July 2021 | Volume 7, Number 4

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Back to Bowls Tournament

Attention Bowlers - Information and Registration at

Find A Tournament - ONTARIO LAWN BOWLS ASSOCIATION (olba.ca)

Dates:

From August 21^st  to August 29^th, 2021

Location:

Host clubs will be Woodstock and Windsor (Youth Oakville).

Sat. Aug. 21^st to Mon. Aug. 23^rd

Women’s Pairs in Woodstock

Men’s Pairs in Windsor

Tues. Aug. 24^th to Thurs. Aug. 26^th Mixed Pairs in both Windsor & Woodstock. When registering for Mixed Pairs, you can choose which club you prefer. Once that venue is full, then you have the option to bowl at the other venue.

Fri. Aug. 27^th to Aug. 29^th Youth Under 18 and Under 25 – Oakville.

Youth will be Singles Discipline Sponsored by OLBA. Registration Free.

Registration Dates: July 5^th to Aug. 7^th Format: Round Robin

Cost: $ 50.00 per person per Discipline

(NON-REFUNDABLE)

Novices (P & WP) will be Sat. Sept. 11^th & Sun. Sept. 12^th 2021.

Location: Woodstock LBC

Registration: Sun. Aug. 8^th to Sept. 1^st 2021

Format: Aussie Pairs (Mens Pairs, Women’s Pairs)

Cost.$ 50.00 per person.

“Good practice for the Novice Combo 4’s which will run in 2022”

ONLY ONE PAYMENT PER TEAM FOR ALL REGISTRATIONS PLEASE.

These disciplines are open to all Ontario bowlers in good standing with OLBA. We encourage as many people to partake in this as possible from all skill levels.

Come see friends you have not seen since Covid!

This Event is Subject to change due to Covid presence in the Province.

Have Fun and Good Bowling.

Online Registration forms available July 5, 2021

Bowls Raffle

(Sponsored by Katie Schuknecht Drakes Pride)

 Drake’s Pride size 0 (blue with speckles)

 Tickets are $5.00 each or 3 for $10.00

 Tickets will be sold at the venues or by contacting Steve Schuknecht (schuknecht@olba.ca).

 Winner to be drawn at the conclusion of the Novice event in September

Candian Bowler Show

Interview with Anna Mees

Stage 3 Reopening Plan for the OLBA

PDF link below

2021-OLBA-RTP.pdf - Google Drive

Images from Reopening in Windsor

Kelly McKerihen shares experience from the Victorian State Championships

Published by Casey Donnelly on July 9, 2021

Kelly McKerihen shares experience from the Victorian State Championships - Biased Bowls

This May, national team member and international bowler Kelly McKerihen competed in the Victoria State Championships in Bendigo, Victoria. After a busy week achieving impressive results in four events, she was willing to share her experience with BCB and the bowls community.

To compete in the state championships, every team or individual must qualify by winning their regional championships. There are 16 regions in total who compete at the state championships, and it is a straight knock-out format. Since Kelly moved to Australia in 2015, she always enjoyed the challenge of trying to qualify and achieve the ultimate goal of winning a state title. Like winning a provincial title, winning a state championship earns you a spot to represent the state at the national championships.

Kelly had a very busy week of competition, and ended up making the semi-final of the ladies’ pairs and quarterfinals of the fours, and is over the moon to have won the state titles in the Triples (with teammates Tara Ferrier and Lisa Phillips) and Mixed Pairs (with fiancé Ali Forsyth). The 2021 Australian Championships are being played on the Gold Coast in October, and Kelly cannot wait to represent the “Big V” later this year.

Every time Kelly competes, there is always something she can take away and learn from the experience. “Each game might have different learnings, but that is why we keep playing the game!” Kelly shared. Some areas that she tends to focus on and reflect upon after the event has finished include patience and calling a smart game strategically, the importance of being prepared for the event on the day but also how to peak/play well at the right time for a main event, as well as adjusting to different conditions sooner than the opposition does.

Every athlete prepares differently on the day of an event, but for Kelly, the day must always start with a big cup of coffee. “It gives me a kickstart to the day and all my teammates know I function much better after I have some caffeine in me!” She explained. This is a part of her routine, but her routine also includes a warmup, ensuring she has everything she needs rink-side, and doing some visualizing before the game starts. For Kelly, playing relaxed and confident contributes to her playing well, so she lessens the stressors by being prepared and builds her confidence through visualization.

The biggest challenges for Kelly during this event were the long days and the changing conditions throughout the week. Some days she started at 8am and didn’t get off the green until 8pm. This made it challenging to stay fresh and focused and to keep playing consistent bowls all day. Another challenge faced by everyone at the event was adapting to the changing greens caused by the ever-changing temperature, rain, and wind conditions.

Despite these challenges throughout the week, it was a very enjoyable experience for Kelly. What Kelly found and still finds the most enjoyable, is being able to achieve goals and share the successes with her teammates and friends. She told BCB that winning her first mixed pairs state title with her fiancé (after a few tries) was very special, and to win the ladies triples with her teammates and be a part of Tara’s first state title was also incredibly special.

Kelly is currently in her off-season for bowls in Melbourne, and there is not much happening competition-wise at the moment. They are lucky to have a few indoor and under-cover surfaces to play on during the winter months, and next on the calendar is going through the qualifying process to earn a spot at the Australian Indoor Championships at Tweed Heads Bowls Club in August. After that, Kelly’s focus will be centered around preparing for the Australian Championships in October and getting ready for their pennant season at Clayton Bowling Club, which also starts in October. A live stream of all disciplines throughout the entire event can be found on the Bowls Victoria website.

Candian Bowler #31

Coaching to Start your Season

Kingston LBC on Global News

See the story and video here

Kingston Lawn Bowling Club rolls out free trial memberships to attract new players - Kingston | Globalnews.ca

Hundred-year-old area lawn bowling club lives on with new membership

Cambridge Today Link below

Hundred-year-old area lawn bowling club lives on with new membership - CambridgeToday.ca

The club now has more than 60 members and welcomes others to join, says honorary past president of the Preston Lawn Bowling Club.

A historical fixture around Cambridge is presenting people with a COVID-friendly option for being outdoors and getting in some recreation and exercise.

The Preston Lawn Bowling Club, located on Queenston Road, is a 106 years old and still thriving, said David Allen, honorary past president of the club.

"It shut down for a few years in the 1990s as the membership got very small and old," he said, talking about the club that first started in 1915, and is currently housed in city-owned property. "Several neighbours at that time got together and spent a year digging the green because it had gone to weeds and started it up again."

Back in 2019, the club had 55 members before COVID shut down everything and cut down the membership.

"Last year, with COVID, there were no national and provincial championships, no tournaments, so we said to our members you don't have to pay membership fees but come and bowl for $50," said Allen. "We had 35 come back."

This year, he said, he wondered if there were more people out there that might be interested in the game.

"I reached out to my Facebook contacts and put out feelers and I had over 100 inquiries," Allen said. "And right now, we're sitting at about 26 new members."

The new participants that have signed up include an 11-year-old and a 90-year-old, he said, as well as people in their 40s and 50s.

The club is currently open three weeknights: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and two mornings: Tuesday and Thursday.

"We're also running a league after we're in step two," said Allen, the club has the capacity to offer varying levels of play.

And the club has other advantages, too, he said.

"One, it's very social and recreational," Allen said. "But we do have play that play at the provincial level and go to championships and tournaments. There's an opportunity for members to play competitively. We have four certified coaches, we can make up teams for people, and we can get people involved at whatever level they want."

As well, he said, there are tools available to make accommodations for those that have varying abilities.

"We try to adapt our game for different abilities. And we can make accommodations for people with different needs," Allen said, adding, "We have a ramp and we have a wheelchair accessible washrooms."

The game itself, he said, is not rigorous in the aerobic sense.

"You do have to walk up and down the rink, 100 feet each way, and you make at least 20 trips up and down during a game," Allen said. Aside from that, he added, "You have to bend and get down really low."

The lawn currently has six rinks (100 feet in length) reduced last year from eight, because during COVID last year the rinks were widened to help people follow social distancing rules, he said. At some point, Allen added, the idea is to go back to eight rinks.

There are also six tournament-length rinks that are 120 feet in length.

What Would Happen if We Really Advertised?

We have an interesting opportunity to track the effects of a real advertising campaign at a local level for a lawn bowling club. This experience will help us sort out what tactics work and what does not work.

Most clubs spend a few hundred dollars on advertising each year. Burlington LBC is the only club that I know of that typically spends around $2,000 annually and invests in advertising on a regular basis. (Go Burlington!)

As part of James Gardens New Horizons Grant, we have $10,000 for advertising and a flyer drop. We are spending $8,500 at the current time.

Mail drops to 7667 homes and apartments done twice

100,000 Google Ads

100,500 Facebook Ads

These ads push people to 4 Open Houses on August 7, 14, 21 and 28. Having 4 events limits the chance that we will be rained out. Things still could go wrong with the weather on all 4 weekends or the province could go into lockdown but both those events are unlikely.

We try to get people to sign up via SignUpGenius so that they can be emailed with reminders for the event.

The postal walks were chosen because they are geographically close to the club and we favoured apartments as opposed to houses based on past experience.

We will let you know about turnout and our analysis of the response to this type of campaign. To pay for itself in the first year, the campaign would have to generate 100 members but we have a long term view. People who join out of a campaign become members for a number of years and this offsets the cost. Realistically, if we picked up 40 to 50 members and 60% of those stayed long term, we would still be break even.

If it works, we will get clubs to target this type of promotion in their New Horizons Grant applications. We might even get clubs to spend their own money on advertising.

Where Does the $30 OLBA Fee Go?

I was recently asked what does the $30 fee being charged to club members as part of the club fee represent to the Leaside club bowlers?

The fee supports the international World Bowls organization, (www.worldbowls.com), Bowls Canada Boulingrin (www.bowlscanada.com), and the Ontario Lawn Bowls Association, (www.olba.ca)

World Bowls Is the recognised International Federation for the Sport of Bowls. There are 53 Member National Authorities in 50 countries worldwide.

Ian Howard, Burlington Canada is Regional Director for the Americas.

A few of the objectives of World Bowls are:

• To provide for the encouragement, conduct, promotion, advancement, control and administration of Bowls throughout the world
• To formulate and implement appropriate policies, including policies in relation to equal opportunity, gender and racial equality, drugs in sport, health and safety
• To promulgate and secure uniformity in such laws and standards that may be necessary for the management and control of Bowls competitions.
• To liaise with such bodies such as the Commonwealth Games Federation
• Provide support to International events conducted by World Bowls including World Championships (every 4 years), World Champion of Champions Singles (annually), World Indoor Singles (World Cup competed for annually), Asia Pacific Championships, Atlantic Championships and World Junior Cup (for bowlers under 25 years of age). Bowls is also a core sport for the Commonwealth Games.

Bowls Canada Boulingrin (BCB)

Kathryn MacGregor President.

Anna Mees, Chief Executive Officer:

BCB announced that their Board of Directors have approved a revised fee structure that would be implemented effective May 1, 2021. This fee structure is based on a flat fee for service basis and, not on membership numbers as has been the current practice. BCB believe that this revised fee structure will provide stability of funding for budgeting and follows an international trend by other National Sports organizations. BCB services in collaboration with provincial bowls associations include:

· Training resources for club volunteers, e.g. development of COVID-19 protocols

· Policy creation – national and provincial

· Maintenance of national communications and development of programming and resources, e.g. Belonging in Bowls, Bowls Safe Sport program

· Template resource for clubs (policies, business plans, etc.)

· National advocacy (represents to Sports Canada concerns on behalf of the provincial associations, e.g. safe sport

· NCCP, Officiating training, e.g. coaching and umpiring certification

· National competition program (Ontario hosts at least one major event annually)

· National team program which trains and competes at international events annually and Commonwealth Games every four years.

The Ontario Lawn Bowls Association (OLBA) is the Provincial Sports Organization (PSO) and is the sole governing body for amateur sport (bowls) in Ontario, with a membership of 117 bowls clubs and is responsible for the following:

· Establishment of policies and programming in compliance with the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport (MTCS) and maintenance of certification requirements.

· Development and delivery of coaching and umpire certification programing in compliance with BCB requirements

· Development of long-term athlete development programming, learn to play, learn to compete etc.

· Maintenance of communications requirements between OLBA and the member clubs and their members e.g. OLBA annual, website, social media channels, email distribution of messaging to District Chairs and clubs, and government advocacy etc.

· Providing OLBA member clubs with assistance in meeting management and governance requirements to ensure effective club management

· Provision of assistance to clubs in the application of grants at all levels of government e.g. Trillium funding, New Horizons, Seniors grants etc. (over $1,800,000 over the past three years)

· Development of annual operational and three-year strategic plans and MTCS reporting on implementation progress

· Organizes and manages provincial and district playdown tournaments to establish Ontario teams to compete in national BCB championships

· Provides liability insurance for clubs and club directors

· Provides marketing support for club membership campaigns to host open houses.

· Provides clubs with technical information and delivers workshops to ensure club green maintenance is appropriate for competition standards

· Manages the OLBA award programs including Hall of Fame, and other OLBA award programs. E.g. President’s Award and Volunteer of the Year Award

· Employs support staff to provide for database maintenance and Executive Director to coordinate all of the above service activities.

As you are aware, BCB and OLBA waived the affiliation fees to member clubs with the introduction of the COVID-19 pandemic to assist clubs with financial stability for the 2020 bowling year. The result of these actions included a net loss of income of $122,415.00 to BCB and $109,180.00 to the OLBA.

In support of bowls clubs, BCB is currently developing programming as mentioned above in conjunction with our partnerships with World Bowls and Bowls Canada to assist member clubs with recruitment efforts to rebuild membership levels to that of 2019 and support bowling at every level in Ontario. I trust this explanation as to where the $30 goes, is helpful to your understanding of how our organization functions.

Yours in Bowls,

Phillip Francis.

President OLBA

Ontario Trillium Grants Coming Up

Eligible organizations can apply for funding through our granting programs to support their community-based initiatives.

Community Building Fund – Capital stream
Community Building Fund | Ontario Trillium Foundation (otf.ca)

• Applications are available starting September 1, 2021
• Application deadline: September 29, 2021 at 5 PM ET

• Applications are available starting November 10, 2021
• Application deadline: December 8, 2021 at 5 PM ET

OLBA Screening Policy and Subsidy for Clubs

“Safe Sport” is the banner used by sports and governmental agencies internationally to denote significant reforms designed to address these issues. The Governments of Canada and Ontario have already implemented massive reforms at the national and provincial level as part of the Ontario Amateur Sport Fund compliance requirements for accredited provincial sports organizations. We can expect this trend to continue and for other sports organizations at all levels to be held to higher standards of accountability. Ontario lawn bowling will be no exception.

Accordingly, the OLBA is continuing to support this program through a subsidy for the cost of police record screening in the following ways through the 2021 financial year.

Not all volunteers associated with the club will be required to obtain a CRC (Criminal Record Check) or VSC (Vulnerable Sector Check) because not all positions pose a risk of harm to the club or to its participants. The club will determine which individuals will be subject to screening using the following guidelines:

Group 1 - Individuals in a supervisory role, directing others, involved with financial/cash management, or having limited access to minors or people with disabilities.

Examples include:

a) event organizers;

b) markers, umpires, or volunteers with s-hort term access to minors; and,

c) board members (executive and non-executive).

Group 2 - Individuals who have frequent access to minors or people with disabilities.

Examples include:

a) coaches; and

b) volunteers, umpires and markers who could be alone with minors

Group 1 Individuals will complete and provide a CRC, while Group 2 individuals will complete and provide a VSC.

Subsidy: The OLBA will again reimburse clubs up to $15 for each background check paid up to October 31, 2021. Clubs will submit claims to the Treasurer with proper documentation, which includes a receipt indicating what has been purchased. (A credit card slip alone is not an acceptable receipt.)

CBC News at Windsor LBC

Video included in story link

Club looks to recruit younger players for 'the best sport that you never knew existed:' lawn bowling | CBC News

Club looks to recruit younger players for 'the best sport that you never knew existed:' lawn bowling

'We are in Canada what curling is like in Australia,' says president of Windsor Lawn Bowling Club

CBC News · Posted: Jun 20, 2021 5:00 AM ET | Last Updated: June 21

Windsor Lawn Bowling Club is open for registration for the season and it is looking to attract new members, particularly younger ones.

Located at 2 Memorial Drive, the club reopened last week as the province's COVID-19 reopening plan allowed.

"You don't really find that out, until you come out here and try it."

Lawn bowling, similar to curling or bocci, is played outdoors, and presents the objective of rolling a ball as close to a target as possible.

This year, the club is seeing a surge in interest from younger players and its members are hoping to recruit some.

"People tend to think lawn bowling is a senior sport, where everybody is really old," said Lucier. "The people coming out this year, are quite younger than our membership is, at the moment. Our club average age is going to drop substantially this year."

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Disclaimer:The information and articles provided in this email represent the opinions of the articles author and should not be considered as endorsed by or policy of the Ontario Lawn Bowls Association OR it's Directors.

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