Brutal Assessment of BVCCSC's Future

[BV XC Ski Club]

*A brutally honest assessment*

*of the future of the BVCCSC*



Our club is in excellent shape right now: a lot of work has gone into the
trails, facilities and programs offered at the Nordic Centre; our finances
are sound with money in various reserves to buffer us against emergencies
or unexpected costs; and we have several seasoned volunteers who help those
with less experience at whatever task is at hand. But that header is not
just click-bait. This club is in trouble if things don’t change.

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We need members to step up to help govern the club. This is a different
type of volunteering than helping by timing at a race, helping in a child’s
program or stepping up to groom the trails. Those roles and others like
them are important. But now we are talking about the overarching roles:
making sure that all the parts work smoothly together in the present and
that we plan for the future. We are talking about volunteering to sit on
the board of directors and help guide the club. *Specifically, we need 1-2
directors of operations and a president; directors-at-large are also
needed. *We meet once a month, we are friendly and easy to work with.
There’s no weird dynamics or power playing going on. This is as good as it
gets for a volunteer board.



If you read club newsletters and emails, you’ll know that we have been
trying to find people to fill specific vacancies on the board for many
months; directors-at-large (i.e. not attached to a specific aspect of the
club) are also needed. Please understand that the present directors can’t
just work harder to cover the gaps as some of you have suggested. Although
that has happened to some degree, it is unsustainable in the longer term
because present board members are burning out. And a couple of long-time
board members are due to step down next year.



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Some of you have suggested that it should be those members who are now
retired who should step up because they have more time. If you look around
at the skiers who are now retired, you’ll find that most of them have
already taken their turn running various aspects of the club and they did
it while they were still working.



We need a larger demographic on our board and would be very interested
in younger/middle-aged adults joining. And it would be good to have men
join our all-female board. It is also important that you understand that
our General Manager can’t do it all. He has taken on a lot of additional
work but has hit the limit of how much more he can do.



What will happen if the club can’t recruit more directors? Here is where we
tie back to the “brutally honest” in the header. We will not be able to
continue in the same capacity: the club will gradually deteriorate. And we
will all pay the price.



We hope to have our AGM in late October or November. This is where a new
slate of directors will be voted in. That gives you a couple of weeks to
think about it. If we don’t get some offers for directors then we may need
to push the date of our AGM. Please feel free to contact any of the present
board members with questions or email feed...@bvnordic.ca if you are
interested.



Thank you for reading this request and considering it,



BVCCSC Board of Directors





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