ROCK TALK March 2005 BOARD of DIRECTORS A Storybook EXECUTIVE LCC Promotes Curling at Storybook Garden's Winter Funderland COMMITTEE President Alec Curtis Ending … Vice President Garry Thompson Past President Joanne Laws Treasurer Doug Hamather Secretary Fay Weiler BOARD MEMBERS Mike Bancroft Marc Claveau Bob Davis Tom Fejes Dave Heinrichs Guiti Massoumi CLUB STAFF Office Manager Barb Colbourn Head Ice Technician Kevin Breivik Ice Assistants Dan Currie LCC was proud to be asked to participate in and promote the sport of curling to youngsters at Dale Fanset Storybook Garden's 2nd Annual Winter Funderland. Andrea Child, our resident pro, was on Dan Myers hand at the park showing kids what curling was all about and promoting youth curling at the Club Pro LCC. Storybook had sectioned off a portion of their skating pad and painted curling rings under Andrea Child the ice. LCC supplied the temporary hack, little rocks and brooms. The Funderland acitivities Bar Manager were held over the weekends of February 19-20 and 26-27 - in sun and snow!! In all, over 150 John Spetman kids, and even some of the parents, gave curling a try! As you can see from above, even Bartenders "Sonny the Seal" tried his luck at tossing a stone! Darlene Bardawill Kim Ange Saturday April 16 at 6 p.m. Housekeeping CASINO at the London Curling Club Hope Marshall Tickets $20 each Buffet Dinner Catered by Linda Arthur NIGHT Followed by Card & Casino Night SPIRIT OF for your Entertainment CURLING AWARD March 28th sign-up deadline Nomination information AND (sign-up sheet in the main floor lounge, page 2 tickets available from the bar, the office, Past winners from Mike Bancroft or Bruce Cooper pages 6-7 BANQUET ROCK TALK March 2005 page 2 2004-5 Fund-Raising Summary SO MANY COOKS !!! Many members have spent a lot of time and effort in raising Just another reminder to money to decrease our $100,000 bank loan. Also most those of you who use members have supported these fund-raising efforts. Many the London Curling thanks to everyone involved!! A very preliminary summary of Club’s kitchen facilities the funds turned in to date is shown below: that the LCC DOES NOT HAVE A Tuesday night Social $ 425 DISHWASHER. The Fun Bonspiel 1165 appliance that graces Ladies Daytime 3670 our kitchen is only a SANITIZER. Friday Night Mixed 1774 The rules for use, as outlined by the Middlesex Thursday Night Business 76 Health Unit, are posted over the unit, and these TOTAL $ 7110 rules must be followed. All dishes must be WASHED BY HAND in hot soapy water (not just Several leagues and groups have not yet reported, and a final rinsed of food). They are then RINSED BY list will be presented at the Annual Meeting. From other known HAND before being placed in the sanitizer for ongoing activities, we should have close to $10,000 in fund- sanitizing only! raising, a very substantial and important amount for the LCC. Congratulations again to everyone involved. The cooperation of all members will be Mike Bancroft appreciated. Marc Claveau, Housekeeping Committee ICE MAINTENANCE Kevin Breivik “Spirit of Due to the extreme cold air temperatures that we experience in January and February, Ice 1 and Ice 6 become sloped. What is happening is that the ice is slowly turning into water vapour. The fancy name for it is sublimation. The rest of us call it Curling freeze drying. It’s about the states of matter: solid, liquid and gas. When it’s frozen, water can jump from solid directly to gas, skipping the liquid state, usually in between. It’s also what causes that homemaker horror: freezer burn. Award” During the months of October, November and December, the air temperatures in the rink area are usually 35 to 40 degrees, so sublimation is not occurring. Ice 1 and It's not too late to nominate Ice 6 are level. But in January and February the air temperatures average about 25 YOUR candidate for this degrees and as low as 18 degrees, causing sublimation. To correct the year's SPIRIT OF CURLING topographical state of the ice, we do an ice maintenance which starts with burning AWARD. Nomination forms the ice and vacuuming the water up. This cleans the ice nicely. It is done with a 13’ are available in the lounge ice melter requiring 3 people about 7 hours to complete. It also warms up the air and all active members temperature above 32 degrees so we can flood. You cannot flood below 32 degrees (except members of the because the water will freeze from the top as well trapping air pockets in the ice Board of Directors) are causing an unstable surface. eligible nominees. The burning and vacuuming take away about 600 gallons of water and we then put about 600 gallons back in the flood. The flood takes 2 people an hour-and-a-half. The deadline for nominations Every time we have done this, about 3 hours after the flood the only wet areas of the is March 31. The Awards will ice are one half of Ice 1 and Ice 6, showing what the sublimation of the ice had done. be presented at the Annual It takes about 5 hours for the ice to completely freeze. The next step is to chop the General Meeting. ice out of the hacks and scrape and pebble the ice about six times to ready the ice for (See centerfold “photo collage’’ of play. This process takes 3 people about 8 hours. previous winners on pages 6 and 7 The whole process takes about 24 hours to complete and about 50 man hours. of this issue). ROCK TALK March 2005 page 3 March 2005 List of suggestions from surveyed members SURVEY ANALYSIS - Find ways to eliminate “byes” in all leagues - Create more competitive and mixed leagues during the Key points from the Survey analysis week Total of 231 (123 male and 108 female) responses have - Offer more clinics for novice and intermediate curlers been received and analysed. throughout the year - 71.9% (166 members) voted for “one night curling fee”. It - Communicate with members, especially new members is important to note that only 21.6% (50 members) - Create "Buddy system" for new members responded that they will use the option if they’ve been - Organize funspiels that would give new members an given the “one night curling fee” option. opportunity to meet existing members - Club members notified that they knew of 135 potential new - Name tags for new members; increase membership fee members who would consider joining if one night per week by few dollars curling fee was introduced. - Review the additional costs involved in the hiring of a club - 82.3% (190 members) have said “yes” to the existing manager length, start and end date of the season. However, there is - Assure bonspiels scheduled during the weekdays do not a need to review beginning of season for some leagues interfere with the evening league schedules - 75.8% have agreed with the volunteer management at - Improve parking lot security least until club is financially out of debt. Only 20% of - Improve the junior program that will make our juniors surveyed members believe in full-time paid manager. more competitive - It is wonderful to see that 92.2% are planning to come back - Review fees schedule next year. - Reduce ice rental conflicts - 58.9% of surveyed members are satisfied with the club. - Implement an “incentive” for early payment - - - Less than 10% of members fall under 35 years of age membership fees group. It is our responsibility to be more creative in - Improve the ice attracting and keeping younger members. - Improve the kitchen facility - Provide better food at the bar Membership Committee: - Improve men’s lockers room Guiti Massoumi, Marc Claveau, and Joanne Laws - End games within scheduled times WANTED: OCA REPORT Competitive As our curling year draws quickly to a close we would like to thank all of the members of the London Curling Club for their support and cooperation during the past two years. Teammates!! We would especially like to recognize those who represented the club in OCA competitions this past year. From the women's side we had the Rochefort Rink entered in Marilyn Beernink (who is Intermediates and the MacRae Rink in Masters. From the Mixed we had the McLean Rink. new to the club this year From the Men we had the Heinrichs and Beckett rinks represent us in Kia Cup zone but not new to the game) playdowns and Beckett entries also in Intermediates, Holiday Inn Challenge, and Colts. wishes to be part of a provincial competitive Our thanks too for the help we received during our hosting of the Kia Cup men's zones curling team next year. last December - the ice was great and the competition keen. She is looking for Linda's term as women's representative is now up and she will be replaced by Sylvia teammates at the Leuszler and her assistant Linda Peeling. Good luck gals. Sue Beckett will be representing intermediate level, either the Juniors for the coming season. The OCA men’s rep for 2005-2006 has not yet been women’s or mixed. confirmed. Please contact her at As this goes to press any further hosting of OCA events has not been determined for [email protected] the 2005/2006 season (OCA Spring meeting for Zone 16 is to be held in Ilderton on May or fax a written note to 5th at which time further events are awarded) but the reps will keep us all posted in the 473-1202.