Your pickleball club is still busy, although the end of the summer season is in sight. This message catches you up on what’s gone on since we last wrote and forecasts some of what’s to come.
By the way, before we get started, you might be interested to know that the Bend Pickleball Club now has about 360 paid members! This is significantly more than double our numbers since last year! Thanks to Director of Membership Tom Sifferman and to so many of you who have worked tirelessly to promote and grow your club.
- Community Outreach
Bringing pickleball to those in the community who have not yet experienced it is important. In fact, bringing in new players of every age and in every sector of our Bend community is critical if we’re to continue to grow, and this effort is underway. For instance, recently we conducted two training sessions with Ponderosa Elementary School 4th and 5th graders and will do two more sessions with them on September 25 and 26. (Watch for a notice about a change in Challenge Court play during those two dates to accommodate the kids’ schedule.)
This coming week we take our next steps on the “outreach trail”, conducting a full day of exhibitions and training at the convention for 300 COCC faculty and employees.
The recent FMCA Convention exhibition and training we did in August will be featured in an article in the October USAPA e-newsletter, by the way. (Not a USAPA member yet? You should be! Contact them at http://www.usapa.org and sign up…a great way to support the growth of your sport, plus you’ll get the article!)
- Mentoring
To those of you who have asked, YES, we are still conducting mentoring sessions. Sign-ups have dropped off but please go here if you are interested in signing up for your first mentoring session, or if you’d like to take another session. (One misconception we’ve heard is that you can only work with one mentor. We do recommend that you and your group meet a second time with your first mentor for a progress check of the first set of skills you worked on. However, don’t let that hold you back. Go ahead and take advantage of additional mentoring opportunities.)
- Re-rating (in-club skill-level rating changes)
Re-rating those of you who want to play in a different skill-rated Round Robin has been a bit of a challenge for us and we’re still working on simplifying the process. (This is not surprising given so many new members and with so many self rated players.) There are a few more outstanding re-rates for all who have asked for re-rating which we hope to be done by the end of the month. No further re-rating will be done during the winter season unless a need for it surfaces.
- Winter Play.
A complete (and expanded) schedule of winter-play at the Boys and Girls Club has been drafted and is being finalized. It will be rolled out at our next General Meeting by Kirk Foster, BPC VP, as a joint product of his work with Sherie Browning and David Shirley.
- A Few Important Dates (others to come shortly)
- October 8. The next General Meeting date at the Senior Center will start at 6 PM in the South Events Room. Chair setup begins at 5:40.
- October 17. Organized play will stop for the summer season at Pine Nursery Park. Courts will still be available for drop-in play until December.
- October 22. Winter play begins at the Boys and Girls Club. More details on schedule will be forthcoming.
- June 17-21, 2015. Oregon Senior Games (including Pickleball at Pine Nursery) will be in town.
- August 13, 2015. Meet and Greet evening at Shevlin Park (Aspen Lodge).
- August 14-17, 2015. 3rd Annual Big Country RV Pickleball Tournament at Pine Nursery
- By-Law Revision
Revised by-laws for the club have been drafted and will soon be posted for your review. You’ll be advised when they are on the website. BTW, not-for-profit sporting clubs must have ratified by-laws and we hope to have you vote on accepting (or denying) these by-laws at the October 7 General Meeting. Ratification requires affirmative votes from (at least)more than 50% of all members present during the General Meeting. Your vote counts; be there or be square!
- New Court Stuff
Regarding the new courts, Bend Parks and Recreation has formulated a request to the BPRD Board of Directors to allocate the $125K the estimators have said they will need to complete their share of our eight-court expansion into the master plan. This request is scheduled for approval at their regular board meeting Tuesday, September 15. More information about the new court schedule will be provided at the General Meeting
- Other items
We are still working on finalizing a new guest/visitor policy, developing a new court utilization schedule for next year that can take advantage of the sixteen courts, and more. We’ll keep you informed as these things come on-line.
Finally a sincere note of condolence to Jaunita Vincent and family on of the death of beloved husband Carl Vincent after an extended illness. Carl was more than a good man; he was an inspiration to us all; a fun guy, he participated in every tournament as a world-class referee, and was (in addition) a class act who could play mean piano boogie-woogie. We all will miss his good humor and his passion about spreading our sport.
BTW, Jaunita and Carl (along with Sandi Feller and others) started the Thousand Trails Pickleball Mania tournament over ten years ago down the road in Sunriver. Jaunita and Carl were (and still are) true USAPA Ambassadors; positive influences as we try to follow in their footsteps here in Bend. We will miss you, good friend Carl. May God keep you in the palm of His hand.
