In this issue:
| Membership Cards |
Rating System Update |
| Election of Board Members |
Member Training |
| Membership Breakdown by Rating |
Broken Balls |
Membership Cards
In order to play at Club play sessions, members must be prepared to show their current, active Membership Cards to the session play captain. This is particularly important at the beginning of a new calendar year given that memberships purchased prior to October 17th of this year expire on December 31, 2023. For instructions on how to:
1. Add a photo to your membership card
2. Print a membership card, or
3. Display your membership card on your smartphone
please click here as these questions and more are answered under the heading of "Member Help FAQ".
Rating System Update
As most members will appreciate and remember, the Club adopted a new ratings process back in the spring of 2023. At the time, the Board advised members that the Ratings Committee that was established to implement and oversee the new process would report back to members regarding learnings associated with the rollout including feedback provided by members and, finally, to make changes if necessary.
Thank you
First of all - thanks must go out to Karen and Jeanine, our Rating Coordinators, for the many of hours of work they volunteered in order to plan, set up, oversee and administer our DUPR rating sessions - you did an incredible job especially considering that this was brand new to all of us!
The Numbers
Jeanine advised the Board that 168 members have received a rating and 18 members have 10 games towards their DUPR rating. That is a big number and a great accomplishment in such a short period of time.
Feedback
Most of the feedback has been of the operational variety as our Rating Coordinators made changes to the paperwork, processes and administration of the DUPR play sessions throughout the year in order to facilitate and streamline those processes.
The other main point of feedback is that the Club is not offering enough DUPR rating sessions particular for those members aspiring to higher level ratings like 3.5 and 4.0. As you can probably appreciate based upon the high concentration of members who are unrated and/or at the 2.5 rating level, most of our Club-run DUPR ratings sessions have been and will continue to be offered to those members in these groups.
Recent and Future DUPR Rating Sessions
As you will have noted, the Club recently held "Aspiring to 3.0" DUPR sessions at Bertha Kennedy on December 2nd. Further rating sessions will be held on one Sunday each month at Red Willow from January through March.
Given the constraint of limited indoor venue space, the opportunities for members to achieve higher rating levels at Club rating sessions will be limited until the next outdoor season. As many members are aware, members do have access to DUPR play through other organizations in the area and can also arrange their own DUPR play sessions if they are able to book courts on their own (please note that these self arranged and recorded games to do not carry as much weight as Club organized sessions within the DUPR algorithm). That being said, non-Club DUPR play sessions, if reflected in the DUPR software system, may be used to modify a member's Club Rating as detailed on the SAPC website.
Registering for DUPR Rating Sessions
When the club is putting on a DUPR rating session members eligible for the rating session will receive an invitation.
We have noted that members are registering through the calendar even when they are not eligible (they do not appear to be reading the information on the registration page); this causes more work for our Rating Coordinators.
We ask that members not register through the calendar - only those who received an invite. If you do not receive an invite for a specific DUPR session, you may not register for it.
If there are any questions the rating coordinators can be contacted. Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.
Election of Board Members
As members may or may not be aware, the SAPC Annual General Meeting is scheduled to take place in about 3 months on March 13, 2024. Some of what takes place at the AGM is the election of Board members.
The Board currently consists of the following individuals who are still within their approved terms:
Secretary - Jenna McCully
Treasurer - Laura Spencer
Director at Large - Douwe Spriesma
A number of the Board positions are up for re-election so interested individuals may apply for these positions as follows:
President - Eileen McClean, will stand
Vice President - Must be a St. Albert Resident (currently held by James Porter, will not stand for re-election)
Director at Large (Tournaments) - Ken Dentzien, will stand
Director of Information and Membership - Art Au, will stand
Director of Communications - Roger Hutlet, will stand
If a member is interested in any of these positions, they should first read the Job Descriptions available on the SAPC website which can be accessed from this link.
Candidates seeking to put their names forward for one of these positions may contact any member of the nominating committee (see contact details below) with a short bio stating why they would like to be nominated for the position. If more than one candidate applies for a position, a ballot will be held at the AGM.
Nominating Committee members currently include:
Kevin McClean at kmcclean@telus.net
Cassey Campbell at cassey7@icloud.com
Brenda Regehr at brendaregehr54@gmail.com
A Nominating Committee report covering the candidates will be sent out to all members with the notice of the AGM in February, 2024.
Member Training
2023 Statistics
We are very happy to report that we have had another extremely successful year in player training. Thank you Nicki and our amazing team of training volunteers for the many hours of work you have contributed to train our members this past year. In total, over the course of 2023, the Club can report the following in terms of training sessions and member participation:
Type No. of Sessions No. of Participants
Beginner 59 348
Mentoring 19 281
School Kids 8 160 (approx)
Our members are extremely grateful for your dedication, patience and hard work!
Upcoming Mentoring Sessions
Speaking of training, there are four mentoring sessions coming up between January and April as follows:
- January 20th for 2.5 (Note: the calendar will be changed so the 3.0 will play at 2:15 while ALL is cancelled)
- February 10th for 3.0 (there is no change to the February calendar)
- March 9th for 2.5 (Note: the calendar will be changed so the 3.0 will play at 2:15 while ALL is cancelled)
- April 20th for 3.0 (there is no change to the April calendar)
Membership Breakdown by Rating Level
Our Club continues to grow - we have welcomed an additional 26 members in just the last month! We thought you might be interested in a breakdown of our ever-growing Club membership by Club Rating Level. If you are, please see that breakdown below:
November Dec (Current) Inc/(Dec)
No Rating 323 341 18
2.5 Rating 16 18 2
3.0 Rating 151 155 4
3.5 Rating 245 247 2
4.0 Rating 171 170 (1)
4.5+ Rating 23 24 1
Total Members 929 955 26
Please note that Club memberships purchased prior to October 17, 2023 will expire on December 31, 2023, so please renew your membership as soon as possible. 2024 memberships are now on sale and will expire on December 31, 2024. For instructions on how to renew your membership, please click on this link. Ensure you are logged in before going past the first screen.
Please note that if a member allows their membership in SAPC to lapse (e.g. doesn't renew until the spring), then the Club and the member will incur extra work to both delete and then re-add members to our other systems (Pickleball Brackets and DUPR).
Broken Balls
Do you ever wonder what happens to all those broken pickleballs? You may be surprised and impressed to learn that these are donated for use in art projects! For example, over 200 pickle balls are on display in art pieces in front of the payment office at Servus Place - pop by and check them out. Thanks to Wally and Rachel Peltonen and Don Hamaliuk for making this happen!
Until next time keep your paddle up!