Imagine you’re leading a busy life in Calgary, Alta., but you’re looking for something fun to do during the winter. Something that isn’t a huge time commitment (because you’re busy, right?). Something that won’t break the bank. Something that even allows you to bring the kids along, rather than hire a babysitter. Impossible? No way – just ask the convenors of the Six Pack League at the Calgary Winter Club and they’ll tell you this is a terrific initiative to attract new members through the doors of your curling facility and onto the ice.

Wes Czarnecki knows that in many Saskatchewan communities, the curling club is “The Place”, the social hub, and he’s determined to foster that small-town, welcoming, inclusive atmosphere, even in the city. As General Manager of the busy Tartan Curling Club in Regina, Czarnecki is using savvy business initiatives to bring curlers – new and seasoned – through the doors of his club and keep them coming back for more.

It’s early in the season, and your curling club has welcomed some keen beginners into Learn To Curl (LTC) sessions. How do you make sure these potential new members don’t drift away, lose interest and fall off the radar during the season? Organizers at the Barrie Curling Club have found a way to keep those new curlers coming back for more.

Curlers Brad Jacobs, Heather Nedohin and Robbie Doherty are going to be busier than ever this season: they’re joining a growing list of high-performance curlers who are adding off-ice club management to their curling résumé.

The future of curling looks bright in Winnipeg if the Elmwood Curling Club’s very successful Little Rock, Bantam and Junior curling programs are anything to go by.

Like many clubs, downtown Toronto’s Royal Canadian Curling Club – known as “The Royals” – has a busy evening schedule of league play. But in the afternoons? Not a whole lot going on.

When you’re a curling club in a small community far from larger centres, it can be a challenge to keep the sheets full and members happy. But the Blind River Curling Club hasn’t let its relatively small size get in the way of providing successful leagues and activities for curlers of all ages and levels.

Juan de Fuca Curling Centre in Victoria, B.C., has found a number of innovative ways to attract and retain new curlers, thanks to some creative thinking and valuable partnerships with local businesses.

“There is no magic pill, only hard work,” says Dan Girard, manager of Alberta’s Sherwood Park Curling Club, about the effort required to provide a positive experience for club members, year in, year out.

A few years ago, when Kathy Arnold looked into starting a Learn to Curl program at the McArthur Island Curling Club in Kamloops, B.C., she had no idea the results would be so spectacular – and so long term.

Finding revenue beyond membership fees is a concept that is sometimes forgotten when it comes to curling clubs. Corporate partnerships are great ways to find secondary sources of revenue, an opportunity that many clubs are missing out on.

They’ve been curling at the Glendale Golf and Country Club in Hamilton, Ontario, since 1960, but when ClubLink stepped in to take over management of the golf facility two years ago, the big question arose: will Glendale continue to offer curling as well as golf?

Je me suis amusé le week-end dernier à naviguer sur les différents sites qui traitent de curling, entre autres sur celui, évidemment, de l’Association canadienne de curling. Comme à toutes les fois que je visite ce site, je

We have been recently challenged by a couple of curling club managers to consider creating an on-line forum for club managers and/or Board members where they could share ideas and best practices. It is now generally accepted that facilities, especially in urban settings (where there may be more than one building in the area), are not in competition with each other. And that sharing of ideas is now a good thing!

Audrey Frey is the manager of the Rideau Curling Club in Ottawa, played lead for Anne Merklinger at a number of Tournament of Hearts, AND is about to graduate as a sommelier!!