The GCTA Supports Tennis

GCTA Meeting Minutes
July 15, 2004

In Attendance: Harvey Beahm, Jake Will, Jr., Doug Snapp, Dan Witteman, Jim Hendrix, Rita Brown, Jane McMeekin, Andy Alexander, Carol Alexander, Deena Snapp, Paul Kobelt, Kelly Hoffman, Gary Serelson, Vince Solomon, Brooks Naffziger, Janet Craycraft, Jeff Johnston

1. Call to Order
Harvey Beahm called the meeting to order.

2. Approval of Minutes
Harvey Beahm shared that the minutes from the April meeting were mailed to those who do not have email accounts. The minutes were emailed to those who do have accounts and they are also available on the web site. There are a number of copies on each of the tables. Harvey asked that we take a minute to read the minutes. He then asked for approval. Brooks Naffziger moved, Jeff Johnston seconded and the motion passed.

3. Treasurer's Report
Jake Will said that several bills had just been paid. The amounts that were in the accounts as of June 30th were very close to where they were last year. The checking account has $1,102; the flex fund has $79,147; the junior fund has $5,360; the Mansfield fund has $1,457. This is a total of $87,066. Rita Brown moved to accept the report; Carol Alexander 2nd, and it passed.

4. Junior Wightman Cup & Junior Davis Cup
Janet Craycraft coordinated and hosted the event at Upper Arlington High School. She did this along with her daughter, Kelly Lewis. Janet gave the report. She was very pleased with the larger turnout of teams from the 10 areas of the Ohio Valley Tennis Association. She said that this was the best that they have had in recent years. There were 8 teams in the Jr. Davis and 6 teams in the Jr. Wightman. Both events were won by teams from Cincinnati, and Columbus was second in both. The OVTA provided the balls and some of the operating expenses. Janet would like to see some type of gift or award for each participant. In some years, players had received a T-shirt for their participation; none was provided this year. She also believes that the OVTA should give some money to UAHS for use of the courts. Janet thanked Art Haus for umpiring. She also thanked Doug Snapp for posting all the pictures and information to the web site. Harvey expressed his appreciation for Janet's and Kelly's efforts.

5. Women's Leagues/Champion of Champions
Rita Brown gave the report. The Women's Leagues have 1,914 members this year. There are 104 day-time teams and 35 career teams. Over 19,000 dollars have been provided to the GCTA through these leagues. The seasons for some of the divisions are ending and championship playoffs are starting. Champion of Champions have been set and detailed information is on the web site.
Doug Snapp shared that Jane McMeekin had provided the web site a pdf version of the 2004 Captain's Handbook. It has been downloaded close to 700 times to this point in mid-July. Each woman's team is given one, so this 700 is beyond those that are distributed to the teams. Harvey thanked Rita and Jane for their efforts.

6. Men's Leagues/Champion of Champions
Harvey expressed his appreciation for the work that Gary Alexander has done with regard to the Men's Leagues. Gary gave the report. He indicated that the men have 996 paying members for a total of $9,960 dollars. He said that the league was down in number of teams but up in number of players. He was pleased to announce that there have been no complaints to this point and the league is running very smoothly. Gary thanked the score keepers: Jake, Will, Sr., Jake Will, Jr. Doug Snapp, Andy Alexander, and Brooks Naffziger. He said that the smoothness of the league was greatly due to their efforts. Harvey thanked Gary for his leadership.
Doug Snapp said that the Men's Champion of Champions probably should be September 18th. That is the weekend that OSU plays away. It would also give us some time in relationship to the Awards Ceremony. That ceremony is scheduled for the 26th. Jake Will, Jr., said that he would check with Northam Park and Mike Haddow to see if Northam would again host the event. He will let Doug know as to that possibility. Doug said that he can put the tournament draws together and organize the matches but he may need to have someone cover for him on Sunday. Gary indicated that he had been contacted by a person who wants to help with the leagues--perhaps this person will be willing to run some of this tournament.

7. USTA Summer Leagues
Harvey shared that he thought that all was going well with the leagues and that Terri Jones was doing a fine job. Doug Snapp echoed this by saying that the OVTA had not received complaints to this point. Jake Will, Jr., indicated that the check for $3,900 had been sent to OVTA. This money helps defray the cost of local winning teams that attend the District. Jake also indicated that Bob Hilborn is the one who distributes the money.

8. USA Junior Team Tennis
Jim Hendrix gave the report for Rebecca Stanchin. The league is in its final week. 72 teams with over 500 participants are involved. Jim said that all indications are that it is very successful; they were able to use TennisLink. The District Championships will again be in Springfield; nine of our teams will likely participate. Even though the league is running smoothly, Jim did say that Rebecca is having trouble getting some teams to pay and that there were a couple of teams that dropped out after the start of the season. She has told Jim that she believes there should be a penalty for those teams. There was discussion. Gary Alexander suggested that there be fines just like with the Men's and Women's Leagues. Rita Brown said that the women had several teams withdraw and that the fine should be raised to meet USTA standards. Jim thought that that amount was $250. Harvey agreed that the amount should be raised. Gary said that Jim and Rebecca should be complimented for the job that they have done, especially with the online registration. Doug indicated that Joyce and Dave Engle of the OVTA had given a good report for the league. Harvey thanked Jim and asked him to extend our thanks to Rebecca.

9. Area and District Qualifiers
Jim Hendrix gave the report on the Jr. Area Qualifier. He started by thanking the clubs that hosted the different events. He was pleased to say that we had over 300 total entries in the 12's, 14's, 16's, 18's boys and girls. Jim complained that the Ohio High School Athletic Association still makes it hard for the boys in the 16's and 18's. Since these players are still in season with their high school teams, they must have a waiver signed by their coach and on file with the OHSAA. Some of the high school coaches are refusing to sign the waiver; therefore, some of the players are refusing to play the AQ because of this conflict. There was discussion. Doug Snapp said that the OVTA Competition Committee has been considering this problem. Janet Craycraft indicated that these players maybe should play their matches before the high school season begins. Doug offered to have a follow-up discussion at the OVTA level.
Carol Alexander gave a recap of the Girl's 16's District mentioning Christine Johnston as the winner. She said that the tournament qualified 14 to the Western Closed Tournament in Indianapolis. She mentioned that rain problems forced them to go indoors several times. She was fortunate to be able to take matches to Player's Club and the Racquet Club. She thanked Andy Alexander, Deena Snapp, Bob Schafer, Art Haus, Marlene Yeldell, Janet Craycraft, and Doug Snapp for their assistance. Doug did all the computer work with the draws. Doug commented that the two tournaments are a big undertaking and that the GCTA is lucky to have people such as Jim and Carol overseeing these two tournaments. Harvey thanked them both and noted that both had turned down offers for remuneration for their work.

10. Columbus Recreation and Parks
Kelly Hoffman gave the report. He said that Denica was out of town because her brother was very ill. Kelly reported on a full junior tennis camp; this is a week-long camp for players ages 9 to 14. Other youth programs were running smoothly. The department's Central Ohio Tennis Tournament championships was slated to begin July 25th. Kelly explained that the summer adult programs operated out of 3 sites: Woodward, Schiller and Antrim. About 40 people participated. The spring adult programs had fewer participants. Kelly talked about the card that he created to give to participants. The card outlines what the GCTA does and is given to participants as a receipt for payment of GCTA dues to participate in the program. He thanked Doug Snapp for help with the information for the card and also for posting CRPD information to the GCTA web site. He often refers people who make inquiries about their programs to our web site: the information gets posted there much faster than on their own site. Fall adult tennis programs are set to take place at Schiller and Feddersen recreation centers. Andy Alexander talked about USTA grant money for adult tennis programs. Doug Snapp gave Andy the information sheets that Kelly had sent him. Those sheets should give the needed information for such money. Brooks Naffziger mentioned the lack of wind screens at the Champions facility. He asked if that grant money could be used to buy screens. Gary Serelson who attended the meeting with Kelly, said that the lack of wind screens was being taken care of. Gary thanked the GCTA for their past support and present support. He emphasized that the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department would not have tennis programs if it were not for the GCTA support. Gary continued by giving some background information as to what was happening at the Champions site. Dave Hoheisel and Alan Leinwohl were the first two people to run the facility. At the end of last of summer the CRPD had to decide what to do with the facility. It was decided that it would be demolished. Through the efforts of some of the players and other tennis supporters, the CRPD was convinced to save the facility. John Campbell and other players at Champions were asked if they could help to make it go for another year. Gary said that the CRPD then got a call from Wickertree Tennis Club about doing some things with the city. Champions came up in the conversation and the people from Wickertree said they could work with it. Wickertree was brought in as a partner who knew about tennis. The Ohio Valley Tennis Association gave the Columbus Recreation and Parks department $5000 grant to improve the facility. Gary felt very good about the situation: they had money to fix up Champions and they had a tennis club to run it. Gary stressed that everything that they have been done with regard to Champions is public information. Rita Brown asked what Wickertree was getting out of the contract. Gary explained that the money that is generated from Champions goes to Wickertree; Wickertree is to give the CRPD the first $7,000 and from there Wickertree gets 80% and the CRPD gets 20% of all monies that are made. Jim Hendrix asked about the members writing checks for membership to Wickertree. Gary explained that Wickertree was contracted to operate the facility; membership money is paid to Wickertree. From that membership money, as explained, the first $7,000 comes back to the CRPD. Doug Snapp asked if GCTA teams were paying their dues to Wickertree. Gary said that that money is paid directly to the GCTA by the teams. It is the membership to the club that is paid to Wickertree. If Wickertree runs clinic and lessons, they also get that money keeping in mind that the first $7,000 goes to the CRPD, 80/20 after that. Jim was also concerned that junior teams had been entered into the USA Junior Team Tennis program and that these teams were not available for play. Gary said that that was an issue with Wickertree. If they entered teams, they were the ones to be contacted. Kelly concurred that to his knowledge no teams had been entered by Denica. Jim asked Gary if bidding for the management of Champions would be open this fall. Gary said that this was likely. Brooks Naffziger added that the Diamond team from Champions is doing quite well: they are presently in first place.

11. Umpires
Vince Solomon gave the report. He said that he has a list of umpires who are active in the central Ohio area. The list has grown by a couple but also a couple umpires have been lost. He will be sending a sheet to the all the clubs with that list and the expectations when using USTA umpires. He also provided this information to Doug Snapp and Doug will post this to the Umpires page on the GCTA web site. Harvey indicated that we need to continue to think of ways to increase our number of certified umpires. Doug indicated that Geri Schlegel had informed him that the umpire-promotion posters were presently at the printers and should be ready to be taken to the clubs by the start of the fall season. Geri had shown us these posters at the April Board meeting. Doug reminded the group as to the nice job that Geri had done with these posters showing the need for umpires and the steps to become a certified umpire. Kelly Hoffman of the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department indicated that he would like to have some of these posters to put at several of the recreation centers.

12. Ohio Valley Tennis Association
Doug Snapp reminded that group that the $2,600 of grant money from the OVTA needs to be spent. He and Harvey had received letters indicating this from Dave Engle, the Executive Secretary of the OVTA. This grant money is not to sit in our bank account. Doug asked Jake Will to verify that to this point the GCTA has only spent $188 of this money. This was the money that Terry Gee had requested for Whitehall Parks and Recreation. Jake indicated that this was correct. Doug said that he had received a letter from the Grandview Heights Parks and Recreation Department asking for assistance in maintaining their tennis programs and tennis courts. Doug said that as a resident of Grandview he is aware that cuts have been made in all programs. Two tennis courts were lost at Stevenson Elementary to be playground areas for the school. Two courts were lost at the high school for parking. The GRPD does run programs on the four remaining courts. The high school coaches also run junior programs at this location. Doug said the letter asked for assistance in the amount of $500. Discussion followed. Rita Brown made a motion that the $500 be granted to Grandview as long as the Grandview parks people provided detailed receipts indicating that the money was actually being spent on tennis. Jane McMeekin seconded and the motion passed. Doug said that he would contact Grandview with the information. Gary Alexander suggested that some of the OVTA money could be spent on favors for the December Midwest Section meeting which will take place here in Columbus.
Jeff Johnston shared information. He said that the OVTA Jr. Davis Cup team won the Midwest Section Tie and the OVTA Jr. Wightman Cup team was the runner-up. Jeff also complimented the administration of the OVTA Girl's 16's at Upper Arlington High School. Four of our girls made it to the round of 16 at the 16's Midwest Closed. Two, Christine Johnston and Kirsten Flower, were finalist with Christine winning the tournament. Those two girls also won the doubles. Chase Buchanan was named Player of the Year and won a National Open. Four of our OVTA players have been named High School All-Americans; those included Christine and Kirsten. Jeff talked very positively about all of the events that took place in Indianapolis and suggest that we all make a point to see some of those events at some point. He concluded by also talking very favorably about the ITA event that Harvey Beahm runs at OSU.
Harvey concluded by giving the dates and location of the various OVTA Adult District Tournament. He indicated that the OVTA has a web site (www.ovta.com) and that much of the information can be found there. He also talked about the field of players competing in his upcoming ITA event.

13. Awards Ceremony
Jean Shaw and Geri Schlegel were not able to attend. Doug Snapp said that the event is scheduled for the 26th of September at the Upper Arlington Municipal Building. As in the past, it is slated to begin at 4:00 PM. Most importantly, the nominations for the Male and Female Player of the Year need to be decided so that shoes can be bronzed.

14. Old Business
Doug Snapp updated us with information about the GCTA web site. Since our April meeting, the web site has had over 19,300 visits. The Women's page is presently the most visited page. Doug stressed that we need to continue to have new and updated information for the site.
Doug also shared a followup with regard to the Whitehall Parks and Recreation grant request. Terry Gee of Whitehall Parks and Rec. ran the program that he discussed with us in April. His only cost was that of payment to the pro to run the program. That amounted to $188. Denica Bruce of the CRPD loaned racquets to Terry's program, so he did not have any cost for racquet purchases. The $188 was covered by the grant money provided by the Ohio Valley Tennis Association.

15. New Business
Gary Alexander shared that in an effort to grow membership, the USTA would like to use our member list as a mailing list. This is part of the USTA's 30 x 2010 promotion. They would like membership to increase to 30 million players by the year 2010. Our mailing list would be used by the Midwest Section to send flyers targeting this membership-growth initiative. We would actually give them them our mailing list and they would handle all of the mailing. Gary indicated that there was precedent for this and that we would benefit from about $1 and with the additional representation that is created by an increase in USTA memberships. Increases in memberships would also help in our representation numbers. Discussion followed. Rita Brown said that she would need to discuss this with the GCTA Women's Board and could not make a decision at this point.
Brooks Naffziger told of an event at Northam Park to honor and serve as a fundraiser in Jim Tose's name. Doug Snapp gave further information sharing that a group of Grandview residents has formed a committee to promote tennis. One of the things that will be happening is a outing and dinner in memory of Jim Tose. Jim was a lifelong member of the Grandview community and captain of the 4.0 and Gold teams that played on the Grandview courts. He died earlier this year from bone cancer. Information is on the web site if you are interested in participating in the memorial activities. The event will be September 25th at the Northam Park courts; it will be followed by a spaghetti dinner catered by Paul's 5th Avenue Catering.
Harvey announced the Committee Chairs that will give reports for the September meeting: Gary Alexander for the Budget Committee and Doug Snapp for the Nominating Committee. These two will be contacting members to serve on the respective committees.

16. Adjournment
Harvey asked for a motion to adjourn. Jake Will moved, Brooks Naffziger seconded, the motion passed.

Respectfully submitted,
Doug Snapp
GCTA Secretary