Mortimer Tennis Club /

RECORD of the INFORMAL Meeting AND SOCIAL held 7.30pm pm October 8th , 2016 7 St Mary’s Road, Mortimer

Present: Nick West (Chairman) Andrew Richardson (Treasurer), Simon Orr (Match Secretary), Gillian Butler, Jean Thomas, Kathy Mossakowska, Paul Lewarne, Barry Rockhill, Peg Rockhill

Discussion outcomes are listed under separate headings for clarity. / ACTIONS
1. Membership recruitment drive.
a. a recruitment drive should be under way towards the end of March
b.Posters to be displayed on all possible notice boards in Mortimer, Burghfield Common and Burghfield Village
Have a smaller version sticker that could be put on car windscreens
c. Contact the MVP and Parish council to request a flyer be distributed with the MVP newsletter (next one is due in January so this needs to be prepared and contact made soon) / Jean will contact Julie about a flyer being added to the next newsletter
Gillian and Jean are both happy to add the to the newsletter if required.
Jean will create a draft flyer and distribute to the committee as soon as she can
d. Have a start of season invitation to join the club by holding a ‘rusty rackets’ or ‘open day’ with a tournament – The LTA may have some helpful resources on their website / Jean – check out the resources available
e. Improve the offer we make to people through additional weekend options, singles play, having a club ladder and more social events/outings / Lynn to be asked if she would look into arranging a trip to the veterans at the Albert Hall in December
Antonnia to be asked if she would give some detail about creating and managing a club ladder
Discuss social secretary at AGM
2. Court Contract arrangements etc
a. The club should re-negotiate the club and parish council contract. The aim of which would be to have the club able to use the courts as we do now but also at any other time when they were not booked without any additional cost. / Andrew would work on this
b. We need a different system for club members and the public to get access to the courts. It was suggested that a numbered disc exchange system be considered (every member would have one) and the balls and a key be kept in a number combination padlocked box, in the porch of the house of a member in the village (or several members?) / Details to be decided at the AGM
c. A booking system might be considered for members. This would avoid turning up to find no-one else on court.
d. LTA might be able to help with lock systems / Jean will check and contact our representative if need be
3. Court usage and play
a. We need to find all the keys again as there had been 3 in the Budgen’s box. Key numbers 13, 15, 7 16, 19 are known. / All key holders to let Jean know the number of the key they hold.
b. Flood lights would improve the usage of the courts for all. More members would be needed before the council would want to fund this but it might be possible to look for alternative grants. / Further discussion needed at AGM
c. If power were available a ball machine might also be possible / Further discussion at AGM
d. Coaching would be a way of getting more on court. If Rachel is no longer able to coach for us we need to find an alternative. / Jean to check with Rachel about her position and if necessary look in to LTA help with finding an alternative.
4. Communications
We need to get a reliable method for communications.
a. Would using What app help to allow people to check who was playing? It is used by younger people and is easy to set up a group for the club / Further discussion at AGM
b. We could make every member able to post on Facebook so that their messages are more easily seen. / Helen has now passed the administration over to Belinda and Michelle so this needs reviewing
Further discussion at AGM
c. Email is the preferred method of contact and using the Clubspark membership system makes this easy but not everyone seems to be getting the emails. We need to ensure we hold the correct email addresses. / Andrew and Simon are to contact every member by phone and ask for current emails or preferred contact method
Jean to update the member list on Clubspark
d. Future membership should be through Clubspark and members be made aware that this will be the method of communication used by the club.
The membership form needs amending
Andrew will have access to the list and a spreadsheet version for his records. / Further details at AGM

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