by Rhonda Scheurer
On July 11, 2023, the Calgary Outdoor Club (COC) Board held a Special General Meeting to vote on an important decision for the future of the COC. The question was, "Should the current COC Board proactively shut down the COC society (non-profit)?" The two options were:
1) YES vote:
- COC continues as a spin-off club
- Membership in the spin-off will be opt-in
- The current Board, with input from COC members, distributes the society's remaining funds
- Transition the website and member data to the spin-off club
2) NO vote:
- Continue status-quo as society
- In autumn 2023:
- If a new Board materializes, the COC society continues as-is
- If no new Board materializes, the COC ceases to function and the remaining funds are turned over to the Alberta government for distribution
In order to proceed with the "YES vote" plan, we needed 75% of the voting members in attendance to vote YES. The actual result of the vote was 96% YES.
The COC voting members have spoken - we will be moving ahead with closing down the society and starting the spin-off club.
Spin-Off Club
A team of COC volunteers, headed by Julie Jack, will be creating the Spin-Off Club, which will become effective on October 1, 2023 (the day after the final day of the COC Society).
The spin-off club, which will not be incorporated as a society, cannot continue to use the Calgary Outdoor Club name. Julie and her team will be selecting a name soon which will be similar to, but not exactly, Calgary Outdoor Club.
The scope of events for the spin-off club will be a little narrower than the current COC scope. The event difficulty will likely be capped at the D5 difficulty level, and will focus on hiking, biking, snowshoeing and skiing, plus sport events. You can see the current COC Difficulty Ratings for reference.
The spin-off club will continue to use the website at www.calgaryoutdoorclub.com. Although the club cannot continue to use the Calgary Outdoor Club name, Rhonda is the owner of that domain name and the spin-off will stay at the same address.
The COC society will gift the spin-off club an amount of money, to be paid to the company that hosts the website, to ensure it has the money it needs to function for at least a couple of years. If you wish to donate to the spin-off club, please do NOT send money to treasurer@calgaryoutdoorclub.com as that money would go to the society, and not the spin-off. To donate to the spin-off, please contact Julie (contact info available on the website) for instructions.
Club Membership
Your membership with the COC society will continue as-is until the end of September.
If you wish to remain a member of the club after that, you will need to "opt-in" to be a member of the spin-off. To do that will be very simple. Before the end of July 2023, members will receive instructions to visit a link on the website to "opt in" to the spin-off club. All you will need to do is visit that link and click "Please opt me in to the spin-off club" then click "Save".
On October 1st, you will be able to visit www.calgaryoutdoorclub.com, and log in, as usual. You should not notice any significant difference in your membership, although the website will show the spin-off club name.
Help! What if I Miss the Opt-In?
If your account has been dormant for a while, or if you've been away, you may not be aware of the need to opt-in to the spin-off club. Do not fear! There's a very good chance that we can get your account, and your event data, back for you!
Members who have not opted-in by the end of September 2023 will have their account deactivated and the information on it cleansed, but it will not go away. There will still be an account marker, with all of the event history attached. The account marker will have your same username that you always used, plus your first name and last initial.
If you've missed the opt-in, you can contact webmaster@calgaryoutdoorclub.com and she (Rhonda) will do her best to locate and resurrect your account. You will then have to re-enter your account information, for example, your last name, e-mail address and phone number. Once that is done, you're good to go on the spin-off club.
Moving Forward
The current Board is thrilled that the COC is going to continue in a sleeker and easier format and wants to thank Julie and her team for being willing to make the spin-off happen.
We hope that COC members continue to enjoy the COC!
