Even if you're not ready, there’s still time to make shit happen
There’s a week – or less – of Olympic curling left and then it’s gone, for another quadrennial.
Has your curling facility… well… kinda blown it?
Other curling clubs made plans for “Learn To Curl” sessions and they’re doing well, packed to the rafters with eager new cult members. But you guys couldn’t quite get organized in advance.
There’s no shame in that. It happens to the best of us.
But now what do you do? Your club’s voicemail is full, the email inbox is jammed and you’re underworked and underpaid – if you’re not already a volunteer, for heaven’s sake. The people in your community want to curl and they want to curl RIGHT NOW and, yes, these are the same people who have walked or driven right by your curling centre hundreds of times without ever thinking about the beautiful game going on in your building.
Switzerland got it right, I think, by arranging a National Curling Week from Feb. 9-15 to coincide with the Winter Games.
Every curling centre in the country arranged something, some over multiple days or evenings, to welcome interested folks in and on to the ice, or for a wine tasting, or a watch party during Swiss games at the Olympics in Cortina.
(I don’t think Canada is getting it right. Going with a “Curling Day in Canada” in January, prior to the Games, didn’t take proper advantage of the opportunity.)
The Americans learned, ever since Turin in 2006, to get their “Try Curling” open houses arranged every four years. They attract so many people they keep ’em going in non-Olympic years.
They’re probably breaking down the doors at U.S. curling facilities right now, particularly with the silver medal earned by Cory and Korey.
Look at this madhouse in Massachusetts from 2006:
While it may seem hopeless, there’s a very easy way to suddenly adapt your existing league curling schedules to provide ice time for new curler walk-ins, call-ins or break-ins… as early as tomorrow.
Yeah, you heard me. Yes, it’s rather abrupt, but it can be done, and every curler at your centre needs to buy in to it.
Here we go…
1) Contact your full membership via email with the subject header URGENT: Olympic Promotion at XXX Curling Club
Tell your people that as of XX date, one sheet of ice during league play will be dedicated as an Olympic promotion sheet. All players scheduled for that game are to show up to the facility as if they were going to play, but instead they will execute a variety of volunteer duties, specifically:
• Front door welcome duties
• Taking newbies who called in/phone in/broke in onto the ice for their first curling experience
• Supplying coffee and snacks for your new, impromptu welcome table
• Manning the club phones, website and email account to catch up on messages, and to help schedule the next day’s Olympic Promotion with the next day’s members aka Olympic volunteers.
• Helping you, the harried chief of this wacky endeavour, to promote opportunity to the community through local media, your municipal government etc.
Think about this.
New curlers would be trying the sport with your curling members, in a group or one-to-one setting (depending on turnout and comfort level of your new “instructors”) with actual league games going on around them. Noise. Colour. Excitement.
Your members would be doing something different, very different, from their typical league curling night experience. It’s something new and it’s because of the Olympic Winter Games, and it’s important for the future growth and overall health of your curling centre.
That’s what you’ll tell them, and that’s what they must believe. Convince them.
BONUS: This may end up recruiting members who have previously been averse to volunteering for club activities. Suck them in, and increase the number of curlers who now know they can Give Back™. With an expanded pool of active volunteers, your curling centre becomes healthier.
Don’t forget the Paralympics next month. You may get inquiries between Mar. 4-14 – and beyond – from wannabe adaptive curlers and able-bodied folks alike. Can you accommodate them? If getting them onto the ice would be too much (there could be many reasons for this), can you arrange watch parties for these folks at your facility?
Worry about league standings and trophies later. Someone good at Excel spreadsheets can figure it out. And no asterisks* beside any end-of-season trophy winners; everyone will understand the Olympic circumstances that led to an odd Friday 8:00 p.m. mixed league final standings where all teams took a turn sitting a game out for the greater good.
Don’t fret that there’s less than a week left of the competition in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Evidence is clear that post-Olympic excitement can continue for days or weeks after the closing ceremony; it all depends on the level of community interest and how you manage that interest from here on out.
Believe me, it’s not too late.
You’re here, you’re reading these words… now go and make shit happen.
And then do it again for Nice in 2030.