ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
The Airdrie Festival of Lights Society and Foundation will be holding their Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, May 15, 2013. We will be meeting in the Community Room of the Airdrie Co-op at 7:00pm. The purpose of this meeting will be to elect our Board of Directors for the 2013 Season.
* In an effort to always have a Member in the position of President and Vice President, these positions will re-elect in opposite seasons. Therefore our Vice President will remain until the 2014 AGM.
Executive Positions
- President – open
- Vice President – filled
- Secretary – open
- Treasurer – open
General Directors - Nine Openings
Youth Directors - Two Openings
In addition to Board Members, we will be looking to all Directors to take on one or more Committee Positions while we develop a good base for coming seasons. The purpose of a Board Member on the committees is to be an advisor and representative to the Board of Directors in decision making processes.
Committee Positions
- Finance
- Fundraising and Grant Applications
- Volunteer Program
- Maintenance
- Sponsorship
- Advertising/Marketing
- Communications
- Media Relations
- Human Resources
- Vendor Relations
- Legal Relations
- Entertainment
- Governance
- Electrical
- Mascots
Those who are interested in putting their name forward for one of our open Executive Positions, are asked to fill out the Board Member Application Form and return it back by Sunday, May 5. Please advise of the position of interest to you.
If you are interested in a General Director or Youth Director Position, please fill out the Application Form and return by Wednesday, May 8.
For more information, please contact:
Bob Abbott, President – Airdrie Festival of Lights Society wordengines@gmail.com
Michelle Pirzek, Director – Airdrie Festival of Lights Society coordinator.afols@gmail.com
April 2013 – CALL FOR TENDER
The Airdrie Festival of Lights Society (AFOLS) stages an outdoor Christmas Festival of Lights Display for the month of December in Nose Creek Park in the City of Airdrie for the enjoyment of people of Southern Alberta.
Airdrie Festival of Lights is currently accepting Tenders for the position of Sponsorship Coordinator.
Term of contract is one year term with the option to renew for 2 more.
Duties will include:
- Provide stewardship to current donors, including providing regular written updates to sponsors & donors.
- Solicit and work with prospective sponsors to secure new sponsorship agreements.
- Maintain written records of sponsorship agreements and donors.
- Regular communication with AFOLS Board of Directors.
- Assist with organizing & attending Sponsor events as required.
Requirements:
- Energy, enthusiasm and confidence in building relationships on behalf of the AFOLS.
- Experience in sourcing sponsorship agreements.
- Strong communication skills – both written and oral.
- Knowledge of non-profit operational model.
- A willingness to work with volunteers.
- A willingness to support sponsored events during the Festival.
- Experience in Grant writing would be an asset.
- Knowledge of basic fundraising techniques and strategies.
- Knowledge and familiarity with research techniques
Please include remuneration expectation with tender.
Deadline for tenders is: May 8, 2013
For further information please email President Bob Abbott or Vice-President Roger Helston at sales@airdriefestivaloflights.com or call 403-948-9627 and leave a message.
Submit electronic tenders to sales@airdriefestivaloflights.com or printed tenders to Airdrie Festival of Lights, PO Box 10353, Airdrie, AB, Canada, T4A 0H6
December 25th Update
Season’s Greetings! Due to the extreme temperature today, we will not be running the trains tonight. However, the lights will still be on, and there will be hot chocolate available, so if you’re braving the elements with the family, bundle up and come enjoy the Lights!
December 23
The winner of the Mattamy Homes Playhouse is Rebecca Orr of Olds, Alberta. She was scheduled to have the playhouse delivered to her backyard Monday morning.
Our sincere thanks to everyone who bought a ticket. Even if your ticket was not drawn, you’re still a winner because proceeds of the raffle help the Rainbow Society and the Airdrie Festival of Lights Society.
December 19th 2012
Tonight at the Festival of Lights there will be a ‘Train Off’ – Rob Jamieson from Air 106.1FM and Airdrie’s own Mayor Peter Brown will be competing to see whose train will attract the most riders!
Both Jamieson and Mayor Brown will don their Train Driver caps, in a fun competition to help raise funds for the Airdrie Festival of Lights Society. Are you Team Jamieson, or Team Mayor Brown? Pick your train, pay your $2 (minimum donation) and enjoy a ride through the beautiful light displays at the Festival. The train with the most riders wins, and the winning driver will be awarded with a cheque for $250 to share with their local charity of choice! So dress warm, come enjoy the evening at the Festival of Lights, and buy your train tickets to help one of these great train drivers win this friendly competition. Hope to see you there!
On December 5th, we received a message asking why some lights and displays were out; here’s what we explained:
Hello
There are two types of problems that can cause individual lights and entire pieces of displays to be out.
Sometimes whole displays go down because of electrical shorts. To get them fixed, we need someone to work through the many possibilities that may have occurred. Sometimes it’s as simple as finding a disconnected power cord; sometimes as difficult as finding a broken wire within a display. Most of these displays are quite old, but replacing them is extremely expensive, so we patch and deal with them the best we can.
Turning to individual bulbs, between the time the lights are packed up and loaded onto a trailer at the end of one season and unpacked and set up again for another season, quite a few bulbs (especially the older incandescent ones) get broken. We know, for example, that the Clock Tower in Village Shops took a pretty big hit from last season to this season. To get them fixed, we need volunteers, either evening or daytime, but preferably daytime.
We do try to fix everything as the Festival progresses; to date our electrician and others have already fixed numerous displays and they continue to chase down problems as they occur. In addition, volunteers have probably replaced more than a thousand individual bulbs so far this year. But, please note that most of this work has to be done by volunteers, in the limited time they have available.
I hope that helps explain what you saw when you visited. And, I want to assure you that the problems you saw were not because our non-profit society is complacent about or neglecting the lights at the Festival.
Bob Abbott
President
Airdrie Festival of Lights Society
December 3, 2012
The Weather Network is coming!
We are pleased to report that the Weather Network would like to do a story/feature on the Airdrie Festival of Lights! A reporter will be interviewing AFOLS Coordinator Michelle Pirzek the morning of December 4th at 8:04 a.m. (carried live nationally) and at 8:34 a.m. (live Alberta broadcast). The reporter will then return the evening of the 4th to do longer interviews and take some footage of the Festival in operation for later broadcast. How exciting!
November 19, 2012
Off-Leash at Nose Creek Park Open During Festival of Lights
The Airdrie Festival of Lights Society and the City of Airdrie plan to keep the off-leash area at Nose Creek Park available some hours during the Festival of Lights.
The plan will allow dog owners to use the off-leash area until 4 p.m., seven days a week through November and December. In the late afternoons and evenings, the area reverts to its regular function as a parking lot for the Festival of Lights.
Archie Lang, the City’s Operations Manager for Parks and Public Works says, “I’m pleased with this arrangement as it addresses everyone’s needs. We appreciate that the Festival, which is buying this land for the City, has opened the doors to dogs and their owners during the day.”
He adds, “While the Nose Creek Park off-leash area will not be available during evenings in November and December, Airdrie does have other areas where dogs can run free. They can be found on the City of Airdrie website or on the site maps at the off-leash locations.”
President Bob Abbott of the Festival of Lights Society says, “We thank the City for its constructive approach to this issue, and for making this plan possible. In addition, we remind everyone that the Festival is one of the few public events which welcome pets on leashes every evening.”
Rewards for Volunteers
AFOL’s Michelle Pirzek says,
“I have more EXCITING NEWS! Is there anyone out there who could use $100 towards their groceries??? Calgary Co-op has come on board this year to support all our AMAZING Volunteers! Every time you and your family volunteers for a shift of 3 hours or more, you will receive a ballot that can be dropped off at Customer Service in our local Airdrie Co-op store. Ballots will be given to every volunteer, but only those 18+ are eligible to win. Every week we will be drawing one lucky ballot for a $100 Co-op gift certificate.
Draws will be made on Dec 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29! Then on January 5 all remaining entries will be entered into the Grand Prize Draw of a $500 gift card! The more you volunteer, the more chances you have to win!