The St. Albert Community League wants to inject new life into its 71-year-old organization through a 10-fold increase in membership.
The league hopes to top the 500-member mark with a new recruitment drive that takes flight this weekend during a summit with potentially dozens of other local clubs and organizations.
Membership director Deane Doucette said the goal of the NGO conference is to raise the profile of the once popular community league and draw closer ties to other organizations for their mutual benefit.
“Our current membership is under 50,” Doucette said. “Our aim is 500.”
The league operates the 70-year-old community hall on Perron Street, a popular venue that’s frequently booked solid during weekdays, Doucette says, and does decent business on weekends. Elsewhere, the league’s reach into the community is limited, he concedes.
“At present I would say that the league functions only in keeping the lights on. We’ve agreed that it is not [good enough].”
Doucette would like to see the league revitalized in numbers like the days when “grandma and grandpa” were involved and the organization supported everything from skating rinks to cadets, scouts, guides and other groups.
Doucette says the league has seen a drop-off in membership since the 1950s, when communities themselves started to change. For many St. Albert households, the family dynamic has replaced getting involved in organizations like a community league.
“Our main problem is to see if we can deal with this in a way in which communities have evolved in the Western world,” Doucette says.
The decline in membership has even clouded the future of the league’s main asset, the community hall. Though well built for its day, Doucette concedes the outlook is far from clear. Like any household, the league has to ensure it has its act together to properly maintain the property.
Doucette has extended the invite to numerous clubs and organizations and says the early response is encouraging despite having to compete with Olympic fever.
The conference begins at 3 p.m. Saturday inside the community hall, 17 Perron St. For more information contact Doucette at 780-458-0902 or [email protected].
