Dear Association Membership,
I know most of your thoughts have turned to camping and other spring/summer sports for your children but I wanted to send out an update in regards to the association to ensure everyone was up to date on the latest news, and aware of what is taking place in the ARA.
We held our AGM of Wednesday, April 18th 2012 and had a good turnout, there was valuable discussion and input from our membership and the board really appreciates the support. The season is long over but the board has continued to hold regular meetings and prepare for 2012/2013. Several of us have attended the Ringette Alberta AGM in Red Deer on May 5th, 2012 and are excited about the many new initiatives and renewed involvement of the entire Ringette community. Please continue to watch our website www.airdrieringette.com for any news and updates.
Currently we are in the process of converting our registration system from ITSportsnet to Ramp who is our web provider. This has been discussed for several years and we felt as a board that due to various issues, it would be best to convert now. What this means to you as a members is that unfortunately you will have to log in and create a new user profile in our new system; any information that was previously input is no longer available. All members will need to register online as we will no longer be accepting any paper registrations. By registering online we ensure a current membership database and we are able to send out eblasts for communication purposes and update the members of select teams or groups more easily.
We had originally hoped to have the Registration system up and open by today, May 15th but unfortunately it is taking longer than anticipated to get everything working but please keep checking the website for updates.
This year as a board we had decided to keep all registration fees the same but during this process of setting up a new system we have been notified by the City of Airdrie that like last year when they increased the Ice rental rates by 3%, they will be having another rate increase of 3-5% this year. Unfortunately this is a 6-8% increase that we just cannot continue to absorb if we want to maintain the same level of ice times and hours we currently enjoy as an association. We have discussed at the board level and voted in favor of increasing the returning fees by $50 and first time players by $25. We understand that this can be difficult for families as the costs of things continue to climb while our salaries never seem to increase at the same rates, so to try and help alleviate some of the burden, the new registration system will have the ability to accept Visa/MasterCard and Interac Direct debit. As well we have set up the system to offer staggered payments. The first being when you initially register your child, then a second payment on June 30th and the final payment on July 30th. We hope that by spreading the payments out over a couple of months this will help families plan better and ease the financial burden during the fall when most families are getting ready to go back to school. Additionally by offering ths type of registration system which encourages families to register early, we will have a better idea of our teams and numbers by early August so we can plan as an association for evaluations if required. We hope to have the system up before the end of May and will send out an email as soon as it is up and operational. We appreciate your patience as we work through this new system and understanding of the increase in fees. If you have any questions please feel free to email or contact any member of the board, whose address’s can be found on our website under the contact heading on the main page of the website.
Thank you
Gareth McCullough
President, Airdrie Ringette Association