Meeting Date:
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Approved 5/8/10
WISCONSIN STATE CURLING ASSOCIATION
MEMBERS/BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETINGS
Date: October 3, 2009
Place: Poynette Curling Club, Poynette, WI
MEMBERS’ MEETING:
Members’ meeting called to order at 9:30 A.M. by President, Jeremy Roe. Due to a scheduling conflict, Vicki Griepentrog presented the High School Curling Report from the Directors’ meeting before the before the Roll Call and presented the Club Report for Pardeeville first and not in the normal, alphabetical sequence in which the Club Reports are usually presented.
HIGH SCHOOL CURLING: - Vicki Griepentrog reported:
Vicki’s report is attached as Appendix A. Vicki stated, ”High School Curling is not Juniors.” Information on staring a High School team will be added to the WSCA website. Pardeeville will host the first Junior Bonspiel the opening weekend of deer season with up to 8 competitive and 8 development teams.
ROLL CALL & CLUB REPORTS:
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, Eau Claire, Green Bay, Kettle Moraine, Madison, Marshfield, Milwaukee, Pardeeville, Poynette, Racine, Rice Lake, Stevens Point, Tri-City, Waukesha, Waupaca, Wausau and Wauwatosa. The following clubs were absent. The number in parentheses represents the consecutive meetings missed: Alpine (9), Loch Wissota (19), Lodi (4), Medford (10), and Portage (1).
Pardeeville - Vicki Griepentrog reported. Next year the club will have a new silver ceiling. Now have heat. Two “Newbie Spiels” in the Spring and Fall.
Appleton - Jim O’Neill reported. There were no summer projects. Formed a committee for remodeling of club room next year.
Arlington - Bernie Dushek reported. Installed new chiller for $8000. There will be a raffle. Will be part of Senior Nationals.
Blackhawk (Janesville)- Aaron Richards reported. Open House scheduled for 10/24. Deb McCormick is coming to give instruction and clinic to newcomers and members. Hoping that appearance of Deb and the Olympics that newcomers is well attended and membership will increase. Ice making to begin within the next week. Final preparations are being done. First Seniors event on 10/27. League play to begin first week of November. Hosting a stop on the Friendship Tour on 11/5. Three Bonspiels: Women’s First Chance is 11/6-8; Mixed in January; Mens in March. Hosting Women’s Challenge Round first weekend of February 2010. Regret to announce the passing of one of our founding members. Jerry Seidl passed away on Sunday, September 27, 2009 at the age of 88. He curled until he was 87. He was at every event last year, but did not curl. He helped found the club in Janesville in 1967 and was the ice maker for 25+ years.
Centerville – Dan Lilla reported. Membership is creeping up. New paint for the ice.
Clintonville – Bernie Dushek reported. Will be adding a peaked roof. Crushed sandstone in ice house. Membership is stable.
Eau Claire – Geoff Goodland reported. Membership is stable. Lease is half over. Need to maintain relationship with county. Keycard security system is being installed. Men’s bonspiel is big mix of club and competitive curlers.
Green Bay - Bill Wilberg reported. Held Summer Olympic Training, a 24 team Summerspiel, Badger State Games, and Junior Clinic. Had 4 Open Houses, a Fun Night and a Battle of the Babes with good turn out. Having Spring and Fall Open and Beginners Leagues. Hosted USCA Lunch. Received Early Ice Grant. Did the following ice house renovations: floor board replacements; plastered & painted; new carpet;, chipped/ground ice and repainted with Olympic, USCA and World logos; double paned glass.
Kettle Moraine - Dave Lewis reported. Not much over summer. Added card access. For second golf outing will notify earlier.
Madison – Rich Lepping reported. Will start middle of October. Holding Halloween Spiel. Will host US Club Nationals in mid February. Added dehumidification. Membership is steady but lost a few mwmbers.
Marshfield - Tom Krake reported. Holding the same for membership. Hosting Wisconsin Mixed Championship in February.
Milwaukee - Matt Goelzer reported. A secure home is the number one priority. Options are secure a new lease or pursue the Ozaukee County Fairgrounds option where the club will share a building with the county. (County’s idea) Fundraising is the key to making it happen. Hope to be in new facility next fall, but that is uncertain. May need to negotiate additional year with Ozaukee Country Club. New facility plan is for 5 sheets although some are lobbying for 4, but don’t know why. Membership is flat or slightly down.
Poynette - Jeff Koch reported. Maintained status quo over summer. Membership steady. Have had ice since late August.
Racine – Mike Dry reported. Membership expected to remain steady. WE Energies installed new electric service at their request and left the club with about $2000 unexpected expense.
Rice Lake - Larry Sharp reported. Started ice the first week of August. Had Junior camp mid August and a full bonspiel late in the month. Membership is stable at 230 – 260 members. Tech College program seems promising. 19 have begun and they picked up 14 members last time. The heat recovery system heats the ice house off of 1 compressor/condenser. Cost was $4500 with a $1700 rebate. They do not use any gas for heating the ice house. Any questions on details may be directed to sharp1@charter.net
Stevens Point - David Garber reported. Point’s membership is stable at 120 - 130. Will host national Club playoffs. Cashspiel will be December 18 -20. Took out the south walkway. Rocks were reconditioned (“done every 30 years whether they need it or not”). Dave passed Level 1 ice maker test. Read Dave’s article in Curling News on ammonia danger.
Tri-City - Jon Neidhold reported. Nothing new
Waukesha, Greg Dunlop reported. Nothing new.
Waupaca - Dennis Girard reported. Membership and finances are stable. The board has established a membership committee that is aggressively pursuing new members. They are planning on sending out about 300 pamphlets to prospective curlers inviting them to our open houses. In the past we advertised our open houses by radio and newspaper and had somewhat poor attendance. Hope this new more personal touch will work. Our major projects for the year are complete. Those of you who come to Waupaca will see a newly paved parking lot and new ice house lighting. Will have a new locker room next year.
Wausau – Howie Fisher reported. We have approximately 262 adult members 60 students 12 social members This equals approximately 334 total members. It is still a little premature to evaluate whether or not our membership increases, decreases or remains the same. We have 3 area High Schools that participate in a 14 week curling season. These 3 schools bring about 175 students through the doors of the curling club. After the first couple weeks, these numbers dwindle down to about 125 total for those programs. The 60 student members referred to above are dues paying league members that are likely to be on the school teams as well. We have a University of Wisconsin Marathon County team as well. This is a 2-credit phy-ed class that is growing in popularity. We currently host 6 regular bonspiels every year. 1st Chance, Highlanders, High School Bonspiel, Badger State Games, Men's Bonspiel and our Silver Spoon. We are also in the rotation for the Badger Women's Bonspiel. We are planning several weeks of Open Houses to coincide with the Winter Olympics this year. We are in negotiations with Marathon Park to build a new curling club. Unfortunately, things have not progressed as rapidly as we would like. The economy has played a role in the Park's budget and we are still waiting on their land acquisition to continue our plans for the future. In the meanwhile, we are looking to fix our ice field's floor. We are afraid the old floor and pipes will not last as long as it will take to get into a new facility. Our Board of Directors is currently seeking information and estimates on a new ice field or new or used mats. If any of you here know of any club that is selling their mats, please contact Terri Fisher at 715-675-6921. We have a 501(c)3 status and are a non profit club. In accordance with the law, we are paying our taxes on any income that is generated in the club. This means bonspiel profits, ice rental for business outings and dues. This is a departure from past practices and we were alerted to the dangers of an audit from the article in the Curling News. We are contracting our insurance with the USCA for liability, and with Bay Insurance Agency, John Hoffman as agent, for our contents coverage. At the start of this season, we will attempt to have a signed waiver for every body that steps out on the ice. We also hosted our second annual golf outing. Rookie clinic will be Oct. 31. Will start making ice on Monday.
Wauwatosa – Greg Dunlop reported. Not much new. All the other facilities at Hart Park upgraded. There is more pressure on parking. Due to bridge work, the only access will be off state street.
Bonspiel Poster – Jeremy Roe asked for Bonspiel updates by Monday. Posters will be sent to clubs and published on the website. We will start collecting info at spring meeting next year. Bernie Dushek noted that Appleton is hosting Senior Women’s same time as Men’s Senior Nationals. This will deplete available staffing. Jim O’Neill will provide a contact for Bernie to call regarding potential rescheduling. Superior will not be on the poster since they failed to respond to Jeremy’s repeated overtures.
Upon a motion duly made by ____________ , seconded by _________ and carried by unanimous vote, the Members’ Meeting was adjourned.
DIRECTORS’ MEETING:
Board of Directors’ Meeting was called to order by President, Jeremy Roe, at ________ A.M.
Secretary Michael Dry thanked Dave Carlson for taking minutes in his absence at the Spring meeting. Upon a motion duly made by Rich Lepping and seconded by Dave Garber, the Minutes of the April 25, 2009 meeting were approved unanimously.
TREASURER’S REPORT - Greg Dunlop reported:
There will be a full report in the spring. If you need more details contact Greg. We have about $7900 in the bank and will need to pay $175 web hosting fees. Dues will remain at $1.50 per member. A letter will go to each club and will also go with the USCA notice.
Presentation by Rick Patzke – USCA COO:
Thanked clubs for developing the curlers who became our Olympians. 3 are from Wisconsin. We need to work in our communities to get people onto the ice. Quoting Brian Billick: “Winning is about changing the culture.” To that end, focus is on 1) Operational excellence through more member benefits and staff service; 2)community engagement; 3) revenue; and 4)high performance through new regimens and training to produce materials for use at all levels. Showed video, “Amazing Awaits.” Copies are available. Provided FY10 Budget attached as Appendix B.
Showed video, “Amazing Awaits.” Copies are available.
Q & A session:
Q: What were ratings for Olympic coverage last time? They seemed high. What will coverage be? Networks?
A: Coverage will be same amount as last time on MSNBC & CNBC. Times will be 11AM, 4PM and a delayed broadcast at 9PM. The joke is that MSNBC stands for “Must Show Nothing But Curling. Games will also be streamed on the net. Ratings were up 500% from 2002 to 2006. We will be spending $100,000 for Nationals coverage if sponsors come forward.
Q: Are dues going to pay for programming?
A: Most of the cost is paid by the networks or WCF grants. IOC knows that most of the curling revenue is from U.S. viewers.
Q: Member services are only $30,000-40,000 out of a $1,700,000 budget. Where is the rest of the dues going?
A: There are other budget items that apply to clubs such as junior stipends, curling news, and staff expenses to support clubs that appear under a different category. Dave Lewis reports that he had an accountant look at the published USCA budget and he found it unenlightening. There was much discussion about the need for more concrete information from the USCA regarding benefits to clubs. Dave Garber suggested budget allocation of club related expenses. Rick stated that the USCA would do that.
Jeremy thanked Rick for his presentation and thanked Walt Erbach and Richard Maskel for inviting him.
A break was taken from 11:20 AM to 11:35 AM.
USCA DIRECTORS’ REPORTS:
Mark Swandby reported.
Distributed from the USCA Fall meeting the COO Report (attached as Appendix C) and the Kalamazoo Organizing Committee Executive Summary (attached as Appendix D.)
There are two new members of the Hall of Fame Paul Pustovar as Curler and Kaytaro Sugahara as Builder.
There will be no dues increase this year, but next year will probably increase $2.
Due to lack of participation, the CurlTV contract will be discontinued.
Kelly Krake has taken on the duties for event siting.
Nationals will be at Kalamazoo.
Kelly is the training coordinator.
There are requests for additional stones from the rock program.
Curling camps were held at Green Bay and Rice Lake.
GNCC is developing a TV commercial – hopefully.
Animators from Hollywood Curling have put together a curling based Simpsons episode that will probably air 1/31/10.
Member services conferences will be broken into smaller, regional events.
McDonalds wants a female curler for a promotion.
Today show is to feature Olympic Curling on 11/4.
There is a $20 discount if you register for championship playdowns by deadline. Allocation of teams from qualifiers will be based on strength of field from each.
New ice maker is from Grand Forks.
USCA is working on an ice maker certification for benefit of clubs.
There is no more age limit for Mixed Nationals.
There needs to be a responsible adult at all events for each curler under the age of 21.
There is Talk of testing to enforce zero blood alcohol rule at all National Junior events.
USCA is accepting applications for team leader positions. Deadline is 10/25.
Application process for Kurizawa Spiel (Japan) will include consideration of competitive background.
A Coaching training program is being developed.
Dave Carlson reported.
Mark Swandby is team leader for the Olympics.
Round robin tickets are available. USCA has tickets at a lower price than through official channel.
USCA Nationals are in honor of Chris Moore.
Dues will increase from $27 to $29 in 2010-11 season. (were $8 in 1991)
Trajectory of donations is downward. ($90,000 in 1991; $20,000 last year) Need to push donations! Directors will be contacted.
There will be a strategic planning session during the first weekend of nationals. Contact Dave Carlson or Walt Erbach with suggestions.
USCA governance rules now allow voting by email.
Walt Erbach reported.
Voting strength is determined by dues paid by January 2010.
Trying to modify training to improve team cohesiveness, strength & conditioning, sports psychologist, techniques & delivery (producing a video), technical analysis, trainer, strategy & tactics.
Scottish model has been discussed but there is a concern with lack of teamwork.
Kelly Krake reported.
Olympics is free advertising.
USCA needs clubs to host events in the 2010-11 season.
It’s good that USCA events are listed on WSCA Bonspiel Poster.
Reminder to use Kelly as a training resource to bring USCA techniques to clubs.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT - Jeremy Roe reported:
Directors info is on the website.
Jeremy received a communication from GNCC proposing development of TV commercial(s). This message will be forwarded to the clubs. Madison is planning an advertising blitz during the Olympics. The USCA is probably kicking in some cash. Should the WSCA kick in? Some clubs may not be able to buy airtime. Public Service Announcement airtime may be available. General feeling is that we should take it to the clubs. Questions to be answered /issues to be addressed: 1) What level of funding is being requested? 2) How do we verify quality? 3) Most clubs lack media buying expertise. 4) Is it OK to use “Olympic?” It’s probably OK; Rick Patzke will verify. 5) Should the USCA and or regions pay for production? Jim O’Neill moved to approve up to $1000 for commercial production providing that at least ten clubs want to proceed. Bill Wilberg seconded the motion and the motion carried.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
RULES - Richard Maskel absent.
DIRECTORY/WEBSITE - Mark Hartman reported:
Mark thanks the directors for their vision.
The Bonspiel list is on the website.
Should be able to get club officer info from the USCA, but will still need to get Club WSCA Directors and Badger Women’s rep info.
Vicki G. provided info on High School website additions.
JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP - Mark Hartman reported:
Junior Championship will be in Eau Claire December 26-30. There should be a Certified Level III Official present. A lot of teams are expected. Across the street is Metropolis Hotel with a water park.
MEN’S & WOMEN’S STATE CLUB PLAYDOWNS - Jeremy Roe reported:
Had to reschedule the men’s from week 3 to week 2 (same weekend as women’s) due to conflict with USCA resulting from Olympics. Events will be at Tri City and Stevens Point< January 14-17.
Multiple club siting doesn’t work with triple knockout and several people do not like the format. A suggestion was made to go back to a round robin pool format. Teams were queried and the result was 5 teams for; 2 against. Every team would play on every one of four sheets.
Concerns were raised about the need to change dates and its affect on clubs. Jeremy would like to settle on week 2 going forward.
WCF may move some championships from spring to December.
MIXED CHAMPIONSHIP - Jeremy Roe reported:
Will be February 5-7 in Marshfield. A local person is needed to run it.
SENIOR CULING - Bernie Dushek reported:
Jack Baker will be taking over from Bernie. At Kettle Moraine this year. Next four years are set up. Question on operating issues were discussed.
OLD BUSINESS:
None.
NEW BUSINESS:
None
USCA Spring meeting date is undecided. The next meeting of the WSCA is set for Saturday, May 8 at the USCA offices in Stevens Point. Upon a motion duly made by Jim O’Neill and seconded by Aaron Richards, the meeting was adjourned with unanimous consent at approximately 1:50 P.M.
Submitted by Michael Dry, Secretary
Poynette Curling Club
| Attachment | Size |
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 Oct 3 Meeting Appendices.pdf | 312.87 KB |