Meeting Minutes April 2009

Draft 5/20/09

 

Date:     April 25, 2009

 

Place:    United States Curling Association Offices in Stevens Point,

     Wisconsin

 

 

     Members’ meeting called to order at 9:39 A.M. by President, Jeremy Roe. Roll call was taken of the clubs with updates from various clubs present.

 

     The following clubs were present at the meeting: Appleton, Arlington, Blackhawk (Janesville), Centerville, Clintonville, Green Bay, Kettle Moraine, Madison, Marshfield, Milwaukee, Portage, Poynette, Rice Lake, Stevens Point, Tri-City, Waukesha, Waupaca and Wauwatosa. The following clubs were absent. The number in parentheses represents the consecutive meetings missed: Alpine (8), Eau Claire (3), Loch Wissota (18), Lodi (3), Medford (9), Pardeeville (1), Racine (1) and Wausau (7).

 

     Appleton - Jim O’Neill reported. Break even year for membership. Installed dehumidifier this season. Difference between draws with dehumidification is that the ice has less frost, better playing surface.   Examining whether there is any energy savings. Had a successful raffle to pay for dehumidification. Next big project is remodeling of club room.

 

     Arlington - Bernie Dushek reported. See annexed report.

 

     Blackhawk (Janesville)- Aaron Richards reported. Membership steady at 160 members. Installed new roof over icehouse. Next looking to insulate walls. Hosted USCA Senior Women’s National Championship.

 

     Centerville - David Russell reported. Made approximately $5,000.00 from spiels hosted during the season. Examining heat recovery system for installation next season. Estimated cost of installation is about $3,450.00 with volunteer help. It is expected that this cost will be recovered through utility savings. To encourage bonspieling outside of the club, women curlers at club contribute money into a kitty. $100.00 is paid out to every team that bonspiels out of town. Looking to try to revive adult-high school students spiel. Mixed age spiel over two days.

 

 

     Green Bay - Bill Wilberg reported. Green Bay hosted two rounds of the Women’s National Playoffs, both a qualifier and the challenge rounds. With the dehumidification believes that the electric bills stayed about the same and saved about $1,600.00 in heat. Dehumidification saves on moisture build up over time which eliminates a mold problem. Green Bay has been selected as the Curling Olympic Training Center for this summer. Plans to grind down the ice that has been built up over maintaining ice since fall of 2008. Green Bay hosting a summer spiel July 17^th to 19^th. Just about full. Also planning to host a Senior Spiel August 7^th to 9^th. Membership stayed about even. There will be curling in the Badger State Games for the summer of 2009. Green Bay to host.

 

 

     Madison - Kellie Krake reported. Madison continues have vibrant and dynamic membership with 502 members for the 2008/2009 season. New lighting system installed in icehouse. Tracking the electrical costs to determine whether any cost savings. Installed a vapor lock system between the icehouse and the club room. Hopes to control humidification issue. Hosted a number of spiels including International Cash Spiel, Badger Women’s, High School Spiel and Junior Spiel along with the Halloween Spiel. Announced that Madison has been chosen as the host club for the 2010 USCA Club Nationals. This is to be held February 20^th to 27, 2010. Madison has also been chosen to host the 2012 Junior Nationals. Madison has undergone league restructuring. This season commenced a training/instruction league on Tuesday nights. This is in hopes to aid in retention of members by giving new and less experienced curlers more one on one instruction.

 

     Marshfield - Tom Krake reported. Holding the same for membership. Hosted two bonspiels, Men’s and Mixed. Will have a fund raiser in the summer. Continuing to work on paying off debt. The fund raiser for the summer is a raffle party similar to Poynette’s and Arlington’s. Earns between $4,000.00 and $5,000.00. Also run a beer stand at the County Fair and earned between $7,00.000 and $8,000.00.

 

     Milwaukee - Matt Goelzer reported. Continued focus on securing permanent home for club. There are two options. One is to renegotiate lease at current site at Ozaukee Country Club. Second option is to move to the Ozaukee Fair Grounds. The move to the fair grounds would entail a cooperative agreement with the Fair Committee on a new building that would have shared use between the curling club in the winter and the fair in the summer. There has been no vote of the membership to determine which option to pursue. Expects a vote in the fall. The goal for the new location, if selected, is curling at the new location in 2010 - 2011. Membership is steady to slightly down. The location issue has a continuing effect on the membership. The Men’s Spiel hosted by Milwaukee had 16 teams. The Kilty hosted by Milwaukee had 24 teams.

 

     Portage - Dan Brunt reported. Portage’s membership is up by 10. Hosted two spiels. Examining dehumidification of the ice field. Portage is the host of the USCA Senior Men’s Nationals in 2010, January 27^th to 31^st.

 

     Poynette - Jeff Koch reported. Membership steady at 85 to 90. Hosted the Wisconsin State Mixed Championship. Poynette had to deal with a sewer backup in December of 2008. Required replacement of the sewer line. Continues to host the Alumni Spiel sharing hosting with Arlington. Proceeds from the spiel are donated to High School Curling in Poynette. Spring league is ongoing presently. Starts in April and ends in May for an eight week season. Participants include curlers from Madison, Point and Janesville, as well as Columbia County. There are two spiels on tap for Poynette this spring. The Spring Spiel, May 15^th to 17, 2009 and Sticks and Stones Spiel, May 29^th to 31, 2009.

 

     Rice Lake - Larry Sharp reported. Membership steady at 230 to 234. Have a number of college curlers that are not paying full dues. Hosting a Summer Camp in August starting on August 15th. Also will host the Summer Spiel in August, the weekend of August 25^th. This is an Open Spiel. Registration opens on June 1st. Did host over the season the Men’s Spiel with 24 teams and Mixed Spiel with 24 teams. Also hosted the WUG USA Championship. Also hosted the USCA Senior World Qualifiers. Planning to run a Golf Outing Spiel in September of 2009. Hosts a number of high school teams from the area as part of the physical education program. These include not only Rice Lake but also Barron, Cumberland and Bloomer High Schools. The dehumidification installed in Rice Lake at a cost of $15,000.00 is expected to pay for itself in five years. Also, the heat recovery system installed two years ago has paid for itself and then some. Believes that there will be a two year pay off for the heat recovery costs. Working with Superior in regards to their exploring a heat recovery system. Acknowledges that with an ammonia system, a heat recovery system would have unique issues.

 

     Stevens Point - David Garber reported. Point’s membership is 127 for the year. Installed emissivity barrier this season. However, additional work needs to be completed in boxing in the rafters. Also installed new lights in the icehouse which brightened up the icehouse. It is observed that if the new lights are zero ballast lights that the local utility may provide a credit or rebate. Stevens Point is exploring dehumidification system. Point hosted a Cash, Men’s and Mixed Spiels this season. Also hosts a University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point Phy Ed Teacher’s Education Class once a year. Club participated in a local radio show 5 to 6 times during the season.

 

 

     Waukesha, Greg Dunlop reported. Held on Fox Lake their Outdoor Spiel. This spiel is held in late January. Four teams participated in it. The stones used are the old Waukesha Curling Club stones.

 

 

     Wauwatosa - Scott Masloroff reported. There are about 200 members of the club. As for membership retention, they retain about 60% of the first year members who joined the second year. Out of the second year members, they retain about 30% into full membership.   Thinks that giving the newer curlers equipment in the form of a broom and a slider helps in the retention. Last season, hosted a Women’s Spiel, Men’s Spiel and USWCA National Spiel which consisted of 32 teams. Their project is rebuilding the clubroom. The clubroom continues to experience water damage. To alleviate the water damage working with the municipality. Has three high school programs and three college programs run through the club. Wauwatosa is on the 7^th year of a 10 year lease with the City. Negotiating with the City concerning installing a video system for icehouse viewing. 

 

 

     Discussion was had concerning the bonspiel poster printed by John Stolp. About 100 copies were prepared at a cost of $224.00. The information was taken from the WSCA website. Therefore, clubs need to reference website and make sure information is updated and correct. The poster was sent out on or about the 17^th of September, 2008. Comments were made that more copies of the poster should be prepared and provided to Directors. The key in preparing the poster efficiently and with correct information is that the member clubs of the WSCA provide the information over the summer in a timely and correct basis. There is a page on the WSCA website for each club. Through that club’s page a link to bonspiel flyers of the club’s spiels can be posted.

 

 

     Board of Directors’ Meeting was called to order by President, Jeremy Roe, at 10:37 A.M. There are two corrections to the September 27, 2008 Meeting Minutes. First on page 1 concerning Green Bay it should provide they paid approximately $1,500.00 per month in the summer and $2,500.00 per month in the winter for utility costs due to the heater not having to run as often. On page 8 of the Minutes under the President’s Report the correction was: “Following discussion, on a motion made by David Russell and seconded by David Garber to recognize said curling club as a nonmember for 2007/2008 curling season and accept them as a member in good standing for 2008/2009 season.

 

     With these corrections, upon a motion duly made by David Russell and seconded by David Garber, the Minutes of the September 27, 2008 meeting were approved unanimously.

 

 

     Attached to these Minutes is a four page report identifying clubs who are members in the WSCA, their number of reported members and dues paid during the period ending April 30, 2009 and historically going back to 2003. Also attached hereto is a six page report including statement of revenue and expenses for 10 fiscal years, ending April 30, 2009 and income and expenses from Championships conducted by WSCA over a ten year period from 2000 through 2009. Greg noted that for 2009 fiscal year ending April 30, 2009 the associated operated at a $1,300.00 deficit. This was primarily due to the website expense incurred of $1,562.50. This included a hosting fee and the costs to rework the WSCA website. It is anticipated that this is a one time expense. Greg also observed that $0.80 out of every dollar of WSCA income is spent in playdown expenses. Of the playdown expenses, the largest expense is the $200.00 per day ice fee paid to the host club.

 

     Concerning dues, WSCA does not collect any dues for youth curlers, meaning individuals who are 11 and under. However, USCA does collect junior dues for these curlers. Bernie Dushek observed that Lodi paid for 30 members. Richard Maskel observed that Alpine also paid for 30 members. There is a correction needed on the dues report whereby Alpine with 30 members paid USCA dues of not $45.00 but $810.00. It is observed that if one deducts the ice fee paid to host clubs from WSCA championship expenses, then the costs of running those championships are 45% of the WSCA income. There was also observed that WSCA does pay one-half of the ice fee if the ice is reserved for a WSCA championship but that championship does not run or does not use all of the days which are reserved. This is to compare with USCA which pays an ice fee of $250.00 per day with a maximum of $1,000.00 per event. It is also observed that the cost to the hosting club is approximately the same whether the ice is used or not. A question was raised as to whether to increase the fees to the competitors in Wisconsin State Curling Association championships. It was observed that in regards to the ice fee, to date there has not been a problem finding Wisconsin clubs to host WSCA championships.

 

 

 

     Mark Swandby reported. Financially USCA is scheduled for a break even or modest deficit budget for fiscal year end June 30, 2009. The Potomac club continues to makes its payment on a WCF/USCA guaranteed loan on schedule. The stones obtained through WCF and lent to the various curling clubs/arena clubs throughout the States continues Clubs are now in the first year of making payments. The Curl T.V. agreement is in review. The USCA paid for subscriptions for each individual curler member. The curling game content available through Curl T.V. was down for 2008/2009 season. This was an issue of T.V. rights which foreclosed Curl T.V. from broadcasting a number of events.

 

     Alan Ashley from USOC spoke to the USCA Board of Directors at their April, 2009 meeting. Alan is the team leader for Sports Performance for all winter sports including curling. Alan was formerly with the United States Ski Association. The Ski Association approach was to focus on competitive excellence at the highest level. This success was believed to then have a trickle down effect for membership growth. USCA is focusing on a high performance plan for its two Olympic teams. Scott Higgens is the Coaching Development Director. The Olympic teams will be training in Green Bay this summer and fall.

 

 

     A reminder by way of athlete recognition, nominations need to be in by June 1, 2009. 

 

     As for championships, Garland Legacy is the new USCA ice maker for championships. Due to the loss of the availability of championship rocks which the USCA has rented in the past, the USCA is purchasing five sets of stones for use in championships. There are a number of local sites hosting championships. Portage will host the USCA Senior Nationals; Madison will host the 2010 Club Nationals and Madison will also host the 2012 Junior Nationals. The summer camp previously held in Eau Claire will be held in Green Bay this year. The dates are July 24^th to the 26^th. Rice Lake will be holding a team camp for juniors, August 13^th to the 16^th. 

 

 

     Kellie Krake is the regional coordinator for training and instruction for Wisconsin. She also helped out with programs in Illinois. 204 people were trained through USCA program this past season.

 

     Membership conferences are being revamped to look to hold mini conferences throughout the various regions in the country. These mini conferences would be tailor made to topics as requested by the regions. If Wisconsin is interested, we should contact the USCA office.

 

     Fall mailing of USCA materials will be going out in September. These fall mailings go to the President of the local curling club. This last year a survey was put in with the materials asking for completion and return. Out of the 150 surveys sent, 20 came back. Of the 20, on a random drawing, four clubs were selected to receive curling banners from the USCA. None of these clubs were from Wisconsin.

 

     Curling has now been nominated to be the official winter sport of South Carolina. 

 

 

 

     Universal Sports has broadcast a number of U.S. curling games on cable and on the internet. In China, with one national sports channel, there were over 70 million Chinese watching China play in the World University Games. Also there was wide exposure to the Chinese audience with the Women’s World Championships.

 

 

     As sponsored by the IOC, there will be contested Youth Winter Olympic Games in Innsbrook, Austria. The dates are January 13^th to the 22, 2012. This is an event that will be completely funded by the IOC. The USCA will be charged with selecting a team. This will be a mixed team representing the United States.

 

 

 

     Turkey has become the 45^th member of the WCF. They will host the 2011 World University Games.

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Maskel - no report.

 

Judy Maier: report attached.

 

 

     Devils Lake reported that through sponsorships they grossed between $28,000.00 and $30,000.00 before the start of the 2009 Junior Nationals. Utica reported that as a result of hosting the 2009 Nationals, they make about $7,500.00. Judy has announced that this is her last year as Chairman of Site Selection. She thanks all who have helped her in acquiring host sites.

 

     There will be no Wheel Chair Worlds in 2010. Rather, the Para Olympics will be competed in 2010. World University Games occur every other year. Thus, there will be none in 2009/2010 season.

 

 

 

     Columbus, Ohio Curling Club is moving to dedicated facilities.

 

     There is a scheduled Elite Junior Camp in St. Paul. The camp will be conducted May 29^th to the 31, 2009. Kevin Martin is a guest instructor. 

 

     U-18 Optimists team competition took place in Regina, Saskatchewan. There was a boys and girls team from Wisconsin at the event. There were 3 junior men’s teams, one each from Washington, Minnesota and Wisconsin and two junior women’s teams, one each from North Dakota and Wisconsin. 

 

 

     The USWCA has approximately 2,900 members. There will be a Senior Women’s Canadian Friendship Tour which will start in Wisconsin on November 4, 2009. Senior National Bonspiel at Grand Forks, North Dakota will be held December 2^nd to 6, 2009. USWCA National Bonspiel will be held at Schenectady, New York on February 10^th to 14, 2010. In addition, the Women’s Scot Tour will be in the States January 6^th through 31, 2011. USWCA continues to provide funds to develop curlers both juniors and adults.

 

 

 

     David Garber commented in regards to the dues issue that there is strength in curling by having all curlers be a dues paying curlers registered with the USCA. An example Garber gave was the subscription base for the U.S. Curling News as contrasted with the Canadian Curling News. For both newspapers the subscription base is the same. Garber found that rather amazing given the fact that there are a million plus Canadian curlers. Garber believes that if USCA went to individual curler membership that the membership would drop to 1,000 to 1,500. Therefore, continuing the current governance structure causes there to be unity in strength of numbers of individual curlers as part of the USCA. As for championships, an option is to go to a select team model such as China or Scotland is using. This, in turn, would have a negative effect on the competitive curling opportunities for the grass roots curler. Furthermore, with a significant reduction in membership the Curling News may go away as well as there being no Stone Program for start ups.

 

 

 

 

     Green Bay, Wisconsin will be providing ice for summer camps. There has been developed an intense program for the two Olympic teams in preparation for the 2010 Olympics. The theory is that competitive success on international and Olympic stage produces positive publicity. More publicity can then be leveraged by the local clubs to generate membership. The higher the profile of the sport of curling, the easier it is to also obtain sponsorship for regional, state and local events and the curling clubs hosting the same. Over the course of the last several years, due to the higher profile of curling on T.V., the USCA has gone from having to buy time to broadcast curling on T.V. to media outlets seeking to broadcast curling events. In keeping with this development, the USCA has gone with using an arena model for hosting Nationals rather than local clubs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Suggest that the data collection for clubs by way of officers, spiel dates, etc. be made more efficient by coordinating the same with the USCA. Badger Women’s Spiel rotation information needs to be added to the website.

 

 

     By-Laws Committee met in August of 2008. Current By-Laws have been unchanged since 1998. Proposed By-Law changes were sent to the Directors with the meeting’s Agenda. David Russell explained the changes proposed to Section 7 concerning Executive Committee. Changes would provide that the Executive Committee could take action on behalf of the Board of Directors but said action would be subject being ratified by the Board at its next meeting. A question was raised as to why increasing the requirement that a curling club must have at least eight dues paying members. Russell explained that was to at least have enough members to play a game. Carlson reported that the reason for adding Section 6 concerning distribution of assets on dissolution is to position the WSCA towards 501(c)(3) status application in the future. The USCA By-Laws call for any dissolution proceeds of the USCA to be distributed only to those states and regions which are 501(c)(3) entities. Neither Wisconsin nor Minnesota are a 501(c)(3) entities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Two years ago the Women’s Championship was hosted concurrent with the Men’s. However, for the 2009 Championships the date conflicted with the Badger Women’s. Therefore, the date needed to be shifted for the State Women’s Club Championships. Portage agreed to host. Jeremy thanks Ken Ryczek for chairing the event. Two teams signed up to play. They played three ten end games in one day. The winning team from Centerville declined the berth to Club Nationals and gave their entry fee reimbursement to the runner-up from Madison to help pay their Nationals’ travel expense.

 

 

 

 

     The overall concern is having enough volunteers at the host clubs to run the clocks. It was commented that Wisconsin is the only region not using time clocks at their State Championships.

 

 

     Wisconsin continues to be strong in its participation and its level of competition. There are five Wisconsin Senior Spiels. The State Senior Spiel was hosted by Waupaca this year. Larry Sharp’s Rink won the event. In 2010 Kettle Moraine will be hosting the event; 2011 Medford; 2012 Appleton; and 2013 Wauwautosa. The WISCA Seniors had 20 teams this year. There were 15 teams playing in the Columbia County day league. There were eight teams playing on a Senior Friday Mixed League in Columbia County. The National Senior Men’s Bonspiel was held in St. Paul this year. Sixty rinks participated. The 2010 National Senior Men’s Bonspiel will be hosted by the Columbia County clubs. Dan Brunt is the Chair. A question was raised as to paying sales tax on membership and bonspiel fees. This topic was addressed in a recent U.S. Curling News article. Bernie announced that he is retiring from Senior Curling Chair. Jack Baker from Wauwautosa will be the new Chair.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     The next meeting of the WSCA is set for Saturday, October 3^rd. Jeremy will explore the availability of the USCA offices in Stevens Point to host the meeting. Upon a motion duly made by Larry Sharp and seconded by David Lewis, the meeting was adjourned upon unanimous consent. Said adjournment was at approximately 2:10 P.M.