Court Wash, Bylaws, Photo Op, Vols, Lessons, Scotch Tape
The following Bylaw changes will be voted on at our October 21 Membership Meeting:Elections:
Following “paper ballot will be required”
An absentee ballot may be submitted by mailing the candidates’ names and offices sought on a plain piece of paper to the Club Membership Chair. The outside of the envelope will have the voting member’s name and the last 3 digits of his or her RCSC Member or Privilege card. The Membership Chair will verify the voter’s membership and pass only the ballot to the Club Secretary to be recorded.
Officers – Executive Board:
Following “have voting rights”
A candidate must not reside with or be related by marriage or birth to any other officer or candidate.
A photographer from the Wall Street Journal will be at the courts Thursday around 9. This would be a great day to show up in your brightest PB attire!
Volunteers are needed to help Lis Smoot with our Paddle Play program. This is a tremendous learning opportunity, but it is also a tremendous amount of work. You can help by working with players of a slightly lower skill level – 2.5s can mentor 2.0s, 3.0s can help 2.5s and so on. You will learn while you teach – and fulfill your volunteering responsibility while on the courts! Contact Lis
Lessons for pay are not allowed on our courts except by Independent Contractors approved by the Club Board and RCSC. That is currently only Dee Davison, a teaching professional from Surprise. Violation of this RCSC rule will be dealt with harshly, both for the students and the teacher.
Scotch tape, or generic equivalent, applied over the magnet on your magnetic name tag will greatly reduce the chance of rust and corrosion.
NAME TAGS MUST BE WORN AT ALL TIMES AT ALL CLUB FUNCTIONS – INCLUDING DROP IN. Our Bylaws require this and wearing one makes it much easier for us to identify one another.
FUN DAY, Lighting, Membership, Tutor, MV Projects
Our first FUN DAY of the season will be Wednesday from 5 to 7 at Marinette! Come out and play a little pickleball, visit with some old friends and meet some new ones! Many of our Snowbirds are returning, so this may be your first opportunity to see some folks you haven’t seen for several months! Bring a snack to share and your drink of choice (no glass bottles, please). The Club will provide tableware.
The Marinette lighting project will take place next week. The following from the Clubs Office: “The projected installation dates are 10/14/19 – 10/18/2019. The installation will be on one court at a time with an entire quadrant marked out of use to create a safety zone during installation. Walkways and connected entries to the quadrants being worked on will also be closed off as a safety precaution. Once the order of the quadrant installations are defined, I will give you a further update. As always, we will appreciate the Pickleball player’s cooperation and flexibility during these installations.” The walkway closures may require 4 courts at a time being closed. We have been waiting either several months or 4 years for this to happen, depending on to whom you talk, so losing 4 courts for a week seems a small price to pay. If the work runs into Friday the ladder would need to be cancelled.
Club Membership for those 80 years and older, per a vote at last October’s Membership Meeting, is free. You must still fill out a Membership form each year.
The “Tutor” pickleball teaching machine is now at Marinette for our use. It does, however, require an extension cord to operate, so it is currently functional on a very limited number of courts.
Mountain View updates: No, nothing exciting, but we have purchased a roller/squeegee for those courts and have RCSC approval to purchase 10 foot umbrellas to replace the 8 footers currently in place. The latter will require approval at the Membership Meeting on October 21 at 4PM at Marinette before we can make the purchase. The larger umbrellas will increase the shade in the seating area by over 50 percent.
Women’s Ladder and Men’s Ladder
Registration is underway for the WOMEN’S LADDER and MEN’S LADDER, which begin play November 4th and 7th respectively. Be aware the “A” and “B” designations are skill divisions, not start time preferences. The Ladder Captains will be placing players within the ladders based on prior ladder results, Club or USAPA ratings and self-ratings. As a general guideline only, 2.5 and lower players will be in the “B” section, 3.5 and above in the “A” section and some of the 3.0s may be in either section depending on the split of participants. The Captains will have some discretion in player placement, but their main interest will be to keep play fun and interesting for all.
Registration is also open for the two Mixed Ladders, starting on the 1st and 5th, and they will be split the same way if there are enough participants.
Dues, Lobster
Dues must be submitted with a Membership form, either on line or with a printed form. Sorry to have left out that important detail earlier.
The new Lobster is now available for use at Mountain View. Please make sure to watch the instructional video before using for the first time!
Sign ups, Date Changes, Name Tags, Club Hours, Dues
Sign up will be available soon for the Fall/Winter Club Ladders and is already available for the Leagues. There is a League Players meeting scheduled for November 4, but you should be registered prior.
[Note: See the ladder page for information about signing up for the ladders beginning in November]
Registration is now available for our Line Judging Clinic. Please note the date change – it is now scheduled for October 18 from 10-12. A full description is available on our website. This will be a fun and educational event.
Club Name tags are to be worn during all play taking place within Club Hours, whether at a planned event or during open play. This is part of our Club Rules and Regs and is also a RCSC requirement. Rules are quite definitive about membership requirement, and the following is directly from our Bylaws:
“A club visitor is a RCSC cardholder but not a member of the club. A visitor may participate in club time play for a maximum of three times and thereafter must join the club. A visitor may not displace club members.” Club Hours are now in effect evenings at Marinette. There have been several non members playing all summer – now is the time to remind them they need to join our Club!
Dues for 2020 are $15. They are payable now and are past due as of December 31. The easiest way to pay, both for the Club and most of our members, is online via PayPal. Cash and checks are both accepted, but please do not put cash in the mail box at Marinette.
Thanks!
Dave
Line Judge Training Clinic
A major revenue source for our club is the three tournaments that we host every year at the Marinette courts. For our members who have participated or observed tournament play, you know that successful tournaments depend heavily on our club volunteers. One of the most exciting and dynamic volunteer positions is serving as a line judge.
Our tournaments are USAPA sanctioned events, which require line judges for all gold medal matches. A pickleball line judge, much like a tennis line judge, is part of the team that supports the referee by observing the travel of the ball and signaling to the referee if the ball has touched the ground or other object outside the court boundaries.
Line judges have the opportunity to see the gold medal match competition and the best players compete at all the skill levels.
We’ll spend about an hour discussing the role of line judge, then we’ll apply that knowledge on the courts to practice the new skills. Paddle and court attire are required.
Date: Friday, October 18
Location: Marinette Pavilion
Time: 10:00 am-12:00 pm
SCW Reciprocal, Leagues, Punch Cards
Our first Reciprocal Play of the season with Sun City West will be October 20 at Marinette. Players are needed at all skill levels. Full information and sign up are available on our Club website. These events are always fun and are a great opportunity for competitive play in a low key atmosphere.
Sign ups are also available on line for the Women’s League and Men’s League. The organizational meeting is scheduled for November 4, and you need to have registered before then.
Sign ups for ladders should be available next week, and those for many of our upcoming lessons and clinics should be available the week following.
Just a reminder: when you purchase a Punch Card to bring guests onto our courts, that punch card is yours and is to remain with you. Your guest is not to have the card to check himself/herself in. If the wrong person happens to be around when a guest tries this, the penalty can be severe.
Enjoy this great PB weather!
Dave
Club Tournament, Classes w Dee Davison, Paddle Racks
Thanks to all who participated in our first, hopefully annual, Member/Member & Member/Guest Tournament last week! Everyone seemed to have a great time, and the weather cooperated. Special thanks to Jeff Skaggs for doing the announcing, Jan Booth for keeping track of the matches and Jane Sinclair for taking care of the food table. Hopefully we’ll have a computer program available to organize the matches next time. Then again, sometimes those programs have not done too well for us!
Pat Klepadlo has been busy arranging dates for a series of Classes with Dee Davison. These are 2 hour sessions and cost $50 per person for a four person group. Dee will do 3 classes per day on whatever dates we can fill. The dates are October 16 and 23 and December 11 and 17. Please get to PK immediately if interested as some of Dee’s dates may close and our slots will fill quickly.
Email PK or (719) 649-0138.
There have been several requests for a paddle rack at Marinette similar to that at Mountain View. One will be installed near the gates accessing courts 17-20 by the end of October. A second rack for MV is also in the works.
Latest word on the Marinette lighting is that it will be done for the Roundup. There has been no commitment beyond that. The crews will work on two courts at a time, so the whole pavilion will not be closed.
Club Tournament, Clinics, Corrected Dates, Simon
Our Club Tournament date has finally arrived, and the event will take place from 0700 – 1100 Friday and Saturday. We will be using court #8 and #10-20 on Friday, and #13-20 on Saturday. All other courts are available for Drop in, INCLUDING all 7 courts at Mountain View! PLAYERS PLEASE NOTE: Registration will begin at 0700. Please be on time! Play will start promptly at 0730! All games will be “Win by ONE”. The number of games and the score to which you will play has been determined by the size of each group. We expect to be done by 1030. Temps are not supposed to be excessively high, but be sure to hydrate!
As yesterday’s email noted, the date for the Referee Training Clinic has been established as October 19. You must sign up on Sign up Genius in order to attend. The Line Judging Clinic mentioned last week will be October 25 from 1000-1200 at Marinette. Both are available to Club Members only. Tom has done a lot of work getting these lined up for us prior to the Roundup.
Sign up for the Men’s League and Women’s League are both available on our Website. The Meeting date for those playing in the leagues has been changed to November 4 at 1300 at Marinette. Please change that if you already had it on your calendar.
Simon as been sold. Thanks to those who offered to give him a good home!
Thanks!
Dave