Notes from the June 14th EFCL Board Meeting

Allan's Notes From the June 14 Board Meeting

Applications Roll In For Solar and Energy Savings Program

Five community leagues – Ritchie, McLeod, Evansdale, Riverbend and West Jasper Sherwood – have decided to invest in the EFCL’s Solar and Energy Savings Program.  The pilot project will see each league get a 1.2 kw (five panel) solar energy system, an information display monitor, an energy and carbon audit and a chance to take part in a provincial energy retrofit grant program.

The EFCL, which along with the City of Edmonton is subsidizing the cost of the program, has spots for seven leagues to take part.  Each league is required to provide a cheque for $6,000, along with some league contacts and basic information about their hall.  If more than seven leagues apply by the July 3 deadline, a draw will be held on July 4.

In related news, the federation decided to enter its own office building in the program, at a cost of $14,000.  The EFCL negotiated this arrangement with the suppliers separate from the league program, so that it wouldn’t impact the amount of subsidy money available.

EFCL Explores Opportunities With Indigenous Games

The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues is working on a partnership proposal with the organizers of the Alberta Indigenous Games, which is set for Aug. 5-9, 2013.

The plan focuses on the recruitment of volunteer coaches, to help run team sports such as soccer, softball, volleyball, basketball, ball hockey, lacrosse and canoeing, as well as coaches for individual sports like golf, archery and athletics.

The coaches would prepare the athletes for a month or two prior to the games, which will be held in Edmonton, St. Albert, Leduc and Enoch.  All participants on Edmonton teams in the games would need to have a community league membership in order to participate.  Participants, largely with the help of their coaches, would then be introduced to community league and other community-based programs after the Games.

Games co-chairman Allan Ross and Edmonton Public School Board consultant Dawn Marie Marchand pitched the proposal to the board at its meeting Thursday night.

They expect to see between 2,000 and 3,000 participants, aged 12-18, take part in the Games.  They will include people from First Nation, Metis and Innuit backgrounds.

The EFCL plans to hold meetings with interested sports organizations to help get this project off the ground.

Infrastructure Assessment Program Winding Down

Community leagues have until December 31 of this year to apply to the EFCL for infrastructure assessment funding, according to decision reached by the board on Thursday night.

After that date, all remaining funds in the program will be redirected to other federation projects.

The infrastructure assessment funding is available to any league that needs to do work that wasn’t covered in the basic hall assessment that was completed by Stantec or Williams Engineering in the past couple of years.  Sample projects are geotechnical reviews, to determine the integrity of the hall foundation, as well as investigations to locate and determine the degree of hazard presented by asbestos in the hall.

The EFCL is willing to cover 80% of the cost of the review, on projects up to $20.000.  Leagues are expected to obtain three quotes for the work before applying to the federation for funding.

Applications should be sent directly to the EFCL executive director, Allan Bolstad.

Presenters Sought for League’s Alive Conference

EFCL Board members were asked to bring forward the names of community league executives who would be willing to make a presentation at the federation’s conference on Nov. 3.  Confirmed topics at the conference are as follows: Consensus Building, Board Governance Basics, Developing Policy, Bylaws, Role of the President, Role of the Treasurer, Connecting with your Community, Road to Accountability, Use of Gaming Proceeds, Volunteer Engagement and Recruitment, Social Media, Building Operations, Crime Prevention, Community Gardening.

Online System For Membership Card Distribution Well Accepted

The EFCL has yet to receive any complaints from Leagues or customers about the online sale of membership cards.  We have also yet to notice any cases of people trying to take advantage of leagues with very low membership fees.

Requests far outweigh submissions to the Supplier Marketplace

We have only had three submissions so far from Community Leagues for our Supplier Marketplace.  We do get a lot of leagues interested in finding a recommended supplier – 1,260 visits that page in May alone - so we need to promote this service to our Leagues and continually remind them to submit suppliers.

Living Local Arts and Heritage Program (Year Two) Launched

The EFCL launched the second year of its Living Local Arts and Heritage Program. 
The program is open to any league that wants to hire local artists to do a project that showcases 

June 2012 EFCL Board Package

June EFCL Board Package

Download the EFCL June 2012 Board Package

The solar program includes
five modules, a
eomprehensive energy audit
 and an LED monitor.

5.3 Solar and Energy Conservation Program
As you have probably heard by now about 18 community leagues showed up at the information session for the Solar and Energy Conservation program. In addition I know McLeod passed a motion to apply and I heard Northmount and a few other District Leagues may be interested in this program. See my blog post on the Solar and Energy Conservation program for more information or visit the EFCL website page on the program. You have until July 1 to fill out an application and send that with a cheque for $6000 to the EFCL to qualify for this $22,000 program. If more than 7 leagues apply there will be a draw.


5.4 Community Swim Fees
A motion is before the EFCL board to support the City's plan to not adjust fees for community swims in the middle of the season if a community league drops out of the program or joins the program mid-season. If a league leaves rates will not go up for the leagues still involved and if a league joins the rates will not go down. Rates will only be adjusted once each year depending on how many leagues are involved. This makes sense to me. And it does not affect us in District B that much.


5.5 Make it mandatory for leagues to provide contact information
The EFCL serves as a central contact point for community leagues when people can't find out who to talk to about their area. And the EFCL needs to communicate with leagues to let them know about programs, and all sorts of things that are of interest to leagues. But sometimes it's like pulling teeth the get basic contact information for the leagues. The board is considering an option to require leagues provide contact information as part of their membership payment process each year. It's good for the leagues if we can send people to them and provide them with ongoing information so this seems logical to me - some folks may balk, but I am not sure why since it's in the league's interests to make it possible for folks to contact them. Let me know what you think.


5.6 Associate Memberships
A proposal is coming to the board to ask the EFCL Governance Committee to recommend a strategy for leagues to have people sit on their boards from outside their boundaries. Note we are not deciding on a policy yet, but we are providing guidance to the Governance Committee to look into this. Note I have great personal reservations about policies that make it easy for leagues to attract board members, soccer players or any other folks from outside their boundaries since this almost always causes friction and bad-blood between leagues. It can hurt a league that is already hurting by cannibalizing their volunteers. I am not even sure why Associate Memberships are even required in most cases. Frankly there is little leagues can do to prevent somebody (a soccer coach for example) from volunteering in another community, but most leagues try to respect membership boundaries. In my league you must live in the boundaries to be a member of our league. If a coach wants to coach for Lago Lindo from Kilkenny they should still buy a membership in Kilkenny, shouldn't they? These are the sorts of issues that can really cause problems. THOUGHTS?


5.7 Summer Operations at Community Leagues
The EFCL is simply urging Community Leagues to consider staying as active as they can in the summer months where there are high demands for activities and programs. You can reach many people in the summer!


5:10 City Growth Strategy

The EFCL Planning Committee has recently reviewed the City’s 6th draft of the Growth Coordination Strategy and believes there is much more work to be done before it should go to Council for consideration. Please see the board package for the recommendations and discussion of this topic.


5:11 Neighbourhood-friendly Social Housing

The recommendation coming to the board suggests the EFCL participate in a working group to develop guidelines for neighbourhood-friendly social housing projects. It also recommends the EFCL apply for a research grant to develop some Good Neighbour Guidelines. See board package for details. The recommendations here make sense to me.


7.6 Community Development Officer's Report - Shahriyar Khan
You can read Shahriyar's report on 40 km speed limits, Jackson Heights traffic concerns, Cultural Inclusion Program, Crime Prevention and the Gym User Committee meetings.
However I would mostly like to draw your attention to a comprehensive report that Shahriyar has written on our Cultural Integration Program thus far. The report is being presented to the board for later discussion at our July meeting.


Online Membership Cards

And lastly I purchased my own Community League Membership for 2012-13 online to test out the new system and I did indeed receive a membership card via email from the EFCL, so the new system is working.


That's it. If you have any comments, suggestions and issue you would like me to take to the EFCL please let me know.


David Dodge
EFCL President and District B Representative

Solar Energy Conservation Program Launches

About 18 Community Leagues showed up for an information session on the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues new Solar Energy Conservation Program on Monday June 4, and the EFCL offices on the Southside. 

The EFCL is offering leagues the chance to invest $6,000 and get $22,000 worth of solar modules, energy conservation audits and an LED monitor for their halls.

Warren Sarauer of the Solar Energy Society of
Alberta showing a panel at the launch of
the new EFCL Solar and Energy Conservation
Program. Photo David Dodge

The program is attracting considerable media and community league interest. In my travels to community leagues Belvedere, McLeod, Lago Lindo, Evansdale and a few other EFCL District B leagues have expressed an interest in getting involved in the program.

The program also offers an opportunity to add extra sets of 5 solar modules for $5,000 if ordered at the time of signing up for the program.

Leagues that came to the information session at the EFCL offices on June 4 were keen to get the Energy Audit being done by C3 Returns - a comprehensive energy audit of their halls that includes information about retrofits and what the energy paybacks might be.

The solar systems are very small, and include five 240 watt solar modules, all of the wiring, permits, hall assessment and installation certainly attract attention. And that's the idea of the program to help leagues engage in a high profile energy production and conservation program that will help community members see energy efficiency and solar energy systems in action.

So far I am aware that McLeod and Evansdale have passed motions and are cutting cheques to get in on the application process. There is room for only seven leagues in this pilot program and interested leagues must complete an application form and submit a cheque for $6,000 to the EFCL before July 4, 2012 to be considered for the program. If more than seven leagues apply then a draw will be held to select the leagues.

The application forms should be at the efcl.org website in the next day or so. Or email me and I can send you a copy of the form.

That's all for now.

David Dodge
EFCL President and District B Rep.