President’s Report
Thank you all for sticking it out through this difficult year. Despite the limited time to curl and additional sacrifices and efforts needed by volunteers and members alike, this club did a great job of managing to get in as much curling as we could, and did so as safely as possible.

We owe a debt of gratitude to this year’s board: Al Teasdale, Karen Hoban, Cheryl Eason, Len Hanischuk, Lei Davies, and all of the league representatives. They worked tirelessly during the months leading up to the season developing our Return to Curl Policy and then continued throughout the season making sure we were abreast of the latest available information. This work involved a lot of research, liaising with Curl BC and viaSport, and a great deal of discussion and collaboration. All of that resulted in us being able to continue to safely play our game for as long as possible with a policy that I feel ranks with the best available. I would especially like to thank Al Teasdale and Karen Hoban for their incredible work on this. The amount of time and energy they put into this is probably a lot more than most people realize.

As always, thanks also to Al Sutherland and his ice crew for again giving us the best ice in the city. And not least, thanks to Dan Henderson and the Township of Esquimalt for their help and support, and for being willing and able to make the accommodations and facility changes necessary for us to be able to curl safely.

One of the effects of the pandemic has been that we were not able to host open houses, bonspiels, or any other events this year. As such, we really didn’t have a lot of expenses and had a revenue-neutral year. Given that many of our sponsors have not been so lucky, and as a show of appreciation for the fact that they continued to sponsor us despite the difficult business climate, we decided that we would continue to promote our sponsors but would not, for this year, accept their sponsorship money.

For many years now, the Optimist Junior Curling Classic has been hosted at Archie Browning by Murray Walker. He has said that while he would like to continue to be involved, it is time to pass it on. Rachelle Perry, our juniors coach, and Sue Justasson of the C.F.B. Esquimalt League have stepped forward to take over the reins on this important junior curling event, along with help from Clay and Gail Snelling. Anybody interested in lending a hand should get in touch with them as I think we have an opportunity to turn this into a great event for junior curling in Esquimalt. This event is a part of the Juniors’ tour in B.C. in which competing teams can earn points toward qualifying for the provincial championships.

Lastly, I would like to again thank our members for being good sports despite the painful circumstances this year. Curling is a game which epitomizes sportsmanship, and part of that is making sure that everybody in the game is safe. While there were of course hiccups, you all were across the board willing to make the sacrifices needed to play the game we love while keeping your neighbours (and yourselves) safe. I cannot overstate how thankful I am for that, and it really re-affirms to me what I love about curling and the curling community.

Thank you all for this year, and here’s looking forward to much more curling in 2021-22.

Torben Wilson,
President
Esquimalt Curling Club

Attention All Members: Please attend the upcoming 2021 AGM at 12:30 PM on Sunday, March 14.  This is a link to the minutes from the 2020 AGM. If you have any additions to the agenda please let me or Karen Hoban (esqccsecretary@gmail.com) know before Sunday, March 14; if you have any revisions to the minutes please note them for discussion during the AGM.    AGENDA

We require at least 25 participants in order to have a quorum for this meeting. In the event that we do not have quorum by 30 minutes after the meeting start time (that is, by 1 PM Sunday), the meeting shall be adjourned and reconvened one week later at 12:30 PM Sunday, March 21. If this happens and we still do not have 25 members present by 1 PM on March 21, the meeting will continue and the members present shall constitute a quorum.

We have just received notice that the Curling arena, Hallway, and Curling Lounge are being transformed into a Covid 19 Vaccination Clinic. The Clinic is tentatively set to begin  March 15th.  This means that there will be zero access to the Curling Club for anyone (including the Rec centre staff) until the clinic is finished. 

Link to CTV News

At this point, it is too early to say how or if this will affect our start date in the Fall.