Minutes for January 8th, 2024 Leadership Team Meeting, Members present: Cheryl Breidenbach, George Carr, Joyce Noland, Dean Cheatham, Faith Loeb, Jody Madden, Cindy Ogden, Linda Blake, Marian Garcia, Christy Pritchard, Heidi Abele, Jean Villa, Mo Garcia, Brian Eberhard, and Jay Wilson.
1. Feedback from Player Reps:
Linda Blake will talk to George about player practice dates and times.
Marian: Note needs to be put up on outdoor courts that only tennis shoes are allowed on the courts. Some people are wearing boots. George will talk to Debra at the city to get signs made and installed.
Christy P: She stated that it would be nice for signs stating which courts are for which skill level of designated play at OW. Joyce responded that signs have been put up before but they are removed. Our best bet is for Mo/George/Bill B to direct people to correct courts when designated play begins.
Jody: Need more benches outdoors. She believes a sign stating that personal items should not be placed on benches. It is thought that just moving the items from the benches when a seat is needed would be sufficient. Faith stated that perhaps a carabiner would be a good goody bag item so bags can be hung on the fence.
Benches might need to be bolted down. Jean wanted to know if the city would build structures like Hilton Head has. Mo explained that the spacing would not allow this.
Cheryl: $50 would be a reasonable price according to 4.0 players for the Palmetto. Will discuss later when discussing the Palmetto in the meeting.
Brian: People wanted to know if drop in play would be reinstated at GP. Joyce stated that perhaps when we get more hours back we can try it again. We may get some time back at GP in February.
2. Round Robin at Gregg Park-Joyce:
March 2 is the new date for this event. Registration is up on pickleballbrackets. We went with the events that have filled up in the past. $25 fee. We have to cover balls/medals/food. We will need volunteers. A volunteering list will be put up on Signup Genius in the near future.
3. Drop-in play at Odell Weeks-George:
Joyce read a suggestion from a member, who wanted more drop-in play. Court reservations have been eliminated in the mornings at OW. George stated it worked well today. We as a committee are very hesitant to adjust times when we just added more open play. The time slots are very similar to where they were established prior to Covid. Every winter we have this same problem due to courts being used for basketball play instead of pickleball. Each year this lack of court time is resolved in March.
4. Sign-Up Genius Transgressions-George
The website has an article about invalid reservations. 10% are invalid….not using initials of first name and last name or making too many reservations. This just takes courts away from others. In the past George and Joyce have sent emails to violators and asking them to delete the faulty reservation. Now George/Brian/Joyce will just delete the third reservation prior to sending the email stating the action taken.
5. Ongoing/Upcoming-George
A. Drills with LBJ-going great. Little Mo will begin again when we have more court time.
B. New Player Clinic….Moving to gym 1. Needs to be confirmed. Already booked for January 17.
C. New player Practice-Want to move this to gym 1 too.
D. Rating session- will be moved to gym 1 if confirmed, too.
6. Palmetto-Joyce
Possibility of adding a fifth day for 75+ and singles. Major concern is not having enough volunteers. We were all in agreement that four days, not five, will be adequate this year.
Social is suggested for Friday evening. Up until Covid we had these. Mo is checking with Senior Living Center to see if they can handle this. Finger food/buffet are options. Cindy brought up using the Shrine Club for this event. Since we are collaborating with the Senior Life Center, we will proceed talking with them in a meeting on Wednesday.
Discussion of fee for tourney. This tourney will be sanctioned which means everyone participating will have to be a member of USAPA, which costs $35/year. Most thought if people really wanted to play the USAP membership would just be paid.
Discussion of registration fee for the tourney was discussed. Cheryl suggested $50 with a $40 early rate. Nothing was really decided.
7. Court benches Update-George
Donated by Aiken Pickleball Inc. in honor of Loretta and Mike Beckner, the founders of pickleball in Aiken…will be the wording on a bench which will be purchased by us.
We may want to order more than one bench to cut down on S/H and discount the benches themselves. Jay is handling the construction of the bench. George and Jay are looking into the plaques.
8. Suggestions for Donations-Faith
Joyce stated she likes the idea of donating to a pickleball cause. Faith thought it would be of value to donate to a community need in order to get AP name out and about. Others thought donating to community affairs would be easier and OK rather than just sticking with Pickleball related organizations.
We need new banners. Jay will buy new ones. He will talk to Mo on what is exactly needed. Equipment may need to be replaced too.
9. Closing comments.
Mike Howard sent thank you in with Christy P…..From the prior month Scrambles….. 124 items were donated to Golden Harvest in November AND 305 items were donated in December.
Cindy explained that perhaps sponsors could be advertised on hallway screens during the Palmetto tourney.
February 5, 3pm is next month’s meeting.