We are holding our AGM on Wednesday May 4, 2016 at the Pomeroy Sports Centre on the 2nd floor in the meeting room. We will start our meeting with a potluck dinner so please some join us!
Looking for Volunteers for Executive Positions for Next Season;
We will be looking to fill the positions of President, Mega Lottery Organizer and Group equipment reps (one for each group to assist Palma) for next season. If you are interested in any of these positions please speak to one of the current executive or email info@speedskating.com
Congratulations to all the skaters who participated in the Short Track Interclub Meet we held on Saturday! We had around 60 skaters participating and there were some very exciting races to watch! A lot of hard work and determination showed with some awesome skill and I saw some excellent displays of good sportsmanship and camaraderie, you should all be really proud.
Also a big “Thank You!” to all the volunteers who helped make this such a successful and exciting event. All your hard work was evident and appreciated. It takes around 40 volunteers to run these events and we had a lot of new club members helping out and mentored by those who have been with us for quite a while! It was a long day and you all did great – thank you! Also thank you to those who donated food – it really does help the volunteers make it through that long day!
CanAm Long Track Competition Calgary Oval November 27, 28 and 29, 2015
Skaters who turned 13 before July 1, 2015 are eligible to participate in this competition. Reminder that the registration deadline is November 19th 4pm.
Now that we have had our first batch of races within our club (Time Trials for Groups 3/4 and Practice Races for Groups 1/2) it is time to expand our racing experience a little bit! On November 7/15 our club is hosting a Short Track Interclub Meet. This means that skaters from Groups 1, 2 & 3 from our club and other clubs (i.e. Dawson Creek, Grande Prairie, Peace River, Prince George, etc.) compete against each other.
In order to host a meet like this, we will need help from everyone, particularly if your child is participating! If you could please have a look at the attached spreadsheet to see what areas we will need help in and get back to Susie at info@fsjspeedskating.com letting her know how you would like to help.
ALL jobs will have instruction and assistance from someone who has done the job before, no one will be on their own! We have a great group of people in charge of these jobs who will happily help you out, this is a great way to really build the club as a community and get to know the other people in it.
A quick explanation of the jobs that are available;
Place Judges; These people will be watching for the placing of racers across the finish line (i.e. first, second, third…).
Timers; Timers will have a stop watch and will be assigned certain skaters to time. They will then report their time to the chief who will take an average of all the times for each skater. Each skater has several timers.
Assistant Recorder; this person will do some clerical work to assist the recorder. The recorder enters all of the times and placements of each skater in each race.
Assistant Lap Counter; This person will help the chief lap counter to keep track of the skaters laps. This is required so that the the skater is aware of which lap they are on and so they can alert the skater that they are about to skate their last lap (they ring a bell)
Assistant Track Steward; These people are ON ICE helpers, they will help our main track steward to keep the ice in good condition. They will help fill holes if they occur and may pour water around the track to fill in the grooves, training and assistance will be provided.
Results Runners; These people will be relaying results from the timers/place judges to the recorders. They need to be on task and not get distracted, but it is not a difficult job. However children are not advised for this job as they often get distracted 🙂
Assistant Clerk of the Course; These people help to organize the skaters to make sure they are in the correct order and are ready for their races. This is also referred to as “Marshalling”. They will be given lists of names for each race and they organize the skaters according to the lists.
Officials Lunch Room Helpers; We as a club take great pride in feeding all of our volunteers! We organize snacks, coffee/tea/water and lunch for all of our volunteers (sorry skaters this is for the officials!) In order to feed all of these people (probably close to 40 people) Shadi has very generously volunteered to be in charge of our lunch room but she will need a lot of help! If she could have at least six people who would be her helpers they would help to run the food room (probably in shifts), they may need to go to the grocery store, they could help set up or clean up… Many hands make light work!
Mat Set-Up/Removal; Under Richard Stickel’s instruction these people would set up & remove the short track mats as usual PLUS there are additional mats required for competitions that will go in behind our usual mats. This is another job that the more who help, the better.
Clean-Up Crew; This crew of people will stay behind at the end of the meet and ensure that everything is as tidy as we found it. It may mean helping clean up the mats, food room or anything else that needs picking up. With enough people it shouldn’t take long at all.
Well, we finally have on-line registration! If you haven’t yet registered with our club, please feel free to register here https://mms.speedskating.ca/Account/Login. You will have to create an account AND register to join a program for each club member. Please see the instructions if you need help… Registering Online for Speed Skating
Please note that this is a brand new system and they are still working out a few kinks, so I would really appreciate it if you would please send me an email letting me know that you have registered on-line (info@fsjspeedskating.com). We also are not yet set up for on-line payments so we will still require payments by cash or cheque.
There are a lot of questions that crop up regularly from people who are interested in the sport… many of these questions are answered in our Registration Package but here is a re-cap… If you have any other question, we will be at the Fall One Stop Registration on Saturday Sept 12/15 from 10:00am – 2:00 pm at the Totem Mall!
Which group will my child/I be in?
Are you an adult? If you are then you will be in Group 4, also known as “The Masters”. Just because it is called Masters doesn’t mean you need to be a master, or even know how to skate! We can help you with all of that. It simply means you are THE Master and you would like to skate; either for fitness, to learn a new skill or simply… to skate. 🙂
If you are signing up your child then we need to know if your child can skate. If they can not skate we will start them in “Learn To Skate”. If your child is between the ages of 3 & 6 and can already skate a little bit they will be in Group 1, also known as “Cradles” or “Active Start”. If your child can already skate a little and is between the ages of 6-11 they will be in Group 2. All of these groups skate at the same time and on the same evenings (although Learn to Skate is only once per week).
If your child is 11 – 18 years old they will skate with Group 3.
What equipment will we need?
We have rather strict guidelines regarding safety equipment. We have most of these items available for sale if you don’t already have them.
Helmet. This can not be a bike helmet, but it can be a snowboard or hockey helmet. We have speed skating helmets available for sale.
Glasses/goggles. They can be safety glasses or sports goggles, they should have a lanyard to hold them on.
Cut-proof gloves (leather or other cut resistant material there are various activities that make suitable gloves) and cut proof socks (these are a speed skating only type product made of dyneema or kevlar). We have these items available for sale.
Shin/knee protection. Many skin suits have built in shin/knee protection but if yours doesn’t (or if you don’t have or want to wear a skin suit) you will need something. Soccer or hockey pads work well.
Neck guard. Again a hockey neck guard will work well
Skin suits are NOT a requirement. As skaters advance they like them for performance reasons as well as for the many safety features that are built in (they are often completely lined with cut-proof material). They are a requirement for some competitions in the higher levels.
SKATE GUARDS!! These are not a safety item but we require that your child uses skate guards as soon as they are off the ice!
What about skates?
We have skates available to rent! We charge $100/season to rent our skates, we also require a $300 deposit to ensure that our skates are cared for and returned to us. This deposit will be returned to you when we receive the skates back in good condition. These skates are very expensive so we are really hoping that everyone takes very good care of them so that we can return all of the damage deposits. This means that any time your child is not on the ice, they are using guards, it also means that the skates are dried before they are put away. Our equipment expert will explain everything to you when you rent them.
These skates can not be sharpened as hockey and figure skates are… they require a jig and sharpening stones. Early in the season one of our coaches will demonstrate how to sharpen the skates, and the club has the sharpening equipment available to borrow. If you aren’t comfortable doing it yourself, you can usually find some of the older skaters (Group 3) will be happy to do this service for a small fee.
If you already have hockey or figure skates and would like to use those, that is fine! If your child is just learning to skate though, you may want to consider speed skates as they have a longer, flatter blade that will make it a bit easier to stand on the ice.
Fundraising?
Nobody likes fundraising, but doing the fundraising is what enables us to purchase skates to rent out to you or your child. We are a non-profit group, the fees that we charge per skater cover the ice fees that we pay to the city and the registration/insurance fees that we pay to Speed Skate Canada. That means if we want to purchase new skates we have to get the money from somewhere else. We have been selling the Mega-Lottery tickets for quite a few years now and have found that this is a good way for us to earn that skate money. We require a $100 deposit (or pay-out if you prefer to not sell the tickets) per skater which will be returned to you after your fundraising requirements have been met. If you are concerned that you don’t know any people you can sell to, we have times available to use the booth at the mall. (I sold my tickets at the mall!).
What are the volunteer requirements?
We have an amazing club that is ENTIRELY run by volunteers, we couldn’t have this club without support from our skaters and their families. We ask that everyone finds a spot that they can help out and offer their time whenever they can. Many hands make light work! The easiest way to find out how/where you can help is by coming to some of our meetings (they are held the 2nd Wednesday of each month). These meetings have people in there who will take you under their wing and help you find a spot. This can mean being a contact person for your child’s group, or being a person to add items to our bulletin board, or a position on our board of directors, or even as a coach or on ice helper!
Speed Skate Meets are hosted by our club, every so often, and help is always required to man these events. We require food donations, raffle ticket sales, info table people. We also need rather specialized help due to the fact that this is an Olympic sport. We require timers, place judges, meet coordinators, recorders, starters and other people. We provide training for all of these jobs and have a fabulous history of mentor-ship in this sport. Training is offered every so often in the form of “clinics” You are welcome to take any of the clinics offered after taking the Level 1 clinic.
We also advise that new parents to the sport attend a clinic hosted by Mr. Wim Kok called “Introduction to Speed Skating” also known as the Level 1 Clinic… it isn’t scary or boring, it does answer many of the questions you probably have about the sport! Mr. Kok is an interesting man who has some incredible experience with the sport of speed skating and you will enjoy his clinic. We will let our club members know when this clinic is going to be held.
Schedule?
Learn To Skate; First day of skating October 6/15
Tuesdays 5:00 – 5:45 PM LT
Group 1 – Active Start; First day of skating October 1/15
Tuesdays 5:00 – 5:45 PM LT
Thursdays 6:00 – 6:45 PM ST
Group 2 – Learn to Train; First day of skating October 1/15
Tuesdays 5:00 – 6:00 PM LT
Thursdays 6:00 – 7:00 PM ST
Group 3 – Train to Train; First day of Skating September 9/15
Mondays 7:00 – 8:00 pm LT
Wednesdays 7:00 – 8:00 pm LT
Thursdays 5:00 – 6:00 pm ST
Sundays 4:00 – 5:00 pm ST
Group 4 – Masters; First day of skating Sept 9/15 but there will be no Saturday ice until October
Mondays 7:00 – 8:00 PM LT
