Lone Star Curling Club
Executive Board Meeting 4/11/10
In attendance: Wayne Garman, Christina Gilsbach, Darlene Barnes,
Landon Russell, Michelle Richter, Uly Suchil, Dennis Dunn, Pat
Popovich
General Membership Present: Ramona Garman, Bill Macbeth
Absent: Tim Bailey, Rob Klein
Location: Cover 3
Meeting commenced: 12:05 p.m.
Order of Business (by agenda item)
Old Business
Item 1: Reading of Minutes from last meeting
Christina briefly summarized previous meeting minutes as they mostly pertained to the Olympic Open House sessions. Christina motioned to waive “official” reading of minutes. Michelle seconded motion, motion carried.
New Business
Item 2: Treasurer's Report
For the fiscal year, we are +$800. This includes the moneys from the 80 mini-league curlers. At the end of the league we were approximately $476 in the hole.
Pat motioned to reimburse Landon and Christina for supplies (scoreboards, materials to build scribe). Dennis seconded the motion, motion carried unanimously.
Dennis thanked Landon for saving the club money on ice fees for any summer curling. Chaparral wanted to raise our rates, but Dennis stated out that our “legal advisor”, a.k.a. Landon, pointed out that our contract does not expire until August, thus rates cannot change prior to August.
Item 3: Pro Shop
Darlene ordered 36 t-shirts for a total cost of $326.49. Approximately 25 of the 36 shirts were pre-ordered. Pat motioned to reimburse Darlene for the cost of these shirts. Michelle seconded motion, motion carried unanimously.
On April 11, Darlene took in $231 from sale of pro-shop items.
Darlene mentioned that she can order long sleeve shirts. They will cost members $23/shirt.
We will order more shirts later as needed.
Item 4: Olympic Instructional League
Results so far:
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After the first session we decided that we need to make sure Group 1 exits the ice at 10:25 so we can reset the equipment for Group 2.
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We need to make sure that everyone from Group 2 helps to put away all equipment.
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Need to make sure that Group 1 divides stones between all 5 sheets (4 sheets have 7 of each color, 1 sheet has 6 of each color)
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We can suggest to curlers that they have a dedicated pair of shoes just for curling, this will help cut down on the debris on the ice.
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Pat suggested getting/using a scrubby brush to clean broom heads.
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Wayne mentioned that there is a shoe cleaner specifically for curling shoes. We could contact Steve’s Curling Supply as a possible sponsor.
Changes for the Remaining Sessions:
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Need to encourage the curler’s to move a bit faster so we can get more ends in
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Emphasize Safety – there were a couple of serious falls
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We could use more brooms
Do we want to hold a second instructional league?
Currently there are approximately 8 people who paid a deposit that did not make the cut for the first instructional league. Pat says that instead of a second beginner league we should focus on existing curlers and work in new people as we have done in the past. Instructing is fun, but it is more fun to curl.
In general we discussed the purpose of the instructional league is to groom curlers to join our regular season. Instead of a second beginner league, we should offer a summer league open to all levels. Those that have paid the $50 deposit will have first dibs on spots. About the 3rd week of the instructional week we will have a sign-up sheet at Darlene’s table to assess interest. Potential dates for this league are May 16, 23, June 6, 13, 20, 27. (May 30 is the memorial day holiday). We would then be off the ice until September. The cost for this would be $20/person/game for 6 weeks. Players would pay in advance, no refunds if you miss a game. The total cost would be $120/person. Subs will pay $20/game. We need to get 8 rinks for this to work, 10 would be even better. Dennis will check on ice time.
Landon asked what if you knew you would be gone for one or more weeks – you are then out money by the pay in advance method. Wayne said that you could enter as a rink and that the rink could have more than 4 players. They would pay the rink cost of $480 for the session divided by however many players they have. Only 4 people from any one team would play each week, the cost would be cheaper per person this way and the club still gets it’s full payment.
Item 5: Texas Open Bonspiel
We entered 5 rinks. Wayne rented the designated Presidential Party Suite for the weekend. Good Luck to everyone!
Item 6: Board Member Elections
To be held May 2nd. Pat checked all Austin City Parks – none had a grill/picnic area available.
Pat suggests that maybe we can cater food in to the ice rink. Uly suggests maybe Dave & Busters or Millenium.
Dennis mentioned that Gaines Creek Park in his neighborhood is always empty and would be a fine location for the picnic. Pat will check on availability.
Plan B in case of rain – hopefully it won’t rain, or we can go to a pizza place or something.
Uly suggests having hamburgers/hot dogs/veggie burgers/etc. instead of the usual fair.
Item 7: 2010/2011 Season
According to the current level of interest we estimate that we need a second draw. We could handle 10 rinks/draw. Two draws would be 20 rinks.
Timing: A second Sunday draw is not an option – too early in the morning to play before our 9:30 time, and the ice rink does open skating after our current draw. The only Sunday option, is possibly back to back draws in the evening. The benefit of back to back draws is that we only have to prep the ice one time.
Landon pointed out that beginning in September the hourly rate for ice time increases to $350/hour. We would need 5 full sheets with players paying $20/game to cover this cost. At this rate, we make $12.50/session.
We next discussed options for earning more money. These include:
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All players pay in advance for the season. Subs pay per game.
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Landon suggests new members pay a higher initial LSCC membership fee, renewing members pay a lower fee.
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Landon also suggests that we look into the possibility of buying the Snowbird Engraving business (the company that made the curling stone name tags) as a fundraiser.
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Possibly a higher membership fee versus a higher per game ice fee
In short, Wayne says we need to figure out a way to make more money.
Bill asked what happens if we have more rinks sign up than we have space for on the ice. Wayne answered that we would then have “bye” weeks for teams.
Wayne says that depending on demand, we should offer existing club members the first opportunity to sign up for the fall league. After x date (to be determined), we would then open fall registration to other interested curlers. Again, all curlers would need to pay in advance.
Wayne also mentioned that if we have 20 rinks, he believes this would make us the largest club in Texas.
The youth hockey league contacted Wayne wanting to talk. No further details regarding what this is about.
Item 8: 5th Set of Rocks
Pittsburgh is getting a new set of rocks. Wayne thinks if we are interested we may be able to get their existing rocks for ~$2000 plus shipping (guestimate on shipping is ~$500). These rocks have been used for 8 seasons. They have a ceramic base which is a harder material than the granite, Wayne thinks these rocks are better for arena ice. Wayne says he will ask Ramona to look into the details of this potential sale.
Additional Items:
Synthetic Ice:
Dennis has been looking into the possibility of using synthetic ice for curling. There are 2 companies that make it and we can buy it for under $20,000.00. The benefits to synthetic ice are that it does not have to be refrigerated and there is essentially little to no ice prep. There is one surface that comes pre-pebbled. The “ice” can be laid in any building of sufficient size (150 feet). No one has tried curling on it yet. Our requirements are that the stones would have to travel as far as they do on regular ice and they would have to curl at the end. One very large advantage is that the surface would always be flat, and the ice would always be consistent. Houses and lines can be painted on the surface.
The down side to synthetic ice is that sweeping does nothing.
Arguments for using the synthetic ice are that it could produce a much more accurate curler, if you miss with weight and or direction, there is nothing to aid the stones path. Arguments against the ice are that you miss out on a key element of the game – sweeping. Sweeping is as important as throwing.
The Killeen Civic Center uses synthetic ice. Dennis called to see if he could try curling on their ice, but they had already taken it up for the season.
Dennis and Bill added that another advantage is that we could make a “real” club out of LSCC, whatever building would house the ice could also have a bar and we would be able to offer anytime curling.
Next Meeting: Sunday, May 16, after curling at Cover 3
Meeting adjourned: 2:10 p.m.
Lone Star Curling Club
Executive Board Meeting 3/14/10
In attendance: Wayne Garman, Christina Gilsbach, Darlene Barnes,
Landon Russell, Michelle Richter, Uly Suchil, Dennis Dunn, Pat
Popovich, Rob Klein
General Membership Present: Ramona Garman, Bill Macbeth
Absent: Tim Bailey
Location: Cover 3
Meeting commenced: 12:12 p.m.
Order of Business (by agenda item)
Old Business
Item 1: Reading of Minutes from last meeting
Christina moved to waive reading of minutes. Pat seconded motion, motion carried.
New Business
Item 2: Treasurer's Report
We made a total of $498.45 in donations from both Open House sessions.
The only expense this past month was ice fees. We have ~$3800 in the bank.
Item 3: Pro Shop
Rob thanked Darlene for the exceptional job she has done setting up and running the pro-shop.
To date we have sold $920 worth of merchandise – we are officially in the black. All t-shirts have sold. Darlene asked for approval to order more shirts, a minimum order is 36 shirts (~$300). Rob made a motion to allow Darlene to order 36 more shirts, Landon seconded, motion passed unanimously. Christina will email membership and open house attendees to encourage them to pre-order shirts, specifying shirt color and size. If more than 36 people want shirts, Darlene will email board members for approval.
Rob asked if long sleeve shirts were available. Darlene will check on the price. We will look into this further for the start of next season. Rob thinks it would be nice for all team members to have the same color shirt with their name embroidered on it.
Item 4: Olympic Learn to Curl Sessions
Wayne thanked everyone for coming out and helping run the sessions. He mentioned that we had nearly as many people attend our open house sessions as Pittsburgh had. This is significant because the Pittsburgh club is a well established club with lots of support from their ice rink, where our club is still very young, and well, Chaparral just doesn’t really give a hoot about us. Anyway, we had a fantastic turnout and everyone seemed to have a great time.
Official numbers: 410 for Feb. 28th session and 452 for March 7th.
Lessons Learned for the Future: The ticket system we had in place for the second session worked nicely, we should do that again.
Landon wondered if we could charge a nominal fee for future open houses. While not officially voted on, the general consensus seemed to be that we could probably charge $5 or so and still have a good turnout.
Christina will work on putting together a season end/Olympic mini-league start newsletter. We want to keep these new curlers interested throughout the summer so they come back in the fall.
With regards to media coverage, while there wasn’t much coverage pre-olympics (the exception being KXAN), the recent exposure has been great. There was a photographer from Texas Monthly present at the March 14th session.
Item 5: Instructional League
How do we accommodate the masses of interested people: as per a member suggestion (Kelly Gatewood specifically) we discussed doing two short sessions during our regular Sunday time slot. The first group of curlers would take the ice from 9:30 – 10:30, the second group from 10:30 – 11:30. Each group would play 4 end games instead of 8. We also will draw houses for a fifth sheet (we will have to share stones). Bill Macbeth will make a new scribe so we can draw the houses. Bill also volunteered to add teeth to the hacks for this sheet (and fix other hacks). This will allow us to get a total of 80 curlers on the ice. If the first session goes well, we will consider adding a second session.
Dennis volunteered to contact Chaparral to book the ice times.
Dates for the learn to curl session will be: April 11, 25, May 2, 9 (yes we know May 9 is mother’s day…)
Darlene has a sign-up sheet for coaches. We need 10 coaches. Christina will coordinate with the coaches via email.
Fees: Each curler will be charged $50 for the mini-league (4 games at $10/game + $10 LSCC membership fee). Christina will email the 300 waiting list people to fill the 48 open spots. Prospective attendees must mail their $50 fee to Landon. The first 48 to pay get the spots. If you get a spot, your money is non-refundable. Any one over number 48 gets put on the list for the next session. If we decide NOT to hold a second beginner session, this money will be refunded. In addition, we will ask that the 32 people originally signed up for the league pay their $30 balance at the first session.
Item 6: Season End Session Activities
March 21st will be the Championship game. All teams will play though.
We voted unanimously to make March 28th our annual weirdspiel. Uly will coordinate. It will be the same format as in the past: short 2 end games, players draw marbles for team assignment. Michelle will make muffins.
Item 7: Chaparral Ice Fees
Dennis reports that Chaparral will charge us $300/hour for ice time after March 31st, rates to increase again in September to $350/hour. Rob says that if we are paying prime time rates then we should be able to paint houses down the center for a 5th sheet. Chaparral needs to work with us so that we can get enough people on the ice to pay for ice time.
We also discussed that since we are being asked to pay the prime time fee we should be able to get prime time ice (in other words a time slot other than Sunday morning).
Dennis says we have 2 options to deal with Chaparral 1) tell them we won’t pay that, try and negotiate for a lower price (Dennis feels this won’t work). Or 2) Get 40 people on the ice each session – figure out a way to get a permanent 5th sheet drawn on the ice.
Rob says we need to cut back from the 2 ¼ hours that we are paying for now to a straight 2 hours. We also need to ask for a weeknight time slot.
Ramona says that they may be charging us more because they saw the ~1000 people show up to our open house sessions so they think we are now made of money.
The 3 Chaparral Ice facilities are for sale for $6 million. Leslie (manager of Chaparral) says that the owners are not interested in selling the properties separately. Wayne suggests we contact the owner directly, and not go through Leslie. Dennis says he has Charles Collins (chaparral owner) contact information and will send him an email.
Item 8: Texas Open Bonspiel
To date LSCC has 5 teams entered. Wayne mentioned that they will have an Ice King and a team from Ontario to level the ice. The hotel will be the same Hampton Inn as last year.
Item 9: Board Elections:
According to by-laws we need to give members a 30 day notice. We set the election date for May 2. This will be at a picnic in Zilker park. Pat will make the reservation at Zilker, Uly will man the grill (burgers/dogs this year). Dennis made a motion to spend $400 on this end of season party, Michelle seconded, motion passed unanimously.
Darlene will have a board member election sheet at her sign-in table. Christina will email members to save the date for the election and asking them to consider running for a position on the board.
Additional Items:
With regards to next season and fees – we discussed adding a 5th sheet, setting up a second evening draw, members must pay in advance for the season (giving current members first dibs on time slots). These discussions will be tabled until later meetings.
Next Meeting: Sunday, April 11, after
curling at Cover 3
Meeting adjourned: 2:00 p.m.
Lone Star Curling Club
Executive Board Meeting 2/7/10
In attendance: Wayne Garman, Christina Gilsbach, Darlene Barnes,
Landon Russell, Michelle Richter, Uly Suchil
Absent: Tim Bailey, Dennis Dunn, Pat Popovich, Rob Klein
Location: Cover 3
Meeting commenced: 12:12 p.m.
Order of Business (by agenda item)
Old Business
Item 1: Reading of Minutes from last meeting
Christina read previous meeting minutes. It was noted that Chaparral was not available for curling on Jan. 24th and that the pre-pay amount was adjusted to $120 (7 sessions). Wayne moved to accept the minutes. Michelle seconded motion, motion carried.
New Business
Item 2: Treasurer's Report
To date have made $431.50 from the pro-shop. Made an initial investment of $841.99. To date we are approximately $400 in the hole.
Ice fees – have made $6987, expenses are $6750. We are basically breaking even on ice fees. Membership fees – ½ goes to USCA. We have ~$4400 in the bank.
Total for the Fiscal year is $-457.03.
We had 6 prepays for the 2nd half of the season.
Item 3: Pro Shop
Sold 2 pins today (Feb. 7). Have brought in $435.50 on the proshop.
Item 4: Spring Season – Comments
Slow ice, but in general it is better than it had been previously. Ice is flatter, seems to be getting better action. Great turnout 1st week, maybe the superbowl accounts for the lack of attendance on Feb. 7.
We need to email people to remind them to come earlier by 9 or 9:15, games START at 9:30. Wayne comment that we have a very social, excellent group right now, plan on tailgating pre-curling on Feb. 14th.
Item 5: US Curling Association Membership fees -Paid up to date.
Item 6: Olympic Learn to Curl Sessions
Scheduled for Feb. 28 & March 7
Plan A: If we have less than 32 people show up, plan on 4 full sheets, do a session of instruction and play mini games.
Plan B: If more than 32 people show up, have equipment at each of the hacks. Organize participants into groups. Rotate the groups on the ice every 15-20 minutes to get everyone on the ice. Would need a volunteer to keep track of the time.
Have all participants sign a waiver in advance of stepping onto the ice. Have donation jars set up, no “suggested” donation.
Email membership requesting volunteers to instruct, for crowd control, to help Darlene at the sign in table, etc. Have DVDs of curling playing during throughout the sessions.
Olympic Instructional League – for new curlers. Need a minimum of 20 people to sign up. If all 32 spots fill, get volunteers to serve as instructors. Cost is $20/session. Fist come first serve based on $20 deposit. The deposit counts as the first session’s fee. We agreed to waive the $25 membership fee. Curlers can pay the entire $80 up front if they want. Wayne will ask Dennis to check with Chaparral for availability. We voted not to try a week night for this mini-league. The dates will be April 11, 25, May 2, 9. We skipped April 18, that is the weekend of the TOB.
Item 7: Olympic Publicity
Newspapers – Austin 360, KUT Leisure update, Community Impact (Michelle will check)
Television – Jim Spencer mentioned Curling, let’s email him and invite him out. Christina suggested sending him a t-shirt, decal, and pin to sweeten the deal. Darlene will send this to him.
We hung posters announcing the open house in Chaparral, Michelle volunteered to hang some at the I-35 location as well.
With regards to the story with a newspaper reporter from the fall, apparently we missed our window, that column has been discontinued.
Need to update the website with the open house information. Also need to list the open house events on our Facebook page.
Item 8: Texas Open Bonspiel
Scheduled for April 16 – 18 in Houston. Cost is $350/rink. The club will coordinate entries for people that are not on rinks. We want to encourage ALL LSCC members to attend if possible.
Next Meeting: Sunday, March 14, after
curling at Cover 3
Meeting adjourned: 1:41 p.m.
Lone Star Curling Club
Executive Board Meeting 11/15/09
In attendance: Wayne Garman, Christina Gilsbach, Dennis Dunn,
Darlene Barnes, Landon Russell, Michelle Richter, Rob Klein, Tim
Bailey
Absent: Pat Popovich, Uly Suchil
Location: Cover 3
Meeting commenced: 12:09 p.m.
Order of Business (by agenda item)
Old Business
Item 1: Reading of Minutes from last meeting
Christina read previous meeting minutes. Wayne motioned to accept the minutes. Rob seconded motion, motion carried.
New Business
Item 2: Treasurer's Report
As of September, Wayne reported the account balance to be just over $9000. For each of the 3 weeks prior to Nov. 15 we had 28+ members attend. Through Nov. 8 we had taken in ~$6700 and paid out ~$4800. This season so far we are up $1800 through Nov. 8.
The pro shop is ½ way to breaking even.
Item 3: Pro Shop
Sold 1 decal today (Nov. 15). Have brought in $378.50 so far. Pat took 2 t-shirts to Eau Claire for the Olympic Athlete fundraiser. The t-shirts were donated to the raffle. We discussed having the club donate these 2 shirts to the raffle. Michelle made the motion to donate the shirts, motion seconded by Dennis, motion carried unanimously.
We still have 20 or 21 t-shirts left, plenty of decals and 100+ pins.
Item 4: Publicity Report
Wayne asked if there was a sports talk show or radio show that does local coverage. Rob mentioned 1300 The Zone that covers college sports, high school football, etc. Wayne mentioned that in Pittsburg they were able to get a 20 minute segment on the radio prior to the Olympics. Wayne thought it would be nice if something like that could be done here.
Michelle asked if there was any word on whether or not we could hang a banner at the rink. Dennis said yes we could hang an 8’x2’ banner by the equipment shed. Michelle volunteered to bring the information on printing banners to the next meeting.
Michelle is waiting on a lot of phone calls/emails to be returned and can follow up with people during break.
Item 5: League Play
Comments to date: Fun teams, relatively evenly matched, competitive games, very few super blow outs.
Playoffs for Nov. 22? Christina voted to hold a regular game on the 22nd and not do playoffs until the end of March. Landon and Dennis voted to have a playoff game – ultimately having a 1st half of season winner and a 2nd half of season winner. We discussed that there would not be a wholesale changing of teams for the 2nd half of the season. Christina felt play offs would be premature since the overall team structure would not be changing.
Majority voted in favor of having a regularly scheduled game Nov. 22, weirdspiel Dec. 6th.
Name Tags: Name tags have been ordered/distributed. There were 14 ordered at $6.50 + tax/shipping for a total of $99.39. Darlene would like to pay for ½ of the name tags as a donation to the club. Landon will write a check to Darlene for $50 to reimburse for the other ½.
Rob wanted to know if we could play Dec. 13th. Dennis remarked that in past seasons we have lost money in Dec. and Jan. which is why we initially decided to wait until Jan. 31 to resume curling. Rob mentioned that is a nearly 2 month gap, then we only have 8 weeks left of curling. Rob suggested we start curling earlier in January. Michelle asked if we could contact Chaparral about starting earlier.
Rob suggests asking at the Nov. 22 session who can curl Dec. 13th. Michelle volunteered to call everyone to ask if they can come on the 13th and also to see if they would be willing to start either the 17th or 24th of January. Dennis will check with Chaparral to see if ice is available for an earlier Jan. start. Pat will get club member phone numbers to Michelle.
We had several people that were interested in joining us. Wayne suggested inviting them to the Weirdspiel
Item 6: Spring Season
Tentative Start date for Jan. 31: Dennis was opposed to changing our existing schedule. He mentioned loss of money in previous seasons during Dec./Jan. as well as difficulty in dealing with Chaparral. Dennis says we possibly lose bargaining points with chaparral by asking to add more curling dates. (See Item 5 above for more detailed notes on conversations relating to end of winter season/start of spring season).
The Olympics are a wild card in the spring season – could potentially bring interested new members, but there is no way to tell. Rob thinks we should have an earlier season open house so people will know about curling when they see the Olympics.
Wayne suggests that during the Olympics we have 1 or maybe 2 open houses. This again raised the question of could we start the season earlier to give us more opportunities to curl. Wayne suggests that if we get lots of new interested curlers as a result of the Olympics we could look into forming an April/May league that is the “Olympic Team”. Experienced members could act as coaches. This would help keep new people interested and help to bring them back in the fall.
Rob asks what will happen with all of the new “Olympic” players in the fall. Wayne says we should play it by ear, we can look into the possibility of having an evening draw.
Item 7: Weirdspiel
Date – Dec. 6th
Teams will be selected randomly as in the past (drawing a marble from a bag). Every team will play every round instead of having a Bye as we have done in the past. Initially we will have 3 of each color marble in the bag, that way we know each team will have at least 3 players. If we run out of marbles, we will then add a fourth of each color to the bag. Darlene will check to make sure we have 8 different colors of marbles.
We will play 2 end games. If there is a tie, the skip throws to a bowling pin.
Rob will do the draw for an 8 team weirdspiel.
We will encourage everyone to come in costume.
Members & guests are invited to Bucca de Beppo for lunch afterwards.
For trophies, Rob did not like the options he saw. Dennis asked if we really needed trophies. This led to a discussion of trophies for the winner of regular season play, which will be tabled until a future meeting. Landon made a motion to spend $40 on trophies for the weirdspiel. Motion passed. Darlene mentioned that the weirdspiel was included for members who pre-paid for the season.
Item 8: Insurance
Landon got the flyer about insurance in the mail. It is up for renewal Dec. 1. Landon will ask about insuring rocks as well. The insurance amount is based on the number of paid members.
Item 9: Chaparral Ice
At first glance, the 2 issues with the contract were the license fee. 1. Cancellation needs to be done 45 days in advance – the fee for that is $100/hour. If cancelled less than 45 days in advance the full ice fee is to be paid. 2. Insurance limit of not less than $1 million, $25000 property damage.
Other contract issues – there is nothing in the contract to protect our assets. Michelle mentioned the promotional activity clause – according to the contract we would need permission to promote for any open house or other activity.
Wayne will scan the contract and email it to the board for further review/comments.
Ice Conditions: Some weeks bad, some not so bad. Prior to the Nov. 8 session chaparral reported that one of the chillers was broken and needed to be repaired. We will keep an eye on the conditions and mention them to chaparral when we notice a problem. Charles has been trying to level the ice, flood it, etc. to help optimize conditions.
Next Meeting: Saturday, Jan. 9, 10:00 a.m.,
Pat’s House
Meeting adjourned: 1:44 p.m.
Lone Star Curling Club
Executive Board Meeting 10/18/09
In attendance: Wayne Garman, Christina Gilsbach, Pat Popovich,
Dennis Dunn, Darlene Barnes, Landon Russell, Michelle Richter
Absent: Tim Bailey, Uly Suchil, Rob Klein
General Membership Present: Bill Macbeth
Location: Cover 3
Meeting commenced: 12:05 p.m.
Order of Business (by agenda item)
Old Business
Item 1: Reading of Minutes from last meeting
Christina read previous meeting minutes. Wayne motioned to accept the minutes. Michelle seconded motion, motion carried.
New Business
Item 2: Treasurer's Report
Landon reported there is ~ $4900 in the bank. Based on the sessions we have had thus far, Landon projected that by Dec. 30 we would have approximately a $1000 surplus. These numbers are based on 24 people attending each session.
We spent $729.04 on items for the pro shop. We have had $362.50 come in from sale of pro-shop items.
Ice fees have been paid, money for broom head fabric was paid.
Landon also bought a copy of quick books to donate to the club.
Item 3: Membership Report
We had 11 new members, 10 said they learned of the club through our website. The 11th is a friend of Christina’s.
We have 35 paid members this season.
Christina will send out emails to the skips with sub contact information. We discussed signing up at the end of Dec. for the start of the Jan. season. Everyone agreed that teams this season are working well so far.
Wayne says we need to plan for an Olympic push. Pittsburgh had 60 people wanting to play after the Olympics. We discussed the possibility of putting together a mini-olympic draw for just new people. Experienced players would assume the role of coaches.
In general our pre-season worries seem to be nothing to worry about.
Item 4: Report on Pro Shop
We have made $362.50 from pro-shop sales. This includes the sale of 17 of the 40 shirts ordered, a few decals and a few pins.
Pat says we need to get photos of the shirts on the website. She also mentioned that we should add a $5 shipping & handling charge should we sell to someone who contacted us via the website.
Darlene asked about selling items via e-bay. Pat mentioned that she thought this was too much work/not enough profit.
Christina asked if we could upload the new LSCC logo to the Café Press site. The club only gets $1 of the sale of each café press item. Darlene said she could change the logo.
Item 5: Publicity Report
We are still waiting to see if Chaparral will allow us to put up a banner.
Michelle did not get a chance to contact KUT about a sound bite. Landon actually heard a soundbite on KUT with a Canadian talking about skating. Michelle can follow up to see if they would be interested in doing a curling bit.
Wayne asked if there had been any response from the local NBC station. Michelle said not yet.
We do not need to print up anymore fliers – there are still plenty available for distribution. Pat suggests waiting until closer to the Olympics before putting up fliers at Chaparral. Michelle mentioned that she has some nice Olympic posters that can be hung.
It was agreed that there isn’t need for any additional publication right at this moment.
Item 6: New Season Startup
Discuss progress so far – so far so good
New members – 11 new members
Projected income and ice fees – so far we are in reasonable shape
Rink Organization – No complaints, teams seem reasonably balanced
Draw Schedule – Rob had sent it out, it is posted on the web site. Darlene asked if we were going to change the Nov. 22 game to a “Championship Game”. Will discuss further at next meeting.
We will not curl on Nov. 29 – this is the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Dec. 6 is the Weirdspiel
Item 7: Weirdspiel
Date – Dec. 6th
Pat said that it is fun to pick teams randomly as in the past (drawing a marble from a bag). We also thought that it would be nice for every team to play every round instead of having a Bye as we have done in the past. Initially we will have 3 of each color marble in the bag, that way we know each team will have at least 3 players. If we run out of marbles, we will then add a fourth of each color to the bag. Darlene will check to make sure we have 8 different colors of marbles.
We will play 2 end games. If there is a tie, the skip throws to a bowling pin.
Technically, this is up to Uly to coordinate. Dennis said he has time to help as well. We will encourage everyone to come in costume.
We need to email all members and encourage them to come out. We would like Rob to do trophies again (have you done them for the april weirdspiel yet???? Dennis, Christina, Gary were the winning team…)
We discussed the possibility of getting together after the weirdspiel. We need to find a restaurant and make a reservation if possible.
Item 8: Insurance
It is time to renew our liability insurance. Wayne sent emails and has not heard back yet. In the past this cost ~ $200. LSCC includes the cost of insurance in the annual membership fee. USCA charges clubs separately for insurance.
Item 9: Chaparral Ice Financial Situation
Findings from attorneys: Landon spoke with an attorney at his office, and the lawyer did not think there would be a problem with us getting our assets in the event of something happening to Chaparral.
Wayne wondered if there was any benefit to putting stickers on the equipment. Pat suggests that we need signs over the rocks and on the locker but not on the actual rocks.
Pat is not sure stickers will stick to the wall above the stones. She suggests getting plastic signs with a better quality adhesive. Dennis volunteered to see how much it would cost to make signs. He will check into the price of either 5 or 9.
As for the general state of Chaparral. It seems that they have fewer employees and skaters and they are probably making most of their money from private birthday parties and such. As of the meeting, hockey had not started yet.
Item 10: 2010 Pacific International Cup
The notice for the 2010 PIC has been sent out. From a competitive standpoint, we can’t really compete at that level. These are top athletes, the facilities and ice are excellent. It is expensive to play in the PIC (travel, accommodations, entry fee, etc.)
Pat asked if there was a good US regional playdown. Wayne says that while a US SW regional event could be organized, it probably never will be. USCA is more interested in producing Olympic curlers. Wayne suggests going to bonspiels as a way to gain experience.
Item 11: Other Business
Darlene mentioned that Eric requested a nametag. She asked the club for approval to spend money on pins for new members. To order a block of 8 – 24 pins costs $5.75 each. Pat motioned to approve money for pins, Dennis seconded the motion, motion carried unanimously. Darlene will order the pins. If an existing member wishes to order a new nametag s/he will have to pay for it.
Next Meeting: Sunday, Nov. 15 after curling
session
Meeting adjourned: 1:15 p.m.