Welcome to New Members - From Rock Talk, August 16

Editor: Hayley Hopkins
Date: 2024-08-16

Welcome to New Members!

With registration having opened up earlier this month, we are officially beginning to welcome a number of new members to our club for the 2024-2025 season. I would like to officially say welcome to those who have signed up for our club for the first time. Please continue reading below for some information about the Club and starting as a new member.

What is Rock Talk?

Twice a month you will receive a newsletter from the Club. This newsletter, the “Rock Talk”, is a way for members to share information about what is happening around the Club to all members. You will receive the newsletter biweekly throughout the year, which will include important updates from the Board of Directors, stories and pictures shared from members participating in different events, information about when event registrations begin, and other updates. All members are welcome to share items in the Rock Talk. If you’d like to see your story or picture be included in the Rock Talk, please email your information to rocktalk@hamiltonvictoriaclub.com.

If you do not want to receive the club-wide email communications, you can change your email preferences by navigating to the “Members+” tab on your account, select “My Info” and then find the check box option which reads: “email opt in: opt in to receive email communications from your club.”. Unchecking this box will remove you from our mailing list, if you want.

Note to all members: we are noticing that there are some issues with the email opt-in feature removing members from our mailing list even without them requesting to be removed. If you notice that you haven’t received any messages from the club in a while, you may want to double check that the checkbox described above is still selected.

How do I get an account on the website?

Once you have registered and your account is marked as paid, you can then gain access to our club website. You will likely want to check in on the website fairly regularly as there is a lot of information shared through the website. New members can make an account by navigating to https://hamiltonvictoriaclub.com/login.php and then selecting both “forgot your username” and “forgot your password” links to have the system generate an email to you with the information that you will need to log in. If you need help with this please email us at curling@hamiltonvictoriaclub.com.

What do I absolutely need to know before I start?

If you are participating in a Learn to Curl league, you will receive communications from our league convenor, Dan, shortly with information that you’ll need to know before the league begins. Part of your membership fee also covers the cost of two grippers, which is the basic equipment that you will need to start. You will also want to make sure that you have a clean pair of shoes to wear on the ice and some stretchy athletic pants. If you are not participating in the Learn to Curl, but are a new member, please be sure that you are purchasing at least one gripper ahead of your first game (though you might want two). We do sell these at the bar at the club, so please feel free to ask your bartender for assistance with this.

The Vic has a collection of brooms available to new curlers. However, we do ask that if you decide to stick with the sport over a number of seasons, you might want to invest in the purchase of your own broom.

There are a number of curling equipment companies that have online stores available for you to purchase from. Some popular brands to look for include Goldline, Balance Plus, Asham, or Hardline. There is a Goldline store located at 6620 Kitimat Rd, Mississauga, ON.

Where can I get more information about the Club?

We have posted a number of different resources on our website that you may be interested in checking out in preparation of the season:

See you on the ice soon!

Hayley Hopkins, on behalf of the Board of Directors