planning committee and others are taking an interest in social housing issues and we all need to support these efforts, but we are pushing for is fair distribution of housing projects and group homes across the City.

8.4.1 Community Ice Time Allocation Changes Comming Soon (pg 27)

The City of Edmonton provides 100 hours of ice time to community leagues much of it is NOT allocated each year. The City would like to develop a separate allocation process where you can go and rent ice for your league on a priority basis, but only for non hockey activities. The EFCL is hosting an allocation meeting for 2010-2011 on March 24, at 6:30 pm at the EFCL Office. Don’t miss this if you are interested in community ice time in the arenas.

8.4.7 Swimming Pool Allocation (pg 30)

The Aquatic Development Committee met on February 23. They are creating two poll allocation committees: one for city-wide groups and the other for Community Leagues. A meeting is being organized for June – stayed tuned for dates and times.

10.3 Community League Day Kick-Off Event (pg 39)

As you may have heard Community League Day is September 18 and communities all over the city are organizing special events to promote community leagues across Edmonton at the start of the new Community League Membership Year! Register your event with Michael Janz at the EFCL and let’s make this the biggest group of community events ever. Send your information to michael.janz@efcl.org to get your league involved – 15 leagues have already registered their events. The EFCL is planning a photo op stunt four days before Community League Day to draw attention to it – 150 students from Victoria School are each going to hold a sign representing all of the Community Leagues in Edmonton in the shape of a map of Edmonton in Churchill Square on September 14.

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