EFCL Board Package Oct. 2011 - District B Report

EFCL District B Report
October 14, 2010

The big news is that the Edmonton Minor Hockey Association (EMHA) has decided that they will no longer sell or require membership in a community league to play hockey. There will be discussion about this at the upcoming EFCL RGM. The EMHA has indicated they may be interested in collecting a fee to support hockey programs or facilities in communities, but the days of requiring memberships are over. There are approximately 4,000 community league members who play hockey. (see item 10.4 in the board package).

UPCOMING

EFCL RGM is October 25, 2010 at Duggan Hall – Don't miss it. Hockey memberships will be discussed and much more.

President’s Dinner – November 12, in honour of the terrific contributions of Community League Presidents in Edmonton the EFCL is hosting an appreciation event on November 12, 2010.

FROM THE OCTOBER 14, BOARD PACKAGE – Download it here

6.1 EFCL Policy Manual – the EFCL hired a summer student lawyer to gather up and organize its policies into a one-stop collection of all EFCL policies. It will be available for download soon.

6.2 Direct Deposits for Community Leagues – set up direct deposit FROM the EFCL to make it really easy and efficient to receive deposits from the EFCL for membership revenue.

6.4 LRT Alignment Notice – the EFCL is asking the City to provide one month notice from the time the plans for the new LRT alignment are released before the matter is considered at council on Dec. 8, 2010 to give community folks time to provide input.

6.6 Casino Report – the provinces report on casinos is out and it recommends changes that would see Edmonton casino funds go down. However, the minister has not accepted the report and has sent it back for review. The risk is still there, but the report is under review now and the status quo will apply for a while yet.

8.1 Complete the Quilt – Community League Day was a tremendous success, with 91 leagues participating this year! Your league will now have a chance to contribute to the Community League quilt that was created for the 2010 Community League. This is your chance to join the 43 leagues who have already created sections for the quilt celebrating their communities. Watch for news in the EFCL newsletter.

8.3 Executive Director’s Report – (Allan Bolstad)

CL Capital and Operating grants proposal – as a direct result of the Tripartite licence negotiations and a report by the EFCL about the Community League infrastructure deficit out there (leagues that need halls and other families fixed or built) we made a joint proposed with Community Services to the Community Services Committee for the following:

• $3 million in a new Community League (CL) capital projects fund
• $1.35 million in additional funds for (CL) operating grants

This proposal was reduced by the City to the following:

• $1.5 million for CL Capital Projects
• $700,000 for increases in CL operating grants

In addition the proposed has moved from the “funded” column to the “unfunded” column which means this allocation is in serious competition with many, many other projects for a limited pot of $6.9 million.
Please urge your councillors to support these desperately needed increases for community leagues across the city. One community league hall was recently found to be in nearly condemned condition – this fund is really needed to prevent facilities from becoming a big mess.

Tripartite License Agreement Negotiations – work continues on this front. Dwayne Robertson (President of ACES) and I got together to review the proposal on our own before the last meeting of the committee and then continued our line-by-line review of the licence with the Tripartite Committee.

• it will take at least three meetings (we’ve had two) to go through the agreement clause by clause
• there is some legal jargon still in the agreement – we have been trying to reduce jargon and we are pushing hard for an agreement community leagues can understand – this is an uphill battle
• we are making good headway on many points
• we are still trying to get the City to reduce its involvement in small projects to cut down on red tape and reduce the hassle for the City too
• the role of the EFCL is being reduced dramatically from the original agreement to an appropriate role as a backstop for leagues

Living Local Symposium – the EFCL is proposing to hold a symposium with the City to discuss what living local means and how we can support community concerns that activities and reasonable facilities are located close in their communities

• the symposium to could take place as early as spring or next Fall

8.4 Community Development Officer’s Report  – there is some very interesting work going on here on cultural integration, REACH, joint use and many other topics. Please read this section of the board package if you are interested in these topics.

Pool Allocation Meetings

Pool Allocation Meeting with Area Councils - EFCL attended a meeting with Area council 1,2, 17 and Clareview representatives to deal with a number of issues surrounding the Pool allocation process. Contrary to the notes in the board package the outcome was this (I sought a correction at the meeting):

• Leagues in the NE will receive agreement letters and not long contracts for rental periods
• Recognition for the contributions of Area Councils to the development of pools is being considered
• prices for pool rentals for our region have gone down
• the model we use in the NE is being replicated in other parts of the city

EFCL Pool Allocation Meeting – many people attended this meeting from all over the city

• the model we use in the NE is being used in other parts of the city
• the city is going to come back at some point with some sort of City-wide offering for Community Leagues – leagues asked for this and the City seemed quite interested – we will see.

8.5 Planning Report – the planning committee is very busy, here are a few highlights:

• Family Friendly Housing Workshop – well attended
• Vision for what row housing should look like
• Feedback sought on
• Medium scale residential overlay
• RA8 – 6 storey high-rise higher floor/area ratios
• Large site zoning process
• Transit-oriented development guidelines
• EFCL organizes Nov. 3 meeting between community leagues, city and developers about pre-application process

10.4 Edmonton Minor Hockey Association has decided that the days of requiring community league memberships for hockey players are over.

Hope to see you at the RGM at Duggan Hall on Monday, October 25 at 5:30 pm. Dinner is included!

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 Sep. 2011 - District B Report

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

The September EFCL Board Package is out and there is lots going on!

Download the September 9 board package

Please refer to my previous blog for notes on the previous meeting and minutes District B Blog on August 4 meeting. As usual please send me an email or call me if you have any input or messages you would like me to carry to the next EFCL Board Meeting:

Here are some highlights on the upcoming meeting, please refer to the board package for details.

EFCL AGM October 25, 2010 – TBA Location

There is lots happening this year please mark your calendars and ensure your league is sending a representative to the EFCL AGM this year so the northeast is strongly represented.

Pg 12 - 8.0 Boysdale Letter

8.1 – Response to Boysdale Camp Letter Allan Bolstad, Executive Director

That the EFCL write a letter to Mary Shalapay, president of the Boysdale Camp Foundation, that makes the following points:

•  That the EFCL has no further interest in the operation of Boysdale Camp.
• That the EFCL would like to wish the Foundation and Fort Road Victory Church the best of luck in getting the camp back in operation for needy Edmonton children.

Rationale for the Recommendation:

According to a recent letter from Mary Shalapay, president of Boysdale Camp Foundation, the foundation is in the midst of striking a deal with Fort Road Victory Church to jointly operate Boysdale Camp through a new organization called Kidz Club.

In the letter (which is included in this agenda package, see 13.1), Mrs. Shalapay asks the EFCL to supply a ―legal letter stating that the EFCL has no ties to Boysdale Camp Foundation, now or in the future.

As detailed in the above background discussion, Foundation board members want an assurance that the EFCL is not going to step in and try to influence the development of the camp.

Given the EFCL‘s decision to step aside from the affairs of the foundation, it would be in our interest to acknowledge that position in a letter to the foundation.

A letter from the board to this effect should provide the foundation with the assurances that it seeks. Involving a lawyer, as requested by Mrs. Shalapay, would involve costs which are considered unnecessary.

Finally, we are unaware of any motion by the EFCL to withdraw as a member of the Foundation, as mentioned by Mrs Shalapay in her letter. We simply never exercised our right to take part.

I brought this up at the Area 17 meeting on September 7 and reiterated that the EFCL decided last year to not get involved or get in the way of Boysdale finding a new path to the future. I see no reason why the EFCL Board will not continue to support this position and allow the new partnership to take hold.

Pg 14 - 8.2 Select Annual Community League Day

The fact that nearly 90 community leagues have chosen to host an event on Sept. 18 suggest that our membership is very supportive of the Community League Day concept.

Already a number of leagues want to know if we will be doing a similar promotion next year, so they can plan well in advance.

With that in mind, it would be in the federation‘s interest to set a date well ahead of the celebration.

The third Saturday in September seems to work well, as it is in the middle of the community league membership drive.         It is also gives some time for the leagues to get settled, after the summer break. However, it is not so late that cold weather should be an issue.

Evansdale Community League thought we should have Community League Day on the second weekend of September to allow combining soccer registration with a community membership event. I am looking for feedback from other District B communities – do you want Community League Day on the second or third weekend of September?

Pg 15 – 8.3 EFCL Infrastructure Assessment Program

New criteria are being proposed for the infrastructure assessment program in light of the mini assessments the City just did of community leagues. The new criteria will likely be designed to help the community leagues who need it, get more detailed assessments of their facilities.

Pg 16 – 8.4 Supportive Social Housing Policy

The idea is to define social housing from a community league perspective and get a few principles incorporated into social housing policy that is very important to us in the northeast:

• a hard cap on social housing
• fair distribution of social housing across the city
• an option for a community to take more social housing if community thinks it’s a good idea

The draft policy is very well-written and includes the key principles may communities would like to see in such a policy.

Pg 18 - 8.5 CL Membership Sales at Hockey Registrations

Here’s the irony: The District B communities I saw at the Area 17 meeting the other day say the hockey registrations went extremely well this year. Most of those community leagues went right to the hockey registration and handed out membership cards and collected volunteer commitments. The northeast zone is also attempting get online registration working so folks have most of the paper work filled out when they show up. This cause some line-ups at hockey registration because folks did not have their paper-work filled out. However Lago Lindo said this was their best hockey registration in quite a while in terms of numbers. Some communities also said they are getting information very quickly, unlike previous years.

Here’s the irony. The new system had some very serious growing pains elsewhere in the City and there are some very unhappy community leagues. A recommendation is coming to the EFCL board to renegotiate this agreement with Hockey.

Some of the concerns included:

• we are creating reluctant CL members
• people selling who are not CL people who understand CLs
• the new process soured EFCL relations with some leagues

Unless I hear otherwise from the Area 2 communities, I will be taking the message forward that the new process seemed to work well in the northeast. Time will tell.

Pg 27 - 10.3 Allan Bolstad’s Executive Director Report:

TriPartitie Agreement 

• working to get increased capital and operating grants in the City budget next year 
• Shared space tool kits from the City – if you are contemplating taking on a tenant or partner, check this out.

There was a meeting of the TriPartite committee on September 7. I had to miss it due to work commitments, but I will report back on progress as soon as I get news.

Pg 32 – 10.4 Community Development Officer Report

Pool Allocation Strategy Meeting September 29 at 7 p.m. at EFCL

• In the last Pool Allocation meeting held on June 16, the participations agreed to meet again on September 29 at 7 p.m. at the federation office to review proposed community pool allocation options. The EFCL has not yet received the city‘s proposal and have been told that they are still working on it. We have asked to have the information sent quickly, so the leagues have sufficient time to review it and get feedback from their membership.
• At a special Meeting of Area 2 , Area 1, Area 17 and Clareview District Area Council representatives on September 1 representatives of these communities said they were very surprised to receive new, long and complicated agreements for the pool rentals that our leagues have taken on for as many as 30 years. The good news is the rates for northeast communities seem to be down, but there are questions about the details of agreements. We have asked for a meeting to sort out the numerous questions that arose out of this. As you can see from the note right above this there was no due process around the whole question of pool allocations. This is too bad because I would have thought the City learned good process with the recent gym allocation revamp.

 Next Steps:

• Meeting of Area Council reps with City and EFCL to get questions answered about the agreements and process as soon as possible
• September 29, 7 pm meeting at EFCL already planned to further discuss the Pool Allocation process. The meeting is at 7 pm mark your calendars
• Most concerning is that the rental season starts September 10 and this has created uncertainty among leagues about their swim times

Proposed 2010-11 swim times:

Area 1, 2 and 17 Swims:

• Area 2 - Saturdays 3:45 - 5:45 Oleary Pool (CLOSED SEP OCT)
• Area 17 - Sunday 4:15 - 5:45 Londonderry Pool
• Area 2 - Saturday 4 - 6 pm Grand Trunk Pool (Sep. Oct ONLY)
• Area 1 - Sunday 4:15 - 5:45 pm Grand Trunk Pool (Shared with Castle Downs)
• Area 1 - Friday 7-9 pm Grand Trunk (Area 1 only)

Pg 33 - 10.5 Planning Committee

The EFCL Planning Committee is looking at a number of policies including: (refer to board package for details)

• EFCL Planning Committee Provides Input to Proposed Transit Oriented Development Framework
• Public Participation Process for the Designation of Undeveloped School Sites
• Family Friendly Multi-Unit Housing Workshop - September 25^th

Pg 34-35 - 10.6 CL Day Kickoff is on September 13 – 88 leagues participating

Preparations for the Monday, September 13th kickoff event and photo-opportunity are going very well. Work is well along for a 10:00 AM press conference in Churchill Square and 10:30 AM aerial photograph from the roof of Stanley Milner Library.

Each league has been invited to participate in our promotional event by preparing a 5 feet x 5 feet piece of quilt. The pieces will be sewn together at three sewing bees (7:00 p.m., Friday, September 10 at Ritchie Community League; 1:00 p.m., Saturday, September 11, Parkdale/Cromdale; noon, Sunday, September 12, EFCL Office), and taken in sections to Churchill Square.

It looks like this is going to be a very good event for community leagues!

Contact Michael Janz at the EFCL office: (780) 437-2913 michael.janz@efcl.org

Well, it’s fall and things are winding into gear again. Please let me know if you have any feedback or input. The next EFCL Board Meeting is September 9, 2010. I would be pleased to take your ideas, concerns, input or questions forward.

David Dodge, EFCL District B Rep

EFCL Board Package Aug. 2011 - District B Report

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

I am back from vacation. Here are a few notes from the EFCL meeting in August that I missed.

Download the original August 4 board package for the EFCL Board Meeting on August 4, 2010

Here are some notes from the draft minutes:

4.0 Urgent Matters
4.1 EFCL/Area Council Relationship - Draft MOU Coming
There have been two meetings between Area Council and EFCL representatives. Eight Area Council Presidents attended the first meeting in order to discuss the merits of creating an administrative position to support both Area Councils and the EFCL Districts with meeting logistics.
At the first meeting the idea of the position was discussed and participants also discussed the relationship between the EFCL and Area Councils and City Council. The EFCL has a government affairs policy that says it should deal with issues that affect 51% or more of its members. Districts can work on more regional issues.
Allan and Ian of the EFCL have since drafted a job description for the proposed position. The main purpose would be the coordinate meeting logistics, and facilitate communication between the EFCL,  the Area Councils and the City.
At the second meeting,  representatives of eight Area Councils discussed the details of the draft MOU. Items discussed included the facilitation of EFCL district elections at their meetings, in addition to the regular EFCL process. Representatives would also attend Area Council meetings to collect feedback from community leagues. It was also agreed that Allan would supervise the coordinator position if we are successful in hiring one.
The spirit of the meetings was positive and it was agreed to take the proposed draft Memorandum of Understanding to the next meeting of the EFCL membership.
It seems pretty clear that there is a logical division of responsibilities when it comes to issues with Area Councils being appropriate to handle local and regional issues and the EFCL dealing with issues that affect a majority of leagues.

7.0 Decision Items
7.1 MOU between EFCL and Area Councils
It was noted that Area Council presidents will be invited to the upcoming Community League Presidents appreciation banquet.
Some concern was noted by EFCL Board Members about how the elections might work, especially in some districts where there is a split of leagues between several Area Councils.
Allan reminded board members that the EFCL elections would still be held according to the bylaws of the EFCL and that the EFCL would run the elections in each case. And the election part of any meeting would be open to any of the districts of the district.
It would mean there is a third option for district elections, outside of the opportunities at the EFCL RGM and AGM.
This is a very good step forward and has the potential to strengthen community leagues by strengthening the links between the various structures that community leagues organize themselves in.

7.2 2011 Budget Request
The EFCL is already making a significant budget ask of the City as a result of the Tripartite negotiations. The proposal is to cover the significant infrastructure deficits in leagues across the city and to provide a an increase in the annual operating grants to leagues. This proposal is being made with support from Community Services.
As a result the EFCL will be cautious about increasing its budget request to the City, except to support the creation of an EFCL/Area Council coordinator position.

In view of the long history of the EFCL and Area Councils a request to fund a coordinator position will surely be considered a very positive thing. Right Ed? Right Kim? Right Ron? Right Tony?

Other Items
The EFCL has also endorsed the idea of Community Leagues being able to allow advertising on the insides of their rinks. An inquiry has been made to city staff by Councillor Linda Sloan to find out what it would take to allow this to happen.

That's all for now! The September Board package will be out soon, so watch for more news soon.

EFCL Board Package June 2011 - District B Report

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

I am very sorry, but I must miss the EFCL Board Meeting this Thursday because I am out of town on business for the next week and a half. If you have concerns or issues to raise please send them to me ASAP and I will pass them on by email.

Download the board package for the EFCL Board Meeting on June 10,2010

Here is the list of decision items from the agenda:

7.0 Decision Items 7.1 Meeting with Area Councils / District Coordinator Position (pg. 16)
Allan Bolstad, EFCL Executive Director
7.2 REACH Edmonton Council for Safe Communities (pg. 17)
Allan Bolstad, EFCL Executive Director
7.3 Row Housing (pgs. 18-19)
Bev Zubot, EFCL Community Planning Advisor
7.4 Planning Committee Representative (pg. 20)
Allan Bolstad, EFCL Executive Director
7.5 Summer Board Meeting (pg. 21)
Allan Bolstad, EFCL Executive Director

A couple of current notes:

The EFCL $25 Hockey Membership
We spoke about this at length at the Area 17 Council meeting and we were joined by Northeast Zone Sports President Lorraine Jex. A plan was discussed to still allow the community league folks attend hockey registrations and collect the volunteer commitments as usual even though community league memberships will be sold directly by hockey with each registration. This solution seems to go against directives from the hockey folks, but the seven leagues of Area 17 easily agreed this was a good solution.

Pool Allocation Meeting June 16
The City of Edmonton and Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues are jointly hosting a meeting to discuss the various options available for community leagues pool booking. The meeting will take place at Bonnie Doon Community League Hall at 7 p.m. All leagues and area councils are requested to attend. Board Members are requested to share information with interested leagues and area councils and encourage them to attend.

Planning Committee and Mature Neighbourhoods Infill Policy
I spoke with Bernie Zolner, the recently elected District B Planning Committee Representative and President of Glengarry and he is very concerned about the City of Edmonton's infill policy for mature neighbourhoods. There was a lot of activity on this file last year prior to the passing of the current policy in June and subsequent adjustments in October. We may hear more about this.

EFCL Board Package May 2011 - District B Report

EFCL District B Report
David Dodge, District B Rep.

Download the May 13 Board Package



Hello District B Communities,

And I thought this was a slow month! Thanks again to the 11 of 13 District B community leagues that came to our special District Meeting to elect yours truly as your EFCL District B representative for two more years and Bernie Zolnar as your EFCL District B Planning Committee representative on the same day! So our district now has two representatives at the EFCL. Thank you and congratulations to Bernie once again!

District B News

Northwest LRT
The City has completed its evaluation of the NW LRT Route and it recommended the LRT use the 113A Street route to 153 Avenue and then off towards St. Albert Trail. The route was chosen because it “maximizes ridership and connections.” The recommendation goes to Public Hearing on June 22 at City Hall and two more information sessions are planned for June 9 at Calder Hall and June 10 at Caernarvon Community Hall. DD COMMENT: Without prejudice to the communities to the west of us this route is good for our communities in District B since it brings rapid transit closer to us than either the 127 Street or St. Alberta Trail options they considered.

5.0 Highlights from Approved Minutes from April 8

The following items are highlights approved in the minutes from the April 8 meeting:

• Social House Policy – Notes from presentation by Walter Trocenko
• Surplus School Site Update – Notes on Tim McCarger’s update
• Capital and Operating Grants Request – EFCL motion to seek $3 million per year to deal with community league back log of capital projects
• Distribution of Social Housing – EFCL motion to distribute social housing
• EMHA Sale of $25 League Memberships – motion to take this to the AGM – it passed at the AGM
• Residential Lighting Program – EFCL motion to support light efficient communities
• Neighbourhood Schools – EFCL policy statement on neighbourhood schools

7.1 EFCL Meeting with Provincial Cabinet and Edmonton MLAs
As you have undoubtedly heard the EFCL secured a meeting with the Edmonton caucus and the provincial cabinet. Almost 150 community representatives have already registered.
We have a 90-minute meeting, from 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m., Thursday, May 27.  LOCATION:  Balwin Community League, 12904 - 74 Street   GOOGLE MAP
 You must RSVP to communications@efcl.org  -  MAXIMUM 4 PER LEAGUE.  First come first serve.
Program details are still be worked out, but plans at this stage call for a short presentation from the EFCL at the outset, where we can identify some of our key concerns/projects (provincial grants, casino funding, keeping schools open and as community hubs, Living Local).  DD COMMENT: this is a very good opportunity to carry community issues forward.

7.3 EFCL rep. on EPCOR Water Services Community Advisory Panel
The EFCL board is looking for a representative for this community that considers water issues in Edmonton.


7.4 City Report Notice to Community Leagues
The EFCL Planning Committee recommended to the Board that the City provide agendas and supporting documents (reports) at least 14 days notice prior to the Council or Committee meeting and that an automatic extension be provided upon request to the City Clerk. The EFCL board discussed this proposal at length and felt it a better approach would be to take our concerns about notice directly to the City Clerk’s office and attempt to discuss a system that would give communities more notice, but not shut the City down. DD COMMENT: this is a long-standing issue, many community leagues discover issues at the last minute and with no opportunity for them to properly consider the City proposals before they go to Council.

7.6 EFCL Board Retreat – so why is that news?
Ok, so a board retreat is hardly news, but one of the topics on the agenda is a discussion about how to improve our process for recruiting and selecting of EFCL directors (the last AGM left four key positions unelected due to a lack of quorum for district communities even though there were good representatives available to serve).
The board also wants to discuss better ways to community to district leagues.

9.3 Executive Director’s Report highlights
Allan Bolstad, our intrepid executive director presented the EFCL’s emerging Living Local campaign to Mayor Mandel and Allan reports that the mayor supports the initiative.

• EFCL Disappointed with school closures – the EFCL has indicated that we are not interested in participating in school closure processes. We are interested in retaining schools in communities and or schools as community facilities critical to the heart of communities.
• Aquatic Development Committee Update – the city’s Aquatic Development Committee has been working since March 2009 on the allocation of pool space. They committee has dealt with a number of issues (standards of play, tournaments, an aquatic allocation policy and the proposed community league pool allocation model. A meeting of league and area council representatives is planned for early June. Not date has been set.
• Northerners Update – there is a committee of 44 agencies providing social services to North East Edmonton with a goal to work with immigrant communities. DD COMMENT: I suggested this group consider coming to Area Council and other regional meetings to share their work with leagues so we know what’s going on and because this is an area we struggle with too.

9.4 Community Development Officer’s Report
Shahriyar Khan’s report is working on a variety of initiatives – the one I will mention is the EFCL

9.5 Community Planning Officer’s Report
Bev Zubot, our planning officer and the EFCL Planning Committee is working on:

• Social Housing Distribution
• Family Oriented Muti-Family Housing
• Zoning bylaw changes – transition between small and big buildings, row housing and infill
• Smarter Residential Lighting
• Recreation Facility and School Planning

The EFCL is extremely busy these days, you can’t do it all, but hopefully this summary helps you follow some of the things that you and your community are interested in.

David Dodge

Bernie Zolnar elected as new District B Planning Committee Rep

Bernie Zolnar was elected the new President of Glengarry Community League and the EFCL District B Planning Committee representative on the same day!

Eleven of the 13 community leagues in District B attended the Special District Meeting after we failed to get quorum at the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) Annual General Meeting on April 19.

Lago Lindo, Kilkenny, McLeod, Evansdale, Northmount, Londonderry, Balwin, Killarney, Delwood, Glengarry, Rosslyn and Belvedere community leagues attended the first District B meeting in many years on Tuesday May 4.

At the meeting David Dodge (yours truly) was re-elected as the EFCL District B Board Representative for the region. I am also currently the VP External of the EFCL as well.

This means our district has a representative on the board and one on the EFCL Planning Committee which works on city-wide planning issues on behalf of community leagues. The committee has started to become quite active monitoring new City policies and proposing policies for the EFCL. As Mike White from Lago Lindo said "It's good that we have someone from the Area 2 community leagues at the EFCL as well from the Area 17 community leagues to provide balanced representation."

The next Board meeting is May 13 at the EFCL offices. The meetings are open. Just today we heard the community leagues are going to be meeting with the Provincial Cabinet and Edmonton MLAs from the Tory Caucus near the end of May. We will let you know about the venue soon.

This will be a good chance to talk about a number of issues affecting community leagues in a round table format with the provincial government.

Congratulations Bernie for your election as the Planning Rep. I look forward to serving with you at the EFCL.  After the special District B meeting community folks from both Area 17 and Area 2 got together for a drink along with one of our MLAs.