Fairview’s Vice-President’s Message for June

0
6
Fairview cn

Help!

One of the biggest problems in Calgary, even acknowledged by the City of Calgary, is lack of volunteers and volunteer burnout. The Fairview Community Association has been lucky for 65 years with having such committed and active volunteers. I have been in this community my whole life and although, when I was younger, I had taken it for granted, I am proud to be a volunteer on the association board now. We all have busy lives, even those of you who are retired. The adage is true “many hands make light work”. Our community association is looking for new members to join our board and for more volunteers to help with the events we do. Sometimes it is just dropping off flyers for an upcoming event, working at a casino event, monitoring a bouncy castle while kids play, or being part of a team that puts on a large community event. The best part about volunteering with the community is you get to be part of something bigger, and you can choose your own involvement. If you just want to share an opinion at our meetings (first Tuesday of the month) or be at an event to help out, you can pick! Even the smallest of contributions help immensely. Your help would ease the burnout of a member or volunteer that is helping with the very thing that you enjoy most in the community. Please reach out to us with any questions about what’s involved, there is no commitment with just asking questions.

I am so proud of our past and current board members for the way they step up for our community.

In the past, community associations in Calgary that are not able to sustain themselves have had to dissolve and join another community. This is a very unfortunate and avoidable reality. There are many residents in our community, like myself, who grew up in Fairview then moved away and came back. The number is shocking and shows the value and pride the residents of Fairview Community have. Let’s keep it rolling for another 65 years!

April and May are our busiest months, and we hope everyone has enjoyed the events over the last couple months. The Fairview Community Association (FCA) Board has been going door to door selling our community memberships – only $20. While selling memberships a common question that gets asked is “What does the $20 go towards?” and the short answer is anything we do in the community that we cannot use Casino funds for. Larger communities with big facilities have mandatory fees that get added onto their city taxes and can be upwards of $400 to $500 a year. We don’t do that or have a facility (not yet) so we don’t have the overhead that they do. We still do have expenses to look after our community and events. Like any organization we pay insurance, bookkeeping and auditing, and produce a monthly newsletter, along with other expenses that our Casino funds just don’t cover. The longer answer can be found on our website at fairviewcommunity.ca. On there you will see pictures and up to date event and program information. The website, monthly newsletter, the pictures and all information that is done by your community volunteers with the funds we have available.

A special thanks to the Eisenbart Family who coordinated the April/May events and have been doing so for several years. They are all Fairview Community Rock Stars!

See you around the neighbourhood!

Wayne Wayne McNeely

1st Vice-President

Fairview Community Association

Click here to the Fairview Community News home page for the latest Fairview community updates.