February, 1982, The Castor Review 9 HELP It's cold. | And we need a boost. Recreation The Russell Recreation Association. Left to right (seated): Betty Latimer, Greg Rokosh, Lorne Wade, Albert Bourdeau (Deputy Reeve, Russell Township). Standing (left to right): J. P. St. Pierre, Jean Millaire, Baird McNeil (Chairman), Paul Wylie (Recreation Director, retired), and Peter Romme (vice-chairman). "The primary goal of the Russell Recreation Association (the R.A.) is to foster recreation of all varieties for all citizens. It's major : concern is to manage Township recreation funds and operate Township recreational facilities." By Greg Rokosh This statement is taken from the notes of a recent R.A. planning meeting, and indicates the scope of the» Association's concerns "as" seen by its Directors and Ex- ecutive members. But, while facilities manage- ment and the parcelling out of ser- vices and resources are the major functions, the R.A. committee also exists to provide guidance and co-ordination to sub- committees and to the community in general as well as to initiate new recreational services as required and possible. Until recently these latter func- tions were largely incorporated in- to the job description of Russell's Recreation Director leaving ad- ministrative and financial issues as the major concerns of the R.A. Board itself. Not very interesting stuff and certainly not the sort of thing that has inspired people to rush into R.A. openings or elec- tions. The R.A. Board has identified this as the major challenge: to recruit, support, and encourage a force of volunteers to further the development of recreation in Anti Metric Independent Radiator supporter of ANTI METRIC CANADA R.R. No. 2 Embrun, Ont. For Information: 563-0698 443-5423 We won't move our feet ARAN OD sacs iy ais oe Be Se They realize that volunteers -- that is you and me -- must have something interesting and mean- ingful (to us) things to work on, and that we need clear leadership and policies, and sufficient resources, human as well as finan- cial, to make each challenge we undertake, a manageable one. In an effort to develop an organization within which volunteers might more reasonably 'see themselves' playing an active part, the R.A. Board proposes to revise its constitution to recognize the following permanent sub- committees: Administrative Sub- committees: Financial Manage- ment -- sub-committee Chairper- son, Peter Vantol; and, Fund Raising -- sub-committee Chairperson, Vacant; Facilities sub-committees: Arena Manage- ment -- sub-committee Chairper- son, Peter Romme; Pool sub- committee -- Chairperson, Lourdes Mondoux; and, Parks sub-committee -- Chairperson, Vacant. Of these sub-committees, two are presently not yet in operation: the Fund Raising sub-committee, with a mandate to co-ordinate the various R.A. fund raising ac- tivities and to assemble volunteer task forces to accomplish this; and the Parks sub-committee, with a mandate to develop facilities and programs to encourage the con- structive use of Russell's several park areas by its citizens. _ The Chairpersons of all sub- committees and the Arena Management sub-committee must have an elected R.A. member as Chairperson. All Chairpersons are responsible to, and will report directly to, the R.A. Board of Directors at regular monthly meetings, but only those . Chairpersons who have _ been elected to_a position on the R.A. Board may exercise voting privileges. Local recreation: Your taxes, your business, your board Well now, you may be asking yourself, what difference will all of that make? Won't we still have the same groups of people handl- ing the organization and programs of minor-hockey, broomball, figure skating, softball, swimm- ing, judo and all the rest? Of course. But what the R.A. wants to ac- complish, besides operating in the black, is to get more of us involv- ed in more imaginative programs, take advantage of thes incredible range of talents and _ abilities which the members of this com- munity possess and, in short, develop a sense of ownership and pride in Russell's recreational facilities and programs. Working in splendid isolation, it is not surprising that sometimes a committee, setting out to pro- duce a horse, will wind up with a camel. There are many good inten- tions, ideas and decisions at the R.A. Board's monthly meetings but they very much need public in- put. These meetings, held at 7:30 p.m. on the second Monday of every month in the Dr. Kinnaird Arena hall, are public meetings and your attendance and input would be enthusiastically welcom- ed. If you can't attend a meeting to express your opinion or air your ideas, why not collar one of the Committee members -- they will be glad to talk recreation with you -- after all, that's why they stood for election; or write the R.A. c/o the Dr. Kinnaird Arena and you will be guaranteed a reply. Russell recreation is your business. Dorothy Marquette is recuperating. She will be back next issue. Get well, Dorothy. We miss ya. ; eee eee? , {AAA a hd a WARD MALLETTE ~--h eee 1e or one COMPTABLES AGREES CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS C.P. 128 (P.O. Box 128), Embrun, Ontario, Canada __ KOA 10 (613) 4435201. ry The Castor Review needs your help. Like everyone else on this Earth of ours, your local newspaper is in the midst of an horrendous financial squeeze. So far, we've not screamed in public (it's so un- dignified). But, now, we're teetering on the knife-edge of oblivion and, decorum be damned, we simply must talk about it. HELP. The Castor Review is a community project. We're staff- ed by volunteers. And we're non-profit (we're not sure we could be anything else, even if we tried). Like any worthwhile non-profit community group we need love, attention and constant nurturing. (Have you hugged a Review volunteer this week?). The financial situation has been dominating all our meetings of late and, frankly, it's beginning to get us down. Three times in the past few months we've received one of those dreaded letters from the printer: "Due to increasing costs...etc." And the post office passed along a whopper to us this January. All the way along we've found ways to absorb these in- creases and keep the paper going. But we've hit a brick wall. There just isn't anything else we can cut and still publish a newspaper we can be proud of and want to pour our energies into. ; The last thing we want to see is the death of this wor- thwhile project. There are simply too many community enterprises being abandoned today -- we don't want to be another one. We hope you share this feeling. That's why we're asking you for a boost. But we don't want to muscle in on other community groups and start a drive for donations. We're asking for a subscription boost. Here's why we think it'll work: The cost of publishing this newspaper is front-end load- ed. Most of the dollars involved in each edition of the paper are spent before the first copy rolls off the press -- for photography, typesetting, etc. We usually print 1,200° copies of The Castor Review. This is a low press run for a newspaper -- so each issue is relatively expensive to print. However, if our circulation list is expanded then we simply keep.the presses going for a little while longer and our unit price decreases. That way, we will make a few more dollars to keep the whole thing going. So, how about it? Can you help us out with a circulation boost? We' re sure you know at least one person in this area who doesn't receive The Castor Review regularly. If you con- vince that person to subscribe, the ball will start rolling. Or to make sure, how about giving that individual a gift -- a subscription to The Castor Review? ~ But don't limit your thinking to people in the immediate area. We'd like to encourage you to give a subscription to someone who, although far away, would like to read about what's happening in this area. We're sorry to whine about money in public. We'd much rather do it privately -- but we're up against it. (Whimper, whimper.) Please help. Give us a boost. On behalf of all of us, = U IS Dennis McGann, ns Editor Ge ua een eee es oy, Here's my boost. Please send a subscription to the following person (and stop whining): NAME ADDRESS POSTAL GODE . Enclosed is $4 for this subscription. ($5 out- side Canada). And also enclosed, $ for addi- tional subscriptions (names and addresses on attached sheet). c i L} t i] i] i] i] i i i i i} i } i i i i} i i] g Please mail to: The Gastor Review Box 359, Russell, Ontario, OROABRO os