Board Meeting — 2/13/23
Call to Order
President Dolly Robinson called the Board meeting to order at 6:26 PM.
Members in attendance included the following: Dolly Robinson, Mike Null, Laura Null, Joe Hinkle, Anjan Viplav, Debbi Carter, and Linda Williams.
Special guest included George English of USTA Florida.
Approval of Board Minutes
M. Null made a motion to approve the Minutes of the November 14, 2022 meeting and L. Null seconded the motion; the motion carried unanimously.
Nomination & Election of Officers
L. Hunter-Null submitted a proposed slate of Officers for the new year and called for a vote:
President - Dolly Robinson
Vice President - Mike Null
Secretary - Linda Williams
Treasurer - Joe Hinkle
Motion was made by L. Hunter-Null to approve the slate of officers; seconded by M. Null.
The motion carried unanimously.
D. Robinson announced that 2023 will be her last year to serve as LCCCTA president.
D. Robinson provided each Board Members a copy of the LCCCTA By-Laws. She asked for a motion to accept LCCCTA’s (updated) By-Laws, reflecting the current business and mailing address. Effective immediately, the mailing address for LCCCTA will change from suite 150 to 183, keeping the Duval Place address of 971 West Duval Street.
M. Null made a motion to accept the change of address in the By-Laws.
L. Williams seconded the motion; the motion carried unanimously.
Guest speaker, George English of USTA Florida reported the grant cycle opened on February 1st with an emphasis on high school tennis teams. There is funding available for tennis rackets and tennis balls. If CHS tennis coaches submit their applications now, G. English will fast-track them, as the grant cycle closes on April 30th .
G. English has been providing tennis equipment on behalf of USTA Florida for Mark Mansbach, PTR as he has been teaching local veterans to play tennis twice a month. Coach Mansbach has been donating his time because the veterans are important to him. This program has continued as a partnership between Veteran’s Affairs and USTA Florida. President D. Robinson provided the veteran participants some LCCCTA visors as a donation.
Because the most recent shipment of USTA Florida tennis balls was delayed, Mark Mansbach personally purchased a case. Anjan Viplav asked if reimbursement can be made to Coach Mansbach through LCCCTA; Mike Null asked George English if USTA Florida can just advance ship another case as reimbursement; Mr. English believes that it can be done.
G. English attended a CTA meeting in Ocala at the Fort King Tennis Center, along with 105 members. The purpose of the meeting was to work on USTA paperwork so that youth and adults in low income areas will have better access to participating in tennis activities.
G. English reported on the Net Generation Program for Columbia County’s elementary schools. The USTA program is allowing PE teachers to count one unit for students participating in tennis (Shape Program). USTA Florida will ship any committed elementary school the tennis equipment kit, and also free lesson plans.
Board Member, Tara Bell, plans to volunteer her time to conduct another afterschool tennis program for 1st - 5th graders at Belmont Academy. Volunteers and instructors receive a stipend from USTA Florida for teaching participants to play tennis. The program is one day per week for seven weeks. Ms. Bell has hopes the tennis program can be available to all Belmont students, not only afterschool participants.
G. English also announced that Epiphany Catholic School is ready to begin their Net Generation Program. They received their tennis equipment kit and free lesson plans from USTA Florida, and tennis instruction should begin very soon.
Old Business
G. English told M. Null he will check into obtaining a USTA Florida banner to hang at the Young’s Park tennis courts.
M. Null reported LCCCTA has received the Declaration Page for Liability Insurance. Director & Officer (D&O) Insurance was recently renewed for $553.30; the check has not cleared the bank account, yet.
D. Robinson asked J. Hinkle about the possibility of Rudy Howell and his son installing/mounting the 16’ X 8’ backboard to the inside 8’ fence posts of court 4 on the Madison Street side.
L. Hunter-Null suggested they use a clamp to secure the top of the backboard to the top of the fence.
D. Robinson reminded the group LCCCTA needs funding to provide tennis divider netting to separate teaching court 3 from public court 4 (containing a backboard to be available for both youth and adults). The court divider netting would prevent tennis balls from the public court rolling into the court where paid instruction is occurring.
D. Robinson would like to see a sign posted that designates court 3 is the ‘teaching court’ and the times it is reserved for lessons. She suggested a white board could be attached to the fence of court 3 and the tennis pro can update reserved times, easily.
New Business
D. Robinson asked the new board members for any ideas they would like to share to help LCCCTA move forward.
Anjan Viplav asked if Board members can create an existing list of LCCCTA tennis equipment. Mr. Viplav asked G. English for USTA’s viewpoint regarding pickleball vs. tennis.
G. English stated that USTA is not against pickleball; just not in agreement of losing tennis courts. He has seen that pickleball players are often very vocal and assertive about contacting local elected officials to transform tennis courts to pickleball courts. Mr. English said that pickleball is not a threat; the sport of tennis is growing rapidly. Only the loss of tennis courts is a threat and pickleball players need to build their own courts.
A. Viplav believes the best way to grow tennis in our community is to fill the calendar with tennis events—to fully use the courts. He suggested the following ways to do that:
Conduct an hour tennis social event every month (third Thursday of each month) for children and adults to have a feeling of community.
Create quarterly holiday / special events for adults
Create a community ‘tennis ladder’ for competitive tennis players. D. Robinson will look into how this can be done using an app to organize and manage the tennis ladder.
Conduct regularly scheduled tennis camps for youth, 30 min. in duration per day
D. Robinson asked Anjan Viplav to serve our Board in the capacity of LCCCTA Planning Director because of his professional tennis experience, knowledge, and excellent ideas. It was agreed the next Tennis Social will be held on Thursday, March 16th from 6-7 PM at Young’s Park tennis courts. M. Null suggested it be called, “Let’s Make a Racket”, and have a St. Patrick’s Day theme. Anjan offered to bring refreshments.
L. Williams will publicize the event via flyers, local newspaper, social media, and emails to LCCCTA Tennis Partners and Tennis Connections groups.
L. Williams will also notify our teaching pro, Mark Mansbach, the four tennis courts will need to be reserved for this event on March 16th from 6-7 PM.
D. Carter said she wants to see USTA League Tennis return to our community.
D. Robinson explained why USTA League Tennis disappeared—our community had a loss of four tennis courts the City is currently using for their public works vehicles. In addition, two courts at Young’s Park were in extremely bad disrepair for years. The community finally received four new courts at Young’s Park in December 2020.
D. Carter will request names of former and current tennis players to get a Social League started.
USTA Florida said they can provide the software and the cost to play. The league can be flexible, but players must be at least 18 yrs. old. A captain is needed to get started creating the team and Tennis Link is where an account can be created. Ms. Carter will speak with LCCCTA’s teaching pro, Mark Mansbach, to obtain some names and contact information of interested adult players.
D. Robinson provided A. Viplav a suggested registration form containing dates, times, and cost for a 3-week Spring Youth Tennis Camp for April. It would be a 45-minute afterschool youth tennis program with a cost of $20 per participant. Anjan Viplav will review and discuss with L. Viplav and let D. Robinson know if the dates will work with their schedules. If so, volunteers will plan to assist, and L. Williams will create the registration paperwork and advertise the Spring Youth Tennis Camp. She will also ask J. Hinkle to assist with the registration process and collection of money on the first day of the April camp.
L. Williams utilized the information L. Hunter-Null previously obtained from Print City regarding banner sponsors. A form was created for sponsors to complete, and the pricing was based upon the banner size. (2’X4’ for $100 and 3’X6’ for $150) At this time, four businesses have sponsored banners and they are displayed on the Madison Street side of the tennis court fences to have the best visibility. M. Null hung all the sponsor banners.
Current sponsors are:
Wyfenbok
THE SKIN FIX
The Zen Den
Robinson, Kennon & Kendron (RKK), PA
LCCCTA offers annual banner renewals for $50 (2x4) and $75 (3x6).
LCCCTA Board Members have copies of banner sponsor application forms. In addition, L. Williams will send electronic copies of the banner sponsor application form to all of LCCCTA’s Tennis Partners.
D. Robinson suggested having pictures taken of each sponsor in front of their banner.
L. Williams recently posted a colorful ‘Tennis Connections’ flyer on Young’s Park tennis communications board. It contains is a secure link on LCCCTA’s website, lcccta.org/tennis-connections, so beginner, intermediate, and advanced players can connect to play with compatible tennis players in our area.
L. Williams read email correspondence received from Mr. Pierce Kelley, YTF, in late November, after receiving his Hall of Fame congratulatory gift from LCCCTA. He thanked each member of LCCCTA for the extremely thoughtful, and completely unexpected, gesture.
In addition, Mr. Kelley appreciated and commented on pictures L. Williams sent him of LCCCTA’s pro shop, showing YTF how much work has been done to improve the interior of the pro shop they donated to our community tennis association.
Contact information for the new 2023 LCCCTA Board of Directors and 2023 LCCCTA Officers was distributed to all Board members in attendance by L. Williams.
Financial Report
Joe Hinkle provided the Financial Report. The current balance in the bank account is $1,071.70, including the $1,000 funding from YTF, allocated to LCCCTA’s Spring Youth Tennis Camp to begin in April.
M. Null expressed much gratitude to D. Robinson for the Annual Report and full agenda. He especially wanted to let Anjan Viplav and Debbi Carter know how much LCCCTA’s Board appreciates seeing new members intending to be dedicated and contributing members, with a desire to see tennis grow in our community.
The next Board meeting is scheduled for March 13, 2023 in the same location: Duval Place, Suite 183, Conference room.
President D. Robinson adjourned the Board meeting at 8:09 PM.
