Friday, October 31, 2008

AGM Date Change

Please note that due to not being able to secure a facility for the 19th, we have moved the date of the AGM back a week to Wednesday, November 26th. We apologize for any inconveniences this might cause. Location will be the IBM Building, 227-11th Ave. SW at 6:30pm (food) with the AGM starting at 7pm in the Rocky Mountain 'A' Room. Reid or someone will be at the 11th Ave. doors to let anyone in. Along with any outstanding receipts for reimbursement and 2009 membership forms (now available), remember to bring your jersey for the team photo!!!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Preliminary info: Events and Updates

It's been awhile since anything was posted here, so there's a lot to cover. Many details need to be hammered out for these events, so stay posted as more information becomes available.

Winter Training Program support information

At a meeting earlier in the month, the Calgary clubs came to a consensus on member support for the Oval training program and subsequent camps and out-of-province racing for the 2009 season. General information is as follows as applies to Synergy members:

Fees are due November 15 and April 1 for the Olympic Oval Development, Performance and High Performance programs. The initial installment on Nov. 15 will be payable by the member, with the club picking up the outstanding balance on April 1. Synergy will pay 50% of the program cost to a maximum of $1000. There may be case-by-case exceptions for High Performance support if needed or warranted.

Synergy will assist in the payment for Oval training camps this year, $500 per camp for a maximum of 2 camps. This year's camps are tentatively set for Tucson, Victoria and Penticton.

Travel assistance will be available for Tour of Abitibi, Nationals, Canada Games qualifiers and the 2009 Canada Games depending on approval of fund disbursement by the AGLC.

These support programs will be available for returning Synergy members only; this is not available for athletes for whom 2009 is the first year in the club.

At this moment, there is no other funding assistance developed to support members in programs other than the Oval Program as in previous years, but stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

For more information, contact cp or Reid.

November AGMs

Saturday, November 15 - Alberta Bicycling Assn AGM, 4pm University of Calgary
ICT Building – Room 121: if you are not planning or unable to attend this AGM, Reid has a vote proxy form which you can sign which will allow Synergy Execs in attendance at the meeting to vote on your behalf. If you would like to sign the form, contact Reid to arrange to get the form to you for signing.

***DATE CHANGE*** Wednesday, November 26 - Synergy AGM, 7pm IBM Canada Building, 227 - 11 Ave. SW, Rocky Mountain A Room:
Some information for the meeting:
1. Vice-president and Director positions will be open for member nominations at this AGM;
2. We will be reviewing possibilities for new team kit designs;
3. There will be suggested Society By-Law changes which will be posted here by November 4th pursuant to By-law rules for changes.
4. Can we do a team photo at this meeting? Bring your team kit to the AGM for team photos!
5. Details about team restructuring will be provided at this meeting (see bottom of this blog entry for more information).
6. 2009 Membership application forms will be available here in the next few weeks, and before the AGM if you so want to complete the forms and bring them to the meeting.

Official agenda for the AGM will be posted here prior to November 19th.

Friday, November 21 - Calgary Bicycle Track League AGM, 7pm, Ukrainian Cultural Centre, 3316 28th Avenue SW. Please contact equipment@cbtl.ca if you plan to attend the dinner. Following the CBTL AGM, Synergy members will be going out -- it is a Friday night, after all!

Synergy Bowling Day - Sunday, December 14. Location and time TBA.

Synergy Casino

November 10th, 11th at the Elbow River Casino, 218 18th Avenue SE. Natasha has already sent out work schedules, so you should already know which shifts you are assigned to work. Remember to bring ID with you to the casino for sign-in!

Team Fee Restructuring for 2009
This year, we are going to introduce a General membership fee of $50 which will cover ABA club riding insurance only and will not include support for travel, team kit, ABA licensing nor will team obligations apply; for racing members a $350 racing fee in addition plus $100 performance bond will get you all of the membership perks you are familiar with along with the requirements to work at the team casino and hosted races during the 2009 season.

We believe reinstatement of the performance bond is a good idea. We believe it adds a level of commitment to people who chose to be racing members to keep our racing member calibre at a higher level as a result. With the addition of the $100 performance bond, total race fees will equal what it was last year when people who race get their performance bond back.

We want to stress that first-year members must be racing members; we will hold the general member option to ‘grandfathering’ members of previous years. We believe this will give our more senior members options when considering their race seasons in light of all the other obligations of everyday life. This arrangement will also encourage first-year members and newer members to understand the benefits and consequences of being an active member of the Alberta Racing community, plus committing to working casinos, races, etc. all of which is good experience for anyone.

Now that there is the consideration of so many races being registered through Karelo, we are allowing members to manage their own entries, receipts and reimbursements when appropriate. We want to reinforce to members that they MUST get receipts for races in order to be reimbursed. If you are unclear on might need to be done if you find yourself in a situation where no receipt is available, please talk to cp or Reid about what will pass as a suitable race event receipt.

More to come! Stay tuned!

Monday, October 06, 2008

Reimbursments - Year End

In these financially turbulent times, you've got Synergy Racing on your side! We won't be lending you money but we will be reimbursing your race fees.

Here are a few things to remember when submitting reimbursement requests:

1) Please be patient. I won't reimburse you if you have just one receipt. In most cases, I'm assuming that you may have more on the way. This makes for less accounting at the end of the year.

2) Please have receipts. We simply cannot reimburse without them. We're accountable to the AGLC for every cent we spend. "I didn't get a receipt!"
If the organizer did not issue you one, you have to get out there and make your own and ask him/her to sign and date it. Printing out your results will also help.

3) Do not put tape on those new-fangled thermal paper receipts as the printing will be destroyed rendering them unusuable. Use some glue instead and please, for the love of Peter, be neat.

4) Put it in the mail! Snail mail, that is! Please don't make me do the job of printing out your receipts. I don't have a printer. Send it to the team post office box and Reid or I will collect it within a few weeks. Otherwise, bring what you have to the AGM (mid-November).

Scenario:
You're a junior and you submitted receipts for travel, etc. and an unrelated race fee. I will pay you for the largest sum and wait for more race receipts before reimbursing for the other, unrelated race. This helps in the accounting process as well.

Green Mountain Stage Racers (Graeme, Caeli):
I just received an ABA invoice for the rider's portion of the trip. Is there anything else? Do you have the receipts?

Did you know?
Keep in mind that our rivals, Bicisport, reimburse once only at the end of the year!

Yours on cash corner,
cp