GCTA Board Minutes

GCTA Board Meeting
July 17, 2003 GCTA Meeting
In Attendance: Doug Snapp, Harvey Beahm, Jake Will, Jr., Gary Alexander, Bud Petersen, Andy Alexander, Carol Alexander, Dan Witteman, Bob Hilborn, Jim Hendrix, Shirley Neibauer, Brooks Naffziger, Jane McMeekin, Rita Brown, Lisa Miller, Geri Schlegel, Lori Carter, Sharon Rusk
1. Call to Order
Harvey called the meeting order at 7:40 PM. He welcomed all.
2. Approval of Minutes
Harvey pointed out that the April minutes had been emailed, sent by regular mail, and had been posted to the web site. Minutes were also available on each table. Harvey asked that we take a moment to review them. He asked for a motion to accept them. Shirley Neibauer so moved, Brooks Naffziger seconded. There was no discussion and no vote.
3. Treasurer's Report
Harvey asked Jake Will, Jr., to give the report. Jake said that there was $156 in the checking account, $89,425 in the flex fund, $5, 315 in the junior fund, and $1,440 in the Mansfield fund. Brooks Naffziger asked what percentage the flex fund was earning. Jake answered, one and one half per cent. Harvey asked for a motion to accept Jake's report. Carol Alexander moved, Bud Petersen seconded. There was no vote.
4. Junior Wightman Cup & Junior Davis Cup
Doug Snapp gave the report. Steve Ryuse and Michelle Jarrett again captained the teams. Michelle was unable to participate on Friday and Saturday because of commitments at her club. Paige Rudolph and Doreen Storm captained the Wightman Cup teams on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Doug said that both teams were the champions. Due to the number of participating teams, the format was different for the Davis and the Wightman teams. The boys defeated Dayton, Huntington, and Cincinnati. The girls defeated South Central, Cincinnati, Springfield, and Huntington. Doug commented that the matches were the same format as high school matches: three singles and two doubles. Bob Hilborn, who captained the South Central team, agreed that the matches were excellent and that the Wittenberg location was a great one. Doug concluded by saying that the names of the team members and pictures from the two days were on the GCTA web site.
5. Women's Leagues/Champions of Champions
Rita Brown was very proud to announce that the women had 1,905 members this year. This is up 77 members from last year. There were a total of 138 teams; this was also up. Rita felt it was due to an increase in the career's teams. Shirley Neibauer said that the plans for the Champ of Champs were in place. A letter will be mailed indicating the dates and information: August 18th, 19th, and 20th. The finals are again planned for New Albany Country Club.
6. Men's Leagues/Champion of Champions
Bob Hilborn said that he did not have the exact numbers, but it was likely that the numbers were similar to last year. Doug said that he would again be sending information regarding the Champ of Champs tournament. The date would need to be October 4th and 5th; all September weekends have OSU home football games. Jake said he would contact Northam Park to see if the tournament could again take place there.
7. USTA Summer Leagues
Shirley Neibauer gave the report: Terri Jones was not present. Shirley said that the leagues were finishing and there were no protests.
8. USA Junior Team Tennis
Shirley gave the report. She indicated that over 730 players are involved. About 80 kids are going to the Springfield Challenge. She noted that some clubs don't want to send their players to Springfield. There was discussion as to why the Challenge is played in Springfield when over 70 per cent of the participants are from Columbus. Further, as it ends up, Columbus players will likely be playing kids they have already played in the Columbus area. Cincinnati and Dayton send players, but the vast number come from Columbus. The question was posed as to why our players need to go to Springfield. It was pointed out that the coordinator for the program is in Springfield. Some of what the OVTA District is doing relating to this is part of the expectations that are set by the Midwest Section. The OVTA had asked Shirley if she would be the coordinator and she declined. Gary Alexander suggested that Doug bring our concerns to the OVTA since he is a Vice-President of the group.
9. Area and District Qualifiers
Jim Hendrix gave the Area Qualifier report. Harvey commended Jim for the job that he has done. Jim shared that there were a few problems but for the most part, the tournament went very smoothly. He said that there were just 6 players less than last year. Some players did try to enter late. The Ohio High School Athletic Association does mandate the starting dates for the 16's and the 18's in the boys. Bob Hilborn said that the fact that we had no rain was a blessing for these two groups. Doug asked how Cincinnati and Dayton avoid problems with the OHSAA. All the other OVTA areas are obviously small enough that they do not have a problem. On another note, of the five clubs that ran the divisions, only one had problems. Harvey will put a committee together to consider some of the problems.
Carol Alexander reported that the Girls 16's District was played quite early in June. It was a 64 draw done according to computer rankings. She thanked Bob Schafer, Janet Craycraft, Doug and Deena Snapp, Danna Monsul, Vince Solomon, and John Campbell. She also thanked the Racquet Club for giving the tournaments the courts so cheaply. Harvey congratulated Carol for the fact that she has run the tournament since 1978. Doug talked about the amount of time and effort that a tournament like this involves. He challenged other members to become active and help in such a tournament.
10. Columbus Recreation and Parks
Lisa Miller was present. She has been hired by the CRPD to run free tennis clinics. This is being paid for by a grant that the CRPD was able to obtain from the USTA. These lessons will run from July 21st to August 16th. Lisa gave her background. Doug gave a rundown on the programs that are taking place in the CRPD. He also commented that the CRPD had a very good turnout for the USTA Columbus Project (the program that emphasized participation by 6 through 12 year olds).
11. Umpires
Harvey emphasized the importance of having a pool of umpires. Harvey called on Bud Petersen to give a report. Bud agreed that we need more umpires and pointed out that it is a good way to give back to the sport of tennis. He also pointed out that some events pay well for their umpires. Jim Hendrix suggested that training sessions should be in the evenings so that teaching pros could participate. Bud commented that training sessions are often not in the central Ohio area. Doug pointed out that the GCTA does give stipends to people who complete training and give that information to the GCTA.
12. Ohio Valley Tennis Association
Doug said that the GCTA had received $1,500 from the OVTA. A GCTA activity report will need to be made at the OVTA annual meeting in November. With that in mind, Doug said it is not clear who our Area Representative to the OVTA actually is. Janet Craycraft has said that she does not really want to continue in that position. The OVTA has been assuming that Ron Linville is the representative because he was involved with the Area Qualifier. Doug commented that the GCTA had never actually selected a representative. Harvey suggested that Jim Hendrix be our OVTA Area Representative.
Doug said that a topic that is being discussed at the OVTA level in the Competition Committee is the topic of the new USTA junior ranking system. Jeff Johnston had contacted Doug and asked him to bring the topic before the GCTA. The new ranking system gives points to the different tournaments at different levels. The Area Qualifier is at the lowest level and gets players no points. National Open Tournaments in the month of May are now top level tournaments. Doug said that there may be conflicts for players who want to play these National Tournaments and the Area Qualifier. Many people present indicated that there need not be a change in policy. However, Doug indicated that it might be prudent to investigate the new ranking system to avoid problems that did not exist in the past. With that in mind, he suggested our Area Qualifier rules be reviewed. Harvey suggested a committee consisting of Doug, Jim Hendrix, Carol Alexander, Jeff Johnston, and himself.
13. Awards Ceremony
Harvey said that Jean Shaw had been in contact with him. Geri Schlegel also gave input. Jean has put together a committee to suggest award winners. The event will again be at the Upper Arlington Municipal Building. The time and date are 4:00 PM on September 28th.
14. Old Business
Hearing no old business, Harvey moved to new business.
15. New Business
Doug said that the Wheelchair Games in Poland had local representation: Ashwin Lakhi and Zack Sikora participated on the USTA sponsored team. Zack had been honored by the GCTA as the 2001 Male Player of the Year.
Harvey gave the names of the suggested committee members of the Nominating and Budget committees for the Annual Meeting. Doug added that any Board Member may participate on these committees. Doug is the Nominating Chair, Gary Alexander is the Budget Chair. Contact either to participate on the committees.
Andy Alexander reminded members of the Buckeye Boys' Ranch Tournament reunion. There was discussion as to how important the tournament was in the 70's and early 80's.
Bob Hilborn reported that 22 teams will participate in the USTA USA District Tournament. He asked that $3,190 be provided to those teams to offset expenses. It was pointed out the line item is $3,900. The money will be sent to the OVTA and it will be distributed to the local teams from there.
16. Adjournment
A motion was made and seconded to adjourn. The meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Doug Snapp, GCTA Secretary
The next meeting is the Annual Meeting at 7:30 on September 18th.
The meeting is at Swim and Racquet.

The following is a handout that Doug Snapp made available at the July 17th meeting. It is a summary of the April 28th meeting with the OSU Recreation People Regarding Recreation Tennis and Tennis Courts at OSU--the GCTA was represented by Doug Snapp.

The OSU recreation people had a meeting to explain the changes in the recreation tennis situation. The courts behind Larkins Hall have been demolished. Larkins will be replaced with a new structure. West of that structure and south of the football stadium, 16 new tennis courts will be constructed. Two of these will have a competition layout: they will be single courts with some seating on either side. There will be two hitting walls in the complex. The recreation people hope that this project will be complete by the spring of 2005. The four courts in the indoor Jesse-Owens-West structure will be maintained for recreation use. The area north of that structure that once contained 6 outdoor courts will be turned into "green space." The Larkins courts and the Jesse Owens West courts will be the only recreation courts on campus. There will continue to be limits on the access to the Jesse Owens courts. Some sort of membership and /or cost for students, faculty, and guests will be implemented. The building project at Larkins (including everything) was being funded by $30 million from the state, $18 million from the athletic department (for the competition pools and other "athletic" facilities in the complex), and $85 million from the students (the $85 million was being generated by a $2 surtax on student fees). As part of this overall recreation project, a new, state-of-the-art outdoor adventure structure is being built on the west side of the CSX railroad line, next to the OSU police department off of Woody Hayes Dr. All courts at Larkins and at Jesse Owens will be overseen by the OSU Recreation Department.

The varsity project was discussed by the recreation people. It was confirmed that an indoor will be built, but the recreation people had little information regarding the structure. They did think that it would be complete by 2006 and that the athletic department had money in place or was in the process of getting money in place for that project. Athletic department projects and recreation department projects are separate. The point was made that in the past, the athletic department and the recreation department had a good relationship. There was stated concern by the recreation people that the varsity courts would be the only courts on campus other than Jesse Owens West until the completion of the Larkins project. The recreation people are hoping that the varsity courts would be available for general play in the interim. They are not optimistic, siting that the varsity courts had recently been locked and that non-varsity players had been asked to leave the courts.

Many of those listening to the presentation pointed out that the number of courts being discussed was well below what it should be for the number of students served. Many of those present had had the opportunity to play on courts at other colleges and universities and they indicated that OSU was way deficient in the number of courts compared to those schools. I pointed out my experience with the University of Illinois. The rec. people's response was that they were well aware of what other schools had. They had visited a large number of institutions including most of the Big Ten schools. The had conducted studies of court use at OSU. They concluded that with the play that the present OSU courts get, their planned number of courts was in line with what was needed. They noted that very few people played on the courts behind Larkins. Those present made it clear that the courts behind Larkins and Cunz Halls had gotten to a condition "where no real tennis player would play on them" and that may be the reason for the apparent lack of use. I indicated that it hurt the central Ohio area not to have large banks of courts where large events could be held. Several of those present indicated that they remembered when the state tournaments were held on those courts. Others remembered when all Area Qualifier and OVTA district tournament matches were played on that location. The rec. people admitted that this was a problem and that they had even taken some of their para-olympic events to locations off campus. Regardless, they reiterated that the numbers of courts to be built was sufficient.

There was discussion as to the amount faculty, students, and guests would need to pay to use the indoor courts. A suggested schedule of pay will be put together and passed along for input.

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