Business of Curling
Club Operations Manual
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Awards & Scholarships
For further information contact Curling Canada at 1-800-550-2875 or by e-mail to [email protected]. Curling Canada offers a number of awards applicable to curling clubs in this country.
Board of Directors
Generally, volunteer Boards of curling facilities are responsible for the following:
• Leadership
• Vision for the future
• Ensure the club continues as a curling rink
• Accountability to the membership and the community
Bonspiels
Curling could not exist without competition. Within each club, healthy competition is needed between regular and experienced players, or play will fall to a discouraging level. Inter-club play is needed to try new competition.
Communication
Timely and effective communication is one of the more significant ‘measurements’ of a healthy curling organization. Communication takes place at the club and individual level and both are important to success – no matter the size!
Competition Hosting
Under construction.
ROUND-ROBIN SCHEDULES FOR LEAGUE CURLING
Energy Efficiency
Achieving energy efficiency in a curling facility is critical to not only the bottom line but to the overall success of your operation… There are a number of time-proven steps developed to help you implement a sound energy management program. Rushing off without a plan or a set of objectives will often result in disappointment.
Grants & Foundations
This guide lists provincial and territorial grants only.
High Performance
The mandate of the National Training Centre is to serve competitive curling teams. We work with member teams in the NTC programme in the areas of technical evaluation & development, mental preparation, team dynamics, game plan preparation, nutrition counseling, physical preparation, practice planning & implementation and coaching assistance.
Making Ice
Arena Ice: Hockey players and general skaters do not require the extremely flat ice surface that is necessary for curling. Therefore, the ice-resurfacing process must be slightly modified to accommodate the needs of curling.
Media
Being aware of the context in which the media works will help you in your publicity efforts for your club. To be effective, you will need to understand who controls the flow of information at a newspaper, television or radio station and how he/she functions.
Membership
To put it bluntly, the reason existing curlers are dropping out and many new curlers are not coming into curling clubs is because they do not find the existing benefits of membership attractive in relation to the fee they pay. Our curling clubs are not delivering the customer service required to “keep what we work so hard to get”.
National Certification Programs
The Curling Canada Ice Technician Program is a five level program. The first three levels of the program are designed to assist the Ice Technician to make excellent ice in the curling clubs. Level 4 and 5 focus on ice making in arenas for major competitions.
Operations
This section recognizes that there are a lot of smaller clubs that do not have full time or even part-time staff and are run entirely by volunteers. While the information that follows may be more suited for the larger clubs, Board members and volunteers who deal with some of these issues may find it helpful.
Promotion and Advertising
Important Definitions: Customer: any individual, group of individuals, organization or corporation that utilizes a curling facility whether to rent ice or for non-curling purposes. Service: any program (i.e. Little Rocks) or opportunity (i.e. membership, lounge rental) that a curling facility offers to its customers. Product:a curling facility’s product is the game itself. The product includes any league, bonspiel or competition at the club, but also includes food and beverage and lounge rental opportunities.
Sponsorship
What makes one effective? 1. The property must be good for both the curling club and the sponsor; 2. There must be consideration in the following areas: Sponsor awareness, Hospitality opportunities for the sponsor, and the opportunity for the sponsor to make money.
Volunteers
If you would like an accessible version of these PDFs, please email [email protected].
Volunteers and volunteer programs don’t just happen. Like designing a new home, a volunteer program requires careful planning. For a volunteer program to be successful, two critical factors must be considered: a) volunteers must feel that what they are doing is important and that your cause is worthy; and b) a system that encourages and supports the volunteer effort must be established.