Leadership Team Meeting - February 5th, 2024
Members present: Kathy and John Reiter, Heidi Abele, Faith Loeb, Linda Blake, Cindy Ogden, Marcia Stivanson, Lori King, Sally Serago, Kristy Prichard, Jody Madden, Joyce Noland, Cheryl Breidenbach, George Carr, Dean Cheatham, Jean Villa, Bill Bourbeau, Jay Wilson, Brain Eberhard, Jeremy Crow, Mo and Marian Garcia. Meeting started at 3PM.
Jeremy Crow was introduced as a new person on the committee. He is now the new 3.5H player rep
1. Feedback from player reps:
Bill-Queuing is working on court 1. There is a mixed reaction on court designated play. It has been suggested that courts 1-3 should be for the 2.0-3.0 skill level. Courts 4-6 should be 3.5-4.0….doing away with L, M, H designations. It was stated that people just aren't rated. Ratings have picked up though. Marian and Jeremy stated they agreed with this suggestion. Therefore, for the time being, Bill will observe and see if this combination of courts works better eliminating a lot of people waiting for availability. Mo suggested asking the city to open at 8am. Joyce will ask appropriate contacts if this is possible.
Jeremy wondered if other ratings other than AP’s were accepted. The answer was yes…DUPR, Pickleball Brackets, USAP ratings. These can be mailed into Aiken Pickleball (info@aikenpickleball.com) and the chart on the website will be updated.
Kathy stated that she wants to be rated but doesn’t want to take the test on rules. Mo stated that exceptions can be made but honestly it is good for all to know the rules of the game.
Sally brought up that someone wanted to split times for different skill levels. This has been tried many times. Switching times week to week is very confusing and there were more problems created trying to do this.
Jean does a wonderful job updating the bulletin boards!
Brian-Gregg Park doesn’t have the drop in play problem! Sign Up Genius is very busy Thursday mornings at 8am. As of February 24, Saturday mornings and Wednesday evenings are going to be available again.
Jody is the new Vice President. She stated that there are complaints that reservations are hard to make on Thursday mornings.
Sally has heard that designated players only get 1 hour of play and they don’t think that is fair. At 10 am, the games should end and players should move to the appropriate skill-level courts.
Cindy- Smith-Hazel on schedule to reopen June 1st, 2024. The three hour time slot will be divided into two sessions.
2. Pacer Life-Kathy
It is for 15 students who are mentoring challenges. They live in the dorms. Two year program. Kathy will take the program over with help from Marian. They will introduce pickleball to these 15. The whole idea is to get students out into the community. Chuck and Mo can help out as needed.
3. Round Robin at GP-Joyce
Tourney is March 2. We need volunteers. Contact Joyce if interested. Schedule was discussed.
4. Drop-In Play at OW - Bill
Was discussed previously. See above.
5. Ongoing/Upcoming-George
LBJ is out until mid/late February. In March we can start Little Mo if we have court time. Mo will be teaching in Gym 1, opening a Gym 2 court for designated play. New player practice with Linda is going well. Eight people are already scheduled for the March rating session. Mo stated that we can rate indoors or outdoors.
6. Palmetto-Joyce
A. Partnership with ASLS-Faith. Tourney will be 5 days. ASLS will supply 10 volunteers/each day. (Last month we said it was going to be a 4 day tournament). We are partnering with them because they were going to have their own pickleball tourney honoring Loretta and Mike Beckner, who started pickleball in Aiken in 2010. ASLS has a high presence in the community and will host the social on Friday evening. A great benefit is that they have a great public relations and sponsorship ability.
B. Sponsorships-Jody
We need more than just sponsorships…we also need in-kind donations….Instead of money perhaps donate items to goody bags, silent auction and raffles. There will be a signup genius sign up sheet so individuals can state which organizations they will be contacting for sponsorships. Packages will be available from Faith/Jody to take to sponsors.
C. Sanctioning update-Joyce
Jay is working on getting tourney sanctioned. (Jay had left the meeting for a tax meeting). The application should be approved in two weeks. Hopefully this will bring in outside area players. We are planning on having money matches at the highest level which will be refed. It is hoped these will be good matches bringing in spectators. Registration should be open March 1.
7. Possible Spring Social-Faith
Faith wanted to know if someone wanted to chair this event. Marcia, Jean, and Marian will line this up. Fridays will be good choices. Potluck social and play in Gym 2 afterwards will be on Friday evening March 22nd.
8. Court Bench Update-George
We will purchase four benches. One is going to be for Loretta and Mike Beckner, one for Nelson. Two will be designated later.
9. Ambassador Update-Mo
There is a link on the website about the changes that were made for 2024.
Bill brought up the possibility of decreasing the GP daily rate of $10. That has been addressed previously to no avail. The yearly rate is $65, which is pretty reasonable.
Mo stated that youth pickleball is Thursday evenings 4:30-6:30 pm. The city is starting a youth league in March. 65 kids participated in the Middle School league.
10. Closing Comments: Next Meeting on March 4, 5pm.