For two winters volunteers Dan Hailey and Morgan Haavaldsen have made excellent ice at our rink. There were good helpers along the way but Dan & Morgan did most of the work, and at all hours of the day. In this fall of 2022 Morgan and his wife will move to Hinton. Dan and his wife hope to spend time traveling. We need to understand the work they've been doing.
Mark Gordon chatted with Dan & Morgan (and got a crash course in flooding the rink!). He wrote these notes, to capture some important lessons:
Note the timing of the different areas of work:
We avoid flooding during the early evening. Often flooding does not begin until after 9:00 PM. Flooding can be done in 90 minutes if the ice does not scraping/sweeping. Having a second person during flooding is a big help, but not absolutely required. (MG: That's easy for me to say; the only time I flooded I had a helper who kept the long hose out of my way!)
We hope to recruit volunteers for
If having a good community rink is important to you, please consider meeting one of the team some evening or weekend to see what's involved. You might even help just the one time. That would be most appreciated.
Write to Jan, [email protected]. Please tell her what jobs you would consider helping with.
Mark Gordon chatted with Dan & Morgan (and got a crash course in flooding the rink!). He wrote these notes, to capture some important lessons:
- Splitting the work up is useful:
- The ice: clearing snow and flooding; the visible, vital work.
- Everything else: after two pandemic winters, we would like to have the rink shack open on a regular basis. And from time to time there are jobs to do, like buying gas for the two snow blowers & sweeper, fixing something or doing a major cleanup.
- To do a good job of flooding takes experience, but to learn to flood takes one training session.
- Most of us would need to be shown the eccentricities of our snowblowers and sweeper in order to start and run them.
Note the timing of the different areas of work:
- Tending the shack, sometimes called supervising:
- Supervising can be scheduled; at least 60 minutes weekday evenings to allow a decent length Family Skate (no pucks) and maybe a couple hours weekend afternoons
- Unlocking the shack provides washrooms and a warm place to change
- However, the unlocked shack cannot left alone; equipment disappears
- Enforcing Family Skate times is challenging for some; not everyone is cut out to be a "cop"
- In a perfect world, people would be required to display skate tags to prove they have purchased a league membership
- It is challenging to be aware both of what's happening on the ice and what's going on inside the shack
- Supervising can be scheduled; at least 60 minutes weekday evenings to allow a decent length Family Skate (no pucks) and maybe a couple hours weekend afternoons
- Ice work is event-driven
- Cold weather might keep skaters off the ice for a few days so that there is little need to flood or clear snow
- Skating generates "cruft" (like snow) that accumulates, depending on rink usage
- After enough cruft accumulates or we receive a skiff of snow, the ice might have to be scraped; (we have several wide scrapers, around 4 feet across); sometimes the product of scraping is tossed outside the rink with shovels; if enough material is scraped, a blower might be used.
- Of course, a real dump of snow generates a lot of work
- So it's all very event-driven, need-driven; it cannot be scheduled far in advance
We avoid flooding during the early evening. Often flooding does not begin until after 9:00 PM. Flooding can be done in 90 minutes if the ice does not scraping/sweeping. Having a second person during flooding is a big help, but not absolutely required. (MG: That's easy for me to say; the only time I flooded I had a helper who kept the long hose out of my way!)
We hope to recruit volunteers for
- Ice-making (and clearing)
- Supervising
- Irregular jobs, as needed
If having a good community rink is important to you, please consider meeting one of the team some evening or weekend to see what's involved. You might even help just the one time. That would be most appreciated.
Write to Jan, [email protected]. Please tell her what jobs you would consider helping with.
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