Dear members,

 As of yesterday, current restrictions are extended to January 31, 2022.

This means no league play, games or competition allowed and it is very unfortunate.

We are truly fortunate, however; that we can continue to practice with limited numbers. We will continue to offer practice ice using the current booking policy of asking you to email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

This is to ensure ice can be scheduled for all in a safe environment, and that we are meeting all health and government policies currently in place. Should things change quickly, we are able to act quickly.

This has been working very well, and we encourage all members to reach out for practice time.

Please do remember, if you are not feeling well, stay at home.  If you need to cancel a booking, please let us know as soon as possible.

We hope you all stay safe, and we hope February will bring good news!

Carla

CCC Secretary

Dear members, 

Unfortunately, as you are all aware we are again facing restrictions that directly impact the curling club. These restrictions are currently expected to be in place until January 12th, 2022.

In summary, 

Games, Competitions & Tournaments:  Games, competitions and tournaments will no longer be permitted.

Practice and Training is permitted:  A limit of 10 participants indoors and 25 outdoors applies to sports practices and training; physical distance is not required, and masks are recommended when possible indoors and outdoors.

Spectators Prohibited

No Spectators will be allowed for any activities. 

Online Ice Booking suspended until further notice. 

Due to the fact that we are only permitted to have 10 participants at a time, we have suspended the online ice booking module.

We are very interested in supporting all members who wish to practice during this time, but it will be by appointment only. 

Please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., requesting date and time of your preferred practice time, and number of members attending and a current contact phone number.  You will receive a confirmation once approved.  24 hours will be appreciated. 

Practices will be limited to 2 per week, at 2-hour intervals. Extra practices will be given if available. 

Juniors must arrange to be dropped off and picked up at the door at the time for your pre-approved practice.  

We ask everyone to sanitize the rocks before and after each use.  Please sanitize chairs and any other surfaces that you touch.  

Masks are recommended on the ice and mandatory in the lounge and washrooms.

Please respect social distancing at all times. 

Do not come to the club if you are not feeling well the day of your practice and email the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for any cancellations. Please try to honour your booked times.  Acceptable reasons for short-term cancellation will be inclement weather.  If cancellations are excessive without valid excuse, future bookings may be declined."

With all of these measures in place we hope we can continue to offer practice by working together and keeping everyone safe. 

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding during these times. 

We hope to see you all soon for regular league play, and continue to monitor your emails for updates. 

CCC

Welcome back curlers! 

Registration is now open for the 2020-21 season at the Chester Curling Club (CCC). Click here to register online.

The October newsletter is now available (download a copy here) and it is chock-full of information about registration, already-scheduled events, fees for this season, contact names and numbers, and other news about the upcoming season.

Hello to All Chester Curling Club Members…

I am pleased to be able to announce several significant milestones in the opening of the Club for the 2021-22 season.

First, our new Board of Directors held its first meeting in person on Wednesday night and confirmed the acclamation of Adam Cocks as Director and First Vice-President of the club.  I am happy to welcome Adam to the Board and look forward to him bringing the voice of the younger generation of curlers to our discussions.

Second, the ice plant was started up Wednesday and, as we were meeting, we were able to watch our new Ice Technician, Randy Cocks, begin the process of putting in the ice for the year.  It’s great to see the club coming out of hibernation once again!

Third, registration is now open for the 2021-22 season.  Login to complete the registration form.  Our newsletter will be out soon with more information about other options for registering in person or by mail.  Please note that the Waiver and COVID-19 Compliance forms are still being revised to include information about the latest Public Health regulations and will be made available prior to the first curling activities of the season.

Welcome back to Curling in Chester!

Barb Fraughton

President

The 2020/21 season has been a challenging one in more ways than one.  Not only did the ever-changing COVID-19 restrictions create an extraordinary workload in operating the club this season, but the abrupt closure of the club in the Spring of 2020 made it more difficult for us to recruit new volunteers to take on some of this work.  That means that the same small group of folks that have dedicated their time to managing the club over the last number of years had to step up once again to allow us all to enjoy the game of curling for another year.  Now that we are into the final month of the season, it is time for the nominating committee to search out new talent to take up the torch for the 2021/22 season.

Over the last few years, the management practices of the club have deviated from the official bylaws and regulations, mostly because there were not enough volunteers to fill all of the positions that were officially required to manage the club.  Typically, members of the Board of Directors ended up taking on multiple roles and we muddled through for another year. 

Last year, we rationalized the bylaws and the Board has identified 7 positions that are essential to the operation of the club.  These are:

• President
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• Director, Junior Program
• Director, Ice Management
• Director, Match/Events
• Director, Bar Management

Previously, the latter four positions were “chair” positions, but we have not always had members willing to sit in these chairs and communications with those who were doing the work that were not on the Board has been inconsistent.  Board members just ended up doing many of these extra duties anyways, so it was thought that these chairs should be consolidated into Board positions to improve coordination and communication between the functions.

In a larger club, many of these functions would be done by a paid manager but smaller clubs like ours do not have the financial resources to hire anyone.  Instead, we depend on our members to take a turn in volunteering their time to operate the club.  If you enjoy the time that you spend on the ice and in the lounge at the club, and you have not previously stepped up to fill one of these essential roles, then now is the time to do so.  No experience is required; just a willingness to learn from those who have done these jobs in the past and an interest in supporting our wonderful winter recreation opportunity.

I am willing to remain on the Board for a 4^th year but we will need at least six other people to join me in this endeavour for the upcoming season.  If you are interested in helping out or if you know someone else who just needs some encouragement, please contact Carla Rafuse, the chair of the nominating committee or any other member of the current Board.

Yours, in Curling,

Jeff Lamb

President

Chester Curling Club

Given low COVID-19 cases, the province is lifting or altering restrictions currently in place for Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) and its neighbouring communities, so all members of the club can now freely travel to the rink to take part in all regular league and practice activities.

Check out the club calendar on the website and your specific league schedule to see when you can get back on the ice.  Hurry hard!

Dear Members,

The Board of the Chester Curling Club has been carefully considering the ramifications of the restrictions announced on Friday afternoon by Premier Rankin and Dr Strang and have come to the conclusion that the current circumstances are virtually identical to those that we were faced with on November 26, 2020.

The measure which impacts our club most is the requirement to avoid all non-essential travel into and out of HRM.  Since a significant number of our members reside within the HRM boundaries identified by Dr Strang, they are directly impacted as they are forbidden from travelling to the club.  Furthermore, some members of the club (as well as coaches) travel into HRM regularly for essential purposes but live outside the HRM boundaries, so although the text of the restrictions may not apply to them, they do pose an increased risk of exposure to other members of the club. 

The expedient response to this uncertainty would be to close down all club operations for at least a few weeks, as if we were within the boundaries of the latest restrictions.  That approach, however, does not take into account the positive benefits to the physical and mental health of those members of the club who do have the good fortune to both live outside of the formal boundaries and to not be required to travel into HRM regularly for work or other essential activities.

In order to address these factors, we have agreed to make the following changes to club operations until such time as further changes are made to public health regulations.

• Members of the club that live within the boundaries of HRM as designated in the latest restrictions, are forbidden by public health regulation to travel to the club. If you live outside the boundaries, but you, or a household member, travel regularly to HRM for essential activities, we would strongly recommend that you not participate in any club activities. Equally, that recommendation would also apply to juniors who have parents that frequently travel to HRM.

• It is difficult to ascertain exactly how many members will be impacted by item #1, but we do know that it will be significant enough to disrupt the make-up of most teams in the organized leagues on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights and the Junior League on Sunday afternoons. As a result, we will be cancelling the regular schedules of those leagues until new public health regulations are released. In place of those leagues, we already have volunteers to run drop-in leagues on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights and will release details soon of any arrangements that can be made for Sunday afternoons.
• The format of our current drop-in leagues is flexible enough to deal with lower attendance and the Day, Stick and Tuesday Night leagues will continue, with some minor adjustments, to safely address our community’s need for healthy recreation activities. The current gathering limits that are applicable to the ice shed of the club is a maximum of 60 people, so play can still take place on all four sheets of ice within all of the drop-in leagues.

While these restrictions to our operations may seem overreactive, the Club’s location at the edge of HRM puts us in unique circumstances and, in our view, obliges us to follow both the letter and the spirit of the latest public health restrictions.  The best thing we can do in the next few weeks to keep the club up and running for the remainder of the season is to do our part to help contain COVID-19 in the HRM area and not have it spread to surrounding communities.

Having said that, your Board members are not public health officials and we have neither the ability nor the power to rule on individual circumstances, especially those in the grey area between those specifically forbidden to travel to the club by provincial regulation and those whose individual circumstances clearly present negligible risk of spreading the COVID-19 virus to other club members.

As with many public health directives that have been issued during this pandemic, it is up to you as a responsible member of society in general, and the curling club in particular, to assess your own compliance with the public health regulations and the direction given by the curling club.  Please make your decision to come to the club responsibly and, if you do come to the club, remember to follow all of the protocols in place to safeguard your health and the health of your fellow curlers.

February 27, 2021

Team practices will be conducted under the following guidelines:

• Avoid non-essential travel to and from Halifax, Hants and Lunenburg County locations that have additional restrictions and protective measures in place. See Halifax County restriction alerts, Hants County restriction alerts, and Lunenburg County restriction alerts.
  
  
• Access will be limited to teams that regularly curl together and who have a coach or other volunteer who has been issued a key and is willing to act as the designated individual as defined in our Facilities Operation Plan  The designated individual is responsible to ensure that the ice shed is used safely and responsibly, and to ensure that all COVID-19 precautions are followed. If your team is unable to make arrangements with an authorized keyholder, please contact Dale Rafuse at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so arrangements can be made.
  
  
• Bookings are to be made online and bookings must not exceed the public health limit of participants. 

• The ice will be shaved regularly during the period of the restrictions and will not be available for practice at those times, which will be indicated in the ice book. It is up to the teams using the facility to prepare the ice for their own use, if they wish to do so. If you do pebble, nip, etc, please make the appropriate entry in the ice maintenance log, so others will know what the status/usage of the ice has been.

• All COVID-19 precautions are to be followed when entering the club and when preparing to go out on the ice. This includes hand sanitizing, signing in in the book at the entrance, wearing masks and maintaining physical distancing. Once all participants have arrived, the outer door will be locked to maintain club security while teams are on the ice.

• In preparation for leaving the club, please ensure that all tables, chairs and other surfaces that have been contacted by your group are sanitized and that chairs are leaned up against the tables to assure subsequent users that they have been sanitized. As usual, all lights in the club are to be turned off and the entrance doors are to be locked upon departure from the club.

February 26, 2021

Based on the announcement of increased public health restrictions that was made today, we will once again have to restrict operations at the club for the next four weeks.  We will have to confirm some details for how our leagues can continue to operate (for members that live outside HRM), but the principal element of the restrictions that were announced today is that non-essential travel is to be avoided within the province, especially to and from the defined area which includes HRM and Hubbards. 

In November, similar direction was interpreted by the Chester Curling Club Board as follows:

Members of the club that live within the boundaries of HRM as designated in the latest restrictions, are forbidden by public health regulation to travel to the club.  If you live outside the HRM boundaries, but you, or a household member, travel regularly to HRM for essential activities, we would strongly recommend that you not participate in any club activities.  Equally, that recommendation would also apply to juniors who have parents that frequently travel to HRM.

We will continue to determine if this interpretation is appropriate to the current direction, but since the new restrictions take effect at 8:00 AM tomorrow, February 27, we are imposing this restriction on club operations until further notice.

February 5, 2021

Team practices will be conducted under the following guidelines:

• Access will be limited to teams that regularly curl together and who have a coach or other volunteer who has been issued a key and is willing to act as the designated individual as defined in our Facilities Operation Plan  The designated individual is responsible to ensure that the ice shed is used safely and responsibly, and to ensure that all COVID-19 precautions are followed. If your team is unable to make arrangements with an authorized keyholder, please contact Dale Rafuse at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so arrangements can be made.

• For now, bookings are to be made in the ice book at the club and bookings must include the number of people in your group, in order to ensure that ice usage is coordinated and that the total number of participants does not exceed the public health limit of 100 participants.The club is actively exploring the feasibility of an online booking system for all ice usage which is actually part of our Curling Club Manager software. We are optimistic that one can be implemented in the very near future.  Updates will be provided as progress is made.

• The ice will be shaved regularly during the period of the restrictions and will not be available for practice at those times, which will be indicated in the ice book. It is up to the teams using the facility to prepare the ice for their own use, if they wish to do so. If you do pebble, nip, etc, please make the appropriate entry in the ice maintenance log, so others will know what the status/usage of the ice has been.

• All COVID-19 precautions are to be followed when entering the club and when preparing to go out on the ice. This includes hand sanitizing, signing in in the book at the entrance, wearing masks and maintaining physical distancing. Once all participants have arrived, the outer door will be locked to maintain club security while teams are on the ice.

• In preparation for leaving the club, please ensure that all tables, chairs and other surfaces that have been contacted by your group are sanitized and that chairs are leaned up against the tables to assure subsequent users that they have been sanitized. As usual, all lights in the club are to be turned off and the entrance doors are to be locked upon departure from the club.