West Kootenay/Boundary Zone 6 executive in desperate need of volunteers
By Lone Sheep Publishing
The West Kootenay/Boundary Zone 6 BC Senior Games executive is in desperate need of volunteers to step up to guarantee the participation of zone athletes during future games.
The current West Kootenay/Boundary Zone 6 executive said if a functioning executive is not in place following the upcoming annual general meeting in February, the zone would collapse, meaning no local athletes would be allowed to compete in the upcoming 2023 BC Senior Games later this year.
“At that AGM (February) 2022, we filled the Chair, vice chair, treasurer, recording secretary, and the existing registrar and sport coordinator elected to stay on for one more year, (which) saved Zone 6 then,” West Kootenay/Boundary Zone 6 Secretary Karen Lees explained.
“Now we find ourselves in a similar situation.”
Lees said the band aid solution at the 2022 Zone 6 Annual General Meeting followed a desperate letter to all members that if there were not volunteers to fill the six executive positions, there would be no executive to coordinate the athletes attending the games.
The 2023 BC 55+ Games are scheduled for August 22-26 in Abbotsford.
Lees, who attended the BC Senior Games in 2009 to participate in cycling, was not aware of the extensive efforts required in the background to organize zone athletes, communicate, and achieve a successful event every year.
“Now I have a profound respect for those who volunteered all those years . . . until COVID-19 devastated pretty much everything, halting any kind of activity,” Lees said.
“It is taking some time to “resuscitate” our Zone 6 and engage the membership to consider getting involved in any way they feel comfortable doing.”
The BC Seniors Games Society is a volunteer based charitable organization responsible for the overall governance of the 55+ BC Games.
The Society operates under a volunteer board of directors with representatives from each of the 12 designated zones throughout the province.
The province is divided into 12 zones responsible for recruiting members and registering participants for the Games.
Lees is one person within Zone 6 who stepped up earlier this year, taking on the Recording Secretary position for one year — a job she had no experience in performing.
Lees, and current executive, is asking for support from seniors in the zone to attend the upcoming AGM, February 18 at 10 a.m. in the Kootenay Room of the Castlegar Community Complex.
Meeting registration is at 9:30 a.m.
For more information on the West Kootenay/Boundary Zone 6 email zone6recordingsecretary@gmail.com
