Volunteers are the life blood of any Club.

Below is a listing of the responsibilities of volunteers in several areas of our club. 

We share these activities among our entire membership to make the load lighter and improve our members experience.


General Voluntary Actions of all Members:

  • Keep the clubhouse and surrounding area neat and clutter free, placing trash in the appropriate containers.
  • Replenish washroom supplies required in their washrooms from the cupboard outside the doorway.
  • Notify a member of the Board of Directors of any observed damage or area requiring maintenance.
  • Participate in club elections and voting at annual meetings either personally or via proxy.
  • Provide a culinary contribution for events and tournaments (cookies, muffins, cupcakes etc.) bought or homemade wrapped appropriately for the freezer with a date indicating when the item was prepared.
  • Sign up to provide a food item for the pot luck luncheon if attending.
  • Volunteer to carry out at least one aspect of the duties and responsibilities of one of the club standing committees.

Kitchen Committee:

  • Set up for refreshments and meals.
    • Prepare tea, coffee, and juice.
    • Put out cream/milk jugs, sugar bowl, Styrofoam/plastic cups.
    • Arrange trays of food (muffins, cookies, cupcakes, fruit)
    • Place tablecloths on tables for special events.
    • Check labels on food for best before dates or dates food was placed in freezer.
  • Wash dishes and counters.
  • Replace dishes in cupboards.
  • Encourage club members and visitors to sort waste appropriately between the waste & recycling bins.
  • Wash tables and tablecloths.
  • Recommend to a kitchen executive member when kitchen supplies are low in quantity so that they can be reordered.

 

Cleaning Committee:

  • At the beginning of the season:
    • Vacuum walls, lockers, cupboards, air conditioners, windowsills, carpets, etc.
    • Wash windows and blinds of the clubhouse.
  • Through out the season:
    • Vacuum the carpets.
    • Empty trash and recycle bins regularly.
    • Arrange furniture appropriately for upcoming events.
    • Clean washrooms regularly.

Drawmaster Committee:

  • Volunteer to act as Drawmaster for regular casual bowling.
  • Attend a meeting to review duties.
  • More experienced Drawmasters will oversee the running of tournaments and competitions including:
    • Posting sign up lists on the bulletin boards.
    • Appointing or acting as an umpire.
    • Collecting draw tags and fees from players.
    • Officiating over draws and displaying teams on a draw board.
    • Clarifying the rules of play before and during play.
    • Collecting scorecards from winning skips after each game.
    • Organizing opposition teams in all subsequent games.
    • Displaying the rinks where teams will play.
    • Calculating amounts of prize money and organizing prize envelopes.
    • Ensuring that trophies to be awarded are available.
    • Evaluating the results of play and determining overall winning teams.
    • Announcing the results of play in reverse order and awarding prizes.

Coaching Committee:

  • Act as an instruction to new bowlers introducing grip, stance, and delivery.
  • Become a mentor for a new member & jointly develop a program to encourage new member participation in club activities.
  • Help to run sessions to improve the level of skill and knowledge for club members.

 
Phoning Committee:

  • Phone members who do not have email to remind of tournaments.
  • Phone members to help determine the number of attendees where meals are to be prepared. 
  • Communicate the need for cards for members in ill health or bereavement to the membership committee.

 

Equipment and Green Care:

  • Acquire, maintain, or repair when necessary clubhouse, furnishings and equipment.
  • Use lawn mower to cut the grass inside the fence around the artificial green.
  • Purchase fuel for equipment
  • Control weeds in grass around the green, on the patio, and in the ditch.
  • Sweep debris from the green. (leaves, seeds, and goose droppings)
  • Prepare for tournaments: put out water, cups, garbage bins, umbrellas,
  • Ensure that numbers, rink boundaries, hog line markers, two metre poles, rakes, and chalk for score boards are in the correct locations.

Communications Committee:

  • Design and maintain the club Website.
  • Take photographs and video at club events.
  • Maintain the club flickr page with photos of recent events.
  • Prepare press releases and articles regarding past or future club events.
  • Prepare and distribute the club newsletter each active month of the club year.
  • Work with the Membership Committee and Phoning Committee to maintain a database of club member contact information.

Marketing Committee:

  • Brainstorm ideas with other club members as to ways to promote lawn bowling and the club.
  • Help design and/or vet promotional materials such as posters and flyers.
  • Approach local merchants to display posters.
  • Help deliver fliers to homes and condos.
  • Participate in community outreach at information nights at condos, retirement residences, community centres, shopping malls etc.

Clarification

of

Club Responsibilities:

Our club has established a liaison committee, which will meet periodically with senior staff of the Parks Department to ensure that needed maintenance is carried out around the club in a timely fashion.  To facilitate this we needed to define the roles that club members can play in the up-keep and maintenance of the clubhouse and greens facilities of James Gardens Lawn Bowling Club without any conflict with the duties of the staff of the Parks Department. The responsibilities of the two parties are outlined below. Communications between the club and the parks department will be funneled through a single contact to avoid confusion and multiple and/or mixed messages. Rick Nytko will act as our club contact.  Please contact him if you become aware of work that needs to be carried out.

Club Responsibilities:

Basically the club is responsible for anything inside the clubhouse and inside the fence around the playing surface. Specifically

  • Bench repair & painting:
    • Parks department will supply the slats and club members can disassemble and reassemble the benches.
  • Rolling & brushing the playing surface:
    • Duncan will demonstrate the proper use of the brushing machine so that club members can brush the green as many times as we please.
    • The city has a rolling machine which can be brought in to roll the green, however it is not recommended because it would likely make the existing ridges and ruts worse and may cause additional ones.
  • Upkeep of the ditches around the green i.e. weeds & extra sand:
    • The parks department is to look into which type of sand we should use for the ditches and will advise us on whether or not the city can supply this.
  • Insect control in benches & scoreboards: (bees & wasps)
    • It is recommended that an insect control such as Raid is used early in the morning and that the holes be secured with caulking to trap insects inside – the city can do this, however it would be faster if we do this ourselves.
  • Acceptable mouse control strategies:
    • The parks department suggests that we continue to use the existing mousetraps as a method to control the problem.
  • Cleaning of goose dropping on the playing surface:
    • The parks department recommends that we acquire a Lawn Push Sweeper as a faster means of removing the droppings as they can easily be removed from the rear basket without contact.
  • Disposal of old BBQ equipment:
    • When we are ready to trash the old equipment we are to advise Duncan who will have it removed by truck
  • Weed control on the patio and around the green:
    • We can perform this task ourselves, however we are to advise the parks department of any sinkholes which nee to be repaired.
  • Signs directing emergency vehicles and the public to the club:
    • Any banners that we wish to have added to club signs are the responsibility of the club.
  • A sign for the clubhouse:
    • This is the responsibility of the club to acquire and install.
  • Patio furniture & umbrellas:
    • This is the responsibility of the club to acquire and install.
  • Installing a dishwasher:
    • Any dishwasher that we have installed must be of commercial quality and must be installed by a licensed electricians and plumbers.
  • Access to the clubhouse during the colder months:
    • The clubhouse is not winterized and water to the facility must be turned off each year. We can make arrangement with Mary at the Edenbridge Community Centre beside the Mayors residence for any social activities such as card and game playing in the winter months

Parks Department Responsibilities:

  • Controlling the timing of the watering of the playing surface
    • The parks department will adjust the timing mechanism so that watering will commence at five in the morning each day so that we do not have a swamp in the areas around the playing surface.
  • Conduct preventative maintenance measures that can be carried out so that the clubhouse does not sink into Silver Creek, the stream to the rear of the clubhouse:
    • Parks department engineers will periodically examine the rear support system and make a report on the work that may have to be carried out.
  • Sink holes on the patio:
    • The parks department will repair any sinkhole that occurs on the patio or the surrounding grass.
  • Signs directing emergency vehicles and the public to the club:
    • Two signs have been ordered and will be placed at the entrance to the parking lot and at the corner of Edenbridge and Scarlett.
    • The signs will read – James Gardens Lawn Bowling Club – New Bowlers Welcome.
  • Clearing away fallen tree limbs and leaves from the eaves trough:
    • We are to request that this work be carried out and the Parks Department will perform the task as quickly as possible.
    • They do not want us climbing up ladders or on the roof itself.
  • Painting exterior of the clubhouse to clean up graffiti:
    • The Parks Department will continue to perform this task – we are responsible for decorating the interior of the clubhouse.
  • Setting dates for turning on and off the water to the clubhouse:
    • The Parks Department will continue to have this done out side of the freezing and thawing period of the ground, as the clubhouse is not winterized.

New

"Dead End"

Procedures:

During all competitions at the club this year instead of declaring a "Dead End" if the jack is knocked beyond the rink boundary, the end will continue with the jack being placed centre at the two metre mark. This is a rule which will be used during the upcoming Commonwealth Games and appears to be the "wave of the future."