GCTA Board Minutes

GCTA Board Meeting
1/17/02
In Attendance: Doug Snapp, Jake Will, Jr., Jeff Johnston, Janet Craycraft, Deb Thallman, Donna Owens, Geri Schlegel, Harvey Beahm, Chuck Merzbacher, Frank Polito, Bud Petersen, Rita Brown, Shirley Neibauer, Christi Turdo, Arnie Jones, Callie Ryan, Larry Hunter, Jim Flower, Andy Alexander, Brooks Naffziger, Carol Alexander, Gary Alexander, Jean Shaw
1. Approval of Minutes
Jeff Johnston opened the meeting and thanked people for coming. He explained that the minutes for the September meeting were on tables. These minutes had also been posted to the web site. Members with e-mail addresses had received them via e-mail. Those members without e-mail address had the minutes mailed to them. Jeff asked for corrections and changes. Hearing none, he asked for a motion to approve the minutes. Janet Craycraft so moved and Harvey Beahm seconded the motion. The motion passed.
2. Treasurer's Report
Jake Will, Jr., reported that the year-end financial records are being finalized and being taken care of with regard to taxes and accounting. There are still some items that are late in being brought to his attention: there were some bills just turned in that actually pertain to the 2001 budget. Parks and Rec. was one of these, and it has been taken care of. There was a bill turned in for the Men's Champ of Champs, etc. With that in mind, Jake shared a balance sheet that showed a $4,350 profit for 2001. He feels that this is because of the increase in dues and not a decrease in what we have supported. If there had been no increase in dues, he added that there would have been approximately a $1,500 deficit. He commented that the web site has made it possible to keep our mailing costs down. Jake said that as of December 31, 2001, the checking account was $197, the flex fund was $41,151, the junior fund was $5,201, the Mansfield fund was $1,397, and the mutual funds were $25,000 (FMV was $27,352--Jake commented that this was not bad considering the way the market has been going). Jeff asked for approval of the treasurer's report; it was so moved, seconded and passed by a  voice vote.
3. Junior Wightman and Junior Davis Cup
Janet Craycraft said that both Michelle Jarrett and Steve Ryuse were willing to continue as Captains. Janet stated that both had done an excellent job last summer. She felt the kids had a good time. They had stayed the night in Springfield and the GCTA had paid for this. Jim Flower asked about the make-up of the teams. Janet said there were OVTA guidelines. Some players are not available as players for our group because they play for the OVTA team. She said that there is emphasis on the older players participating. Doug Snapp added that the teams would be selected at a date closer to the time the matches will be played.
4. Women's Leagues
Our new Women's League Chair, Rita Brown, reported that she is looking forward to working in that position. She gave us some background on her experience with regard to the Women's Leagues: she has captained teams in the league, worked two years on the Women's Board, and more. She is enthusiastic that Callie Ryan will be helping her with the move to Chairperson. Rita reported that the Women's 2002 Kickoff Parties have been scheduled. There are two dates: February 2nd and March 1st. Both parties will be at the Wickertree Tennis Club and they will be from 7:00 to 1:00 PM. Rita added that cards had been sent to all Women's League members. She thanked Shirley Neibauer and Terri Jones for doing the organizing and running of the events. Rita concluded by giving upcoming meeting dates: the Women's Board will meet next Tuesday and there will be a club-representative meeting on March 8th.
5. Men's Leagues
Gary Alexander gave the report on the Men's Leagues. As was discussed at the September meeting, there is consideration being given as to changing the 4.0 league to a 4.5 league. This would help clubs that do not have enough players for a higher level team. They are also considering changing the Gold league to a two-tiered league: 4.0-and-above and 4.0-and-below. Gary then talked about the fact that we had registered our Men's League teams as USA Team Tennis leagues. This entailed filling out special roster forms for the USTA. While this was time consuming, the GCTA received $25 for each team that was registered with the USTA. Players need not be members of the USTA, only the roster forms need filling out. Gary said that he had talked to Chad Doctor of the USTA and was told that the GCTA should be receiving the check for this year shortly. For this coming summer, the USTA is giving each USA Team Tennis team $40. Gary and others said that the filling out of the forms is tedious for the number of teams that we have; the finical benefits to the GCTA are worth paying someone three dollars or so per form to do this. The GCTA would still receive $37. Presently we only do this with our Men's Leagues. It was suggested that we do this with the Women's Leagues also. There was discussion that the roster lists and mailing lists for the Women's Leagues have been kept very confidential. There is and has been definite concern about giving out such information. It was pointed out that the USTA does not give out this information; they use it to get statistics as to the "growth of tennis." It was also stated that the players who join the USTA or play in USTA tournaments are giving the USTA their mailing address. Donna Owens was present from the Cincinnati area and said that they have also gotten a lot of money for their organization by filling out the forms. Rita said she would bring the issue before the Women's Board at their meeting on Tuesday. Donna said she would be willing to go to the Women's Board meeting and discuss this issue if they would like.
6. USTA League
No report at this time.
7. Ohio Valley Tennis Association
Janet Craycraft reported that we will no longer have an OVTA office in Columbus. The office will now be in Springfield and will involve Joyce and Dave Engle. Janet praised and thanked Deb Thallman for all the work she has done in the OVTA office here in Columbus. Janet concluded by reminding us that grant applications are still being accepted through February 2nd. She also reminded us to be thinking about people deserving OVTA awards.
8. Umpires
Bud Petersen gave the report. He said that there is still a need for more umpires. He did not know the dates of the upcoming umpire school. He said it would take place in either February or March, as in the past. Umpires will be involved with the tournament at Wickertree, the Men's Big Ten Tournament, and other events in the central Ohio area.
9. Columbus Recreation and Parks
Doug Snapp gave the report. Connie Everhart is still recovering from her car accident. She is unable to drive but hopes to be back to work soon. She contacted Jake Will and turned in her final budget requests for the 2001 year. She faxed Gary and Doug copies of her requests. She indicated on the phone that she would like to get together with Doug and Gary to discuss this coming year. February is typically the month when plans are made in the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department for upcoming tennis activities. Those will go ahead. Denica Bruce and Kelly Hoffman of the CRPD continue to work on plans for this year. Deb Thallman has been in contact with the department with regard to planned events with SMASH Tennis. Connie told Doug that the fire at the warehouse  on Whittier St. caused no problem for tennis. None of the tennis equipment was stored there.
10. Area and District Qualifier
Jeff started the report by saying that we still need coordinators for both the Area Qualifier and the District Qualifier. He and others on the board have talked to several people. Jeff said that it would help to get the committee together that has worked on this. They could work on the specific situations. Janet said that since the clubs are running the actual divisions of the Area Qualifier, the coordinator's job is more of an organizer: a person to set up the draws, post the draws to the internet, get the draws to the clubs and post the results, again, on the internet. A person with a little computer knowledge would have an easy time at this. Janet said that she has talked to the clubs and they were willing to run divisions again this year. As far as the  Girls' 16 District Qualifier, Carol Alexander said that she would be willing to train someone to take over that tournament. The dates are the 8th through the 12th of June.
11. USTA Junior Team Tennis
Shirley Neibauer said there was no report at this time, but she added that they would have their first organizational meetings soon.
12. Champion of Champions
Jake Will commented that Mike Haddow had spoken with him and said that Northam Park would willingly host the tournament again. Jake seemed to think that the tournament had gone smoothly. He asked Doug, who had run the tournament, what his feelings were. Doug responded by saying that the tournament had gone smoothly; the only frustration was the lack of participation. Several divisions were left with just a finals match. There has been talk of moving the date so that there would be more possible participation. One drawback would be that clubs would be less willing to give up time in the middle of summer. Gary commented that the women and the men had run their tournaments in conjunction with each other; this necessitated the use of several clubs, but it gave a stronger feeling to the importance of the tournament by having all groups together. The men could move it up and have a scheduled off-week when the tournament would be played. Callie Ryan pointed out that it is very hard to expect matches after the beginning of August: summer vacations and then the start of school make a late tournament an unlikely choice. The Women's Board will discuss options on Tuesday.
13. Awards Ceremony
Janet Craycraft was pleased with how the event went this year. Doug Snapp added that he thought the participation was better than past years and that our award choices were very worthy. Janet would like to see someone else take charge of the event. She said it really takes care of itself as far as running it. The hardest parts, according to Janet, are getting the program together and speaking in front of a large group. Janet said she would go ahead and get the Upper Arlington Municipal Building for September 29th. The time of the ceremony would be 4:00-7:00 PM. On a final note, Janet said that our Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, Dick Klitch, was the Ohio Valley Tennis Association's Howard Dredge Award winner. She had also nominated Gary Alexander for an award, but Gary withdrew his name since he was serving on the OVTA Awards Committee. Jeff and Janet both thought that we should nominate Zack Sikora for an OVTA award this coming year. Janet said she would find an appropriate award for which she could nominate him.
14. Wheelchair Tennis
Larry Hunter gave the report. He thanked the GCTA for the award nomination and the award. He has the award plaque hanging in his office. He said that he was sorry that he could not attend the ceremony.  He would have been present except for the fact that he was playing in a wheelchair tournament in Atlanta. He shared that there is a group that is practicing on Sundays and he thinks there is a group at OSU that practices on Wednesdays. He and others, including Zack Sikora, participated in a competition with a group of wheelchair players from the Middletown area. He hopes that this will become a regular event.  He is looking forward to this year's PVA Buckeye Wheelchair Tennis Tournament. He has scheduled it for July 19th through the 21st, again at the Upper Arlington High School tennis courts.
15. Old Business
No old business at this time.
16. New Business
Christi Turdo shared that Columbus' bid to host the upcoming Davis Cup tie was lost to Oklahoma City. Christi said that when contacted, the USTA gave one of the reasons for not choosing Columbus as lack of local support. When pressed on this, the USTA representative sited the number of e-mails that they had received in favor of having the tie in Oklahoma City. Andy Alexander said from what he had hear, a greater part of the problem was that Columbus did not have the financial support in hand that was needed to get the tie here. The most important thing is to get sponsors. Christi agreed that sponsorship is an important issue but feels it is difficult to get the necessary sponsorship if there is no apparent support in the community, especially the tennis community. If the people in the community are behind the project, sponsorship will follow. Christi said her total feeling is that all of us who are involved in whatever way with tennis need to support tennis activities; growth of tennis will benefit all concerned in central Ohio. Adult and junior programs will benefit from having tennis in the forefront--not just at one club or location, but at all tennis related businesses. Christi passed out information on the $25,000 USTA Women's Professional Tennis Challenger event coming up February 17th through the 24th. She feels that there will be some fairly big named players involved in this tournament. She would like for information to be on the GCTA web site. Doug Snapp said that it is already on the site and that any information he is given will be posted. She said she wanted to get ideas from the GCTA Board as to how to get people involved. If we can increase involvement, perhaps Columbus could host the next Davis Cup tie in April. She stressed that this tournament in February is not a Wickertree event as much as it is a community tennis event. Lengthy discussion followed with numerous suggestions being made. A common suggestion was to involve all of the tennis clubs in the central Ohio area. Christi answered that she has tried to do just that, in numerous ways, it frustrates her that there is not a more support. During the course of the discussion, several GCTA Board Members echoed Christi's frustration in this area. Several members sited a time when there was more cooperation among the clubs. At one point there was a strong coordinating group made up of club representatives: MOITA (Mid Ohio Indoor Tennis Association). Janet Craycraft pointed out that the clubs had worked very well together last spring with regard to our Area Qualifier. It was suggested that someone outside of the club atmosphere be the coordinator of the event, perhaps someone from the GCTA. Another suggestion was to make it a multi club event: one day would be a certain club's days, the next day would be the day for other clubs, etc. The clubs could involve their adult and junior members on those days as ushers, ball people, etc. In the advertisements, there would be a list of the clubs that are involved. The names of the clubs could be put on the shirts of the ball people, ushers, and other volunteers. Several members felt the most important thing was to involve the kids; these are the people who are going to "grow" tennis. If we can get them to embrace the excitement of tennis, we will have them as participants for years to come. Other suggestions for increased involvement were to connect the tournament to activities that are presently happening around town. Make a Wish, Inner City Games,  Commit to be Fit were mentioned. By connecting to these groups, publicity would follow. The suggestion was made to involve well known people; the mayor of Columbus and OSU President Kirwan were several of the people mentioned. Try to involve the men's and women's OSU teams. It was suggested that Kroger and Big Bear stores be visited and asked if information could be posted or passed out there; the stores would not have to donate money, just provide a place to post information. Christi asked if the GCTA could mail or e-mail information to its members. Callie and Rita said that the Women's League list would not be given out; any mailing would need to be done by the GCTA. Jeff stated that was the policy for all our list. The women's list is up-to-date, Andy Alexander said that the Men's list would need to be updated. Once that is done, the GCTA could do mailings.
Janet Craycraft reported that we have a person who has contacted us about City Year. Part of this program would be that pros would go into schools and teach physical education teachers how to teach tennis. Wilson will supply rackets, etc. We will need pros that are willing to teach the teachers. The person that contacted Janet is applying for a grant at the OVTA level. Janet is looking for a person to be a coordinator to work with this program. This would certainly be a promotion of tennis. Janet said that our USTA member growth rate this last year was not as good as in the previous year. Doug Snapp commented that one of the reasons our growth rate doesn't look as good is that we had several years where we had significant growth rate, mainly because of the USTA USA Junior Team program. There is still growth but not at the high rate as before.
Deb Thallman shared that she is the SMASH Tennis captain. She is coordinating with the Cartoon Network. There will be a presentation in Columbus at Wickertree Tennis Club. Cartoon characters will be here and play tennis to promote the game. Deb is the person that is responsible for  getting the people who are going to run this. Wickertree is not the contact. Deb gave the background on the program. They will be here May 13th and 14th. COSI was actually one of the first choices as to the location for this but it didn't work out. The USTA , SMASH Tennis, and the Cartoon Network are all involved. Chuck Merzbacher suggested that this activity be inner-connected with the other tennis events that are proposed for the central Ohio area. The problem is that the Cartoon Network has a very restricted timeline. Donna Owens from Cincinnati confirmed this. She had tried to arrange events with the Cartoon Network but they must be scheduled a year in advance. It is virtually impossible to change the timing of this event at this point. Deb said that the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department has been contacted, and CRPD is saying they can bring a 100 kids. Deb has been told that 25 racquets and 3 cases of balls will be donated to the CRPD by the sponsors of the event.
Janet Craycraft suggested that we have a group meeting just for discussing the activities and events that are going on in the world of tennis in the central Ohio area. Often we a unaware of what is really happening. We need to show our support but it is important that we have the lead time that is necessary. Deb Thallman pointed out that the GCTA really does not push the month of May which is the National Tennis Month. It was pointed out that the end of May is when our summer leagues are starting and May is when we have the Area Qualifier. But we don't really promote May as the Nation Tennis Month. Jeff Johnston added we really need a promotion coordinator that would stay on top of events and update information to the local news and to our web site. Geri Schlegel said she did something like that for Northam Park in coordination with the Tri-Village News. They willingly print any info that is given to them. Doug Snapp said part of the frustration is that no one informs us of what is happening. He has put anything on the web site that people give him, but all too often, nothing is given to him. Arnie Jones said that he would coordinate information and pass it along to Suburban News Publications and to Doug. Geri suggest that Arnie should have a goal of getting information to them once a month in the beginning. That way it would not burn him out.
Board Member and Ohio State's Women's Tennis Coach Chuck Merzbacher introduced Frank Polito, the Assistant OSU Women's Coach. Chuck gave us background information on Frank's prior coaching experience. He said that Frank was an Ohio native who has had coaching experience at Eastern Michigan, the University of Louisiana at Monroe, the University of Akron, among other positions. Frank was an assistant with Chuck at the University of Kansas. Chuck expressed that he was very pleased to have Frank on board. Frank is also a GCTA Board Member and hopes to become even more involve in the central Ohio tennis community. Chuck then turned to the upcoming OSU women's season. He labeled it the "post Kristy Dascoli era." Kristy was such an impact player in her years at OSU. Chuck is counting on his team to have more depth. Northwestern is rated 9th in country. He passed out schedules for the team's matches. Chuck also talked about the men's team. He passed out "Serve and Return Club" information. This contained booster information as well as a team schedule. The Women's Big Ten Championships were held at OSU last spring. This spring, the Men's Big Ten Championships will be held here. This will be April the 25th through April the 28th. The GCTA's "Welcoming Banner" was displayed for the Women's and will be displayed for the Men's. Chuck talked about how the banners, the flags, and the crowd made the event very exciting last spring. Jim Flower asked how the Big Ten host site is determined. Chuck said it rotates; he added, not all schools have the facility to host or want to host. Chuck talked about some of the players that will be honored as players of the century on January 22nd in the Schottenstein Center.
Gary Alexander shared that Arnie Jones ran a tournament over the 4th of July. This tournament has been elevated this year to a higher level by the USTA. Players from this area will have a chance to get a higher national ranking without leaving Columbus because of this event. Arnie thanked Gary for working with him and for his efforts in helping getting the tournament that was here raised to this higher level. In addition to being able to get a higher national ranking, Arnie shared that there is good prize money with this tournament. The timing of the tournament should be perfect: there is a tournament in Pittsburgh the week before and one in Indianapolis the week after the one here in Columbus. He had good participation last summer; he feels it will be even better this summer. The tournament will be the Midwest Hardcourt Championships. Doug said there was information on the web site about it and he would be glad to put more information as it is available.
Donna Owens, from Cincinnati and representing the USTA, thanked us for letting her come. She expressed how impressed she was with all of what is going on in Columbus with the GCTA's involvement in tennis. She concluded by saying she is ready to help in anyway she can.
17. Adjournment
Hearing no further discussion, Jeff asked for a motion of adjournment; Carol Alexander made such a motion, Shirley Neibauer seconded, the motion passed.

Respectfully submitted,
Doug Snapp
Secretary

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