Meeting Minutes | orpspickleball

Pickleball Committee Meeting Minutes Jan. 11, 2017

Committee In Attendance:

Stan Miller Nielsen, Committee Chair

Bob Foyle

Diane Willkomm

Gary Holiday

Mike Pavelka

Cliff Aschenbrenner

Approve Meeting Minutes from November 30, 2016:

Gary moved to approve minutes from the last meeting, Mike seconded it and they were approved.

Approval of agenda items:

Stan moved to approve agenda items, Cliff seconded it and they were approved.

Treasurer’s Report:

Diane said that she is working to close out the accounting of funds we had prior to our official status as the ORPS Pickleball Club. The current balances are as follows:

$5,737.00

$3,300.19

Total balance from last Season $9,037.19

Diane said after paying for The Grand Opening (free hot dog day) she will close down that old account. The Grand Opening and paying for the 25 custom chairs that were ordered with the ORPS Pickleball logo for the shade area should almost zero out the fund. From that point forward any funds we raise go thru ORPS and the same controls and procedures they use for Tennis and Golf.

She asked that every new member register with her and those that already have should ensure she has your current email address. Name tags, don’t forget to buy.

Old business:

1. Grand Opening (free hot dog day) date is January 14th 2017.

Kathy said that Saturday the ribbon cutting will be at 11am and lunch will start about 11:30. Wear your ORPS Pickleball tee shirts and stand behind Brian Canfield and GM Clint Atherton for a group photo. It will be a fun day. Diane will be selling name tags that day.

Kirsten said she will go and buy all the food and supplies the day before the event. She will get about 700 hot dogs and 300 bottles of water. People will meet to help in the kitchen at 10am. We are good to go on the food end of the event.

2. Stan said to use the Club’s picklball website now because the ORPS website is not working properly yet. Mike said that TrackItHub the company that will tabulate scores in our Ladder’s Play Tournaments also provides a free website for our members to use. It is likely our members will often check the website to see their scores and were they currently standing in the ratings. Our Club is also welcome to post club news on that same website

which is maintained and updated by TrackItHub.

3. Tournament updates

Alicia said that she has the following people who have committed to be on theTournament Sub Committee.

Alisia Russ, Diane ,Elton, Kirsten, Dennis, Mike, Shirley.

4. Alisia said Travis and Gary Kruse from the company TrackItHub will be organizing Ladders Play Tournaments and tabulating scores. At the end of each Ladders Play Tournament every participant will be able to see how they rate among the other players in the Club. The more Ladders PlayTournaments they play in the more accurate their standing (rating) becomes. TrackItHub is doing this for free. Stan suggested charging $5

per player per tournament to raise money for the purchase of balls.

Alisia also said she was thinking of doing a fun tournament before we start the Ladders Play. She said the three fun tournaments would be called:

Manly Men Monday ,Wacky Women Wednesday, Flip Flop Friday (Mixed Doubles) They will be from 1pm to 3pm on the above days with 28 players max. Both the Fun Tournaments and the Ladders Play Tournaments will take approximately 2 hours to play.We hope Ladders Play can begin the following week.

5. Alisia said our Club tee shirts are available in two options and a variety of colors. The cost is $17 and $18, for double X add $3. See Alisia to buy theshirts. We may use the Store inside the Resort to sell the shirts after we find out how much profit they would add into the cost of the shirts.

New Business:

Bob is asking for people interested in filling the two upcoming vacancies on the Pickleball Committee to contact him. Gary Holliday and Mike Pavelka are vacating their seats at the end of this Season after completing their two year terms. Mike is going to be working on the Tournament Sub- Committee with Alisia and others that will introduce Ladders Play. Anyone interested in the two open Committee seats contact Bob. On

February 15th we will have vote by ballot of our members to select the new Committee Members. At the end of the February we will announce the 2 new Committee Members.

2. Stan Encouraged people to join other sub committees to help make a strong and healthy club.

3. Beginner lessons and skill drills for novice players.

Stan said that beginner lessons are going very well. He does not see all of the beginners coming out and using courts 1 and 2. He can’t figure out why some of the new people are not coming back to play. Are they intimidated or what? Maybe as more people return to the resort the numbers will pick up.

Monday. Wednesday and Thursday are beginner lessons. If they are not slammed with people he will start some skills and drill training. Teaching the serve, dinking and other skills. Maureen said that some people have been asking about teaching the higher level players advanced shots like the third shot drop. Stan has approached professional instructors to come in and teach but they have declined citing the fact that we use the soft ball and not the regulation pickleball. Alisia said to go on line and watch videos. The concept of any pickle ball shot is the same whether you use the regulation ball or the soft ball. Mo wants to have an organized time to do drills for the higher level players. We could do it at the same time as beginner lessons, 3 in the afternoon. Bob said we need extra people to help teach . Stan said see Mo if you are interested in helping out teaching more advanced skills at 3pm on Monday Wednesday and Thursday.

4. Elton said that he will stay involved with the web site but he does not want to be involved in the marketing committee. He asked anyone interested in filling the important position please see him or Stan. The marketing committee is important to the Resort.

5. Review how the courts are set up and the reasoning behind it.

Stan said that from 7am to noon the scheduled play on the courts is not working. People who are not skilled are playing games with skilled players. This results in a poor game for both the skilled and unskilled players. 11-0 is not a good game for anyone. Stan believes most people believe they are playing at a higher level than they really are. He said there is a need to rate our players to help avoid some of these problems.Stan said he would like to change the categories we use to describe players. He believes after a beginner has a lesson they are no longer beginners they are novice. USAPA have players separated into 3 categories. Stan would like to see our Club use only two different levels. Novice and Intermediate. He believes we have no advanced players, those that we did have play at Demuth Park and Freedom Park where the Valley’s advanced players tend to play.

Stan said the majority of our players are intermediate players and we need to work to satisfy their needs. Stan wants people to mix more when they play. Intermediate needs to play with Novice players to bring them along in their skill level. Stan said he will not allow four players who want to play together continually sign up on the morning board together. He will tell them they can not continue to play together. They must break up and play with other players. He said that type of play he will allow in the afternoon during open play only. Alisia cited some situations in the morning when Stan’s Rules may not be appropriate. Shirley said that people who are novice players are not signing up on the novice board which is causing a shortage of novice players to fill courts. Shirley said some people who are clearly novice players are signing up on the intermediate board. Stan said this has to stop. He thinks this points to the reason we need to rank players, otherwise players don’t know where they fall into the mix. He hopes the Ladders Play with TrackItHub will help our Club solve this problem Elton said that ladder play is great at his club in Canada. He said of all the different events, Ladders Play is by far the most popular event in his Club. He believes it will prove to be very popular in our Club as well. Self rate yourself for the first time you play, after that TrackItHub will tell you where you rate within the Club. Alisia, Mike and Elton all promoted TrackItHub and encouraged people to come out and try it. Once they try it they will like it, as proven by many pickleball clubs in the USA and Canada. Stan said that many people who are members of our club have written their email address as unreadable. He said if they do not get email invitations from TrackItHub to play in Ladders Play they need to check with Diane to update their email address. They can also contact Alisa or anyone on the Tournament Sub Committee. Mike said that TrackItHub will need 4 pieces of information to be input into the system. Name, Gender, approximate level of play, (1.0 to 4.0) and email address. Court play from 7am to 12, will remain the same as it is now. Courts 1 and 2 reserved for Novice Players. The other courts open to Intermediate players. Afternoon play is open play with no court or board restrictions. It is in the afternoon when four players who wish to play together over and over can do that.

6. Court 1 court 3 and court 7 are breaking up after a rain. Clint is aware of it and has contacted the contractor who will come back and fix it.

7. Holly needs to know some info for the Feb. 25th end of season party. It is open to anyone in the Park who wants to come they don’t have to be a member. We don’t think that many people who are not interested in pickleball will come. But we do think that some people who have some interest in playing pickleball might come to the party and that may be enough to get them to join the club. Plus any party that is open to anyone, the tickets are printed and sold by the Activities Office. 225 attended the year end party last year. Holly wants to cap the number this year at 300. She said we are allowed to use an outside cater other than PaPa Dans even if we sell tickets thru the Activities Office.

Adjournment:

Cliff moved for adjournment at 12:15, Bob seconded it.