My first AGM

After breezing through the 148 page Annual Report before the Manitoba Curling Association Annual General Meeting yesterday morning, I quickly gained a sense of what would be the hot-button topics, at least to me.

1. Comments and suggestions from the MCA Bonspiel, including a plea from the Winnipeg Curling Clubs Association to reinstate the Minor Event Berth into the Selects
2. The elimination of the "Buy a Badge" entry fiasco into a provincial playdown
3. The official announcement of the shift of the Manitoba Curling Tour Championships to Dec. 15 to 17
4. Enhancements to the MCA website

Let's start with item No. 1... suggestions for the MCA Bonspiel. It's clear something needs to be done to bring the magic back to the big event. I'm not sure if the minor event berth is the key to that, but it deserves to be explored. I think we are on the right track with the changes that were incorporated into last year's spiel.

One of the big improvements would be to have real-time, online updates for results on the website... this will be one of the projects I will delve into as a new director on the board.

Item No. 2: The Buy-a-Badge fiasco in certain provincial zone playdowns. While I think this is a great first step, more in-depth retooling needs to be carried out. Of course, that will take some time to hash out and get everyone on board with the final decisions.

Item No. 3: I think most MCT teams will be happy with the decision to move the championships to mid-December.

Item No. 4: Enhancements to the MCA website... I think they have already come a long way in this regard, and I will be working hard behind the scenes to keep those enhancements coming. Watch for updates on the MCA website... on the MCA website.

Cheers for now!