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Casino volunteers needed Sunday, June 4th and Monday June 5th at Cowboys Casino (near the Saddledome). Come on out and get to know your neighbours while having fun and raising money for our community. Shifts will be up to a maximum of 6 1/4 hours. Watch for further information on how to sign up for this exciting event.

Thank you Calgary for your participation and support throughout the Crowchild Trail Study.  Together we have developed recommendations for short-, medium- and long-term changes and upgrades to Crowchild Trail that reflect a balance of many ideas and perspectives, and best align with the study’s key principles and goals.

The final study recommendations will be presented to Council’s Standing Policy Committee (SPC) on Transportation and Transit:

Date: Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Time: 9:30 a.m.

Location: 800 Macleod Trail S.E. (Council Chamber)

If you are interested in speaking to Council about the study, we invite you to join us on April 19, 2017.  As with the majority of reports from City Administration, the Crowchild Trail Study will be presented to Council’s SPC on Transportation and Transit before it is forwarded on to Council.  You are welcome to speak to Committee, but not at the regular meeting of Council.  Reports are heard in the order they appear on the agenda which is published approximately four days in advance of the meeting.

More information on attending meetings of Council and Standing Policy Committees is available at calgary.ca. For more information on the study, visit calgary.ca/crowchild.

February can be a challenging month. Winter fatigue sets in, the days are still short, and the excitement of the holidays has worn off (except maybe for lingering bills). The upside is that February only has 28 days and luckily, there is no shortage of things to do in our community. Below are just a few:

• Go skating in Green Park. Many dedicated volunteers are involved with maintaining the ice rinks, regardless of weather, and they do an excellent job! I hope you will take advantage of their hard work and make the most of our Calgary winter as you enjoy the outdoors with neighbours, friends and family.

• Register your children in our community outdoor soccer program. Registration started February 1st and we hope to have teams for ages ranging from 4 to 18. This is another volunteer-run program so get involved and help out. It’s a great way for both you and your children to connect with neighbours. Information is available on our website: hh-bh.ca.

• Help us prepare to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday. Our events director, Patricia, is planning a community party on August 19 and wants you to be part of it! Come out to the workshops scheduled 2:00 – 4:00 every Sunday in our community boardroom and bring your entertainment talents. This is the perfect antidote for chilly February Sundays. Again – check our website for more details.

• Plan to come to a community Special General Meeting on Saturday, March 18 to help us update our association’s bylaws. Admittedly, this is a pretty dry topic, but to make up for it we are planning a party immediately afterwards. More details are available on our website.

• Volunteer on our community association’s board. Unfilled positions include Sears Plume Director and Co-Director for running and maintaining our facility.

• Check out our community website regularly so you’re in the loop on what’s going on. As well, find us on Facebook and Twitter and become part of our conversations, with topics ranging from lost pets, found items, safety and security updates, and sometimes, just beautiful stories or photos.

• Come and enjoy our drop-in gym programs. These include badminton Tuesday – Friday mornings, pickle ball Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, and free family gym nights on Fridays.

I wish you all a happy February that includes lots of fun activities and very little shovelling.

Laura

Happy New Year!

A new year is an opportunity to share our plans and dreams for the upcoming twelve months. So at this time, I would like to share with you what 2017 may hold in store for our community.

The biggest dream is to finally realize the goal of improving our community facility by building an addition. As many of you know, shortly after we moved into our current building in 2002, an architect was hired to design a large addition. These plans have been tucked away for over a decade and subsequent community association boards have been saving money from revenues and casinos. Members have been discussing how the design could be improved and waiting for our neighbouring library and North Hill Centre mall owners to come through with their promises of renovations so that we could work with them to have an integrated design that would best serve our community.

After several extensions given to us by the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission for future use of the proceeds we received from their casinos, we received a letter last October advising us that we would lose over $200,000 and possibly be removed from their list of charities if we did not submit a plan for the expenditure of their funds along with a time line. Suddenly, all our waiting for future collaboration with other interested parties was pressured into action.

Our response included a proposal to build a 3000 square foot addition that will be a multipurpose area. This new space will be versatile so that it can be partitioned when needed and suitable for a variety of uses such as meeting rooms, athletic studios, and banquets.  Casino funds and our sizable savings from general revenues over the years will fund the project. The time line for this project is estimated to be approximately 2 years.

As well, our board has contacted Councillor Druh Farrell and she has been sympathetic with our sudden call to action by facilitating a meeting with the city’s public library department and mall owner. We still hope that our project will fit into an integrated design even if it is done in stages rather than all at once. And we hope that you will contribute with your ideas and support so that we can create a design and renovation that will be worth the long wait! We will be asking for your input.

A much smaller project this year is to update our community association’s bylaws. They are outdated in some areas and inaccurate in others. Change requires a special general meeting with 21 days notice so please watch for further information and an invitation to attend this event.

I hope that you are looking forward to your own plans and dreams for 2017 and I wish you health and happiness.

Laura

Our Community Association board has had another busy year and as the new president of such an active and vibrant group of people, I have had to navigate a steep learning curve. Thank you to all who have helped me in this important and sometimes daunting leadership role!

I encourage you to read the directors’ reports about their many accomplishments and activities this past year. They will give you details about the many projects and activities that your board has been involved with over the last 12 months. I will now mention some of the highlights as well as thoughts on future endeavours for our community association.

First – the fun stuff! Our board voted unanimously last December to provide funds for maintenance of the outdoor rinks at Green Park. Thanks goes to Lucas Ramage for buying a snow blower and to his crew of neighbours for using it to keep the ice cleaned off. As well, our board was very happy to pay for several ice cleaning sessions to maintain the surface. The rinks were well used and enjoyed by residents of all ages and we have budgeted funds to continue maintenance again this winter!

Expenditures to also improve the enjoyment of our community facility included the purchase of a new scoreboard for the gym and, as you may have noticed at our meeting, a new outside entrance sign, and new flooring for rooms, hallways and washrooms. Thank you to Gunter Sammet for the scoreboard project and to Kathleen Staniland for applying successfully for a grant to pay for 75% of the flooring project and for supervising its installation.

Our board is trying to communicate with our residents more efficiently and effectively. Over the last year our Communication Director, Liz Stewart, has worked hard to improve and maintain our HH-BH.ca website, work with Great News Publishing to improve our newsletter, The Beacon, and set up Twitter and Face Book accounts. Thank you to Liz and her helpers for these important steps forward in engaging and communicating with residents.

Less fun but necessary was the hand-over of our community run kindergarten to the Calgary Board of Education at Briar Hill Elementary School. It was very unfortunate that our ability as volunteers to administer the program was no longer adequate, and regrettable that the change had to happen quickly due to unforeseen circumstances. The hours of work and worry that were involved were too numerous to count. I owe our board’s Education Directors, Jill Letal and JIll Hadland a huge thank you, and I thank everyone both on and off the board who supported us during this difficult project.

One worry is the decreased revenue that we have received from gym rentals. We depend on this source of income to pay for a big part of our operating budget. Some regular renters have moved to their own new facilities or other venues and we haven’t replaced them, leaving the gym empty more often. And some of the decrease may be due to our hurting local economy. Increasing facility rental must be a priority in the coming year.

And now a look into the year ahead:

Our casino funds have been carefully saved over many years with plans to use them to help finance a renovation or expansion to our facility. The Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission (AGLC) stipulates that their proceeds must be spent within a specific time period. We have been allowed to extend this period in the past but were recently told that our board must submit definite plans and a time frame in order to keep these funds. With that in mind, we have started preliminary work on a project outline which we must submit by November 24. This will be an exciting project and we look forward to receiving input from residents as it progresses!

Our cooperative play school has been an important program in our community for many years and is administered through a parent council who is ultimately accountable to our board. One priority this year is to improve our governance and strengthen our board’s ties with the play school through more direct supervision of its administration. This will also improve our community association’s support for the parents who volunteer.

One smaller but important project is to update our community association’s bylaws. As many of you know, quorum is rarely met at our AGM’s and the reality of small turn outs needs to be addressed. As well, communication has changed over the years and we no longer only rely on Canada Post and The Beacon to advertise meetings. Other articles also need to be updated and reviewed in terms of their legality and legitimacy. I hope that this will be done at a special meeting in the new year.

We are a small community with a big heart! I have been honoured to serve you and I thank you for your support in so many ways. Please know that you are always welcome to attend our meetings or communicate with board members individually, and that we value your input and participation in our community association.

Yours sincerely,

Laura