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 25th
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!
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
More than 90 community leagues hosted events across Edmonton today! Ten community leagues in in District B held events today.
