QCPC Minutes, January 9, 2017

PICKLEBALL BOARD MEETING MINUTES (January 9, 2017)


BOARD MEMBER ATTENDEES: 
Jean Bustard (President), John Hughes (Vice President), Karen Morse (Treasurer), Linda von Felden (Secretary)

COMMITTEE CHAIR ATTENDEES:
Susan Jones (Membership), Ruth Maki (Communications), Rich Pokorski (Court Management), Susan Veydt (Social)

GENERAL MEMBER ATTENDEES:
Susie Eckhardt, Lenny Friedman, Ron Grantz, David Kikel, Pam Martin, George Mynatt, Rhonda Sullivan


Meeting was called to order by Jean Bustard at 1:05pm.  There are 5 new members to the Board.  The Board and Committee Members introduced themselves.  We have 7 voting members; the 4 Board Members plus 3 Committee Chair Members (Communications, Membership, Social).  Meetings are open.  Members are welcome to attend and will be given an opportunity to speak at the end of the meeting unless they have submitted an agenda item for discussion.  This will allow meeting to stay on-topic and be conducted in a timely manner.


MINUTES

1.    Minutes from last Board Meeting (121616) were approved with no changes.
2.    Debbie Downes has agreed to be Club Photographer.  Thank you Debbie!
3.    Treasurer’s Report (Karen Morse/Pam Martin)
•    Dues collected in December totaled $1,660 (83 members)
•    Ball donation money collected totaled $65
•    Office supply expenditures totaled $36.69
•    Social expenditures totaled $99.36
•    Year-end balance of $13,554.83, which includes Reserve Fund of $3500
a.    Reserve Fund was established when Club initially formed and an influx of money was collected thru Membership.  Fund was set up for use in emergencies for situations that would not be covered by POA.  The Fund has never been increased.  Some discussion is needed to determine exact use of monies and if amount should be increased.
•    Audit Committee completed their review of 2016 books and found them to be well-maintained and accurate.  However, there was a $30 discrepancy with membership dues in our favor, which will be rectified.  Biggest expense totaled $2,526 for court supplies. 
Jean will be meeting with Cindy Mahle to discuss budget and ask for POA assistance in paying for balls.
4.    Committee Reports
•    Membership (Susan Jones) – Currently have 362 members, with 134 members who have not yet paid their 2017 dues.  A reminder will be put in this week’s Newsletter that dues are to be paid by end of January.  There was discussion about adding a 3rd type of membership (Associate), which would be for people visiting for 30 days or less who are interested in participating in open play & socials.  Cost would be $10.  John Hughes will draft something up for review by Board to be added to by-laws.  Needs to be approved at February 6th Board meeting, then distributed to general members to allow for the 7-day notice needed for approval at the General Member meeting scheduled for February 16th.
•    Communications (Ruth Maki) – New website is up.  Membership list is available with use of a password (pickle1461).  There is also a “search” option available.  Great job Ruth & Bill Maki!
•    Court Management (Rich Pokorski) – Rich will be stepping down; Jeanie Iannacchino has agreed to be his replacement.  Larry Hyde and Michael Abruzzo will continue as helpers; they are a great asset.  Prior to any tournaments, contact should be made with Mike Taylor to line up hourly checks on bathrooms and garbage pick-up; Patrol should be notified so they are aware of extra, traffic, and parking issues.  Rich also works thru Mike Taylor for landscaping (handled by AAA), keeping courts washed (Rob Zaleski), and other maintenance requirements; noted that paint is peeling on the overhead light fixtures.  Rich mentioned that a “Pure 3” ball has come out that has been approved for use by USPA.  He recommended that we keep with the Pure 2 balls, which were recently purchased by the Club, and only order one case at a time.
•    Social (Sandy Veydt) – There are 7 planned socials, held on the 3rd Wednesday of the month.  They are: February (Valentine’s Day), March (Rodeo), April (Mardi Gras), Dinkfest (month unknown), July (Independence Day), October (Halloween), and December (PB birthday party).

5.     Player Development (Karen Morse)
•    Distributed a self-rating form for review.  Need to determine if there is a desire for members to be rated or if they are in it for social play only. 
•    Lenny Friedman has scheduled two Beginner I Classes (01/13 & 01/28) and a Beginner II Class (02/07).  Details are provided in “What’s Happening” and on Pickleball website.
•    Marc Renneson is conducting clinics in Green Valley and QC.  Our dates are January 17th & 18th.  Details will be in Newsletter.

6.    Round Robin (George Mynatt)
•    They have been a huge success.  In fact, last week, George had to turn away 2 people.  As more people show up and we run out of courts, the Round Robin may need to be split into 2 days.  George will keep the Board posted (via email) as to how many he will turn away in the next couple weeks.
•    Looking at new format to make game more skill-specific.  George will make an announcement the change at this week’s Round Robin.  Hope to start new format January 18th.
•    Review expenses (clips, copies, new box).  Would like yearly budget of $80.

7.    Member Survey (Jean Bustard)
•    What do we want to accomplish with this survey?  What do we hope to get out of it?  What medium should be used for the survey (telephone, on-line, face-to-face interview after Round Robin)?
•    Committee was formed to develop questionnaire (Jean, Ruth, Karen).

8.    Storage Shed and Ice Machine (David Kikel)
•    To be be contracted out; POA has agreed to pay for work.  Club will pay for the shed. Representative from Tuff Shed will be meeting with David to review the site for the shed to ensure it meets requirements.  Size 8’ wide X 16’ deep.
•    POA had agreed to pay for new ice machine.  No date on when it will be installed.

9.    QCPC Tees and Hats (Rhonda Sullivan)
•    Rhonda has volunteered to take on this project.  She will be checking into final details (price, available colors, long-sleeve option).  Once she finalizes details with company, she will email information to Ruth to be included in Newsletter.  Would like to have shirts/tees by Senior Game Tournament.

10.    St. Jude Tournament (Jean Bustard & Lenny Friedman)
•    Tournament is for 2.0 & 2.5 players and will be a Round Robin format.
•    Dates are April 1st & 2nd.
•    A Club Member has offered to donate the $500 needed upfront for expenses.  Will be reimbursed with registration money collected.
•    Lenny Friedman has agreed to take care of all the details.  Information will be included in Newsletter when it becomes available.

11.    Other Business (George Mynatt)
•    Another issue has come up about “open play” and use of courts when courts are unused during open play times.  A statement will be put in Newsletter about open play “rules,” with a reminder about good sportsmenship and fellowship with other players.

12.    Next Board Meeting – February 6, 1:00pm, Kino Conference Room

Meeting closed with a “Thank You” to all past Board Members for their time, commitment, and effort.

QCPC Board Minutes, December 12, 2016

QCPC Board Meeting Minutes

December 12, 2016

10 am

Kino Conference Room

Present:  President David Kikel; Board Members John Hughes, Pam Martin, Ruth Maki, Marie Still, Rich Pokorski

Guest Members Jean Bustard, Karen Morse, Susan Jones, David and Merry Mungo, Dusty and Lenny Friedman, Janet Brown, Ron Granz, Andy and Susie Eckhardt, Donna Hoshide.

1.     Call to order- by President David Kikel at 9:56 AM.

2.     A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes from the last meeting.  Motion was unanimously approved.

3.     Treasurer’s Report (Pam Martin)- We have received $2,350 in dues for 2017. We spent $600 on balls and $75 on player development.  We have $11,965.79 in the bank, but $3,500 of that is kept in reserve. 

4.     Committee Reports

a.     Membership (Marie Still)- We have 359 members; of these, 151 were new in 2016.  Only 163 people have paid so far for 2017.  For comparison, we had about 325 members last year, and we lost about 150 who didn’t renew.  We will probably lose about 125 this year for non-renewal. 

b.     Communications/Website (Ruth and Bill Maki)- The newsletter has been going out regularly. As of 2017, the website will be moved to a new site, but we would like to keep the QCPickleball.org name.  The new website will be on a blog site so that the newsletter and the website will have the same information.  The Member list will be on the website, but it will be password protected with a single password that will be made available to all members. There will be a link on the website to our Facebook page and to the Minutes.

c.      Court Management (Rich Pokorski)- Thanks to Larry Hyde, Bob Horn, and Mike Abbruzzo for keeping the balls stocked and the courts clean.  The new board needs to order replacement wind socks.  We have 2 now, but we should have some back-up ones.  Rich gave the owner’s manual for the clock to Vice President John Hughes.  He gave Pam Martin about $60 from off-site people who play Advanced Play.  We have collected $434 this year from these players for balls.  This is Rich’s last meeting as Court Management chair.  We need to find someone to replace him.

5.     Incoming President Jean Bustard and President David Kikel met with Mike Taylor.  They discussed the new ice machine, shed, replacing nets, an AED (defibrillator), and the bulletin board.  The POA will pay for a new ice machine.  We need to make sure that the pack rat barrier is included on the new ice machine.  We also need to insulate the water inlet line because it freezes in the winter and we need to make sure we have an inline water filter.  The POA will only pay for ½ of a storage shed.  The cost is $2570, so we will pick up $1285 of it.  We have only spent $213 of our equipment budget from last year. We will order the shed, and Mike will reimburse us for the POA half. The shed will go between courts 2 and 3.  The maintenance people will do site preparation for us.  Nets- Tennis pays half the cost, but that is because they want different nets more often than the POA pays for.  There seem to be no issues with the nets so we can accept whatever the POA will buy for us. 

We should have a defibrillator at the Pickleball courts.  Mike will look into this, but he is concerned that someone will take the defibrillator.  If we put it in our shed or our storage case to keep it safe, if someone needs it and they can’t get at it, the POA might be liable.  It could go to the Gatehouse and patrol members should be trained to use it.  This seems like the best option.

Our present bulletin board is warped and we need something new.  Donna Hoshide is taking care of the bulletin board, and she brought up the issue of it being warped and difficult to open.  Mike said that we should find something, and they would put it up inside the ramada.  Keeping it out of the weather would be the best thing because the sun is very damaging.  Karen Morse will look for a bulletin board.  We could add a white board next to this, or a second bulletin board.  Tennis doesn’t lock theirs up, but there hasn’t been an issue.

6.     Fall organized play-

a.     Club Open Play will be from 9-noon Mon-Sat.  Only members may participate.

b.     Status of assisted play- Right now Assisted Play is suspended because there was little interest.  We need a good forum for telling people what follows Assisted Play.  People come to the courts, but they don’t know where to go.  We could have signs made and laminated to hang on the courts showing where Assisted Play is and where Open Play is. 

c.      Plans for future beginner lessons? New members often want to start with lessons right away.  Marie Still tells them to check What’s Happening for free lessons.  No Beginner lessons are scheduled at this time.  Lenny has a Beginner II lesson scheduled for December 21 from 2-4 PM.  He requires that they play about 6 times before taking Beginner II.  We will announce this in our newsletter.

d.     Status of round robin play?- It has been going well; last week there were 23 men and 24 women.  Only 4 people showed up for the transitional round robin.  Attendance has been low, so it may not be worthwhile to continue.  Karen Morse is running this.  We will include a note in the newsletter announcing this again.

e.     Status of intermediate assisted play? This went very well, but it is too bad that this was a one-shot deal.  People want an ongoing intermediate assisted play.

f.       Afternoon “Open Play” on Mon. & Thurs?  Should we sanction this and reserve courts?  We had a discussion at last Board meeting about designating two evenings a week for Board sanctioned Open Play.  Afternoon play- do we want to have Club sanctioned Open Play on some afternoons.  We would tie up more courts for afternoon Club play. We need to make sure there are still courts for drop ins and other players.  David proposed that we have Club play in the afternoon on Tues and Friday.  Four courts- (9-12) will be reserved from 2PM-4PM.  These courts should be used by Club members only.

g.     Evening Play- There haven’t been many playing lately because it is cold, but by setting up an evening, people may come down.  At the January Board meeting, we should have a report about what is happening at night.  Meantime, the Board approved Club play on Monday and Thursday evenings from 6-8 PM. These are the traditional nights when people have played there. Courts 9 and 10 will be reserved for this.

7.     Future events

a.     December 14  is the 3^rd “Birthday Party.”  The purpose is to celebrate what has been accomplished in 3 years since club was formed.   It is a mixer, and we will be playing fun games.  New members are encouraged to attend.  We will have a single bracket. 

b.     Awards luncheon vs. handing out gift cards to retiring Board members at our party? The Tennis Club has an Awards luncheon where they acknowledged all the people who had helped out during the year.  We have a lot of people helping out, not just Board members.  In the past, we have acknowledged only Board Members and Committee Chairs, but not all the volunteers. We could have our Member meeting segue into a luncheon after the February meeting.  We could do a luncheon, a luncheon plus gift cards, or give gift cards at our February member meeting.    People volunteer to help out; they don’t necessarily expect gift cards.  We need to encourage volunteers in some way.  We could take photos of each committee and keep a scrapbook of them.  Pictures of volunteers could go on bulletin board.  Recognition won’t be part of Wednesday’s birthday party. 

c.      Other play/party planned events?- no other events are scheduled.

d.     Green Valley Senior Games will be March 8-10, hosted here.  There will be a separate Saturday event for 2.5 players on March 11 at GVR in round robin format.

8.     Dave’s Wombach’s clinic is on Dec. 12.  We have 38 people signed up.  More are from Quail Creek than Green Valley.  GVR agrees that it is good to bring people in from outside.  We should share outside experts with GVR and QC.  We need to get feedback on how useful the clinics are.  The Clinic is from 2-4 PM today, and there is an exhibition game at 7:30 tonight.  It would be nice to have regular clinics rather than drop-in clinics.

9.     Mark Renneson is coming to Green Valley in January 16-18.  He is interested in giving private lessons in the mornings.  Lessons are 2 -hour clinics at $35 person, or private 1.5 hour lessons at $85-90.  He will take 3.0-4.5 level players in the Clinics, and he will work with lower level players separately.    Shall we give up the courts for him to do this? The middle of January is high season.  There is lots of play going on in the morning, especially on Wednesday.  He could do the clinics on Courts 15 and 16 and the private lessons on Court 16^th because of Round Robin play.  We will put this in a later newsletter and see how many people are interested in this.

10.   Are there female trainers who could come in?  Lenny was in touch with Sarah Ansboury, but it fell through. She would be interested in coming sometime.

11.  Rich and Ron will work with David to select and purchase shed to get this done. We won’t spend money until January, which is a new fiscal year, but the members have already approved this.  The expense will show up in January, but this isn’t an issue.  If you don’t spend it by the end of the year, it is still there since we operate on a cash basis.

12.  New Business- (Rich Pokorski)- We are a new Club so we encounter situations that we need to deal with.  There have been a number of instances where reserved courts were not all being used for Club Play or Round Robins.  Sometimes the lower courts where Advanced Play was going on were wet, so Quail Creek players and their guests came up to use the empty reserved courts (with George Mynatt’s permission when Round Robins were going on).  There was a complaint about them using the courts with non-Quail Creek residents.  The Board earlier approved the idea that unused reserved courts could be used by other players.  The real issue here is outside players coming in and playing at Quail Creek.  But according to the POA guidelines, we can’t say “No one can come in from outside.” Quail Creek members can bring in guests and use courts that aren’t scheduled.

The reasons we started Advanced play that included players from outside Quail Creek was that the Club was addressing the needs of beginners, intermediates, but wasn’t meeting the needs of our top players.  Advanced players need outside people to challenge them.  This helps them develop.  So, the Board approved bringing in outsiders to give our Advanced players more opportunity to improve. People who come in from outside are firemen, and players from Marana, Green Valley, Robson Ranch, and other places.  These outsiders pay $1 to give towards balls. They pay more than they use, so it’s a win for us.  A Quail Creek person should be a member of the group, but there are no fixed rules. 

But, a member argued, members who go down for Club Open Play should be able to get in on any reserved court.  A problem is that if the courts fill up, someone who comes for Open Play later won’t be able to play.   No one wants to ask players to leave. 

Everyone wants to get better.  Intermediate players are “hurt” that they can’t play with Advanced Players.  We need more education for all members.  We need to make sure that we are meeting all members’ needs.  Advanced players tend not to play with intermediate players, so it is hard to get better.  Jean Bustard will work with the new Board to provide more opportunities for all players.  Members at all levels should help lower-level players some of the time.  But everyone also needs opportunities to play at skill levels that are appropriate. 

One problem is that our players can’t play at Green Valley recreation, but their players can play here at Quail Creek.  Our players sometimes play at GVR although the rule barring them may still exist, but not enforced.  They are looking at inter-community play so they have a pickleball center for the community.  They have limited courts.  One issue is that if GVR players come to Quail Creek, their numbers are down so their chances of getting more courts built are reduced.  Incoming President Jean Bustard will talk with the GVR Club about this.

There are two issues here:  One is an educational issue, and the other is court usage.  The Club can set up educational opportunities for players, but we can’t force better players to play with intermediate players.  Some do help but others don’t; we can’t do anything about that.  In terms of court usage, the POA made it clear that we cannot limit who plays on our courts outside of Club organized play

13.   Date and time of next board meeting –January 9—1 pm, Kino Conference Room.

            Respectfully Submitted,

            Ruth Maki, Secretary