Board meeting minutes for 6/3/2019

Submitted by Marissa Evans

 

Leadership Team Meeting - Monday, June 3rd, 2019 at 5:30pm - at Nancy Vermilye's house.

In attendance were Joyce Noland, Nancy Racki, Linda Blake, Diane Voss, Mo Garcia, Barb Dellamora, Dick Diemar, Grace Vance, Faith Loeb, Nancy Vermilye, Ron Nelson, Jeff Beckner, Michele Bullington, Mike  Beckner and Marissa Evans

Joyce called the meeting to order.

Update on Gregg Park

Round Robin June 29th

  • We still need volunteers for the RR.  Scoring, monitors, registration, etc... about 2 more volunteers for each category.
  • We need more entries so SIGN UP!!! 3.0 women and 3.5 men are already full, but we need more 3.0 men and 3.5 women. Talk to people and get them excited about the event and sign up.
  • Joyce will send another eblast and will include the Augusta players as suggested by Grace. Ron said there is room for 30 more players

Reserve Courts and Friday time

  •  Mixed drop in and reserve courts are starting to fill in.  Encourage people to go play.

Jeff Beckner - Palmetto Invitational

Tournament Update

  • Registration is at 83 (63 paid) mostly from SC and GA but there are some players from other states and one from Canada. Registration opened May 1st. Mo said that this was encouraging and good numbers for registration being open only for 1 month. We want between 180 and 205 participants.
  • The players are about 1/2 and 1/2 local vs. out of town.
  • Sign up for the social is slow, only 8 have signed up. Mo said not to worry it is a last-minute thought for many players. Social will be in the same place downtown as last year.

Volunteers

  • We currently have 21 volunteers including 10 court monitors. We need about twice as many. Jeff suggested an eblast to include other people (North Augusta). Nelson's event desk people are committed to come back but we need help in the lunch room, set-up committee, stuffing bags and we still need a Tournament Assistant Director or Assistant Coordinator for all 3 days.
  • Jeff also mentioned we have 6 committed referees but that number is a little light.
  • New sponsors - Scott Singer and Hearing Associates. We are very fortunate to have a new diamond sponsor and they will be providing free hearing tests during the tournament. Mike asked if we need to coordinate with OW and both Joyce and Mo agreed that it needed to be done.
  • Faith asked if the volunteer times have been broken into segments yet. Jeff said he would work on that and Joyce agreed that it would be easier to get volunteers if they know what time frame they are signing up for. Faith signed up for pm time for the registration desk.

Publicity

  • Michele stated that we have advertised the tournament on Facebook, TV, Ambassadors and local newspapers. Nelson has emailed all previous players
  • Pickleball Central is going to help with goodie bags.
  • Nelson has agreed to work on TV screens with the court assignments for this year.
  •  Mo also said that Michele has written two articles that have been sent to the USAPA which will be published in the next newsletter plus they have agreed to give us a plug for the tournament.

Additional information from Jeff

  • Jeff is talking to the city about new separators for the tournament.  The cost for these will be around $1200. There was additional discussion on the partitions and Mike said there are some stored at OW we might be able to use.
  • Linda pointed out that the tournament will coincide with Aiken Makin' and that it would be a good idea to advertise it. Joyce added that last year was the first time it happened and agreed that it should be emphasized. Marissa suggested posters around the venue advertising it. Grace, Faith and Mike made several suggestions on how to make transportation easier for the attendants like the Trolley, a bus or the Free Loader.
  • A closing remark about the separators and the need for sewing volunteers to help put them together. If interested in helping with this, please contact Jeff Beckner.

Separate Calendars for Odell Weeks and Gregg Park

  • There was a very lively discussion on how the calendar is becoming increasingly hard to read with all the entries and perhaps a good solution was to split the OW and the Gregg Park calendars. Also in the calendar are entries for First Presbyterian and First Baptist but there are not a lot of entries.
  • There were several good suggestions from different members of the team: Faith - color coding, Michelle - separate calendars plus a merged one, Grace - moving First Pres and First Baptist and leaving OW and Gregg Park. And still there were some concerns too.... Nancy - getting complaints about how confusing it is now, Michele - If we split it, Gregg Park may get overlooked.
  • Joyce called for a vote to either leave it as is or split. It has been decided to leave it as is for now and we will revisit at a later time. In the meantime, Joyce is going to look into other options and color coding.

Player photos - Does someone want to head this up?

  • Joyce talked to Connie, who did it before. Due to health issues Connie might not want to do it. There were some people in favor and some not in favor. Players not taking down nets

Nets

  • Nets are being left up. Players must take down the nets unless the court is reserved after you play or people are waiting to get on that court. Nobody wants to be the court police so talk to people and remind them instead. Grace suggested an email and Nancy recommended it address ONLY the taking the nets down issue so it gets more attention.

Clean up Active players list

  • Joyce asked the player reps to take a look at their players lists and make suggestions on  which players can be deleted  or deactivated. The recommendations should be sent to Nelson and please copy Ron, Nancy and Joyce.

Players Reps for next year (Starting in September)

  • Joyce said even though it is early and the current reps are doing a wonderful job, we need to know if any of you wants to roll off as a player rep. If you do please email us to let us know.
  • Linda/Faith made a comment about some of the 2.5 players being so much better that they are trying to encourage them to form a new 2.5/3.0 group.

Input from Players Reps

  •  Grace asked for feedback on the clinics. Faith asked for clarification about the difference between clinics, strategy, and drills.

Here is the explanation:

Clinics - for beginners and new players. Ist wed of the month 12 -1:45pm.

Strategy- skill specific ie. to learn how to play as a team for competition, court position, shots, serve, specific types of shots

Drills - Once a week, for people who want to work privately on serve or return serve, a specific shot . This group is encouraged to use the pickleball machine. It is a drop in.

  • Availability at OW for July will be better than June.
  • An issue was brought up about safety for a senior player. The recommendation was that if the players reps feel a player is not physically able to play, encourage that player to take a few sessions with Lori Comshaw to improve strength and balance and then follow up with a second clinic. Lori needs to be contacted and the suggestion needs to include the information that Lori is a private consultant and there will be a fee involved.
  • Mo brought up the condition of the nets, he will ask about replacing them. Also, Joyce added that city employees and players need a refresher on how properly put them away so they stay in better shape.

 

Next Meeting to be held on July 1 at Odell Weeks at 5:30 PM