The Women’s Players Committee: APTA Board Member Aila Main explains

The Women’s Players Committee… What is that you ask? I didn’t know we had one of those, you say. Well, you do. The Women’s Players Committee is comprised of several female representatives from around the country. Currently serving are yours truly, Ma Main, along with Sally Cottingham, Charlotte Gilet, Christi Hays, Sandra Odenbach, and Cindy Prendergast. The Committee has a few purposes.

One of the Committee’s goals is to pass along any observations, ideas and, recognizing our sport can always improve, criticisms players may have. Another is to give recommendations on how to handle any issues that may come up during the course of the year. While most issues that arise are tournament related, they can also be about etiquette, rules or protocol.

It is also the Players Committee’s role to present any suggested material changes of the status quo to the APTA Board. For example, should a player feel National Ranking Tournaments should play off for 3rd and 4th place (they currently do not), the board would need to approve this change.

The head of the Players Committee would first check with the entire Committee on whether they felt it was a valid idea. If the feeling was yes, then the idea would be presented to the board at the Annual Meeting, discussed, and voted on. If the vote passed, then the change would take effect the following year. This particular idea did not take, but a more recent one about awarding more points deeper into the draw at Nationals may. Stay tuned.