GENERAL COMMITTEE – COMMUNITY SERVICES AND ENVIRONMENT
	TO:	Mayor and Members of Council
	FROM:	Barbara Roth, Director, Recreation and Culture Services
	PREPARED BY:	Lori Wells, Manager, Programs
	DATE OF MEETING:	2005-Nov-07
	SUBJECT:	Amend the Residency Policy for the Thornhill Seniors Club Membership

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report entitled Amendment to the Residency Policy for the Thornhill Seniors Club be received;

AND THAT Council approve Option #3 – Status Quo: maintain the current Membership Policy stating that clubs and organizations must consist of 75% residents and 25% non-members.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of the report is to respond to the Thornhill Seniors Club request to amend the residency policy relating to the Senior Club membership, to state that seniors living in the Thornhill Community in the City of Vaughan be considered as residents versus non-residents.

BACKGROUND:

At the General Committee meeting of September 19, 2005, the letter dated September 8, 2005, from Mr. W. Carroll, President, Thornhill Seniors Club, requesting that Council authorize an amendment to their membership policy was presented and referred to the Commissioner, Community and Fire Services for a staff report.

In the Town policies and processes related to allocation, rental rates and membership there is a 75% residency criterion. The rational for the criteria is to ensure we are serving the taxpayers of Markham.

Based on the draft agreement with the Thornhill Senior’s Club, the current capacity of the club is 1,200 members. As of June 1, 2005, the club has 737 members, which consists of 76.4% Markham residents and 23.6% non-residence.

OPTIONS/DISCUSSION:

The following are three options that can be considered.

Option #1 – Open up the 75% Residency Policy to include Thornhill - Vaughan residents for the Thornhill Seniors Club only.

This option would accommodate the Thornhill Seniors Club request; however, it would be precedent setting and would provide the opportunity for other groups to request waiving the residency policy. Our priority is to service the taxpayers of Markham. If we open up the policy it will have ramifications on the following town-wide policies and processes.

• Community Service Group rating
• Hall rentals
• Ice & Indoor Soccer Allocation
• Sportfield Allocation
• Program Registrations for camps, programs, aquatics and fitness
• Membership management of the other Senior Clubs in the Town such as Milliken on the Move and Older Adults in Action; Fitness Memberships.

Option #2 – Base the 75% Residency on the Club Capacity vs. Current Membership

This option would be based the 75% residency on the Clubs capacity vs. current membership.

The Thornhill Seniors Club’s current capacity is 1,200 members therefore, 75% resident equals - 900 members and 25% non-resident equals 300 members. The current membership is 737, (provided to staff by the Thornhill Seniors Club Director of Membership on September 29, 2005) therefore; the club still has capacity to accommodate more members and non-members. Refer to the chart below that outlines membership numbers based on capacity and current memberships.

Membership	75% Residents	25% Non residents	Unallocated	Total
Capacity – 1200	900 members (75%)	300 members (25%)	0	1,200 (100%)
Current – 737	563 (76.4%)	174 (23.6%)	0	737 (100%)
Current Membership (737) membership based on capacity of 1,200	563 (46.9%)	174 (14.5%)	463 (38.6%)	1,200 (100%)

Note: Of the 23.6% non-resident, 9.9% are Vaughan residents and the remaining 13.7% are non‑residents from North York and Richmond Hill.

Therefore, we are at 46.9% capacity based on a potential membership of 1,200. There is 38.6% unallocated that could be utilized to accommodate non-residence until the club reaches its full capacity of 1,200 members. As the residential membership increases our ability to accommodate non-residence will decrease until we reach our 75% / 25% ratio.

This option accommodates the current waitlist and memberships needs, however, it would give one club special concession over other user groups.

Option #3 – Maintain Status Quo

Staff recommends that the current membership policy which states 75% percent must be Town of Markham residents and 25% percent can be non-residents be maintained. Staff feels that abiding by the current policy we are not jeopardizing access to facilities or services and we continue to ensure Markham residents are our number one customer.

Barbara M. Roth, Director, Community & Fire Services

Jim Sales Commissioner of Community and Fire Services

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