Leagues Vote to Sell $25 Memberships to Hockey Players

On Monday Edmonton's community leagues passed a motion that will allow the Edmonton Minor Hockey Association (EMHA) to sell special $25 corporate community league memberships to every hockey family in Edmonton.

The new agreement is designed to address a long-standing logistical nightmare for hockey registrars. Some folks in the EMHA were ready to drop the requirement that hockey players must be members of community leagues because of very serious problems finding the right leagues, with people filling in fake community league membership numbers and even people just leaving the membership box blank.

Pictured are Allan Bolstad, EFCL Executive Director and David Gibbens, EFCL President

Under the new agreement (soon to be ratified by the EMHA) the hockey association will sell every single hockey family a community league membership when they register for hockey. This will mean every single family of the 7,000 hockey players in Edmonton will have a community league membership, guaranteed. 

The EMHA will send the money and a list with complete information for each new member to the EFCL for passing on to leagues.

The new system is a change, but the vast majority of community leagues in Edmonton will benefit since they will capture every single hockey player from their community league. In the old system people got away with not buying memberships, buying them from other leagues or even by entering fake membership numbers. This arrangement also reconfirms the relationship between community leagues and hockey. The community leagues started hockey and have a long time affiliation with hockey people many of whom have served on community league boards.

Some leagues from the west end were not happy with the arrangement because their membership fees are higher, many around $40. The $25 corporate rate was chosen as the average rate and with a view to not increasing hockey fees too much.

The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues Annual General Meeting was Monday, April 19 at Athalone Hall.

As a footnote, I write today the "acting District B representative"  since our district did not have quorum on at the April 19th meeting! We have a special meeting of District B communities planned for May 4, 2010 to elect or re-elect a representative.

State of the City of Edmonton Address - Mayor Stephen Mandel

Today Stephen Mandel gave his annual State of the City address at the Chamber of Commerce event at Shaw Conference Centre. I attended along with Allan Bolstad, EFCL Executive Director.
The two-term Mayor laid out a pretty big vision that seemed centered around Edmonton's Expo Bid. He spoke at length about the "sustainable community" planned for the Airport lands redevelopment.
The Mayor spoke at length about LRT as a focus of transit development and about how it is the focus of creating a modern green city of the future. He even suggested a second ring road may not even be needed if we do an excellent job of transit, and LRT in particular.
He affirmed his commitment to seeing downtown redevelopment as a priority and encouraged business leaders and citizens to look carefully at the major sports facility being proposed for downtown as a possible key to creating a vibrant downtown in Edmonton. The reiterated the City needs to be prudent and fiscally responsible in any deal, but he also seems to favor a big, bold idea for down town.
The Mayor spoke from notes and there was no standing ovation this time. But it seems fairly clear that there was good, strong support for his vision in the room full of business leaders, politicians, plus a healthy dollop of City employees and a few lonely community people!

EFCL Community League Capital Projects Deficit 2010

Hi everyone, I referred to a report prepared by Allan Bolstad EFCL Executive Director on the capital projects deficit faced by Community Leagues in Edmonton and I now have a copy. Download it here: EFCL Capital Project Costs.

This report found about 10-12 Community Leagues will be looking to build Community League Buildings in the next ten years and another 3-5 need to rebuild. Estimated cost is $7.5 million over the next three years.

The report also documents $4.5 million in needed repairs to Community buildings, $1.75 million for Tennis Courts, $2.5 million for hockey rinks,  $300,000 for basketball courts, and about $1.45 million in other projects over the next three years.

This report is being used by the Tripartite Committee to attempt to find new ways to fund capital projects in Community Leagues and in fact the committee has a very rough draft proposal.  The EFCL Board has already endorsed a plan that calls for a new model for funding and $3 million over three years in matching funds to fund these important Community League capital projects.

EFCL Board Package April 2011 - District B Report

EFCL District B Report
David Dodge, District B Rep., April 8, 2010
Download the April 8 Board Package

Notes from the April 8, 2010 Board Meeting

Hi everyone, I am back from the rain forests of southern Costa Rica and am ready for warmer weather here! If you are curious, here is a link to a slide show of Costa Rica photos. The follow are my highlights from the 43-page board package and the EFCL Board Meeting:

AGM is April 19, 5:30 pm - FREE FOOD! 

EFCL AGM April 19, 5:30 pm (dinner), 6:30 pm meeting. Athlone Hall, 13010 129 Street - goto EFCL.org for more information or RSVP. There is a lot happening with Community League issues, so come on out and catch up on the news, and compare notes with fellow community league folks.

Talent Show

This Saturday April 17th at Stanley A Milner Library Theatre, 9:00 am to 6:00 pm – 67 entries & great talent.

3.1 Presentation: Walter Trochenko on Social Housing
Walter Trochenko of the City of Edmonton presented an early draft of a Discussion Paper on Social Housing in Edmonton to the EFCL board. Click here to download this early draft (remember it’s only a draft). Version 2 of this may be available online at the City site already. The City is keen to find new ways to manage the distribution and supply of social housing and this report is about how that will be done. This report will be discussed at 5:30 pm at a public meeting on April 19 at Alex Taylor School and it goes to Executive Committee on April 21. In a nutshell there are three options:

• Status quo
• Flexible plan to attempt to steer housing around the city. The idea is to spread housing around, but not create hard and fast rules
• A hardcap on social housing in communities with more than their share

The report considers proposing the use of funding for projects to steer developments away from some areas and into others. The report contains a fascinating table that lists the concentration of social housing by community: four District B communities figure in the top 20 communities for high concentrations of low income people and families and social housing: Belvedere, Balwin, Rosslyn and Evansdale. The communities at the top of the list have up to 51% low income residents and one community, McCauley has 54% of its homes as subsidized housing units. The top 10 communities would be singled out, and social housing projects would avoid those communities.

• First time homebuyers is market-based housing and none of the approved sites will change to social housing sites
•  20 more school sites that are not needed however are now being released and subjected to the City’s process for reallocating the sites once earmarked for school envelopes. Social housing will undoubtedly target these sites and try to get them allocated to social housing projects.

DD COMMENT: Download the report and participate in the process if you are interested in these issues. Equitable distribution makes sense, especially to those with more than their fair share, but this will not be easy.

3.2 Presentation 2: Tim McCarger - Allocation of School sites
Twenty school building envelope sites are up for grabs since they have been released by the school boards because the do not need them. Tim McCarger of the City is working on crafting the process for the reallocation of these sites. As you will recall the last time this happened the City worked with the province and the Municipal Government Act to allocate all of the previous 20 sites to affordable housing in a pretty unilateral fashion. This has created some healthy skepticism that a fair process can be brought to the table.
However Tim McCarger, to his credit, seems determined to see this happen. See the Surplus School Sites web page the City has set up for this process. There is a map of the sites and tons of information on the process. School sites in or close to District B include: Caernarvon, Dunluce, Miller, Belmont, and Overlanders. The map includes links to site maps for each site.

Remember the City gets first dibs on what happens with these sites (many City departments/programs could be interested), the second priority is non-profit uses and then if there is no interest by those two levels sites can be disposed of to developers or the site can be retained by the City and leased to a developer.

6.0.1 Tripartite Progress - New Funding Model Proposed
The EFCL and the City have come up with a VERY PRELIMINARY draft of a potential new model for funding community leagues as part of the TriPartite License negotiation process. We are making excellent headway in simplifying this agreement and fixing some irritants to some community leagues and actually making the agreement better.
Better yet, once confronted with the incredible capital funding challenges being faced by community leagues and their inability to apply for funds  from NPDP or to get loans to build or repair community league facilities on licensed land the committee is in the early stages of negotiating a new way to fund leagues.

Allan Bolstad our executive director has done a report that has identified about $18 million in repairs and construction required by community leagues over the next three years! This backlog has been building for some time.
The Tripartite Committee (consisting of City and EFCL and community representatives (me included)) has come up with a proposal to model a new funding process after the newly crafted Partnership Agreements the City has created for non-community league organizations.

The EFCL passed the following motion at the April 8th meeting:
Recommendation:

1. That the EFCL recommend to the membership that we ask the City of Edmonton to establish a capital grant program for community leagues of $3 million year, for three years, beginning in 2011.
2. That the EFCL recommend to the membership that we ask the City of Edmonton to increase the annual operating grants to community leagues, from $1.7 million/year to $3 million per year, beginning in 2011.

DD COMMENT: This is a needed step and a very good idea to emerge out of this process. We’ll see if it flies. You may want to follow this and let your councillor know if you think this is a good idea!

6.1 Distribution of Social Housing (pg 12)
Edmonton City Council has asked the administration to review the placement of social housing in Edmonton and as you can see there is a lot of action on this file lately (see above). The EFCL Board thought it prudent to weigh in on this issue. The EFCL board passed a motion (see page 12 of board package) to support the redistribution of social housing, giving stressed out communities the ability to support better social housing if it will help them, that consultation with stakeholders and communities is critical and finally that we support the equitable distribution of housing in the city.

DD COMMENT: This is a file to watch closely and the EFCL is trying to make sure the communities interests are protected. The City’s discussion paper will go to Executive Committee on April 21.

6.2 EMHA Sale of $25 Memberships to ALL PLayers (pg 14)
Hmmm, well the hockey guys are still not very happy with the Community League membership situation. The good news is the EMHA wants to retain a good relationship with Community Leagues and the EFCL. But apparently the hockey registrars have had it with all the problems with Community League Memberships. Apparently people write down numbers that don’t exist, they often do not fill in the CL numbers on the hockey forms and the hockey guys are fed up and they asked for a new round of meetings with the EFCL.

Our online membership sales system has improved things a great deal--we sold a few thousand new memberships last year, but the system is not solving the hockey situation.
Therefore the EFCL met with the EMHA and has begun negotiating a new agreement to ensure ALL hockey players have community league memberships and that the process is easy for them.

It looks like the only way to ensure good cooperation is to integrate CL membership sales right into the hockey registration process. The idea is to charge one fee: $25 to every single hockey play as they register and then turn over the list of new members and money to the EFCL to pass on to the leagues. The EFCL will be forced to undertake a certain amount of administration here, but every player will have a new membership and it will be paid for.

DD COMMENT: I am still in favor of an improved online membership sales system, but this sounds like a good deal for Community Leagues. On the upside ALL players will have a membership and they will be paid for in one-fell swoop. Some leagues may complain if their membership fees are higher, but that is a small price to pay for a guarantee that all EMHA players join leagues and that the relationship is cemented for the long term.

6.3 Artifical LIghting Policy (pg 16)
In order to reduce light pollution, conserve energy and ensure adequate lighting for security pruposes the EFCL passed a recommendation from the EFCL Planning Committee to encourage the City of Edmonton to be a Light Efficient Community.

DD COMMENT: This is an innovative policy to encourage the city to manage light really well. Check it out.

6.4 Neighbourhood Schools  (pg 18)
The EFCL Planning Committee thought it was important to come out with a clear statement of the importance of schools to communities. The statement acknowledges the critical role of schools in strong communities and supports the “continued presence of neighbourhood schools in mature neighbourhoods...”
DD COMMENT: A good clear statement.

6.5 President’s Dinner  (pg 19)
The EFCL is planning to host a dinner for all Community League Presidents to recognize the significant contributions of the Community League Presidents and all of the Area Council Presidents as well. This event would be instead of an awards gala for this year only.

DD COMMENT: A good idea and long overdue at the City-wide level. See you there!
That’s the highlights from the EFCL Board Package for what appears to be an extremely busy period for Community Leagues in Edmonton. If you have any comments or questions please fire them off to me anytime.