Dear Member - click the newsletter title to read articles on:

New System Implemented!	GST is Here but Club Holds Overall Pricing
New Sunday Play	November Stats

Always check the website calendar for the most updated play information. See also our SAPC Facebook site for any last minute notices. 

New System Implemented!

Well it took months of conceiving, researching, proposing, planning, learning, developing, and testing, but now we can announce the birth of our new system!

To access the new system you use the same web address as our old one: www.pickleballstalbert.ca.

You can access nearly everything at our site without logging in, but you will need to log in to buy sticker cards and to see some member-only information under the “Members” menu. You will also need to log in to see and update your profile.

To log in the first time, you will need a new password:

•          click the icon of a head and shoulders in the top right corner,
•          enter your email address.
•          press the “forgot password” link,
•           in a couple of minutes, get your new password from your new email message.

Please take a few minutes to review the new site. Log in with your new password and:

•        then access your profile under the head and shoulders icon,
•        look at the Store page under the Members menu – that is where you buy indoor venue sticker cards

If you have a question for the club, please review the site in detail before submitting your question. Chances are the answer to your question is already on the site.  Note that there are now two FAQs (sets of frequently asked questions) – one under the “Explore joining” menu and one under the “Play” menu. Can you spot which FAQ answers the question, “What are the specific steps for buying an indoor play sticker card?”

Note also that the menu headings themselves lead to web pages. Click on each menu heading to learn more about each menu subject.

Lastly, come back to the site often for updated news, most of which will be under the News menu.  We plan to post all key news here, keeping most emails to you very short.

GST is Here, but Club Holds Overall Pricing

This year, our club has passed the threshold at which non-profit organizations must start collecting and remitting GST.  Accordingly, you will find membership and sticker card fees to reflect GST in our new web system.

The good news is that we are still projecting a small surplus for the year, so we are not raising overall prices at this time.  For this year at least, we will absorb the GST.  So memberships remain at $30 for now, and sticker cards are still $67 after application of GST. 

You may also notice in the new system we have split out the postage costs from the sticker card costs – meaning you will save a few cents if you order more than one at a time, as you only pay the postage cost ($0.90) once.

Accounting for GST is a chore, but we are proud to support our country and its people this way. We know we benefit greatly from our country’s many fine institutions, from its infrastructure, and from its services, freedoms, and protections.

New Sunday Play

Thanks again to our wonderful Venue Manager (and President), Eileen, and the Sturgeon Heights School, we have now added an amazing 30+ play times to the indoor play calendar.  Starting Sunday Jan 5 and repeating each week, we now have play for 3.0+ at Sturgeon Heights from 9 am to 11:45 am. Please come out if you can -- we need enough attendees to make the expense worthwhile.

It is quite an accomplishment to be recognized by the school in this manner -- it shows we have earned their trust to treat their property with respect.  They know we lock up securely when we leave, keep the door locked (never propped open) while we are there, never leave a mess, and never wear outdoor shoes in their gym.  And being granted this opportunity shows that we have a great, long-standing relationship with the school, as we do with our other venue providers.  

Our club continues to grow in size, now numbering 600 members (as anticipated in the budget), and we continue to snap up any venue space that comes available.  We are fortunate to have all of the public and private facilities we do, but are always on the lookout for more -- all to give our members more opportunity to play, to socialize, to engage and to have fun.

November Stats

We hope some of you find the following statistics interesting. Some of you may also choose to shift your play times to the least crowded times to get more play time.

In the following tables, we report player attendance in terms of court capacity, which is the number of players on the courts at any one time. For example, if 16 players show up at Red Willow, which has a court capacity of 8, we divide the 16 by 8, convert the answer of 2 to a percentage (200%), and report the attendance as "200% of court capacity."  As a second example, a venue with 3 courts has a court capacity of 12, and if 18 show up to play, then the attendance is 18/12 = 1.5 or 150% of court capacity.

Of course, these are monthly averages, and past attendance is not necessarily indicative of future attendance!

Most Crowded Indoor Play (Most Social Time!)

Rank	Average Attendance	Venue	Day/Time	Level
1	241% of court capacity	Red Willow	Mon 9am	All
2	209%	Red Willow	Tue 9am	Mens 3.0+
3	200%	Red Willow	Mon 11am	All
4	200%	Sturgeon H	Mon 6pm	3.0+
5	198%	Red Willow	Fri 9am	All

 

Least Crowded Indoor Play (Most Play Time!) - excluding Reserved Play and Clinics

Rank	Ave Attendance	Venue	Day/Time	Level
1	67% of court capacity	Bertha Kennedy	Fri 6pm	3.0
2	75%	Bertha Kennedy	Fri 6pm	2.0-2.5
3	100%	Sturgeon H	Tue 6pm	3.0+
4	119%	Sr. Alphonse	Wed 7pm	3.5+
5	121%	Bertha Kennedy	Sat 1230pm	2.0-2.5

 

Other Interesting Stats

90	Play and training sessions in October, excluding rating clinics and beginner's lessons
1454	Member-plays at the above 86 sessions
7	Visitor-plays at the above sessions
2	Rating clinics of 12 players each in Nov
16	Ratings clinics since May 1
192	Players rated by your club since May 1
600	Club members as of mid-December

Until the next time, "Keep your paddle up!"