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.

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.