New era for figure skating in the city
It may be the off-season but some big things are happening on the local figure skating scene.
After a few years of talking, and sometimes not talking, the Fredericton Figure Skating Club and the Nashwaaksis Figure Skating Club have agreed to merge into one body.
The new group will be known as the Capital City Skating Club, a fresh name for a fresh start that also avoids the northside vs. southside issue that sometimes pops up.
"Kathi Dodds McMullin (FFSC president) and I met for lunch (on Jan. 14) after she had been prompted by her board to contact me," said Kim Tucker, the president of the new club and former president of the Nashwaaksis club.
"Both of us had actually gone through this before," Tucker said. "About eight or nine years ago, FFSC wanted NSC to join with them under the FFSC banner. That was totally voted down and some hard feelings followed.
"So we agreed at our lunch that the next step would be through our boards (of directors). I attended the FFSC board meeting on the 16th and they voted to move forward with the amalgamation as did my board."
This time, the reasons to unite everybody under one name and in one group seemed to make sense to the two groups.
"Basically we started the process because both clubs were struggling financially," Tucker said. "Registration numbers have been decreasing and ice time costs are going up.
"We are now the largest club in New Brunswick. And we will have a bigger pool of children and volunteers to draw from and will be able to offer more programs to the skaters."
The first thing needed was permission from Skate Canada. With that in hand. a well-thought out plan was put into action. Both of the boards had to be dealt with, the new name was needed and members of both clubs needed to be informed about what was going on. On top of that, a new constitution had to be drafted, a date for the merger was needed and a new unified board of directors was needed. When the ice shavings settled, Tucker was the new president.
"My roots are definitely northside," Tucker said. "NSC has been around about 35 years, and I've been involved for the past 12 years while my daughter has been skating. I've been president for the last four years and now have agreed to stay on as president of the new club."
It is, however, a bittersweet move for Tucker.
"NSC was a smaller, very friendly place to skate," Tucker said. "Our home rink until this year was the Nashwaaksis Arena and we had a lot of sad feelings as we left that rink last year and moved to the Willie Oree Place. So now, although I know this is the best solution for both clubs and it will be a great thing for the sport, it is with a bit of sadness that we see the end of the Nasis Club.
"The Fredericton club has been around for more than 50 years so I'm sure that some of their people feel exactly the same about seeing the end of the FFSC. However is was an unanimous vote in favour of the merger, so we all believe that this will be a great thing for the sport of figure skating in this city," Tucker added.
The new club hopes to use both the LBR and Willie O'Ree Place as home rinks to give the learn-to-skate parents a chance to skate on the side of the river in which they're most familiar.
"We still need to meet with the city to request the ice," Tucker said.
"But that will be our wish list, that we continue to use both rinks."
Now all that remains is to launch the ship as old rivals combine to strengthen the sport they love.
"Exciting things are going to happen to this sport in this city," Tucker said.
"We will experience some growing pains as we learn to live together I'm sure, but we will get though them. I have a great new board of directors who are keen to work to make great things happen for the kids."
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