Good News: Members of the sixty-year-old Port Hawkesbury, Newfoundland club are…
The Strait Area Community Curling Club, a three-sheet club, has accepted the difficulties that other curling clubs around the nation confront.
Club president Monica McCarthy states that the sixty-year-old club in Port Hawkesbury, Newfoundland, has reduced its membership from a peak of 300 members to between 80 and 90.
The club, which is volunteer-run, used a service provided by Curling Canada that provides assistance with long-term sustainability.
McCarthy stated, “The club last completed a strategic plan in 2012.” “That’s long overdue,” the board declared.
Bobby Ray, the manager of club growth and membership services at Curling Canada, and the Strait board members started working on a strategic plan over the course of three days in the autumn of 2023.
A draft of the strategy will be finalised by the Strait’s board on Sunday, according to McCarthy.
Ray stated, “We’d like to see more clubs have a strategic plan.” “Curling Alberta conducted a poll of its clubs approximately two years ago, and I believe that 31% of the clubs had a strategic plan.
“We believe that number would be much more beneficial if a club knew who they were, what they wanted to achieve, where they wanted to go, and how they were going to get there.
McCarthy stated that the Strait was able to secure municipal money, which paid for two-thirds of the $2,800 cost of the strategic planning session.
Additionally, Ray has developed strategic plans for the Westlock Curling Club in Alberta and the Dawson Creek Curling Club in British Columbia.
McCarthy stated, “We left the meeting realising we had a lot of work ahead of us, but we approach things one step at a time.” “I believe we have a great deal of potential.”
Ray says that although there is a lot of interest in curling in Canada, the sport’s delivery system needs to change to keep up with the times. One of his analogies is that Blockbuster didn’t go out of business because people stopped going to the movies.
One element of Curling Canada’s Business of Curling programme, which was launched in 1994 in response to concerns that the sport would be exterminated if smoking was prohibited in curling clubs, is strategic planning.
Curling’s present challenges include recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, competing with technology for people’s attention, and lacking club staff to attract people of colour to an activity that has historically attracted older, white individuals.
Additionally, clubs that are too old to afford a significant capital expense have had some of their operations permanently closed due to mechanical difficulties in buildings older than 50 years.
The idea behind our programme is to accept that things are always changing in the world, according to Ray. “People no longer do things the same way they did in the past, and they never will. People do, in fact, desire to engage with curling in fresh and creative ways.
“I make use of the dancing club analogy. We no longer dance in the same way as those who did in the 1950s, which was replaced in the 1960s and 1970s.
A web portal showcasing best practices and a Facebook group where club general managers, board members, and volunteers seek and share assistance are two features of the Business of Curling programme. Symposia are hosted by Curling Canada for several clubs at once. There is one-on-one strategic planning.
The club’s top priorities, according to McCarthy, are diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and ways to make the Strait accessible to those with mobility issues.
The club’s top priorities, according to McCarthy, are diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and ways to make the Strait accessible to those with mobility issues.
“An ageing population is undoubtedly difficult,” she remarked. Diversity, equality, and inclusion, or DEI, is the newest concept. In 2012, that was not even discussed. Our club consists primarily of Caucasians. There is only one member who is Indigenous.
We’ve invited the recently established Filipino community in the neighbourhood to come try curling. We must take further action.
According to Ray, those who run curling clubs are open to fresh concepts. The question is: Who will implement those ideas?
He stated, “Everyone is whining about burnout among volunteers.” “We’re pushing clubs to consider paying employees, which was never a topic you would have imagined discussing at a curling club in the past.
Perhaps the most important thing is to embrace our belief that a curling club is a business. We established a professional curling association, similar to what the PGA does for golf. Our goal is to establish a position in our sector known as the “curling pro,” akin to the professional golfer and tennis player, who specialises in league and event management and is proficient in instructing and organising ice.
“They are supposed to be a role that brings in money. It won’t cost you any money if you hire an expert in that field. In actuality, they will make back their wage. A few clubs have found success in this.
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