Capital City Fencers’ Club News

All the news that’s fit for the piste!

Hello Fencers!

I hope this email finds you and your families well, despite the state of emergency.

Herein you will find:

1. Beginners graduate and join regular practice!

2. Beginners invitational PLUS social team fencing on Sat 27 November

3. Who won the poule of spam?

4. Club December gift stealing night Wed Dec 15

5. Club Annual General Meeting is at Dec 1 practice

1. Beginners graduate!

Congratulations to our CCFC Beginners class of Fall 2021!

Our beginners have completed their introduction to fencing. What a great crew we had this session. Thanks to Benson and Trevor, as always, for coaching our beginner class!

It’s been great to meet you all and we are thrilled to invite you to join our regular practices on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Hopefully all the regular club members will come out and make the beginners welcome!

Beginners, here is what you can expect:

We fence Mondays from 8 – 10 pm and Wednesdays from 7:30 – 10 pm at Royal Oak Middle School Gym (our usual spot). You will use the same equipment that has been assigned to you during the class.

The practice begins with a warm up led by Isaac, and then we fence until the end of night clean up.

Fencers gather about 4 or 5 fencers per piste and will ref, then fence two bouts, then step off and join the queue again. We make an effort to mix up the groups and order of the lines through the night so you will fence as many different people as possible. Don’t be shy about fencing more advanced fencers, as this is all par for the course. Also, feel free to ask for advice or request support as you learn to ref, we are all happy to help Probably you will get advice even when you don’t request it (ask me how I know!). 🙂

About 20 minutes before close, an alarm will chime and we call for last bout and then clean up the equipment to exit by 10 pm sharp.

We will teach you how to set up and take down the equipment– the more of us that do this the less time it takes, and the more time we have to fence!

Beginners, if you enjoyed this class, please invite your friends to sign up for January! 🙂

2. Beginners Invitational PLUS social team fencing Saturday 27 November

Saturday November 27 is our Beginners Invitational event. We have a small group so we expect to have time to run through the entire tournament portion, and then follow up with some social fencing. Regular club members are invited to come help run the tournament in the morning, and don their gear to form beginners/experienced mixed teams for a fun team event!

This will be a great chance for the new fencers to get to know the other club members and for everyone to enjoy some team fencing, which is great fun.

When: November 27, 2021

Time: Beginner fencer Check-in opens at 9:30 am and closes at 10 AM. Tournament end time is determined by the number of participants and other factors. Please plan to attend from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm.

Gym opens at 9 am for set up and any beginners who want to come early are welcome at this time. We expect the tournament to complete by ~1pm and then will use additional time until 4 for team social fencing and clean up. A great chance to learn about team fencing!

Where: Royal Oak Middle School gym, our regular practice site.

Age: 10 years and up. Fencers will be grouped by age.

Weapon: Foil

COVID protocol: Per CCFC and BC PHO protocol, all fencers 13 and up must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 and provide proof upon entry.

Spectators: Spectators are welcome (and we will explain what is happening for the audience too). Spectators 13+ years must be vaccinated and must remain seated.

How to register as a beginner:

This event is intended for beginning fencers who are nearing the end of their beginner program, or have recently completed a beginner program. You can register to participate as a fencer by filling out and sending me this form: https://capcityfencers.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021-11-27-beginners-invitational-registration-form.pdf

Not-so beginners! Come volunteer and fence with a team in the afternoon!

Volunteers needed from 9 am to ~ 1 pm and then fencing and clean up 1-5 pm. Benefits of volunteering: put your reffing skills to work in a low pressure environment, build poules, compute ranking for elimination rounds and coordinate bout timing! To volunteer email me in reply to this message or talk to me at practice this week. 🙂

2. Poule of Spam

Was there ever a happier pair than these two, who tied in the Poule of SPAM and jointly won tinned meat! Spam is better shared.. although they fenced for final claim the next week and Isaac took it home. Recipe blog anticipated in the coming weeks.

Our giant Spam Poule Sheet was accidentally left taped to the gym wall all week. How jealous were those Royal Oak Kids to not have spam, I wonder?

4. Gift stealing night & last night of fencing 2021

Our last night of fencing in 2021 will be Wednesday, December 15 during our regular practice, 7:30 – 10 pm. By club tradition this is our Annual Gift Stealing Night!

Come with a wrapped gift of either dubious or excellent quality.It should be valued ~$10 or less, or home made, or just found around the house. It should be wrapped to conceal it’s true identity.

At the start of the bout, each fencers puts their gift next to the score box. At the end of each bout the winner chooses which gift they will take with them to their next bout and the loser takes the other gift. This carries on through the night with gifts swapping hands each bout, until the fencing ends and we open the gifts to discover the glorious treasures inside!

We avoid nuts due to an allergy in the club, but otherwise, any gift is fair play and the more ridiculous the better.

5. Club Annual General Meeting (AGM) – Wed December 1 at practice

Capital City Fencers’ Club is a member-run non profit. Voting membership is included with your monthly fees or beginner class fees, so you have a vote at our AGM on December 1. Note that youth are included as voting members.

The AGM is held at the start of practice, and takes about 30 minutes, after which we fence!Full agenda will be circulated closer to the date.

At the AGM we set our fees for the coming year, review finances, and elect a board of directors, including a youth director elected by members who are 18 and under.The Board meets around four times per year to set the budget, obtain grant funds, set policy, and manage the club finances. Every member is eligible to stand for election to the board, and vote in the election of the Board.

Consider running to serve on the board! Or.. club members can also volunteer by helping organize our tournaments!