Any Dates

[zero10]

Apexcone - I totally agree about putting together a meeting to strategize how to ensure continued access to venues while potentially allowing some shared use of the facilities.  The CSCC has a club meeting March 3, this coming Thursday, I've already got a few things to talk about for autoslalom, I'll bring this up as well.

[Terry Johns]

I would suggest that we try and get 3 people from each of the clubs. I am more than happy to be one of the representatives form the SASC.

My gut feeling is this meeting needs to be spearheaded by the WCMA. Jim your thoughts please 

[NickST]

I was also working on trying to secure this facility - for a while it was lost in lawyer land, nobody would answer my phone calls or respond to my emails, visiting the site just led to confused security guards and no useful information. 

At some point in the last month or two Sobeys seems to have acquired the building, at least now there is a name to it.  The security guard told me to come back on a weekday (as I stopped by on a Sunday just to show the facility to my wife) because there would be people in the office that I could speak to about renting the place, but that Sobeys owns it now and he thinks they want to start using it as quickly as possible.

I think this facility deserves another look but it's likely a very short time before it's in operation so we should do what we can before it's gone.

It looks like a pretty great site, even if just for a short time. It was constructed for Target, so the pavement will be really nice!

I wonder, even if Sobeys decides to fully utilize it, they must be abandoning another distribution center somewhere else. If you do get in touch with them and they shut us down, it might be worth inquiring about their old site.

[majormojo]

I would suggest that we try and get 3 people from each of the clubs. I am more than happy to be one of the representatives form the SASC.

My gut feeling is this meeting needs to be spearheaded by the WCMA. Jim your thoughts please 

Sorry if I'm late chiming in, I just caught this today. I agree, I think WCMA can play a role in helping our affiliated clubs with securing and sharing venues. I have the support of the WCMA board to facilitate the process and to advocate for our affiliates however we can.

That said, what I'd like to do is set up conference call with some leaders or designated reps from the AB clubs and brainstorm some ideas for how WCMA can assist with PR and advocacy for the clubs. I will send out some emails to club leaders shortly and see what I can get organized this week.

[zero10]

I was under the impression the WCMA was years away from taking over administratively when it comes to arranging venues?  I'm all for having more help with securing venues I just want to be clear on what I should expect

Also, by chance are most people who would be in on this meeting located in Calgary?  If so we could probably arrange use of the CSCC clubhouse, it's mostly unused and really I'm just looking for an excuse to help increase the utilization!

[majormojo]

I don't think we'd get involved in arranging venues directly, but would provide whatever support we can to clubs and help to facilitate the clubs working with each other. Can we provide letters of support? Send representatives to help with presentations to vendors or governments? Help with public communications? 

[Reijo]

A good idea ... gives us some indicator of legitimacy ... not just a group of yahoos from Calgary or something ... thx Jim!   e.g. ASN/FiA Canada ... which also hosts the Montreal GP, road racing in Canada ... etc. etc. That means something and also indicates publicity nation-wide ... always good for a little town that is not doing well economically.

R

[Terry Johns]

I was under the impression the WCMA was years away from taking over administratively when it comes to arranging venues?  I'm all for having more help with securing venues I just want to be clear on what I should expect

Also, by chance are most people who would be in on this meeting located in Calgary?  If so we could probably arrange use of the CSCC clubhouse, it's mostly unused and really I'm just looking for an excuse to help increase the utilization!

No ones trying to take over, surely we are all pulling together to secure what we have. 

[Reijo]

Yah....not sure where you got the idea that WCMA was trying to "take over" ... I know Penny and some others just did not seem to understand that point even though I tried to explain the situation that Gerard Tobin explained to us.   Oh well    

[zero10]

When the presentation was made to the executive team at the CSCC clubhouse it was stated that the WCMA was looking to take a leading role in booking new venues and managing existing venues.

The concerns raised by Penny and others were about the WCMA taking over ownership / direction of the clubs, which it has already been made perfectly clear is not going to happen and was not the plan.

[Terry Johns]

So what's the problem !

Good quote:

"Its amazing what you can done when no one is looking for the glory"

No one is trying to take over anything, anybody that thinks otherwise has lost site that we're on the same team. 

[zero10]

Exactly, let's make this happen!

Everybody did dodge the question about whether the meeting could be held in person . Conference calls always take many times longer than meeting in person.

[majormojo]

If you can arrange an in-person meeting in Calgary, that's great too. The reason I suggested a conf call was because I was thinking about a gathering of members from Red Deer, Calgary and Edmonton (me at least, maybe someone from ASA) and figured it would be most expedient.

And yeah, WCMA isn't interested in taking over anything, just wanting to lend support and help however possible. As an example, our new WCMA president (Andy de Boon) has enquired about attending the council meeting to support access to the facility. If the club thinks that would be helpful, we can discuss it in more detail.

I'd like to think that the backing of ASN/FiA would be useful, but my gut tells me that the influence of the local businesses will be what really matters. I think the plan to contact any locals we know there is a good one.