October 3, 2022 Leadership Committee Meeting, 5:30, Odell Weeks
Members present: Linda Blake, Faith Loeb, Bob Fogel, Judy DeGregorio, Debbie Rossetti, Joyce Noland, John McCowan, Jean Villa, George Carr, Cheryl Breidenbach, Harve Mobley, Jay Wilson, Brian Eberhard, Marian Garcia, and Mo Garcia.
Introduction of new volunteers:
3.0H player rep - Debbie Rossetti
Gregg Park player rep – Brian Eberhard
Bulletin board – Jean Villa
Feedback from Player Representatives:
Judy was wondering if there is a person to contact for PB equipment repairs….Mo Garcia and Froggie were stated as being these individuals. Barriers and separators will be repaired by the facility according to Mo. Mo will help out and can be the contact for such repairs at OW. However, at GP, the front desk (Jeff), should be notified and the GP Maintenance crew will be able to fix the repairs there.
Mo came up with a new design for ball barriers that have a single bend instead of a hinge mechanism. The consensus of the committee was that the single bend design is better. Bob suggested that the player representatives ask players what they prefer and report back to the committee.
Linda brought up that on the Aiken PB website, under “Meet the Players”, there are 29 people that no longer live here and that this needs to be updated. This was tabled to later in the meeting to when Joyce will discuss who will take care of website upgrades.
New Business
1. Funday Monday and Discussion – Joyce. Bob stated that today was a good turn out. We will continue to do this on our available Mondays.
2. Calendar Schedule Update - John, Brian. September was not as busy as October will be. All going well. Mo inquired if a calendar could be put on the bulletin board. Joyce said it is better not to do this because it constantly changes.
Joyce stated to use Google Calendar and not Localendar. There is a glitch on Localendar.
a. Odell Weeks - As stated on calendar
b. Gregg Park - Saturday drills start October 8
c. Smith Hazel -
1} Player rep is needed
2} Drills with Coach Mo start October 5
3. Opportunities – Harve
a. Treasurer position open
b. Leadership team position open
c. Smith Hazel player rep position…Linda may have a person who might volunteer and will contact this person.
4. Gregg Park Round Robin in November – Joyce. Sign ups were good for awhile but now have halted. There are 33 people registered thus far. It was questioned whether we need to adjust age brackets? We will wait to adjust until the date of the tournament gets closer. We will need volunteers for this too. Players can volunteer too. Linda will get 2.5s to volunteer.
5. Cleaning up Player List-Joyce. The review and revision to the listing hasn’t been done for a couple of years. Joyce suggests that everyone click on Aiken Area Players and make a list of the individuals that we know who have moved or are no longer playing, and send this listing to Harve, Joyce, and George.
The pictures are out of date. Joyce suggests we just get rid of the pictures. George suggests we post pictures of new players. If we do this we need to make sure we get their permission to post their photo.
6. Expanded beginner practices at Odell Weeks and Gregg Park– George, Linda. OW practices start next week. Not too many people have signed up. Linda thinks it will catch on and more will sign up.
Drills with MO’s are all filled. Mo and Ben are giving these clinics.
Two courts are closed at Smith Hazel according to a phone call from Ben Lacy, received by Mo, during this meeting. John will check on this for calendar purposes. Problem has been fixed . The Basketball courts are not being used due to the $10 fee increase, according to Mo.
7. Financial Report – Harve. No change from last month. Balance is $1965. $75 was written for gift card and Pickleball Bracket fees. $400 check written for medals. Tonya still has the money. This will be transferred to Harve this month.
8. Changes to new player clinics at Gregg Park - George. If pros teach, the new players are charged $15 and an additional $10 for use at GP. There are no people signing up with the price increase. Mo states that perhaps a drop of the charge to the pros from $15 to $10 may help with the turn out.
Cheryl questioned why a fee to instructors was being implemented now. She thought the new player clinics at Gregg Park were free. It was explained by Mo that since the pros are conducting this service, a fee was added, as to not waste the time of the instructors and to ensure participants showed up.
9. Palmetto Tournament Recap – Bob. People have done a wonderful job. Specifically mentioned were: Nelson Spitnale, Event Lead. Charlie Neal, Court Monitor Lead. Lee Fox, helped Charlie and simplified court monitor documents. Beth Eberhard, was check-in lead. For the daily raffles, we raised $1900 this year. $250 was donated last year. Jeff Beckner, Assistant Director. Michele Bullington, Communication Director. Ben Lacy, Head Ref. Davian Bellinger, referee. Court Monitors, Lunch room staff and gate monitor, Debbie, were also specifically thanked.
There were 193 registrants. This is about the same as last tournaments. $16,065 was raised from registration fees and sponsorships. $10,750 was the expenditure. We had $5300 in revenue which will go to the city funds.
Cheryl brought up the discussion of not limiting participants in each age/bracket division. It was explained by Mo and Bob that with the number of courts and time restraints, that right around 190 participants for this tournament is ideal.
We had a Silent Auction this year. Greg Powers, Christie Prichard, Kathy Giddings donated items.
George suggests getting the thank you's out on the website soon after the tourney next year.
It was round robin play with some brackets having pools. Pool play was solely used. Formal and informal surveys suggest that pool play in the RR are the favorite method.
Next year the tournament will be moved to August 4-6, probably. This is not set in stone, but September is a busy month for the city.
Mo stated that Bob Fogel has done a wonderful job as director for the past two years. All concurred.
10. Social recap – Faith. The social that was scheduled for September 30 was canceled due to the threat of Hurricane Ian. It has been rescheduled to October 7. The new players will be introduced according to Faith. Free lessons with Mo and Ben will be given to the individuals, per a drawing at this event. A $50 gift card is being given to Ron as a departing gift for all he has contributed to Aiken PB. Linda commended Faith for reviving the socials. See follow up article on website.
11. Paddle demo day - George. New players want to know what paddle to buy. Mo is talking to manufacturers to get demo paddles. Perhaps Funday Monday or a Saturday would be good times to allow participants to practice with the demo paddles.
12. OW Fees went down to $6/day from $10/day. Discussion was again made about yearly charge increase. Faith asked if there was any discussion of lowering fees for ages 65 or older. Perhaps we need to revisit these increases with the city.
13. Online paddle raffle - Mo. Joyce and MO talked about this option in order to raise funds for education. He hasn’t come up with anything definite.
14. Ambassador Report -Ben/Mo. Additional six outdoor courts will be constructed in the springtime. Current tennis courts are being converted for this. There will be a total of 14 PB courts when these six are converted.
Junior after school program. Mo thanked the volunteers. A lot of the 65 Aiken County schools have implemented PB in their school programs. Volunteers are still needed but will be vetted prior to interaction with the kids.
15. Final Comments. Joyce stated that Eblasts don’t get delivered properly at times so suggested always look at the website for accuracy.
George Carr stated that the Hillview Baptist Church Family Life Center is doing PB for individuals that have Parkinson’s Disease. This is very positive.
16. Next meeting November 7