Say good-bye to the St. Albert Senior Citizens’ Club and say hello to the new St. Albert 50+ Club.
The change is the result of an extended effort to bring the name more in line with its purpose: to serve people who are 50 and older, said board president Lesley Hogan.
“We have always been 50-plus,” she stressed.
The board has had this change in mind for more than a year, she said.
“We had discussed it because a lot of the members go to the bridge tournaments at other clubs, and they had changed their names the same way,” she began.
The issue at hand is one of public perception. A senior citizen is someone who is at least 65, but the club has always catered to the 50-plus crowd, Hogan said. This is something the club has tried to publicize before, with little success.
“I know that we did a lot of research on it,” Hogan said. “The research that we got, a lot of clubs had increased their membership substantially once they changed the name of the club.”
Board member Gareth Jones agrees with the reasoning.
“It’s geared to increase membership. The idea is to be able to promote the club better within that age group. It’s part of our increased membership strategy,” he said.
Currently, there are more than 500 members at the club. The population of the city itself, however, indicates there is a huge growth opportunity for the club with this change. The common understanding is that St. Albert’s demographics are on a constant shift to an older population.
According to the preliminary results from this year’s census, residents aged 65 and over make up nearly 14 per cent of the total population of almost 61,000. This would equal more than 8,400 people. Dropping the age range to include everyone 50 and over would open up the door to nearly 20,000 people.
Jones added that, although he doesn’t know what exact percentage of the club’s membership is at the younger end of the senior scale, he does know it doesn’t account for much.
“What we do know is that it’s a small percentage and we need to increase that,” he said.
The change was voted in by the members during the club’s annual general meeting in April. It has since been accepted by Alberta Registries and is now the club’s official name. A formal announcement will come during a ceremony on an as yet undetermined date.
