EFCL-EMHA Rink and Winter Program Workshop

SPECIAL REPORT:
Outdoor Rink meeting with Community Leagues

The EMHA, the EFCL and 18 community leagues gathered at Crestwood Community Hall on Saturday, January 29 to discuss what we (EMHA/EFCL and community leagues) can do to support programming and the use of outdoor rinks in Edmonton.

We were joined by Bill Whitefield of Sports Central and a couple of special guest presenters: David Proden of the E4C Learn to Play Hockey program and Shirley Barton of Belvedere Community League.
If, for whatever reason hockey can no longer support this requirement then perhaps there are other ways we can work together to support community league rinks, and entry level programs in the communities. More on this later.

Community Leagues have 120 rinks city-wide!

Saturday however was not about hockey-community league politics, but about the challenges leagues face running outdoor rinks and what leagues can do to enhance the use of community league ice.
There are some inspiring things happening in leagues in Edmonton. Shirley Barton of Belvedere started looking after the ice in this north-end neighbourhood talked about their program at Belvedere.
What Makes a Successful Rink:

Here are the top eight things that make a great rink in a Community League according to Shirley:

1. Rink attendent with a positive attitude and is approachable
2. Hours of operation are clearly posted
3. Telephone answering machine reflects the hours of operation and closures due to weather
4. Assurance that the community league is a safe place to drop off children
5. Communicaton with local schools about rink times
6. Lights on nightly, even if there are no skaters, people come if they see the lights
7. Music playing on the rinks
8. A rink shack concession

For Shirley, those are the key ingredients of a great outdoor rink program in a community. She also suggests a few other add-ons that can really make a league's rink get popular:

• Learn to skate programs from the City
• Equipment loaning on site (skates and other equipment)
• Relationship with Sports Central - community leagues can refer folks to them to get skates and equipment
• Yearly photos of skaters posted on bulletin boards - builds a sense of history
• Community rink events: hot dog Sundays, milk jug curling, skating games, hockey skill competitions or a 3 on 3 tournament
• Skate sharpening on site - Belvedere has skate sharpening right on site, a popular thing!

As you might have guessed Belvedere has a successful program.

From the Floor:

At the January 29 meeting, the folks present also broke into two groups and talked about challenges and some ideas for improving programs.

• Challenges:
• Community league folks mentioned the following challenges and ideas for improving rink programs:
• Challenges:
• Ice not level
• Old rinks
• Insurance - hockey teams covered if the coach says ice ok (from hockey folks)
• CL insurance probably ok if community league is in control of facility - so rentals for $ might be different?
• Staffing/volunteer shortage can be issue

Ideas:

• Group buys for equipment, snow blowers
• Share old equipment, excess equipment
• Build-it event to level rink and refurbish boards etc. – one league did it for $3,000
• Rink hours must be predictable
• Lights on, Music on
• Rink not locked and open all the time – several examples of this
• Open late - 11 pm - adult groups use it after 8 pm
• Send email to Hockey Edmonton about ice availability
• Corporate and family rentals are possible?
• Love to do 3 on 3 tourney with other leagues
• Would like more attention on outdoor rinks and programs
• Love this meeting - need more networking for rink & program people in CLs

A number of leagues have experimented with offering the use of skates and equipment and many note that this does allow significant numbers of kids to skate and even try pushing a puck around the ice.
One reaction to the meeting was agreement that networking for rink attendants and program people is a really good idea!

Many of the community leagues attending the meeting already host winter events ranging from simple events to full-fledged winter carnivals.
A number of folks thought it is a really good idea to have a City-wide winter community day to promote outdoor rinks and programs.

Community leagues have many excellent ideas, but the question remains how hockey can work with their founding partners in Community Leagues to support and promote the biggest supply of outdoor ice in Edmonton and support and encourage programs at the community level.

David Dodge,
January 31, 2011

EFCL Board Package Jan. 2011 - District B Report

EFCL Dec. 2010 Board Package
Happy New Year District B:

This month the EFCL/EMHA Outdoor Rink Committee met and the Tripartite Committee met to talk about the community capital funding program and the new operating funds money, in addition to other regular meetings. Here is my monthly report on the agenda of the EFCL Board. These notes were prepared after the board meeting held on Thursday, Jan. 13.

Download the January 2011 EFCL Board package here

6.3 (Pg. 14) Large Site Rezonings:
The EFCL Planning committee recommended that the EFCL Board approve a series of amendments to bylaw 15654 regarding the community consultation process for large site redevelopments. One of the more innovative ideas that generated a lot of discussion at the board meeting was an idea to require a community vote on final DC2 applications going to council. The board passed these “suggestions” as proposed by the planning committee. Some of the questions that came up were: wouldn’t the community say no to everything? How would you undertake the vote? And even the question of whether money could be used to skew a vote by the use of advertising and other methods that tell only half the story. See the notes on this for more information. The board passed item and will be asking the City to apply the six suggestions made by the planning committee.

8.2 (pg. 18) 1) EFCL/EMHA Hockey - Outdoor Rink Program Workshop Planned
The outdoor rink promotions committee of the EMHA and EFCL has scheduled a rink program workshop for Saturday, Jan. 29 at Crestwood Community League (14325-96 Avenue). Doors open at 8:30 and the workshop will run from 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Hmmm, hockey is not talking much about contributing a fee to developing hockey programs and supporting communities facilities anymore (more than 100 outdoor rinks).
But there is a workshop planned to talk about ideas for winter programs to enhance participation in community leagues rink facilities, the possibility of an annual Winter Festival or Rink Day across the City. So join us for this important discussion about ramping up rinks and programs and hockey’s role in it.

8.2 (pg. 18) 2) EFCL to Discuss New School Design with Education Minister
The EFCL will be meeting with Education Minister Dave Hancock on Feb. 1 to review ways in which the community could be involved in the design of new schools to encourage opportunities for nearby leagues to use the schools for programs or meetings.

8.3 (pg. 20) Arena User Committee meeting December 14, 2010 – see notes in board package for an update on the meeting.

8.4 (pg. 22) Living Local – next meeting is January 18, 2011 at the EFCL. Input has been collected from many groups and this meeting is to talk about measurement tools for determining success in our living local campaign. Interestingly the committee is putting together a matrix of groups and ways to live local – a simple example is “schedule more soccer games closer to home.” If you are interested in helping define what it means to live local from a community league point of view contact Michael Janz at the EFCL office for more information.

9.0 (pg. 28) New Website Helps Address Space Needs – in the Community Services report there is a note about a new website designed to help promote your space and to help non-profits find space for programs, meetings etc. See www.edmontonspacefinder.ca. Edmonton SpaceFinder is collaboration between the Edmonton Chamber of Voluntary Organizations, the Multicultural Coalition for Equity in Health and Wellbeing, Arts Habitat Association of Edmonton and the City of Edmonton

10.0 (pg. 29) 1) New Capital and Operating Funds for Leagues – Allan prepared a summary of information about the new grant programs for operating grants and capital funding grants for leagues. . The Tripartite Committee met this month to discuss proposed criteria after this note was written. This is a really useful summary, but some of the criteria are not finalized yet, so things may change. Suffice to say your operating grant will be going up and there will be new capital funds available to match other funds for projects on community league leases.

Other District B Updates – Questions from Area 17
Insurance and Community Hockey Rinks – there was a note in one of the City newsletters about written by the EFCL that suggested participants in activities put on by the Community League are covered by insurance whether it is a dance in the hall or skating on the rink. PLEASE NOTE this information came from Foster Park Baskett and may not apply to all community leagues. If you are not insured with Foster Park Baskett you would need to confirm coverage with your insurance company.

Third party insurance applies to events that someone else is running, such as a cultural group that rents the hall for a dance. It is up to them to have third party insurance and we recommend that the leagues insist they have it if the event involves liquor or sports activities, both of which increase the potential for accidents.

Community Swims Update – Regarding the community swim meetings, Shahriyar is in the process of setting up another meeting for early February. As an aside, Shahriyar has a meeting with the southwest leagues set for next Wednesday. They will be discussing the use of the new Terwillegar facility, which it turns out is quite expensive due to its size and cost. So the city and the local leagues are trying to get as many leagues from other areas involved, to help share the costs. This is upsetting the apple cart over at Confederation Pool. We are walking a fine line here, as we are reluctant to extend the meeting invitation to leagues in Mill Woods or Strathcona and upset any more apple carts.

District and Area Council Coordinator –The EFCL did apply for some funds from the City to hire a District and Area Council Coordinator. But it didn’t get a mention during the budget debate. Allan thinks a couple of things played into this. First and foremost was the significant requests we made for league funding, both capital and operating. Allan suspects council thought that it was plenty. We should probably continue to pursue this, since it makes a great deal of sense to get some small assistance to help coordinate districts and area councils, something that would help councillors too!

When it comes to the EFCL, Who are you going to call?

Click here to see a guide to the staff at the EFCL.
EFCL
7103 - 105 Street
Edmonton AB T6E 4G8 Tel: 780.437.2913