APTA Annual Meeting
The Annual Meeting took place at the Fox Chapel Golf Club, Pittsburgh, PA on May 4-5, 2007.Highlights were:
Financial Report by Sally Cottingham.
• $65,651.00 Income $9,000 over budget
• In 2003, APTA had $85,000 in working capital. $220,000 now.
• Need to put money in marketing.
• No restriction on the amount of reserve for 501 (C)(3)- we are provisional until 2009.
Regional Presidents Reports
Region 1: Mike Cochrane- Events well attended but not from outside the region. Nationals held at NYAC Pelham ran well with a few issues.
Region 2- Won Men’s President’s Cup
Region 3- Fred Gumbinner/Tim McAvoy. Participation up in all tournaments. Big prize money tourney! Well-attended, well-run- 45, 55, 65, 8145s.
Region 4- Martin Sturgess – Healthy region – more courts coming- Cincinnati is booming – new courts and a waiting list for the Midwesterns tournament. Rochester hosting Nationals for 2008. Leagues are APTA members. Nancy Budde – Women are 2007 Presidents Cup Champions, Prop and Schneebeck got to semis of Women’s Nationals. Great showing for Region 4!
Region-5- Bill O’Brien – Chicago area is robust and growing. In past 10 years, men’s league has grown from 64 to 165 teams – a 10% per year compound growth rate. The women’s league has grown from 60 to 110 teams – a 6.5% compound growth rate over that same 10-year period. Smaller areas like Milwaukee, Indianapolis and St. Louis growing more slowly but still healthy. Will move a couple of those tourneys to help boost participation (not to conflict with holidays).
Region 6- Beach Kuhl – Growing slowly in Region 6′s 11 states – new private courts in Montana, Idaho, Sun City, AZ etc….Region 6 ladies traveling to tournaments and playing President’s Cup (combined with Region 7′s team).
Region 7- Peter Lauer- Taylor Bowen’s Blog is a highlight- Chapel Hill new program is growing. 22% increase with participants in tourneys. 20 courts in Region 7 with Atlanta adding two this year. University of North Carolina wants to add three courts. Capitalize on tennis talent- kids paddle emerging. Players from region participated in Nationals. Freddie Uihlein started women’s paddle league. Trying to drive members to APTA- about 130 members in the Atlanta League.
PPTA Report - Todd Ward – Membership -Of 156 pros who have been certified, 84 are current members.
Las Vegas Tennispalooza – Jason Gray. Attended Tennispalooza (The Tennis Channel Open) in Las Vegas with Jean Kempner. Spoke with facilities mgr., Ken Solomon CEO… Objective to organize platform tennis component to the event. There are approximately 10 million Tennis Channel subscribers. David Dodge of Premiere Platform Tennis has offered to bring a court out to Las Vegas. Currently, we have secured an oral commitment from The Tennis Channel to participate in the event David Dodge is planning on going forward for ’08 in Vegas.
Proposal. Showcase match on Saturday, getting one of our teams to play maybe- Max Mirnyi/Jonas Bjorkman Doubles. Jason has a friend who knows Max Mirni and would be willing to play exhibition with $20k on the line. An idea would be to involve Andre Agassi Foundation.
Chapel Hill Progress report – Rich Green “Thank you to APTA and Taylor Bowen drove down 4 or 5 times- eager and a tremendous help” Reilly lease to buy arrangement. The Club didn’t want to commit to long-term so they could remove the courts if they wanted to. Courts were installed late in the season. Enthusiasm among other clubs. Rich agrees to help with emerging programs as a consultant creating a “New Program Assistance Committee.”
Court Funding - Sally Cottingham/ David Kjeldsen
1. Plan must be available to entire membership and well publicized.
2. Delay distribution of further funds until a plan is agreed upon and published.
3. Committee to be chosen to review applicants.
4. Specify whether the facility should be public, semi-private or private. The Board needs to decide on the definitions of what public, semi-private or private are (e.g. is a YMCA Public or Semi-private?).
5. Establish parameters of repayment.
6. Establish APTA contact to collect.
7. Research 501c3 parameters.
8. Need to determine what constitutes a success. What is time table for success?
8. Delay distribution of funds until return on investment on previous distribution (Chapel Hill). To date, APTA has not gotten any new memberships.
9. Use money from fundraising or 501c3 donations only for the Court Funding Program. APTA should not use funds from general operating money.
10. Facilities requesting a loan and/or grant should not be given any funds until they have already committed a certain percentage of their own money. Percentage to be determined.
11. All court manufacturers should be treated equally in the process.
12. Until success is determined as outlined in item 2 above, the facility receiving the loan and/or grant from the APTA should give semi-annual progress reports.
NEW BUSINESS
Philadelphia - 450 plan to join the APTA next season!
Hall of Fame – Voting for Hall of Fame candidates from selection committee. Scott Bondurant is liaison to HOF Committee. The COMMITTEE: Bob Brown, Steve Baird, Chuck Vasoll, Walt Peckinpaugh, Deirdre Redden, Patty Hogan, Tim McAvoy
Seniors - Rich Lombard. Senior tournament locations and events were discussed. Rich Lombard reported the success of the 28-team, one-day 125′s tournament. The Big Daddy cup, a Multi-regional 95s was discussed. Sally Cottingham proposed moving the senior nationals out to Chicago for a year. Bill O’Brien-well run tourneys in Chicago. Mike Cochrane- Seedings were a disaster in the 95s/65s/145s.Rich Lombard 145′s going back to NY to get better participation maybe hold the event on Thursday, then dinner for the legends of paddle
PTM Contract – Sally Cottingham. It has been agreed that Dollard Publishing will relinquish content ownership right of Platform Tennis Magazine to the APTA in
exchange for a four-year rolling contract.
Chair Umpires – Bob Callaway. Chair umpires mission statement was published – to train and certify chair umpires. 10 certified chair umpires as of now. This years National Championships was chaired by Rob LeBuhn.
Rules – Bob Callaway. Rule clarification: approved for APTA use on concrete or other surfaces to conform to dimensions. No motions were made in favor of changing either the let cord rule, or for a lob that bounces out of the court.
Fundraising Committee - Fred Gumbinner. Very slow year, National Platform Tennis Day didn’t work due to already full schedules and previously committed sponsors to other events.
Executive Director Position It was reported that the APTA interviewed 30 candidates for the position. They were optimistic about the quality of the candidates and time frame to transition. It was stated that the Executive Director/Offices of the APTA were not limited geographically.
Source: Platform Tennis Magazine, Vol. 9, Issue 1, October, 2007
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