After a busy summer of outdoor community activities including soccer, tennis, pickleball, baseball, and even some disc golf, the leaves will be falling soon, and our fall and winter programming user groups were ready to kick off in earnest.
Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic and the recent return to a provincial state of emergency has, once again, put a wrench into our well laid plans, and we are faced with trying to manage our volunteer led organization through the same challenges that every other public facing business is going through. We are trying to stay flexible and resilient, and Alison, Dawn, and Jessica are continuing to put on a brave face in these trying times. We will continue to support our user groups as safely as possible so please follow our many social media channels for regular updates.
Although your Board does not meet during the summer, that does not mean that we are not active. Our “Green Team” is building a strong volunteer base and is developing a plan to improve our public spaces that are scattered throughout Willow Ridge. Our Strategic Plan is almost complete, our tennis/pickleball renovations were completed, we have built a safe ramp/sidewalk at our building entrance, poured some pads to help Ollie enter the rink this winter, and we have put down some sod! Kody, our new treasurer, is setting up processes to help streamline our day-to-day business and reporting.
We are also undertaking some long overdue and important board transitions. Roger Lohrey was active on our Building Committee, most recently our Facilities Director, and in charge of a number of our building completion projects. He is stepping down from that role, and Pete Gibson, our current Rink Master and Casino Director, will be taking on the Facilities role. Thank you, Roger, for your many, many hours of dedicated volunteer time, and hopefully we will still continue to see big burly Roger with his curly white hair and brown coveralls popping over to give a hand fixing another broken door, welding wheels onto our hose reel, or doing more of those things that are not always recognized but are vital to our operations.
Chris Nyberg has agreed to take on the Casino director role, and Marty Bentley, a long-time community member, former Treasurer, and current Communications Director, will be replacing me as President in short order; a transition which is long overdue!
To that end, there will soon be an opening for a Communications Director and Vice President, our Social and Volunteer management portfolios remain vacant, and many of our Board members could use some help to build committees in their respective portfolios.
We have a great infrastructure, a good core group of family-oriented directors, and we continue to look for a handful more community minded residents to build your association into a strong, vibrant, and forward-looking organization! Please contact any board member or our staff if you have any interest in joining the team!
Don Boykiw, soon to be former President!
