Minutes for the March Leadership Team Meeting

March 1, 2021 Leadership Team Meeting Minutes 

The Zoom meeting was called to order at 5:30pm by Joyce Noland. In attendance were members of the Leadership Team,  Joyce  Noland, George Carr, and Harve Mobley; the USA Pickleball District Ambassador for West South Carolina and our head teaching professional - Mo Garcia; the 4.0 Player Reps - Cheryl Breidenbach and Marian Garcia; the 3.5 Player Reps - Robert Bromley, Ben Stephens, Leslie McGowan and Stephanie Wolfe; the 3.0 Player Rep - Bebe Murphy; the 2.5 and below Player Reps - Linda Blake and Faith Loeb; and Marissa Evans our scribe.  Items discussed were as follows:

New Player clinics / Beginners practice at Gregg Park

  • Linda Blake and George Wisz ran the beginners practice at OW and did a great job.

  • Jose Vega ran the new players clinic at Gregg Park.   Several players  came and helped.  A week later Linda came to observe the first practice session held at Gregg Park as Ben Stephens was taking the lead.

  • Ben also suggested a New player rep and new player clinic for evening players. We will keep you posted as this develops.

Recruiting and choosing Player reps

  • Joyce asked if we hold elections for player reps? There was a lengthy discussion about how we choose reps currently. Right now we have volunteers, the leadership committee reviews candidates and votes. A suggestion was made that we open the vote to the membership via eblast.

  • If anyone is interested in a position, that person should contact Joyce, Harve or George. Currently we have a vacant position for 3.0L-3.0 player rep and we would like to have two reps per level. Some levels already have 2 reps but 3.0H, 3.5L and 3.5H could use a second player rep. 

  • Due to re-rating some player reps have moved up. And a couple of new positions have been suggested such as an evening player rep and a coordinator for players reps.  George also recommended we add a Drop-in player rep. A couple of great suggestions to fill these positions were made at the meeting, as soon as it is confirmed we will let you know. And if interested please let us know.

  • Marian Garcia was appointed as the Coordinator of Player Representatives.  Chris Tubbs was nominated as the evening/outdoor player rep.  Judy Degregorio and Nelson Swartzentruder are the new 3.0 player reps.

Court 5 reopening

  • It was discussed at the meeting and it was decided that court 5 will be opened since most people are now vaccinated.

  • For those people who are still concerned about close contact, we remind you that Smith-Hazel is an excellent alternative and those courts are fairly far apart.

Rating Sessions

  • Because of Covid, there was a big backlog for rating so Mo helped with extraordinary rating sessions while we waited on Ron Nelson to resume. The extraordinary rating committee rated 16 people so far and Mo extended his thanks to the people that helped: Cheryl, Ben, Chris, George, Joyce and Tony Kemper. 

  • When normal rating sessions resume some of them will probably join in as part of the regular rating committee.

  • Leslie suggested having another extraordinary rating session to accommodate evening  people, to be held either in the evening or on a weekend. Mo agreed to do so and there will be a  sign up at the website for March 17 at 6pm at OW. Wear green!!!

Spring League (Mo)

  •  An eblast is going to be sent for sign ups. Mo said that we are looking at the same format as in the past 3.0, 3.5 and maybe 4.0 – women, men and mixed.

  • It will be both indoor and outdoor and we will make use of other facilities such as Houndslake and maybe even Woodside, depending on where the captains are coming from. We haven’t talked to Gregg Park yet.

 Ladder (Chris Tubbs)

  • Initially the teams that sign up are randomly assigned. New teams that sign up later start at the bottom of the ladder. No prizes, just bragging rights. It is a casual event.

  • There will be mismatched levels initially but as the ladder progresses, that will sort itself out. The poll sent out voted NO to the free Challenge. 

  • There are separate men and women ladders.

  • Chris has done an amazing job organizing it all and we currently have 16 teams. This is definitely filling a void with lack of tournaments due to Covid.

Treasurer’s report

No change from last month.

2021 Tournament Update

No updates at this time. Waiting for Jeff and Michelle to come up with information.

Outdoor courts update (Mo)

Harve, Mo, Keith and Mike Bechner met with the city manager about Virginia Acres.  They presented the city with many options. The petition was well received and they will go back and discuss the issue. We will hear back then and maybe we might get 4 to 13 new courts.

 Player rep input

  • Most player reps didn’t have feedback.

  • Ben reiterated that we need a new evening player clinic and Mo volunteered to do some research into it.  

  • Mo also added Congratulations to Chuck Wright and Cathy Roberts who got married on the Pickleball Court before they left for Costa Rica..photos on the website.

 Next Meeting will be Monday, April 5th, 2021 at 5:30pm via Zoom