Board meeting on September 9, 2019

In attendance were Joyce Noland, Nancy Racki, Linda Blake, Diane Voss, Mo Garcia, George Carr, Nelson Spitnela, Ron Nelson,Rob Bromley, Pat Smith, Bebe Murphy, Leslie McCowan, Marian Garcia, Stephanie Wolfe, Faith Loeb and Marissa Evans.

Joyce called the meeting to order.

Ways to get rating

  1. From the rating committee. If the rating is 4.0+ then it goes to Mo or Tony.
  2. Temporary rating. A player can be given a temporary rating particularly if they are from out of town. There is a date on the day this was given and this rating expires after 3 months. This is a one time only and if the player is still playing at OW, they need to go ahead and get rated.
  3. If someone wins GOLD at the Palmetto Invitational, they can petition to be rated at the next level.
  • We are empowering the player reps to give a temporary rating, Mo asked if we can give the same empowerment to the teaching pros. These pros can assign a temporary rating at the time of the class. 
  • Linda asked : Does the temp rating affect court designation? Joyce replied, that is why we encourage the rating for court designation.
  • Bebe asked since this is a verbal rating, how do we know? Joyce said to refer back to the website. Nelson updates as soon as a player gets any rating.
  • Rob made a motion was made to expand the power to issue temp ratings to the Pros. We voted and it was 100% YES .

Impact of non-rated players during court designation play

  • During court designation, people should play with people at the in same rating/skill level. If a person is not rated then you risk them playing at a court with players that are either much better ( which is not fair to the players that are rated for that court) or much lower ( which may be dangerous for the people rated at that court).
  • If you want to come play during court designation time and you are not an Aiken Pickleball member this are the basic guidelines: get a temp rating, show your card, or find the post in the hallway about the guidelines.
  • When playing at court designation open play there are 3 lines for the paddles: next to the entrance to gym 2 for court 1 for 1.0-2.5, on the opposite wall for courts 2 and 3 for players 3.0-3.0 low, and on the other side of the curtain for more skilled players. Court 6 is either for 3.5+, 3.5H+, or 4.0+, depending on the session.
  • Joyce pointed out that Bebe has made bulletin boards that are posted on Gym 2. Mo said that if a player comes in and they are not willing to abide by our rules regarding court designation and are not willing to leave, then you can ask a city employee at the front desk to intervene.

Tournament recap

  • Mo gave the report. The tournament went well, we had a few slight glitches but by and large people were very pleased. Joyce added that the survey was overwhelmingly positive. And there was a huge positive response to our court monitors.
  • Mo said that the city stepped up and by Monday morning you couldn't even tell that there have been a pickleball tournament. He also added that this year we had a record number of entries.

Social on September 27th

  • Barb was not present so we just talked about the basics
  • Starts at 5:30pm, Gym 2. The list of what to bring according to your last name can be found on the website. There will be open play afterwards until 8:30pm.
  • Joyce added that she might need volunteers. Pat will be helping and if interested, get in touch with Barb or Pat.
  •  Faith added that there is a list posted on the Gym 2 door that lists what to bring according to your last name. Joyce will send an email reminder.

Gregg Park Round Robin

  • Next Round Robin (RR) will be on October 26th.  The format for this event is signing up without a partner. As requested, the categories will be separated not only by skill level but also men and women will be separate.
  • There will be three sessions: 9am-12noon for 3.5, 12noon-3pm for 3.0 and 3pm-6pm for 4.0+. There will be play at 6 courts at a time.
  • We need volunteers for the event and there will be a sign up sheet. We need 2 additional volunteers for each time period for timing and writing scores. Joyce said we will have a training session for the volunteers, we will forward this info soon.

Super Senior Round Robin

  •  Joyce said that there has been very positive feedback on this idea, so we are planning it for January. You must be 65 or older to participate. Specific date and location have not been set at this time. Format has not yet determined.
  • We will need about 4 volunteers and there will be two sessions 3.0 and 3.5. Since most people in this age category are retired, this RR may be held during the week instead of a Saturday.
  • There was additional discussion about details regarding this RR but we are excited about it and will provide info late as we finalize plans.

Status of donations – send out a new request?

  • We talked about the status of the donations and encouraged everyone to participate. As of Monday, September 9th we have collected $930 and 91 players have contributed.  If you haven't and would like to give, contact Ron Nelson. Linda B suggested we send an email thanking those who have already given and to share the information with  others so they have the opportunity to donate if they want.
  • Another source of income for Aiken Pickleball, Mo Garcia is donating his 70% of the income of the five-dollar supervised drills. We are very thankful to Mo for his generous donation.
  • Mo also said that the raffle during the tournament was fairly successful and that we should consider having one at the social. Stephanie volunteered to head up the raffle at the social and as Mo suggested we will advertise the price of the tickets and what the winner will receive as a prize.

First Presbyterian this fall/winter

  • Joyce said that only 17 people responded to the email survey. And they were divided regarding day or night session. We do not have much nighttime at OW in October (only 2 nights) and during the winter months our time is extremely limited due to basketball scheduling at OW. So Joyce is going to resend the email and see if we get a better response.
  • As Joyce pointed out, when we use First Pres, we are responsible for the unlocking and locking of the facilities. That responsibility falls on 3 people that have to commit their time to be there and if no one shows up it is not fair to them. So, we have to decide if we want to use the facilities or not and if we do, we need to make a commitment to use the available space.
  • We also have First Baptist available to us on Monday and Fridays from 2-5pm.
  • Marian also mentioned that the people that usually come to evening play may not be in the email list so she sill contact the person that has the list of the non-Aiken players to add to the second email that Joyce will send. Joyce said we need to schedule the space soon or it will disappear. Cost would be $2 to play.
  • Linda asked about League and Mo said that they are still looking into that.

Advising Nelson of new players

  •  Beginner clinic is scheduled for October
  • Faith said that in the past, after a clinic, the lists of new players was sent to Ron and then Ron forwarded to Nelson. 
  • Mo said that the protocol in place is that when people show up for a clinic, they are sent to Faith for a beginner practice session. Since Grace has been doing the last few beginner clinics we need to make sure that she follows up with this. Faith said that she had received two handwritten lists from Grace but they are hard to read. Mo recommended we ask Grace to type them in an email plus add some of her comments regarding the skill level of the players in the clinic. Then that email can be sent to Faith, Nelson S. and Ron.
  • Ron said that after a player takes one of the beginner clinics they are given a 2.5 rating.
  • There was additional discussion about inclusion into active players list and other ways to retrieve the email of the new players.

Five-dollar supervised drills

  • Joyce said that these have been tremendously successful. People really appreciate them and we thank Mo for doing them. Mo suggested we get the other Pros involved.

Houndslake

  •  Chuck will be doing a presentation to Houndslake on Sept 11th.
  • They are converting some of their tennis courts and resurfacing them into pickleball courts. Initially, there will be 3 but they may be more later.
  • The area will include a Pro shop and some shaded area for the players. And Mo said that there might even be a pickleball Pro at a later time.

Input from player reps and other discussion

There was very little discussion from player reps for this meeting. Joyce recommended to the new player reps that they send their players an email introducing themselves and letting their players know what their function is.

The next meeting will be held on Monday, Oct 7th, 2019 in room 4 at Odell Weeks at 3:15 pm.