The Courts Are Open and the

Countdown to Summer Is On

May 13, 2023

We're excited to serve up our best summer yet!

Message from the Commodore

Help Wanted + Volunteers Needed!

Tennis Update

Junior Sailing Update

Message from the Commodore

Greetings, Stony Lakers!

The May long weekend is finally within sight and we've got lots of exciting things happening on Juniper and behind the scenes!

Here's the latest:

Membership and Junior Sailing Registration — our new online system, CourtReserve

• Thanks to all of you who have already jumped in and purchased your 2023 SLYC membership and registered your kids for our Junior Sailing programs.
• There are still some spots available in our Junior Sailing programs, so be sure to take a look in CourtReserve to purchase your membership and register if you haven't already done so!

Tennis and Pickleball Court Bookings

• Once you’ve purchased your membership, you can start reserving tennis and pickleball courts up to one week in advance in CourtReserve starting May 13 for May 20 court bookings.

Survey Feedback and Club Enhancements

• Many thanks to members who completed our 2022 Annual Membership Survey. 
• Many of the improvements to our property and programs you see are driven by your helpful feedback, which the Board weighs very seriously. We’ll share more insights and takeaways from the survey in a future newsletter.

Strategic Planning

• As we focus on the season in front of us, we’re also looking at the long-term future of both Juniper Island and SLYC. Please keep an eye out for a wider-scale survey being launched in the coming weeks to the Stony Lake Community at large, including our members, ASLC members and all other Stony Lakers.
• In conjunction with this broader survey, SLYC is starting work on a Strategic Plan for the club. At the outset of this important process, we'll be conducting in-person "town hall" sessions this summer to gather your ideas and opinions on the longer-term future of our club. Dates for these sessions will be announced soon.

Our Volunteers

• Nothing happens at SLYC without the support of our members and a ton of hard work from many unsung heroes behind the scenes!
• Thank you to all of our Board members for their efforts through the off-season to bring you Summer 2023 and beyond. 
• Researching and launching our new registration software system, CourtReserve, is a major project led by SLYC Operations Director, Tom Pitfield. Tom has very generously donated resources from his company, Data Sciences, to bring our new system to life. In particular, his staff members Meghan McEachern and Andrew Quinn have made, and continue to make, major contributions. 
• Thank you to the Juniper clean-up and maintenance crews, coordinated by our Property Director, Jason Colbert and Tennis & Pickleball Director, Andrew Rush. Docks are in place and courts are prepped. Special thanks to Bern Kelly, Bruce Hodges, Dave & Heather Anderson and John Elliott for their hands-on labour.
• SLYC runs on the efforts of our community members — and we always need help! See below for a list of both paid and volunteer roles where you can make an important contribution.

I can't wait to see you all on the lake this summer.

Warm regards,

Greg Plant

Commodore

slyccommodore1@gmail.com

Help Wanted

We have a part-time, Summer 2023 position open for an SLYC grounds and property maintenance person. This is a nine-week role, running from June 24, 2023 to August 26, 2023.

Duties will be performed on weekends and afternoons after club programming finishes (approximately six to eight hours per week). Compensation is $22/hr.

For a full job description, detailed list of duties and information on how to apply, see our Summer Jobs page.

# # #

And because it's never too soon to start thinking about next summer, we're calling on all smooth operators interested in becoming SLYC's Executive Officer of Operations for 2024. This is a fast-paced, challenging and highly rewarding role, one that touches every aspect of our club, from membership, to programming, to accounting, to tech support and communications.

Ideally we're looking for a hard-working self-starter with:



• Experience in member service, fundraising, hospitality or project management
• Prior experience working with CourtReserve or other online booking systems, Excel and social media platforms
• Fluency in data analysis and basic accounting principles

Our goal is to identify a successful candidate this summer, so they can have an opportunity to shadow and learn the ropes from our current Executive Officer of Operations, Bethany Chittick. This way, we'll all hit the ground running in 2024!

To find out more about this role, please email Cath Kirk at slycinfo@gmail.com

Volunteers Needed!

As a member-run club, volunteers are the lifeblood of SLYC. Creating fun and memorable summers for all would not be possible without so many people generously giving their time and energy. Yet... we're a thriving club and always welcome more help!

For those of you who'd like to get more involved with SLYC but aren't sure where to start, here are a couple of opportunities:

1. We have an urgent need for a volunteer Payroll supervisor.

• You do not have to be a CPA or anything of the sort.
• This role involves assembling employee files and communicating them to the payroll company. And then overseeing submissions from our Operations officer and the reports back from the payroll company to ensure that it's running accurately every two weeks.
• Approximate time commitment is 2-3 hours per week on average.
• If you can help (or would like a few more details on the role), please email Michele Macpherson at slyctreasurer@gmail.com

2. We're looking to identify a volunteer event organizer/manager for the annual SLYC golf tournament (starting in 2024 with shadowing/training in 2023).

• Organize and oversee one of the most fun days — and key events — of the summer, our annual SLYC golf tournament at Wildfire.
• You would touch every aspect of this event — from front-line logistics, to venue/vendor management, to managing a team of volunteers and liaising directly with SLYC's Director of Fundraising.
• While not a requirement, being a Wildfire member would be helpful. Either way, having hosted this tournament for eight years now at Wildfire, the staff there are incredibly helpful in making the day a special one.
• For more information on this opportunity, please contact David Newton at dcnewton60@gmail.com

3. Future SLYC Board of Directors role: We're always looking to next year and beyond, and we're always interested in hearing from members who wish to volunteer their time to the club by becoming a member of our Board of Directors.

• You can make your interest known by approaching a past or present member of the Board (here's a list of our 2022-2023 Board members), by emailing us at slycinfo@gmail.com or by contacting a member of the Nominating Committee, whose information will be made available through postings on Juniper Island, in club newsletters and on www.slyc.ca

Tennis Update

The tennis courts are in play! The nets are up on all three courts, but Court 3 and the pickleball court are going to be resurfaced in the coming weeks. Please check CourtReserve for availability of all courts.

Starting May 20, you'll need to have booked a court ahead of time to play, which you can do up to seven days in advance. That means the court booking program will open up for reservations on May 13. To be able to book courts online, please make sure you have a 2023 membership and are registered in the CourtReserve system.

The season will kick off with Ladies Drills on Thursday, June 29 and Men's Drills on Friday, June 30. Adult and kids programming will begin on Monday, July 3. Similar to booking a court, you can reserve a spot in the programs of your choice one week in advance using CourtReserve.

To get ready for prime time, we're looking for volunteers to help power-wash Courts 1 and 2. The equipment is there and ready to be used. If you can spare an hour or two, it would be greatly appreciated. Please email me to coordinate timing. 

See you on the courts soon! 

Andrew Rush

Director, Tennis + Pickleball

andrewrush@live.com

Junior Sailing Update

We're thrilled to see the enthusiasm for sailing this summer!

Registration is quickly filling up, but there are still plenty of spots available in most programs. Don't miss out on the fun — see what's available and register your child through CourtReserve.

If you happen to run into any issues getting on to a waitlist, please email slycinfo@gmail.com

Looking forward to seeing you at the lake! 

Dave Anderson

Junior Sailing Director

juniorsailingdirector@gmail.com

SLYC would love to receive your ideas and feedback about anything and everything to do with our club — let us know what's on your mind by clicking on the green button above! All comments are anonymous so we won't be able to respond to your feedback directly, but please know that we're listening. Thank you for sharing!

SLYC is a family-friendly club with a strong sense of community, committed to providing excellent, sustainable sailing, tennis and social programs and events to meet the needs and wishes of our members.

Our volunteers and paid staff are dedicated to professional standards, which are achieved through effective leadership and skill development training, especially for younger members, to enhance their capabilities in their careers and community roles.

SLYC Board of Directors

http://www.slyc.ca/contact/