June Newsletter

Registration opens on July 1

Are you looking forward to the 2024/2025 curling season as much as we are? Sure, the only ice you are thinking about right now is the cubes keeping your drinks nice and chilled, but on Monday, July 1 registration will open for some member-run leagues and all our club-run leagues and programs.

Some member-run leagues will have wait lists open for those who didn’t curl in them this past season but want to this coming season. Those leagues will be sending links to private registration forms at a later date for those who curled this past season. 

Certain registrations tend to fill up quickly, such as novice leagues and learn-to-curl programs. So, be sure to secure your spot and register yourself as early as possible. Visit the applicable league or program page on the VCC website.

Patrick Prade promoted to executive director

For those of you who don’t know, Patrick was hired in 2021 as general manager with the daunting task of re-opening VCC post COVID closures. In three short years we have seen huge growth with our membership numbers, our annual revenue, a large increase to staffing, and of course the addition of a partner facility with Marpole Curling Club. We are excited to see what we can all accomplish together next! 

We are hiring

Five-year operating agreement signed with Marpole CC

We are doing things differently at Vancouver Curling Club, and can boast that we may be the first curling club to ever operate two curling facilities. While other clubs around Canada are closing, we are looking to see how we can expand to support the growth and health of the sport we love.

This expansion felt obvious when we finished the 2022/2023 season with 97% ice utilization. Even if we had wanted to provide more practice time, expand a league and grow our youth programming, we didn’t have anywhere to put more curlers! The initial partnership with Marpole Curling Club started last summer and by the end of the 2023/2024 season we feel like the trial run was a success. Yes, there are many things that we are excited to do differently moving forward (we are hiring more staff!) but overall we feel that this partnership has been very rewarding with both clubs seeing an increase in membership satisfaction in the year end surveys.

To ensure stability moving forward, the board of directors from each club, our executive director and a few lawyers recently finalized the paperwork, agreeing to a five-year operating agreement. If you haven’t done so already, we recommend you check out the practice ice and the new kitchen at Marpole this fall.

Record response to annual membership survey

Thank you to all who took the time to provide your valuable feedback through our end-of-season membership survey. We had a record number of responses, and are taking our time to sift through the data and ensure that we are looking at it while we make plans for next season. We will be providing an FAQ with answers to the most commonly asked questions, along with some additional highlights, but in the meantime we would like to announce the lucky draw winners of a $50 Curling I/O credit:

Ken Naumann
Cameron Corazza
Ron McKay
Reg Lightfoot