TREASURER TRAINING  

EFCL has a financial advisor who assists leagues with transitions for newly elected treasurers, accounting software recommendations and implementations, grant applications and more.  Please contact Linda Crosby for your financial needs.

PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT CONSULTATION

In the face of restrictive bylaws or zoning changes, or transportation corridors that disrupt our neighborhoods, loss of parkland, and other such issues that threaten the wellness of our neighborhood, often we feel helpless against the political processes.  Our planner, Bev Zubot, is here to help you understand those processes and shed light on avenues of action, with advice for best effectiveness.  Although EFCL can only represent issues that have a broad city wide impact (over 50% of leagues effected)  we still offer advice for localized issues.  Be part of your neighborhood's planning process.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

EFCL participates in a number of committees that represent Crime Prevention; Clean up or Green Initiatives; Newcomer, Senior, & Youth Programs; and of course Sports & Recreation.  Through some of our efforts we have helped neighborhoods implement and finance infrastructure improvements and renovations, Summer programs, discount tickets for facilities and sports events,and so much more.  For certain, this is a growing area of concern and interest and our efforts always stay focussed on service in community development.

RESOURCES

More and more information, and such a difficult time wading through it all.  EFCL has categorized a number of documents and continues to expand this Online Resource Library  and link to it from related news articles.  Our Resource Guide, published new in April 2009, will be an accessible online pdf document, bookmarked and searchable.  If there is something you need, and don't see it online, chances are we have it and just haven't uploaded it yet.  Give us an email request and we will see what we can do.

ONLINE SERVICES

Registered Users - We protect all information gathered through the registration process.  It gives you power to add yourself to certain distribution lists or to participate in forums, enroll for events in our calendar, and have access to special community league member eyes only sections.  Tips on how to register are in our FAQ or click Register at the top right of the page.  Most of our services below require registration.

Surveys - For the betterment of the community EFCL and / or the City of Edmonton organize surveys to gather input on issues as diverse as recreation or planning matters.  We use these tools in decision making, both on our actions as your umbrella organization, and as consultant to the City for programs, policy, and planning.  Presidents are invited always to participate.  If the president is already registered, view of the survey is automatic as each arises.  Occasionally we consult other board members, and again,  if they have registered and identified their position in their profile, they too will be automatically added and informed. 

Membership Supplies - League Members who have identified themselves as membership directors or presidents can view and order from our membership catalogue - a new one will be posted in December or January.  The process is simple, select items, view your cart to adjust quantities, checkout and enter shipping information, and submit.  Your league will be invoiced.  We acknowledge and clarify any details, and have tips along the whole way.

Community League Membership Purchase - Getting with the new millennium, and streamlining administrative processes, has lead EFCL to offer online Membership Purchase, effective May 2009.  The process again is simple:

1. The parents who need a League Membership to register their children for sports will be referred to our site by the sports association. 
2. The purchaser will enter their postal code in a field and their appropriate league and a link to purchase a membership appears. 
3. They are encouraged to approach the league directly.
4. Once they choose to purchase the membership online, they must select from options available such as Family, Single, or Senior membership.
5. They proceed to Paypal and an administrative fee yet to be confirmed will be added to cover our administrative costs such as Paypal fees, cheques, and administrative charges.
6. An order confirmation is emailed to the league to notify them a purchase has been made and they may contact their new member with a card, skate tags, and league meeting times, etc.
7. At the same time an order confirmation is emailed to EFCL, and to the purchaser with a verification number to use with the sports registration process.
8. The same email is used as a receipt to present to the league for their card. The league may contact the new member at this point, verify the address, and the league still has a right to refuse membership. For leagues who have a high volume of registrants from sports, we recommend they set a day  or two when people can claim their new membership in the fall. Every league should verify the address with ID and has the right to refuse membership. Abuse of incorrect addresses for cheaper memberships will result in blacklisted purchases.  
9. We suggest that leagues use this opportunity to invite new members to a meeting and to volunteer.
10. On a set schedule, EFCL will forward a cheque for the fees owed to each league.   We will advise when we decide on dates.
11. Sports Associations will use their discretion to check for a card once the season starts.
12. Link to a presentation with sample receipts and notifications

Events & Activities -  In our calendar of activities we list community league events, workshops, and EFCL special dates.  If you would like to update your own events, we can organize that capability and give quick and easy training on how.  Otherwise, email your requests at least two weeks in advance to communications@efcl.org .  You can also RSVP and enroll for our meetings and events in the calendar such as our EFCL AGM and EFCL RGM.

Community Classifieds - Buy, sell, trade, or seek help here.  This bulletin board is open to registered users. Any content that is not community oriented is monitored.

Forums - On some subject we offer forums for you to see and share ideas among fellow community league members.  This is a great opportunity to get some input.  If desired, you can be notified when responses to your questions and comments are received.

League Email -  We recommend that all community leagues use general addresses such as BalwinCLInfo@ gmail.com or ritchie @ yahoo.com .  Best is to get your domain and use a service to provide emails like president @ woodvale.org  or treasurer @ baturyn.com      For tips on use of emails check our Resource page on Effective Communications.  

League Websites - The EFCL has provided links through to existing community league pages. Some of them aren’t maintained, and some leagues don’t have a page. If you want to start a page or switch to something that requires maybe 10 or 20 minutes maintenance every couple of weeks, get in touch with us. We have begun to customize pages on a first come first serve basis. We provide training and will have an online manual shortly.  Read about our hosted pages. 

Tech Support - You can email or telephone EFCL for tech support.  Monday to Friday 8:30 to 4:30 and during high traffic times such as the month before membership supply order deadline, we offer evening support on a scheduled day.  You may also email communications@efcl.org to make an appointment for telephone support for an evening or weekend.

A league will have 

•  An introductory page to put a few pictures and an introductory paragraph for the league to invite new members and highlight facilities and / or upcoming events.  If there are enough pictures available we can install a viewer like on Montrose’s page (see link above)
• A contact page
• Events Calendar
•  In addition, a news & activity page will be available to post your own events and announcements.  All leagues are welcome to post their events on our global Community League Calendar.

• URL eg.  mcqueen.yourcommunityleague.com (we recommend however you get your own domain as per below)
• Webmaster training to update the pages as needed (if new volunteer requires training)

• Domain name registration - If you want your own domain  - eg.  mcqueencommunity.com you must register and renew that yourself.  We prefer you to use our host, as this  makes the management easier  www.cyberspacesolutionsinc.com/   Just click domain names, search for the one you want, buy it online with a credit card and they will email you the account information.  Forward that, and any pin numbers you created.  One email is included with the domain registration. NOTE:  For registering domain names you can go just about anywhere but please do NOT use godaddy as we can’t direct them to our host because they are on the same server.   
• If you already have a registered domain name we can point it to your new site on EFCL or transfer it to the EFCL host  - one time fee of $30.  Note:  transfers will require the domain registration fee as well.  

This website should be a great start and may be all you need. If you are finding you want increased functionality on your site, anything is possible and we can get you trained or hooked up with someone to help you.  Once content is up we can make it prettier with a new skin.  Some functionality will be free, other functionality will cost but we will always provide a quote or recommend a web designer to do it for you.   Let us know what you need.