Flood the rink, weekly
December through February, neighbours flood and resurface the ice in the cold-snap windows. The skate shack stays open with hot chocolate.
The rink, the gardens, the courts, the building, the lot, none of it is on a Calgary maintenance rotation. About a dozen volunteers and a stack of $20 memberships keep it running.
The rink, the building, the gardens, the parking lot, the painted pickleball courts, I assumed Calgary maintained all of it. The City does NOT. SHCA does. Every winter, a board member drags a hose out at 11 PM to flood the rink. Every spring, volunteers paint the pickleball courts and run the cleanup days. Every month, your $20 membership pays the contractors who clear the snow, water the gardens, and clean the building.
If you live in Signal Hill, this is your community association, quiet, volunteer-run, doing the work the City doesn't. Calgary alone has ~150 community associations operating this way; Edmonton has 160+. This isn't unusual; it's the system. Most residents just don't know they're inside it.
Some of it we do ourselves. Most of it we pay contractors to do. None of it is on the City's books.
December through February, neighbours flood and resurface the ice in the cold-snap windows. The skate shack stays open with hot chocolate.
Lines repainted every spring, nets in the locked TUFF-Boxx, member-only court bookings free for SHCA members all summer.
Heat, hydro, internet, washroom supplies, door repairs, signage, alarm monitoring, all of it. Roughly $14,000 a year, paid from member dues.
Spring planters, summer landscape maintenance, irrigation, fall cleanup, contracted out and paid for by SHCA. The park gazebo, the beds along the building, the boulevard plantings: none of it on a City rotation.
Snow clearing all winter, sidewalk clearing, asphalt patching, line painting, contracted and paid for by SHCA. The lot the rink + courts share is on our books, not Calgary's.
Neighbour Day, Casino Night fundraiser, the tri-CA Community Cleanup, skate nights, movie nights, kids' Easter hunt, pickleball drop-ins. ~12 events a year, all volunteer-organized.
Memberships, facility rentals, and Casino Night cover all of it. No City operating subsidy. Here's what that looks like.
Across the rink, events, board meetings, garden days, cleanup. Audited figures presented at the AGM every October.
Heat, hydro, internet, insurance, repairs. Covered by member dues + facility rentals + Casino Night fundraisers (which net us $60–80K every two years).
Neighbour Day, Casino Night, Cleanup, skate nights, movie nights, Easter hunt, holiday market, pickleball drop-ins.
Snow clearing, sidewalk clearing, building cleaning, landscape maintenance, and irrigation are contracted out, paid from your membership and Casino Night, not the City. The board, the events, the fundraising, the rink flood, the grass cutting? That's us.
If renewals dip, programs shrink first, fewer skate nights, smaller Easter hunt, the rink opens later. $20 keeps the lights on.
Keep Signal Hill, Richmond Hill, and Sienna Hills, about 14,000 neighbours between 17 Avenue, Sarcee, Glenmore, and 69 Street SW, a place people want to stay.
Eleven neighbours. Zero salaries. They decide the Neighbour Day vendor list, the rink's repair budget, and everything in between. Click a card.
Elected officials serving Signal Hill at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels. See the City of Calgary's Ward 6 page for more.
$20 keeps the lights on. Two hours floods a rink.
Pays the building's lights, heat, repairs, and supplies. Gets you free pickleball court bookings, member rates on facility rentals, and a vote at the AGM.
Join SHCA → 2 hrs & upHelp at one event, or sit on the board. Direct traffic at the cleanup, plant the gardens, run the skate shack, organize the Easter hunt, there's a slot for any energy level.
Find a role →Our current strategy across three committees, Governance, Engagement, and Community Life, with the goals, objectives, and action items each is accountable for. Vision: a caring, fun, livable, and safe community. Values: belonging, diversity, fun, inclusion, safety, sustainability.
Got questions about Signal Hill? You're in the right place! Here are some answers to the most common queries our community gets. If your question isn't answered, please contact us.
A membership costs $20 for a Signal Hill resident and $30 for a non-resident. You can learn more about our memberships here, or sign up now.
We try to have a community event once every two months, but this all depends on weather and volunteers.
The AGM is held after the completion of the audited financial statements. It typically occurs the second week of November. All are welcome to attend but only registered members can vote. If you wish to become a registered member, please do so here.
Board members are tasked with the management, maintenance and financial oversight of the community assets. For us those mostly involves management of the Hockey and leisure skating rinks for use all year round as well as the park to the North East.
This is dependent on the role within the directors. As an example, for Treasurer you can expect to spend 4-10 hours a month (including the monthly board meeting). For Secretary, this could be 4-10 hours also between creating an agenda for monthly meetings, taking notes during meetings, and providing the minutes to the board after the meeting.
Community development and engagement are the main priorities of the SHCA. We're always open to suggestions on events and programs that could be hosted in our community.
All enquiries such as these should be directed to 311. You are more than welcome to engage the SHCA for assistance and we can bring it to the larger board for discussion, however these items are city related and need to go through the proper process to be discussed and actioned.
The SHCA tries to put on as many events as we can with the limited volunteers that connect with us. Becoming a volunteer is a great way to help support these programs and events. The board is always looking for volunteers for a wide variety of roles from directors, rink coordinators and casino volunteers to name a few. To help with volunteering, please sign up here or specify your interests while registering as a member.
We have a range of volunteering opportunities available throughout the year, anywhere from being on the board, to helping with our events such as skate night, Easter egg hunt or movie night.
This really depends on the activity that we're hosting, it could be a simple hour at an event, or an hour or more a week helping organize an event or being a board member.