July 2022 Newsletter
Hello all,
As we head into summer there’s still a lot happening on the VanU front!
Vancouver Park Board and City Council
Many, many thanks to those who advocated on behalf of restoring a reasonable field construction and maintenance budget after a draft version of the VPB Capital Plan for 2023-26 showed a 65% reduction and $9.8 million in unused funds from the current Capital Plan that was not being carried over. We had several people speak at both the VPB meeting on Monday and the full Council meeting yesterday. Additionally, one City Councillor noted they had received 600-700 written submissions in favour of increasing the budget for fields. The net result is that city staff said $4.4 million could be carried over from the unused funds in this capital plan to the 2023-26 plan and Council voted to approve an additional $3 million. While this isn’t quite as much as we would’ve liked, it still shows that representation at these meetings works and elected officials will listen to well-presented arguments. If we had not had your voices in those two meetings we would almost certainly have had no funds to consider new artificial turf fields and very few of the seven Park Board turf fields due and overdue to have turf replaced would not have happened, so thank you very much.
AGM
We had our first in-person AGM on Monday, June 20 at Dunbar Community Centre. Thank you to those who attended. Mark Monro stepped down as President after six years in the position. Mark led the club as experienced Presidents do - from the top down. It was Mark that transformed the structure of the club and redefined the role of the Board and how we should be staffed. This enabled better governance and set us up to conform to CSA expectation when we applied for our National Youth Club License in 2019. Clear lines of responsibility and communication between the Board and staff have also flowed from Mark’s leadership. We will benefit from what he was able to implement for many years to come.
Mark Cylwa, long time Board member and VanU coach, was unanimously elected as the Club’s new President. Mark has already been a tremendous asset to the club as a member of the former Technical Committee as well as on the current Executive Committee and on sponsorship. Congratulations, Mark!
VanU U17 Dynamo vs AFC Hertfordshire
We are happy to host our first international game this Saturday July 2nd at UBC Warren! From England, we welcome AFC Hertfordshire to play our very own U17 Boys Metro team (Dynamo). Kickoff is Noon! Come out and support our U17 boys.
Canadian Championship Final
The Whitecaps will take on Toronto FC in the final of the Canadian Champions on Wednesday, July 6 at 7:30pm. We have been able to secure $25 tickets for VanU club members for those who would like to see the game. The winner of the game earns a place in the CONCACAF Champions League. Use the link below to buy tickets:
https://am.ticketmaster.com/
BC Provincial Cup
Best of luck to our U15 Boys Metro team as they look to win the club’s first Provincial A Cup trophy starting today! Here’s their game schedule if you’d like to go out and support them at South Surrey Athletic Park:
Friday July 1, 10:50am South Surrey Athletic Park #3 - Home team vs CMF
Saturday July 2, 1pm South Surrey Athletic Park #7 - Away team vs Okanagan
Sunday July 3 TBD South Surrey Athletic Park
VanU Summer Camps
Summer Camp season has officially started! We’ve got almost 400 registrations for our camps so far but there’s still room in most age groups for the remaining camps. For more info and to register please go here: https://
VanU Abroad
Getting away somewhere this summer? Take your VanU game jersey with you and send us a photo, or post one on your social media and tag us. We’ll select the best one and the winner will get a VanU tracksuit in September!
Beach Blast 5 a side Beach Soccer Tournament
A reminder that today is the last day to get early bird pricing for our Beach Blast Soccer tournament. Go here for info: https://vancouverunitedfc.com/
Enjoy the warm days ahead! Have a happy summer everyone!
Thanks,
Gregor Young
Executive Director,
Vancouver United FC
Game | Club | Community
I acknowledge and am grateful that I live, work and play on the unceded territories of the first nations people of BC including the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations.
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