The Pizza and Pot Luck Social and Annual meeting was a big success. It appeared that all participants had a good time. In addition to the six dedicated pickleball courts we also rented one of the tennis courts and lined it with tape so we had 8 PB courts in use. We handed out customized pens with our association initials and our website to all attending members as well as our car magnets to any new members. We had a lot of good food, social time and pickleball; who could ask for more. I wanted to share the information I provided during the annual meeting section of the evening.
I introduced our new board members as well as mentioned those current board members serving various positions. The new board members are Steve Orr who is replacing Rob Schmidt as the 1st Vice President and Barry Leech who joins the board as the New Player Instruction Coordinator. I expressed a big thank-you to Rob who did a great job last year coordinating our organized play for both the Ice Rink courts and the Locust Park courts along with his group of volunteers, Veronica Buzby and Don Shmidt. I announce that Renae Scheiber who recently joined the board as 2nd Vice President was unfortunately leaving the board due to other commitments. I also announce the departure of Joanne Griesser from the board. Joanne was our inaugural secretary for our first two years and headed up the Communications Committee this last year. We appreciate all her efforts for the association. She was instrumental in getting the association going in the right direction and we will miss her valuable feedback. We will be looking to replace these people on the board over the next couple months.
Our association continues to grow and is now approximately over 300 members. Renewal season is upon us since this is the time frame many of our members joined. Keep in mind that the renewal process is automated with the website and the use of a reminder email to be sent out two weeks prior to your end of term date. Members will find the renewal menu item under the Members menu tab.
Our past year included many successes such as the conversion of the tennis bubble at the Owen Brown Tennis Club into the six wonderful pickleball courts, the setup of our leagues and tournaments and our recognition by other pickleball organizations for our multiple pickleball venues and association organization. Duane StClair who now leads the Maryland USAPA Pickleball Ambassadors is getting multiple requests to talk about how our association formed and the benefits of that.
We appreciate the ability to use the Owen Brown Tennis Club pickleball courts and we have decided that renting them periodically will enhance our relationship with the Columbia Association as well as provide an opportunity for our members to come together for more organized social events. We plan to rent the facility on a Thursday evening twice in July and twice in August for more Pickleball and PotLuck socials. Our next upcoming event is planned for July 11th, so mark your calendars. We will likely use Friday as our rain date as well.
Keith Risser our Treasurer was unable to attend due to another commitment on Friday so I read over a report he provided. Use the following link to access this report:
I introduced Ken Greco, our Social Committee Chairmen who spoke on the upcoming social event for a visit to the Ocean Pines community who has invited our association for a day of pickleball down at the beach. Ken stated that four people had responded to the doodle and he was hoping he could get at least 4 more people to sign-up as we got closer to the date in the fall. He will be posting more information on this in the next couple months.
I spoke on some of the future plans we are working on such as a fall tournament for both beginners and intermediate players. I recognized Joe Beitz who is our association’s tournament director and thanked him and his group of volunteers - Steve Orr, Daryl Tuck, Ira Frankel and Dorothy Boulton for both the spring tournament and the ladder league. I also mentioned the possibility of an invitational pickleball event with a Delaware club in the works for the fall. I mentioned our work on getting more indoor facilities similar to what we did last winter in the use of school cafeterias and when available gyms. I explained that the basketball program has a higher priority and so use of school gyms were very limited.
I then introduced Duane StClair who is our public relations lead and he spoke on his efforts to work with the Columbia Association (CA) on getting more permanent courts built. We were unsuccessful in our proposal to convert either the Ice Rink courts or the Locust Park courts into permanent pickleball courts. Both communities wanted to provide a “shared” environment and felt that the pickleball lines on the court offered this more so than permanent nets. Duane announced that one of our members, Sonny Tannan who is also a Maryland PB Ambassador and a Certified PB instructor was recently hired as a lead PB coach for CA. We believe this is a step in the right direction for CA to address the needs of our PB community and we are looking forward to working with Sonny and CA. Duane will be working with CA and Howard County Recreation & Parks to develop a master plan for the future of pickleball in our community.
I expressed my thanks to Joanne Griesser for her efforts with our newsletter and how happy we are to have started our association’s newsletter. With Joanne leaving our board, we will be looking for someone to assist in the development of these newsletters.
Finally, I recognized several of our outstanding volunteers who have assisted us in various ways. These are: Jan StClair, Rob Schmidt, Don Schmidt, Veronica Buzby, Ira Frankel, Daryl Tuck, Joe Beitz, Steve Orr, Barry Leech and Don & Kathy Plasse. We handed out gift cards for Tino’s Italian Bistro as a token of our appreciation for their service to our members.
Thanks to all participants and volunteers to make this a very successful PB year!
Earl Sneeringer - HCPA President