Minutes for the April Leadership Team Meeting

Submitted by GeorgeC on Tue, 04/06/2021 - 19:50
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Leadership team

April 5th, 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 - Marian Garcia and Chris Tubbs; the 3.5 Player Reps - Robert Bromley, Leslie McGowan and Stephanie Wolfe; the 3.0 Player Reps - Bebe Murphy and Judy DeGregoria; the 2.5 and below Player Reps - Linda Blake and Faith Loeb; and Marissa Evans our scribe.   Items discussed were as follows:

Introduction of new player reps

  • Joyce introduced Judy DeGregorio, our new 3.0 player representative.

  • Marian Garcia is our new Lead Player Rep.

Odell Weeks – Drop –in-play, court designation

  • Joyce asked if we should open all six courts for drop in court designation.  

  • Currently at OW we have in the mornings three courts for drop in play: Court 1 – beginners, Court 2 – intermediate and Court 3 – advanced.  Courts 4, 5 and 6 are by reservation. We are having enough players to use Courts 1-3 as drop in the morning but in the evening drop-in play is not well attended. The reserved courts are being used.

  • Chris suggested we try drop-in play on all six courts a couple of days a week to see if the membership is ready to open that back up. On Wednesday and Saturday mornings starting April 21st, we will have drop-in mixed play 9-10am and drop-in designated play 10am-12pm on all six courts, with no reserved play at those times on Wednesday and Saturdays.

Smith-Hazel

  •  Little Mo starts on Wednesday, April 7th.   There are still a couple of slots available.

Gregg Park

  • Times are the same as they have been but there is a board meeting soon and we hope to be approved for one evening play time. Will keep you posted. 

  • Two new-player clinics have been scheduled -  April 16th and April 29th (evening). Ben, Cheryl and Bob will be helping with these.

Rating Update

  • Mo has held 5 rating sessions to help clear the backlog.   Mo was very complimentary of the great volunteers that stepped up to help with the rating sessions:  Ben Stephens, Chris Tubbs, Bob Fogle, Cheryl Breidenbach, Leslie McGowan, Julie and Harve Mobley.  

  • Ron will be back to head the rating committee on April 21st and all volunteers will stay as part of the team. Mo will continue to do 4.0+.

Spring League (Mo)

  •  Mo - We have 2 captains confirmed and are talking to a 3rd one.

  • Right now we have 25-30 people interested and we need about 10-15 players per team. We hope to get 3 or 4 teams.

  • Chris clarified that traditionally, the captains do the recruiting. If you have a group that wants to play together, you might encourage one or two of them to step up as captain or co-captains and sign up together as a team.

Ladder (Chris Tubbs)

  • Joyce thanked Chris on an amazing job getting the ladder organized. 

  • The ladder will be wrapped up with a round robin on May 1st with the top 8 teams participating. Cut-off deadline is midnight on April 25th. The top 3 teams will receive medals.

  • Feedback from the ladder has been very positive and Chris created the spreadsheets and (with help from Joyce) has kept them updated. 

  • After the success of this ladder, we might do another one after the tournament in the fall.

Facebook Posts

  •  George asked what we want to see on our Facebook page and how we feel about allowing 3rd party advertising on it.

  • It was discussed and decided that we do not want it commercialized by third parties. If any of the Aiken Pickleball members wants to advertise on it, it is okay provided they are contributing members.

  • All Facebook posts are approved by George Carr.

Socials

  • We haven’t had one in a while so it was suggested to have an outdoor social on a Saturday morning in May at noon, with play from 9am - 12pm beforehand.  We are checking with Odell about availability of a shelter.

  • Food was discussed as a possible potluck but given current Covid precautions, it was decided to have the food catered by Chick- Fil –A and paid by the participants.  Pizza is also a consideration.

  • People interested in attending will have to sign up and pay for their box meal.

  • More information to follow on this.

Treasurer’s report

No significant change from last month.

2021 Tournament Update

  • Due to work responsibilities, our Tournament director has had to step down and we are looking for alternatives. We need a new director or two co-directors, we have some potential candidates in mind. First priority is to get directors, then coordinate with the city.

  • The tournament will be in the second week of September. Still considering indoors or outdoors. New outdoor courts will be in place by then and if we have an indoor tournament we might limit the number of participants.

  • A survey will be sent to get the input from the general population. Many subjects were discussed: vaccination, indoor or outdoor, limiting numbers,  food vendors outside, etc…

  • Because of Covid, we have decided not to include Juniors this year.

Zoom Meetings

Next meeting will be in person at OW. Details will be sent later but the date is May 3rd at 5:30pm

Player rep input

  • Most player reps didn’t have feedback.

  • The storage room for our equipment is not being properly organized.  We encourage our seasoned players to teach and help the newer ones on how to put away the equipment and ask you kindly to remember to do so yourselves. Chris may make videos on proper set up and break down of the equipment and put links to them on the website and the facebook page.   

Next Meeting will be Monday, May 3rd, 2021 at 5:30pm at Odell Weeks