Presidents Corner – March 2023
Dear Members,
Well here we are only a few weeks away from the start of our new season, I hope you all have had a safe and enjoyable winter and looking forward to getting back out on the greens.
Your Board of Management have already been working behind the scenes in preparation for an exciting year with our JDF Schedule and Calendar of Events already established. The BSI Schedule is also complete for those interested.
As you already know we are hosting the Canadian National Championships from August 18th through August 26th where you will get to see firsthand the best bowlers from all over Canada competing in Singles, Pairs and Fours to see who will be crowned our National Champions.
The Host Organizing Committee have already started the planning however there will still be plenty of opportunities for any of our Members who wish to be directly involved in volunteering for the many tasks required, we shall keep you posted on our needs going forward.
Pleased to report that Westshore personnel have now completed all the plinth replacement on all four greens and have replaced the backboards where needed and will be working on the ‘grass’ in the coming weeks to get ready for our Opening Day on Saturday April 29th.
We have our four Open Houses scheduled for April 15th, 16th, 22nd & 23rd from 1.00 pm til 3.00 pm so make sure you drop by and invite your friends and neighbours to come on down and give lawn bowling a try. Our Coaches will be on hand to introduce them to the sport and we hope many of you will also be available to help out as needed in the event that we have a great turnout.
I would also like to congratulate five of our Members who have successfully completed the Club Coach Certification held at Juan de Fuca on March 25th, Gerry Clark, Mary Darling, Cathy Robertson, Jocelyn Skrlac & William Whitelaw, well done 👌and thanks for giving back to the sport.
Also many thanks to Joanne Cowan & Sharon Ward for obtaining their Food Safe Certification held at Gordon Head LBC also on March 25th, awesome job, way to go 👍
Regarding Membership fees, there has been some increase and changes to our Categories this year, as many of you are already experiencing, post Covid inflation has been rampant on just about everything these days and as a result Westshore has found it necessary to increase our fees by 10% therefore our regular full membership for 2023 will be $255.
Bowls Canada & Bowls BC also changed their fee structure and criteria for assessment and are now calculated based on all playing members of each Club regardless if they belong to two or more, therefore there is no longer a need or a requirement for a ‘Secondary Member’ category however our Associate Member will continue.
We are also pleased to report that our application for the New Horizon for Seniors Grant was again successful this year as was ones from ViaSport, details of which will be relayed to you at our SAGM following Opening Day Bowling on April 29th.
Well, that’s all the news for now so hope to see most of you at our Open Houses coming up and on Opening Day,
Take care,
Regards,
Jack