Vancouver Field Users Meeting

[Peter]

No fundraising/self-promoting stuff in here (unless you read it backwards at 78 rpm whereby you'll find yourself buying $15 beers at the next Westside O-30 game)...I'm forwarding this message sent to me by the president of the Vancouver Field Sport Federation regarding an important meeting coming up:

Dear VFSF members and Vancouver field-users,

This Monday at 7:00pm the Vancouver Park Board will be considering a draft
proposal from staff that will affect each and every one of you in a very
severe and negative way. The proposal calls for massive cuts to an already
under-funded field maintenance and repair budget.

PLEASE JOIN US AT THIS VERY IMPORTANT MEETING!

The staff is recommending that maintenance and improvements for fields be
reduced to $200,000 dollars. This amount would be above the $400,000
allocated to the deep tining program that is essential to maintaining our
fields.

To put this in perspective, the current allocation of maintenance funding is
$650,000 with an additional $400,000 added for deep tining, totaling just
over a million dollars. Our fields ideally require more than twice this
amount to properly maintain them year in and year out. To reduce an already
insufficient amount to this level will devastate our fields and put at risk
every child and adult that plays on them.

Show the Park Board that you will no longer stand for this. Join us as we
make our case to the Park Board Commissioners. THIS MAY BE YOUR ONLY CHANCE
TO HELP CHANGE THIS PROPOSED RECOMMENDATION.

The meeting will be held at The Vancouver Board of Parks & Recreation
office, 2099 Beach Avenue, Vancouver. The meeting begins at 7:00pm. If you
wish to speak to this issue, you may do so by contacting the Park Board on
(604) 257-8451 before 12:00 noon Friday (tomorrow).

The history surrounding this issue may provide you with some needed
background. The VFSF reconstituted itself three years ago to address the
declining field conditions throughout the city. The original Federation
faded away many years earlier and became nonexistent until a group of us, in conjunction with Park Board field coordinator, decided to organize the
dozens of sports and create a voice that would speak directly to those that
make the decisions affecting our fields.

I have had the privilege of representing the Federation as your President
for the past two terms. The VFSF Executive and sport representatives have
spent countless hours meeting with Park staff and elected commissioners to
highlight the terrible conditions our fields and facilities are in. Across
all sport, the crisis is huge. We have been making SOME progress. We have
also made considerable concessions to create better relationships with
staff. Our intent has been to work with the Park Board as they attempt to
deliver us better facilities. This submission has set our relationship back,
considerably. This is a slap in the face to each and every field user in the
city. We need to show our dismay toward this proposal and we need to show
our numbers.

The VFSF represents over 45,000 people throughout the city. Please spend a
few hours out of your Monday night and help send a message to the Park Board that we demand better playing fields and improved playing conditions.

If you wish to review the submission, please go to the following website: http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/parks/20.htm.

For additional support, please ask friends and family to join you on Monday.
The more we can bring out, the more impact we will have on future decisions
facing the Park Board.

Sincerely,

Colin Metcalfe
President, VFSF