Board of Directors Meeting

1. Treasurers Update
Stephanie Clingan, Director/Treasurer

1.1 Payoff of Third Set of Stones
Stephanie Clingan, Director/Treasurer
5 minutes

This is confirmation of e-vote on 1/3

I have received an invoice for our payment on the third set of stones. Our payment for the loan is $1000 CAD. To pay off the loan it is $2800 CAD. At this time, I motion that we pay off the loan based on that we have the funds available and the loan will have to be paid in full next year anyway. 

We have managed to pay off the other sets early and this year is no different. The amount comes to about $2082 USD if we pay off today. 

Minutes

Emotion confirmed, payment was made.

Result: Approved

Motioned: Stephanie Clingan, Director/Treasurer

Seconded: Mike Harwat, Director/Vice President

VoterYesNoAbstaining
Stephanie Clingan, Director/TreasurerX  
Mike Harwat, Director/Vice PresidentX  
Jason Hillard, DirectorX  
Jim Jasinski, DirectorX  
Matt Urbaniak, Director/SecretaryX  
Bruce Clingan, Director/PresidentX  

2. Committee Updates
10 minutes

Standing committee updates from venues and other ventures currently going on.


2.1 Bonspiel Update
Bruce Clingan, Director/President
2 minutes

E-Motion to cancel Bonspiel carries.  This serves as confirmation of the cancellation vote.

Minutes

Emotion confirmed.  

Consensus on doing friendly.  

Friendly will be May 20th at Springfield.  Friendly organizing team will be Aaron Prine, Tricia Blair, and Bruce will help coordinate logistics for them.  Others are welcome to join the team, Bruce may do some recruiting.

Organization for friendly shoudl be kept as simple as possible.  Emphasis should remain on getting our folks out on the ice.  Little organizational time impact.  No bar will be available during the friendly, club will not seek liquor license for the event.

Result: Approved

Motioned: Jason Hillard, Director

Seconded: Bruce Clingan, Director/President

VoterYesNoAbstaining
Stephanie Clingan, Director/TreasurerX  
Mike Harwat, Director/Vice PresidentX  
Jason Hillard, DirectorX  
Jim Jasinski, DirectorX  
Matt Urbaniak, Director/SecretaryX  
Bruce Clingan, Director/PresidentX  

2.2 RiverScape Update
Jim Jasinski, Director
3 minutes

Learn to Curl Success - ~90 participants over 4 nights.

League Updates - Completely sold out!  Only a couple of people playing both nights, lots of unique participants in each league.

Background on 1/3 Cancellation

Other thoughts

Minutes

Jim mentioned that he was excited to see us filled up a little earlier than the year before.  A trend we seem to see each year.

Jim asked for input on how to handle cancellations.  Board seemed to agree that we should make every effort to curl even if less than ideal conditions.  

Jim asked to bring new people on board for RiverScape league management in next curling season as he wishes to step down from that role.  The operations this year needed more hands.  Likely one person running each ltc and and each league.  Board will need to find and prepare new RiverScape coordinators.

If refunds will have to happen they will be cash handed out on site.  


3. Membership Report
Bruce Clingan, Director/President
5 minutes

Membership for 2016/17 Season has closed.  Rosters are Due to USCA and GLCA by the end of the month.  
Total Members - 19 Full and 1 Social
This is a 25% increase over last year.

Minutes

USCA and GLCA dues paid.  66% discount from USCA this year, 33% for next year.  


4. Arena Nationals Team Selection
Bruce Clingan, Director/President
10 minutes

Arena Nationals will be held at Notre Dame University April 24-30.  Registration for participants happens early February.  We are permitted to send 4 primary players and an alternate.  The 4 primary players must be registered in February.  The alternate can be registered in February but can also be registered on site.  We will be registering an alternate on site and not in February.  This is because registrations can not be changed once they are submitted.  So if one of the 4 primaries cannot curl for some reason (injury, illness, or personal) the alternate is the only replacement allowed.  USCA recommends that we wait until the event to register the alternate to allow for the most flexibility in case of emergency.

The selection of each Arena Nationals team is at the sole discretion of the club.  The regions are allowed to implement selection rules, but at the moment GLCA does not have selection rules in place.  Participants must be a member of an arena curling club, and participate regularly in their league play.  It is at our discretion to determine what "regularly in league play" means.  Participants must also not curl in league play regularly at a dedicated ice curling club.

Selection is done differently at almost every single club.  Some clubs provide a playdown where people register full teams of eligible players and those teams play down for a spot in the event.  Some clubs do a completely random draw to determine participants putting names in a hat and drawing randomly.  Some teams pick their team individually based on interest, and other factors.

On 12/30 Members were notified and given until January 8th to submit their interest and availability in playing in Arena Nationals to myself.  I will then present that list to the board on the 9th of January for initial consideration.  We will need to finalize our decision at this meeting or develop a timelined plan for finalizing this decision.

James Brickey has offered to pay for the individuals selected for nationals entry into the event.


4.1 Team Selection Method

Proposed method for selection was based on records from last years league.  This considers the Clingan and Haus 18 teams.  After looking at league results from 2016-16 team Clingan would attend Arena Nationals using this method.

This method was brought to an evote.

Minutes

Emotion was unclear.  Matt moved to clarify motion as follows:

Team will be selected for this season based on league results from last season.  Team Clingan has better league results from last season over H18 and will represent Curl Troy at Arena Nationals.  H18 will select 5th player from their team to serve as alternate.  Board will create 2017/2018 process and approve before or at annual meeting.

Bruce will notify those who applied, then announce team selection via blog post.  Announcement could be considered for newsletter as well.

Result: Approved

Motioned: Stephanie Clingan, Director/Treasurer

Seconded: Bruce Clingan, Director/President

VoterYesNoAbstaining
Stephanie Clingan, Director/TreasurerX  
Mike Harwat, Director/Vice PresidentX  
Jason Hillard, Director  X
Jim Jasinski, Director  X
Matt Urbaniak, Director/SecretaryX  
Bruce Clingan, Director/PresidentX  

5. 4th set of stones
Mike Harwat, Director/Vice President
10 minutes

If we want to grow at Springfield we need a 4th set of stones.

Cost analysis added by Bruce:

Springfield Money Scenarios:

1 Night a week for 10 weeks - $5,000
2 Nights a week for 10 weeks - $10,000  

Break Even Income at $30 a night
1 Night a week 17 people total ($5,100)
2 Nights a week 34 people total ($10,200)  

3 Sheets is 24 People 4 Sheets is 32 People  

If we fill 3 sheets on one night we bring in $7,200 If we fill 4 sheets on one night we bring in $9,600   If we fill 4 sheets on one night our risk is only $600/10 weeks to start a second night.  We could completely cover this risk for almost 38 weeks of curling if we run one league at 32 players.  So the risk is easily made up in one league at 32 people.  A fourth sheet of stones pays for the growth needed.   With three sheets if we fill a first night and start a second night we will be $2,700/10 weeks from breaking even.  Lots of risk.  That amount of risk covers over half the cost of a 4th set of stones.  If we are going to spend $2,700 it would make sense to spend it on assets not empty ice.

James Brickey has offered to donate up to $5000 USD for a 4th set of stones.

 

Total Cost about $5100 CA or about $4000 US.  We would need to consider whether we have enough brooms, and would need to purchase additional hacks.

Minutes

Motion to purchase fourth sheet.

Bruce will coordinate purchase and delivery.  

Hacks need to be purchased or built.  Jim says he will build hack rack.  Bruce will continue to search for vendor for hacks.

8 additional spots will be opened up for Sprindfield league immediately.

Result: Approved

Motioned: Jim Jasinski, Director

Seconded: Stephanie Clingan, Director/Treasurer

VoterYesNoAbstaining
Stephanie Clingan, Director/TreasurerX  
Mike Harwat, Director/Vice PresidentX  
Jason Hillard, DirectorX  
Jim Jasinski, DirectorX  
Matt Urbaniak, Director/SecretaryX  
Bruce Clingan, Director/PresidentX  

6. Strategic Planning Discussion
Bruce Clingan, Director/President
45 minutes

6.1 Marketing Initiatives

From Last Meeting:

Marketing:

1. The club talked about five key topics for marketing, but these were generally broken down into two areas; inward and outward facing.

    • Inward:

        1. The club would like to more consistently communicate with club member.  After discussing with Eric, he will continue to do the standard Facebook posts; league nights photos, upcoming events, etc.

        2. Bruce will be implementing a new Blog on the Curl Troy website.  The purpose of this will be to provide timely content on a variety of issues that may be of interest to both members, and to help passively solicit interest from those who would like to find out more about curling in Dayton.  Some examples that were given were write-ups on recently attended Bonspiels, curling technique tips, did-you-knows, upcoming bonspiel information, and general club information.  Content will be provided by members at regular intervals (tbd) and access to posting information will be worked out as the Blog comes online. Completed BC

        3. Regularly scheduled newsletters to members to continue.  Discussed to be on either a quarterly or even monthly basis.  Ideally, most content for the newsletter will be provided by the aforementioned Blog and organized to help provide more succinct and direct information to members.  The newsletter will be continue to be managed by Eric, though further discussion on process will be had once the Blog comes online.

        4. Manage contact list.

    • Outward:

        1. Create a more consistent social media presence across different platforms to help reach people who might not be looking directly at our Facebook page, which could include some paid advertising.  Social media is complex, and much more discussion is warranted on building this strategy so that it is effective.

        2. Targeted outreach: identify opportunities to build relationships with other organizations and get them curling.  Corporate events, universities, youth organizations, etc.  These should be demographics that could help create a pipeline of future curlers, but also help raise awareness of the club in the Miami Valley.

        3. Optimize searches for curling in "Dayton" "Miami Valley," etc.I think that this is completed as well we rank pretty good BC

To Do:

• Finalize the details on Blog/Newsletter processes and move forward with it.

• Have a deeper discussion on the Social Media strategy how it may fit in with outreach and awareness

• Think of a few outreach opportunities for the club to pursue.

Minutes

Moving forward with this:

Bruce and Jason will kind of try to start some social media things.

Board will start filing blog content.  

Matt and Brian will discuss newsletter ideas with Eric.  Updating membership on things going on, things the board are considering, and things related to building our house.  

Management of the contact list needs to be better for newsletter.  We shouldn't be sending newsletter to whole contact list all the time, we should start to segment this list.

Communication needs to focus more on fundraising and donation needs that we have.  


6.2 Building and Growth

We need to be thinking about getting to a new building and long-term growth as well as short-term growth.  If we aren't looking this far down the road we won't be able to accomplish the goal of being in our own building.  We need to determine a plan for making sure that this stays in the forefront of our conversation.  We need someone in the club to spearhead this plan.

First steps are determining costs for items needed for the facility, or outfitting the facility, and starting to formalize the search for a building or location and determining costs associated with the physical building.

The following items need estimated before moving forward.

  • Costs for Chiller and ice making equipment
  • Costs for Utilities
  • Research on how building code will impact us, what items are we absolutely required to have on opening day?
  • General Idea for what buildout costs will be. 
  • Costs associated with actual acquisition of building.

Minutes

Comittee needs formed. Comittee to Build Curl Troy's House

Milestone/timelines need to be set by comittee.  

Process to form a comittee:

Board seeks interest in participating in the comittee, only seeking interest in the comittee not seeking specific positions.  Once those are discovered a list is generated and a meeting with all of those people is formed and brought together to form the comittee with the guidance and direction of board and perhaps bring Stu in to present.  They leave that meeting with comittee formed.  28 Feb and 3rd Mar for potential meeting.  Bruce will craft email and Jim will work on location and date/time for meeting.

Email will be sent out to all emails ever collected by the organization.

Email discussion will continue to drive towards what the meeting looks like.  Bruce will touch base with Stu about thoughts or ideas.


7. Board Vacancy
Matt Urbaniak, Director/Secretary
5 minutes

I had planned to step down from the board at the end of the 2018 Season after three years.  Alot of uncertanty at work and with my family in the next year I am going to step down a year early at the end of this season.  If there are thoughts on a transition time that is different than the end of the season I would like to briefly discuss.

Minutes

Board agreed that Matt should select date of his choosing and tender his resignation effective that date.  After that resignation is tendered the board may choose to start the search, and accept applications before that date, beginning to work the new director into the conversation.