TPPC Board of Directors Meeting March 19, 2020, 4 pm
The meeting was called to order at 4:00pm on Thursday, March 19 by President Knowlton. Present: Marie Knowlton, Deb Howard, Dave Dwyer, Bev Crane, Steve Fortin, Cathi Ellingson
Website. Steve Fortin, new webmaster, explained the TP Pickleball.org domain and Ipage (host domain) are renewed until 2022 so that renewal for both will take place at the same time. The Web Easy software app used to build pages and push them to the host site has also been paid. Fortin reviewed some changes to the TPPC website. He indicated he had cleaned up the site to make it more user friendly, including a PARC page and adding TPPC PDF communications to the website. As more communications are added earlier ones are kept in an archive. He showed the Quick Links in five (5) columns. He said the latest Membership roster that can be viewed and downloaded will be added (Crane to send). Another view containing member emails and telephone numbers can be opened with a password so this information will be available to Club members not to the public. He also noted that members can send emails to a smaller list of members; Crane will create instructions on how to contact one another.
Fortin also mentioned a Quick Link containing photos of the Bash, N-S Games, and two tournaments are now on the website. Google Drive under TPPC gmail account (tppickleclub@gmail.com) will also be available to share folders. Knowlton stated that she had trouble using the photo bucket on her Ipad, noting instructions need to be created for this process. Fortin also mentioned the possibility of adding videos to the website to help in training (e.g., serving, 3rd shot drop, keeping score).
Volunteers. Cathi Ellingson addressed some questions to the Board. (Co-chair DeGirolamo was absent due to corona restrictions). She mentioned the joint email address that the two chairs could use to send/receive messages as they worked with volunteers. She said they had recruited volunteers for tournaments in February and March. They set up a procedure: receiving a list of tasks needed, contacting members to volunteer, following up with those working the three days of each tournament. She indicated that enough members had volunteered to fill all positions needed and that the process had worked well. She suggested that knowing earlier what events would need volunteers, the number of members needed and the tasks to perform, would make the process run more smoothly. The Board indicated they expected to have one tournament in the Fall in November, the Margaret small event on Christmas Day in honor of Margaret Johnson- Stevenson, and tournaments in January and February. Under discussion is whether to hold the North-South Games (renamed Can-Am) again next year.
Donations were also discussed. One role of the Volunteer Chairs was to identify potential recipients for TPPC donations. Ellingson described the tennis club process. Representatives from different charities made 5-minute presentations to the Club talking about the charity and explaining the need for a donation so that the TPPC could decide on recipients. Knowlton noted that the TPPC was also considering having the TP Charity Club take the lead in contacting charities requested by the TPPC. More discussion on donation topics was needed and would occur in the Fall.
Training. Howard said she had discussed training with Patty Rocheleau who planned to write up basics plans for the training for lessons on Mondays and Fridays. Suggested for the Fall was to have mentors at the courts Monday through Friday to play with members as follow up to lessons. Other instruction would be Rooks coaching members using the ball machine and Drills by Asbel. Another area of training needed was for coordinators to run events, such as Ladies and Men’s Day shootouts. Dwyer agreed to set up some training at the Lodge.
Treasurer. Dwyer requested two more debit cards be obtained for Howard and Knowlton so that they could be used for events requiring food buying like cookouts and hotdog sales at tournaments. Dwyer distributed an updated Treasurer’s report from 1/11/2020 to 3/19/2020. He also created a financial worksheet for leaders to use to account for all revenue and expenses for events, including tournaments, concessions, the Bash, cookouts and other events that might be held.
Membership. Dwyer and Crane met to review their membership lists and reconcile the two lists along with the members on The Den to one consistent list of 501 members. Crane has written a procedure listing steps to renew members and add new members.
Communication. Crane asked for clarification on who would send out emails to Club members. She suggested that as Communications person she send out mass email announcements via The Den and that coordinators of sign-up events (e.g., Wed & Sun night events) send out correspondence to players who signed-up for their events. Cookout announcements would continue through DeGirolamo. Weekly Fri. Flash and TP Bulletin text would continue through Communications. She also suggested working with a volunteer to provide TPPC information for the TP TV Channel.
Schedule. Howard and Crane will arrange for Bash and Annual Meeting dates at the Lodge on Apr 3. They will also arrange a meeting with Yost in mid-April to schedule TPPC Summer hours on Jonas starting on May 1 to October 31. A suggested written TPPC schedule would be Lodge Court 2 every day from 7am to 11:30 am and all courts from 11:30 to 8pm. Winter hours would begin on November 1 and be scheduled with Yost in mid-October.
Work on the schedule needs to occur during early April. In the last week in April, Crane will create the summer written schedule to post on the Court Bulletin Board, and Fortin will post it on The Den and Website. Crane will send a mass email to all members with a PDF schedule attached. Working on the Summer schedule would be a discussion item for the next meeting.
Club Committees. Knowlton distributed Draft 3 outlining 11 committees with its Board liaison(s), leaders, volunteer helpers, and tasks. She asked that liaisons organize the tasks, recruit leaders, if necessary, and helpers from the volunteer list from the Annual meeting. Co-chairs DeGirolamo and Ellingson would find volunteers when necessary.
The next meeting was scheduled on Thursday, March 26 at 4 pm on the Lodge Porch. PAGE2