News

Matchmaking For Curlers

If you're a player looking for a team, or a team looking for a player, we suggest that you take advantage of the Discussion section of GCC's Facebook page to advertise your needs.

7Oct10 - GCC History Project Has A Blog

The 50th Anniversary History Project Committee (not the anniversary party committee) has started a blog to aid in the collection of stories and memorabilia for their two projects (a video + a memory book). You can read all about their activities and learn how to contribute memories at http://www.granite50.wordpress.com.

7Oct10 - Ice Maintenance Helper Needed Thursdays 3-5pm

One of our dedicated ice maintenance helpers recently changed jobs and is no longer able to commit to help out with our weekly Thursday scrapes that occur from 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm. As a result, we are looking for someone to fill the big shoes that have been left behind.

Performing this role does provide another perspective into all the work that goes into maintaining our ice facility. If your schedule would allow you to commit to a weekly Thursday schedule from 3:00 - 5:00 pm to help scrape, please let Philip Tilker or Doug Williams know. If we have 2 people who are interested, we can also work something out where you each share the role so the demand upon each of you reduced. Obviously, vacations and other things arise and we will work with your schedule to accommodate any specific days in which you are unable to come out.

You can reply to Philip Tilker at curler@gmail.com or Doug Williams at gccice@gmail.com.

1Oct10 - GCC Demographics

Jeremy Dinsel and Joe Roberts have been compiling and visualizing the club membership data, to aid the Finance Committee and Board in understanding how members are participating in leagues, etc. The results are pretty cool and can be seen at http://ondemand.spotfire.com/public/ViewAnalysis.aspx?file=/Users/TIBCO-SILVER-81972/Public/Public%20Analysis.

29Sep10 - Piano Available, Free

Last year, the Board decided to find a new home for the Piano, but we were unable to find anyone who was willing to take it. While it’s a lovely instrument, it’s rarely used as such, so we want to give it to a good home. If you’re interested in owning this fine instrument and will use it as it’s intended, then please let Jim Sullivan know (seattlecurler@comcast.net). We’ll sort through the requests for the piano and choose one family, at random, to take possession. You will be responsible for having the piano professionally removed from the club within two weeks of being notified, otherwise we’ll pick someone else. Requests should be sent to Jim by Oct 20th, 2010. As Is, no warrantees, all that other legal stuff apply.

14Sep10 - Member Policies Posted

Member policies regarding ice quality, equipment, substitutions, and other issues have been posted to Policies

22Aug10 - From The Finance Committee

If you volunteer at the club, please read this message. In order to fully comply with the current law, the finance committee has recommended a policy to the board on employee and volunteer compensation. The board approved this policy at the August 2010 Board Meeting.

If you've worked as an instructor at any of the Curling Outreach Events (sometimes referred to as "rentals") or in any capacity as a volunteer or if you volunteer this season, these changes are relevant to you. The need for this policy was briefly mentioned at the 2010 Annual Membership Banquet.

Volunteers
By law, we cannot pay volunteers – or they become employees. This includes paying with club credits. We can provide tokens of appreciation and make volunteer work more appealing and convenient by providing food and drink during an event. We can also provide clothing with club logos as a way of promoting the club. In the upcoming months, the board and finance committee will be looking at methods consistent with the tax code to show our appreciation to our volunteers. Most of the work members perform at the club is volunteer work. There are two exceptions:

Curling Outreach Workers
The club recognizes that it is difficult or impossible to get enough volunteer instructors to work outreach events (“rentals”) – especially on week days. Therefore we will pay outreach workers at current minimum wage as club employees. Employees shall file form W-4 and any other required forms with the club and report their hours for each event to the event coordinator. All paid instructors need to be authorized to work for any employer in the United States. The club will withhold taxes from monthly paychecks and give each employee a form W-2 at the end of the calendar year. Outreach workers may choose to donate their time and work as volunteers.

Regular Employees
The status of our current regular employees – three ice makers and a bookkeeper – does not change.

Closing
We ask for your understanding that we must operate in a manner consistent with the law. Please let us know of any concerns and constructive comments. You may reply to Doug Potter or contact the Board.

18Aug10 - 50th Anniversary Festivities

Greetings to all GCC Members, old and new! 1961-2011. That is 50 Years! Yes, this season is the 50th Anniversary for the best curling club and facility west of the Mississippi (and everywhere else). We need some great members who will assist in planning festivities all year culminating in a 50th Banquet towards the end of season. We will have a preliminary planning meeting on Wednesday, September 8 at 7 p.m. at the club. Please contact Jon Wilson if any questions and to RSVP to the meeting. Let's make the 50th year the best yet!

4Aug10 - Matchmaking For Curlers

Jim Sullivan has noticed is that we’re getting an increased number of requests on how to find potential teammates for the Skips Choice leagues. If you are a Lead Looking for a Skip, or a Back End Looking for Front End, we’d like to suggest that people take advantage of the Facebook page and in particular the Discussion section to advertise your desire and maybe find the connection you need. Skips choice leagues include: Sunday Mixed Doubles, Sunday Mixed, Tuesday SuperLeague, Wednesday Womens, Thursday Mens.

28Jul10 - Rick Patzke Meeting Audio Available

Rick Patzke, the Chief Operating Officer of the USCA, met with GCC members recently to discuss plans for selection and training of our Olympic representatives in 2014. An audio recording of the meeting, 2.5 hours in length and 35mb in size, is available for download as an MP3 file.

20Jul10 - History Project

We need your memories! As we prepare to celebrate our club’s Fifty Years of history, Derrick McLean is looking to you for help in collecting memorabilia commemorating the club’s history. Our goal is to digitally document the history of the club – including everything from photographs to pins, even equipment from the past. We plan to scan or photograph these items and return them to you. We are in great need of these items:

• Any pictures of the club from the past decades
• Pins, uniforms, equipment and other mementos that represent your curling experiences
• Your stories! If you could also share some of your favorite stories, we would love to include them in our club’s rich history.

New to curling or the club? We will also be collecting memorabilia from today’s members with the idea that we will be able to use these to include in a memory book that can be updated every decade.

How to share your items:

We would love to document your curling equipment and memories for both the club’s anniversary as well as a memory book. In order to get your much valued items documented correctly and returned to you after the fifty year anniversary (some time around May 2011) we would appreciate it if you could either mail your stuff to Derrick McLean or call him so that he can set up a time and place for you to meet with someone from the history board that lives near you. We need to get collecting these materials as quickly as possible to begin putting together the memory book; we hope to have all of the materials for the book in our possession by the end of September. If you have any memorabilia, pictures or stories you would be willing to share with the club we would love to provide the venue to do so. This will preserve our rich history for members past, present and future: all will appreciate your contributions.

In order to document your memories with accuracy, we ask that anything you submit to us be accompanied with a description or story explaining the significance of the item you are contributing. We also would like your contact information so that we can return your belongings to you. For your contact information please include: Name, Address, Phone Number and E-mail.

Derrick McLean, 715 213th St. SE, Bothell, WA 98021, (425) 478-1412

16Jun10 - Club Grippers

We're looking for your help in recovering some missing club grippers so that we can clean them over the summer.

The club purchased a collection of over one hundred grippers for use at Open Houses and Events over the previous two seasons. (You may have seen them -- they're the ugly clear and blue grippers.) The goal of this program was to ensure that all guests would step on the ice with a gripper on each shoe. This was done in response to two common problems:

Ice conditions

• The condition of the ice is a top concern of all members and appears very frequently on the membership survey
• Grippers on each foot help to cut down on the dirt that non-curlers may have on their street shoes when they arrive to curl
• Other steps are taken to clean their shoes, but the grippers provide the most protection

Safety

• Having a gripper on each shoe helps keep non-experienced curlers vertical
• After implementing this program, slips and falls have been reduced significantly

There's a huge benefit to the club and your curling experience by having these grippers available during the season for the Open Houses and Events. Unfortunately, during the season, many of the grippers were borrowed by members and kept in their lockers. This prevented the open houses and events programs from being able to use the grippers when they needed them and we were often forced to put people on the ice with only one gripper.

As the season is over, we are attempting to wash, count and replace broken grippers. After we started the cleaning process, about a dozen grippers were returned to the board room by members who had been holding onto the grippers at home or in their lockers. We're asking that if you're one of the members that still has a gripper "checked out" that you please return it to the club. The facility will be open during the board meeting tonight (which runs from 6:30 to about 8:30 PM). If you can't make it to the club tonight, please reply to jeremy.dinsel@gmail.com and arrange a time to return it. There's no penalty for returning a gripper! We're offering amnesty. If you have a gripper and return it in good condition, you'll save the club money as we won't have to buy a new replacement for it.

Next year, we are asking for your help to ensure that the grippers are available when the open houses and events need them. If you see anyone with a club gripper on their shoe (the awful blue and clear colors with "GCC" written on them), please direct them to the store where they can replace their gripper at a very reasonable cost. If the store doesn't have a gripper for their shoe size, grippers can be ordered through the store or purchased online as well. Steve's Curling Supply has good domestic shipping rates: http://www.shop.stevescurling.com/

We need your help to keep the ice clean. Having clean shoes and grippers in good condition will improve the experience for everyone--yourself included!