Board of Directors Club Priorities Meeting - 2026-07-22

Board of Directors Club Priorities Meeting Minutes

22-July-2026

Call to Order:

Darryl Horsman called the meeting to order at 5:35 p.m. by video conference call.

Darryl explained the purpose and goals of the meeting.

• Come up with root causes for the clubs needs and develop 2026/27 priorities with expectations that each committee should define a key priority.

Club Priorities:

1. Membership
   1. Target for number of members should be 300 members with 255 leagues playing members by end of 26/27 season, numbers of past growth to be confirmed by Joe. Target for 7 years should be 350 members??
   2. Question re: why do we need to make significant increase in members? To meet other future goals.
   3. How are we measuring league playing members?
   4. Assignment: Joseph will crunch numbers to come up with realistic member increases based on history

2. Capital Campaign for replacement/rejuvenation of new or existing facility – prospective committee members – Ben White, Mark Anderson, Paige Peterson, Scott Schmidt, Elena Burr. Should have a real estate person. The Committee should come up with a plan covering best and worst case scenarios.
   1. Come with an expected total requirement.
   2. Come up with a plan on how to start allocation reserves to the capital campaign.
   3. Come up with plan for fund-raising overall.
   4. Assignment: Committee will come up with optional plans and numbers.

3. Building Committee
   1. Come up with complete work plan for short term (summer 26) renovations.
   2. Come up with a 26/27’ish formal plan for small remodel (Warm Room)- reconfiguring bar location, office move, close back hallway. Explore space efficiency.
   3. Come up with a plan for a major full remodel, locker rooms, full kitchen. Possibility of adding 1 or 2 new sheets and service accommodations e.g. kitchen. More sheets could mean new or revamped compressor(s).
   4. Assignment: Wayne will work with building committee to work on plans and come up with a range of numbers and time. Involve an architect if necessary.
4. Leagues
   1. Increase league revenue with an increase of either number of players or fees by 5% each year. A suggestion that if we increase fees then concentrate on corporate sponsorship.
   2. Come up with a 12-month (or other interval) payment plan to help members who have large session league fees. Biggest problem will be getting the registration system to handle it. Assignment: Joseph and Ben will investigate options for payment plan.
   3. Try a new Saturday league, times/format to be determined.
5. Skills
   1. How do we increase corporate events. Payment of trainers may be the only option to significantly increase number of events. Increase costs by 20%??  Assignment: Wes, Lindsay, Mark, Ben – work on strategizing a payment option with 1099 options.
6. Volunteer and Stats
   1. Need to come up with stats and numbers for the impact of the Volunteer Appreciation program.
   2. Need to review the club management application that we use and see if there are alternate options. Assignment: Lindsay, Debbie, Joseph will work to find better ways to use current application or find a replacement.

Cleo van der Veen notes for Governance Committee:

5 year plan goals:

1. Boring responsible stuff:
   1. Board training and strategic planning training through Board Source or similar organization.
   2. Increase liability coverage to 2-3 million. We run a bar onsite. If we had an incident that ran over the 1m in damages, each and every one of us is responsible unless we have a mechanism to protect us. So to comply with our own bylaws we should probably increase our insurance coverage.
   3. Full financial audit, and claim our own guide-star account. This is partially in preparation for part 2.
   4. Membership wants to know what we’re up to in these meetings and we should make it easier to attend. We also should provide a clear path to bring ideas forward to the board, especially for new curlers. 

2. Securing long-term home for the club, whether we become co-owners of our current space, or move somewhere new, we need to be thinking about this quite a bit. Owning our own building would lock in what we pay for our building and over time we could use the money we save to offer programs that align with our mission and vision. 

3. In order to build enough cash to achieve #2, we need to aggressively fundraise. 
   1. Build a committee. I usually say that we don’t need committees, but this one is needed. We would need with an individual with experience in NONPROFIT advancement/fundraising.
   2. I am asked how to donate via the AZ tax credit system at LEAST twice a week since I was elected. We have to do this so I can get anything else done around here. 
   3. Planned giving. Let’s see if we can do this. I’ve been asked frequently why we don’t have a planned giving campaign yet. 
   4. Grants and sponsorships. Let’s go for them, especially for women’s events, wheelchair/adaptive curling equipment, kids rocks, and accessibility upgrades. Some operate on 2-year cycles. We may need to pay someone to prepare the bigger ones. 
   5. Ask for money. Put an easy way to donate on the site. 

4. Start a volunteer committee/coordinator:
   1. No one is formally in charge of matching people and their expertise to the right opportunities. This has to change or we will wear ourselves out. The biggest complaint from U2 curlers is that we filled out a web form or a card for volunteering and no one got back to us. As a club we really cannot continue to whine about a lack of volunteers if we don’t allow people opportunities to help when they offer. 

5. New curler retention: new curlers AND new types of people who curl.
   1. Expand the number of people comfortable in lead instructor role, including one woman who regularly leads intro to curling or try curling sessions in preparation for next Olympic cycle.
   2. Require at LEAST one volunteer be a woman at every intro to curling/try curling series. Yes, we will need to do outreach for this. 
   3. Build cohorts of volunteers who work well together to sign up together as helpers or instructors as a team, this could be done in collaboration with the volunteer coordinator. 
   4. Formalize the informal mentorship system a bit. We need to encourage everyone to adopt a U1/U2 curler on a night they curl and remind them to sign up for and volunteer for things. 
   5. Add a hospitality position for the first few intro to curling/try curling that makes coffee and tea for the break and brings out the mitten/hat box and hand warmers. 
   6. Run multiple intro to curling series concurrently on different days of the week if there is demand. 
   7. More silly fun events/bonspiels that run the weekend or one day to build new curler confidence twords full bonspiels. 
   8. Start the process of acquiring kids’ stones. We have a bunch of 2 year olds at the club, and I understand this equipment can take some time to find, so the clock is ticking! We have 3.5-4years to find and buy mini rocks and tiny sliders and little grippers! And build a curriculum and get someone certified in kids curling if we need to. So cute! 
   9. Use off-season in-person events to recruit new curlers from a variety of demographics. Web advertising is good, but as AI determines more and more who can see what, it can reinforce existing inequities, so in person recruiting is still important! This can be easy and fun and simple as wearing shirts and bringing postcards or flyers to events we already attend, like trivia, sports events, or festivals. And we have to bring Mike to talk to strangers. 

Next Meeting: At the call of the President.

Adjournment: A motion was made by Debbie Aubrey and seconded by Joseph Rice ‘to adjourn the meeting at 7:33 p.m.’ The motion Carried unanimously with no further discussion.

Respectfully Submitted,

W. Seeger, Secretary

Coyotes Curling Club