CCA Photo by Danny Lamoureux – Business of Curling session at Crapaud

The Canadian Curling Association’s Director of Curling Club Development, Danny Lamoureux, was on PEI this weekend to facilitate two “Business of Curling” sessions, one on Saturday for curling club management and staff, and one on Sunday for the Curl PEI Executive and Club Representatives. The Business of Curling program has been delivered across Canada to hundreds of clubs, manager and Board volunteers since 1995.

Saturday topics included “Embracing Social Media” such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to engage new and prospective members, a session on how to make bonspiels better, another one on how to introduce adults into the game, later in life, including the different learning styles needed to teach adults. The new “Getting Started for Adults” program has been working well at many curling facilities, both in Canada and in the USA. Other topics included how to build partnerships, and tie in other events and businesses in order to promote the sport of curling, and keep clubs in small communities operating. The day closed with sessions on membership recruitment and retention, and on delivering superior customer service. Attendees felt that the sessions were very useful, and many of the things learned could be applied back at their clubs.

The Sunday session focused on planning for the future of curling on PEI and how Curl PEI will continue to play a role.

The curling season is just getting underway in PEI, with Charlottetown opening last week, Cornwall and the Silver Fox opening on Monday, and other clubs starting up in the near future. PEI has seven active curling clubs, plus two sports arenas where curling takes place on a part-time basis.