To All HCC Members !!
There are (3) three tell tale signs that the curling season is just around the corner at HCC:
1) Early snow fall: You may find it hard to believe but it actually snowed in nearby Almonte just over a week ago.
2) Carp Fair: “The World’s Fair” is once again coming to Carp late next week and our facility will be a buzz. I can almost smell the aroma of cotton candy already; and,
3) The Bearded One comes out of summer hibernation: I met with our beloved ice manager Dwayne Lowe last week and he was complaining that his old grey beard was getting itchy.
WINE AND CHEESE:
On behalf of HCC’s board of directors I wanted to extend a special invitation to all members to come to the inaugural event of the season.
HCC’s wine & cheese.
Friday Sept. 14th 2018 – 7:00 – 9:00pm
HCC – Member’s lounge
199 Langstaff Rd.
Carp, Ontario
In house chef, kitchen director Simon Benton will be preparing some gourmet snacks for attendees. Events director Peter Smith and Bar director Dan Zanetti have solicited some local wineries and local micro breweries to set up shop inside our lounge. This provides our members a chance to taste the selection of alcohol products in which have been chosen for this upcoming season – Feel free to provide Dan your feedback.
In addition there are two (2) prizes which include $100 and $50 discount on next year’s 2019/20 membership fees. Names will be drawn at 8:00pm and 9:00pm respectively but you must be in attendance in order to enter.
The Wine and Cheese is also an opportunity to sign up for volunteer duties and at the same time sign up for all bonspiels that will be held at the club this year before they are posted on line.
You have an open invitation to come out and see 1st hand the new washroom renovations that were spearheaded by members Claire Zanetti and David Eastwood. Honestly you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Out with the old and in with the new!
Ice manager Dwayne Lowe will be happy to show off the new woman in his life. He calls her “ The Ice Mistress” which actually is a new programmable control system for our ice plant. I’ve seen her myself and let me tell you she’s a beauty !!
Building’s director Shawn Lynch will be pleased to show you this new passage way between sheets 2 & 3. This was engineered by Dan Zanetti and is designed to help make it safer for our ice team personnel and reduce down time between draws.
LEAGUE AND CONVENORS:
Match director Jim Collings has been working extremely hard during the off season. He set up a committee to focus on making the curling experience for our members better. Together, this committee have designed a uniform set of rules for league play. No more different rules for different leagues. These have been posted to the website and members are encouraged to take some time and read through them carefully before the start of the season.
HCC has always been blessed and fortunate to have an extremely strong group of volunteer conveners and this year is no exception. I’m pleased to announce everyone is primarily back and that we have some new appointments as follows:
Laurie Cotton will be overseeing the revitalization of our Youth & Little Rock’s Program. This is designed allow Jill Rivington to focus more on the Youth Competitive program.
Charlene Johnston will be bringing her passion and enthusiasm to the sport of curling at HCC by convening the Saturday night social league.
Dawn Rodney will now be coordinating the LTC program. She’ll be teaching these new curlers the skills, technical advice and strategy of the game in which they require to move forward. Dawn and her group will give these Newbie’s the confidence they need to join another league at HCC upon graduating.
Jeff Tindall has taken over as convener of the highly competitive open league on Thursday night. This allowed long time convener Jim Leask to oversee the new Twilight league on Monday evenings.
Debbie Joy has graciously taken over the duty of Ladies Twilight on Tuesday evening from Colleen Kelley.
The board is happy to announce that the Tuesday Ladies and Monday twilight leagues each have ten (10) teams c/w a healthy group of spares.
Trevor Gloyn is a visionary and foreseen where the sport of curling may be headed. He approached the Board about trying to develop a new daytime double’s fixed league format on Thursday’s. Well, I’m pleased to announce he was right and this new league, in it’s inaugural season, is filled to capacity with (9) nine teams.
To coincide with this vision the board decided to also try a mixed double’s league format on Saturday mornings as well. This came about due in large part because of the success of last year’s double bonspiel organized by Gina Grosenick. The board made a decision that we’d move forward only if we’d got (8) eight teams to participate. Well, we’re pleased to announce that we have (12) twelve teams thus far and are counting on more. Don’t wait, reach out grab a partner and join in. Our club’s goal is now to get to (18) teams with two draws. This would mean that each team would get a bye every 9th week. Draw times are 9:00 – 10:30am and 10:30 – 12:00 noon. If all goes well, and the league fills up then the board would consider opening the kitchen up for a catered brunch for the members. Brian Roach will be the convener of this new league and will be given the support to see it flourish.
My Vision for the Year Ahead
As club president there were three (3) major goals that I’d set to try and get this season off on the right foot.
1) Better Communication with members – Director Dwight Davies has done a fabulous job with revamping our website and by sending out informative newsletters to the membership.
2) Increased membership – I’m happy to report that our membership is growing and that new leagues have been stimulated. This is an area that we’ll be continuing to pursue as we move forward.
3) Enthusiasm and Club Spirit – HCC honestly has a special group of people. It has always revolved around it’s members volunteering and giving back. I don’t see this changing anytime soon and as club president am encouraging all members to get involved. I urge everyone to participate in club activities such as organizing a team to play in a bonspiel or helping out with an activity. You’ll meet new members, share some laughs and generally feel good about contributing – “Everyone comes out a winner.”
When you come to the Wine & Cheese speak to people at the Volunteer Desk and inquire how you can help out. You’ll find it rewarding. My grandfather always said, “The work load always becomes much easier when more hands help out.”
Finally, we are working on standardizing our Club logo. Over the years, a number of variations have
been developed and multiple versions are in use today. For consistency, we will be updating our logo and will have only one version going forward. We presently have two (2) options and both are in the final stages of design. These should be ready and displayed at the Wine & Cheese. It has been decided by the Board that these will be forwarded to all members and will be voted on via Survey Monkey. The winning design will be implemented prior to the opening of our season.
I hope to see all the members at the Wine & Cheese. If not I wanted to wish each of you an enjoyable and fun filled season with lots of laughter!
Blake Sinclair
HCC – President