By Louise Rachlis
After many hard-working years with the Riverside South Community Association, John Bruce is stepping down this fall from his position as president.
The busy volunteer is proud of what he and his executive have accomplished, and hopes all the good work will be continued by new blood.
Working with Mackie Research Capital, one of Canada’s largest full service privately owned investment dealers, Bruce was a natural to take over the treasurer’s position when he moved to the community from Toronto in 2007.
“I was tired of Toronto, and remembered Ottawa as a nice place which I used to visit growing up in Montreal,” he says. “I knew before I moved here that it was one of Canada’s fastest growing communities demographically, with among the most children under the age of 12. I thought it was a great place to raise a family.”
According to the Riverside South Community Association website, Riverside South is currently home to just over 3,300 households as of May 2011.
The first homes were built in 1996. It is projected to be the fastest growing community in the City of Ottawa through 2011 with an anticipated 13.5% annual growth rate. For comparison, Kanata/Stittsville is expected to have a rate of 6% and Barrhaven is expected to have a rate of 7%.
The boundaries that will eventually form the edges of Riverside South are Leitrim Road to the north, the Rideau River to the west, a line half-way between Earl Armstrong and Rideau Road to the south and Bowesville Road to the east. It will eventually contain 17,600 units in 15 to 20 years, with a population of over 50,000.
Once Bruce took over as treasurer, it was a hectic time for the association. The current president couldn’t continue due to health problems, and from 2007 to 2008 the association operated without a president. With little guidance, he acted as both president and treasurer. Another man who took over as president didn’t stay long because he had to leave the country for his employment, and Bruce took over once again as both president and treasurer.
In February 2010 he became the official president. “I had guidance from Scott Hodge a previous president who came back as vice president,” he said, “but we still had many vacancies on the board.”
He decided to get them filled, and to improve the treasury.
“When I took over as treasurer there was $7,000 or $8,000 in the coffers, and that has increased dramatically.” He introduced sponsorship and advertising to businesses through the website.
He cleaned up the discussion forum where local home businesses had been using it to promote their businesses at no cost. “Many of those businesses saw the benefit of our demographic and started to pay a small fee to advertise.”
Another accomplishment was to set up attendance rules for the Friday night youth drop ins at the Rideauview Community Centre. “That gave children better protection and parents were aware of children who left the building during events and were no longer being supervised.”
He says that attendance is varied, and many of those parents who send their children to the Friday night drop in aren’t members of the Community Association, which is only $10 per family per year.
He negotiated the use of Bernard-Grandmaître elementary school for badminton and obtained free use of the school after the school board had raised the price to $1,300 making it a cash generating and fun activity for the community association which was able to charge $5 a night.
He also increased assistance and support for the community watch program through the Riverside South website and community policing with Nicole Gorham, the community Police Officer; filled the vacancies on the board; discovered a lost $5,000 deposit at a bank; raised the enrolment of membership in the community association to 10 percent of the community from its previous 4 to 5 per cent; used direct mail to raise awareness of RSCA in the community and increased traffic flow to the website, and paid for and had installed additional lighting in Mountain Meadows Skating Rink; solicited and negotiated a discounted rate for the winter use of a heated ATTO structure for the skating rink on Spratt, and paid for transportation to Saunders’ Farm for teens for Halloween.
“What’s still left to be done is to get the community to be aware that if they choose not to be members of the association and do not offer their support, many of the things they take for granted will be lost - such as the skating rinks. There will be nobody available to manage the rink. If we lose the grant money from the city, once the budget is cut it will be very difficult to get back.”
If families that enjoy the Friday night youth drop-in, the badminton, the skating rink, the Canada Day celebrations and so much more - including proper representation at City Hall in times of hardship such as water ban, school issues, and construction - don’t support the association, those benefits may be jeopardized, he says.
Bruce, who turned 50 in May, has a 22-year-old stepdaughter, Danielle, who has completed a degree in political science and has just finished an internship at a hotel in Dubai over the summer, and a six-year-old daughter, Bridget, “who keeps me busy and active.”
His wife Louise, a translator, also assists him as a researcher and with the administrative aspect of the business.
As for the future of the Riverside South Community Association, “a community is very much like a living organism,” he says. “If you do not inject new life, new ideas and new activities, it will stagnate and decay. We have a wonderful community in Riverside South, and if the community gets involved much can be done. When a few hands need to move big objects, it is a demanding task, but when very many hands do the same, it makes the work fun, social, and enjoyable. And that to me is what a successful community looks like - people helping each other to enjoy the place we call home.”
As for his own future, “I have a fairly well balanced life between working and enjoying time with my family,” he says. “I love fishing - Bridget is my little fishing buddy! - camping, golf and being outdoors, and so I will be looking to spend more time on those activities.”
For more information on helping out the association, view www.riversidesouth.org .
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