by Colin Smith
With the opening of the Morinville Rec Centre scheduled for May and the grand opening in September, Town officials are ramping up a program to involve businesses and other groups in sponsorships for the facility.
In a presentation to business representatives, Wednesday at the Chamber luncheon, Director of Corporate Operations Dave Schaefer indicated that Town has an unusual sponsorship plan.
“Morinville is taking a very different approach to sponsorship packages in that we are not developing gold-silver-bronze-platinum-type packages,” Schaefer said. “What we are striving for is [to] develop partnerships with businesses and groups that want to do sponsorships that help promote what you do, as well as what we do.”
The idea is that the Town will really customize the sponsorship proposals, based on finding out who businesses are and what is important to them.
“We try to reach things that you want to do, whether that’s giving back to employees or giving back to people who do business with you or supporting on local social,” he said.
One example might be a business that is interested in providing support for Minor Hockey.
“Part of package building we do is look at can we allocate ice time to you as part of that package and then you pass that ice time on to who you wish to,” said Schaefer. “Therefore everybody kind of benefits and the community sees that is how businesses support a community.”
Tailoring sponsorship packages also includes such as aspects as ensuring media presentation and local recognition if desired.
“If you want to contribute programs and seniors are important to you we can build that into a package,” Schaefer said.
Businesses and groups that are interested in sponsorships can contact Schaefer or Chief Administrative Officer Stephane Labonne to arrange a meeting.
Local residents who are members of the Sponsorship Committee will also be going out and meeting with businesses to show them what is available.
More information is also available by emailing sponsorship@morinville.ca.
According to Schaefer, the sponsorship program was developed on the basis of an asset evaluation of the rec centre.
“Which means that we brought in a consultant that looked at every aspect of the buildings, from the structural side to the program side, right down to the photocopier,” he said. “With that, he did market comparisons at the regional and national level.”
Schaefer said the consultant’s market asset valuation of what the facility is worth to the taxpayer provided the basis for the sponsorship program approach.
“So that we can defend what we are asking for and at the same time where you know yourself the stuff that you are investing money and resources into.”
