Hi Everyone,
I wanted to update you on what's happening around the club. There are three areas of interest:

1. Court Surface Repairs - Short Term
2. Opportunities to play
3. Long term plans

We will be undergoing a court repair program for courts 1 to 6 starting Wednesday 25th March 2015. The courts are in desperate need of an upgrade and the repairs will be around the baselines to even up the levels and improve drainage.

This unfortunately will reduce available courts for play over 12 weeks as the repair process goes on. Courts 1-3 will be started immediately and then one court every two weeks after that. There is a no-play period of 2-3 weeks whilst rolling and watering occurs and then a two week light play period.

John Richards is the contractor doing this work and he is vastly experienced on en-tout-cas courts. He manages the courts for Kooyong and Royal Sth Yarra and his father actually put in the original courts at East Malvern. He has recommended that this is the best time of the year to do these repairs due to the climate being more suitable. It is also over school holidays when the first three courts are to be done, when no coaching or competition tennis is on.

There will be safety fencing and posts cordoning off the courts that are out of action during this process. Signs will be erected on courts also and more details will be available in the clubhouse and on the website as to the exact timings and availability.

It is important all members look after the courts during and after the repairs so they bed in well and provide us with a high quality playing surface. Please help us manage this process and this will help us all to enjoy betting playing conditions in the future.

In order to minimise the inconvenience we will have a roster of works.

A reminder to all: Our Courts need water and bagging before and after you have finished play. You need to wear Tennis Shoes to play (no ripple soled shoes are allowed). Someone will take you to task, if you overlook this part of the game. Simple Rule of thumb: Put it back, how you found it!

Also, every week we appear to have dangerous ball can "pull rings" left lying on the courts (as well as plastic drink bottles and soft drink cans).  PLEASE ensure you open your can of balls before you go out on court - then you can put the pull ring in the bin where it belongs.  These are extremely dangerous to little & big fingers alike - we don't want anyone to lose a finger!

We have managed to create opportunities for everyone to come and enjoy tennis at EMTC.

The starting point is coaching with Futures, followed by various types of competition.
The next opportunities are Social Competitions. These are a chance to enjoy the company of other club members and play some tennis. This is held on Sunday Afternoon from 1pm and Friday morning from 9.30am. As you can see from the picture, we take the Social side seriously (Welcome to the world young "Archie").

If you want to be more serious about your tennis, we have a range of Competitions. The first step for many, is the intra club competition on Thursday nights at 7pm. The is also a Ladies Competition (intra club) on Mondays at 10am. The advantage is that you always play at EMTC. After this we play against other Clubs most days of the week and on the weekend. Tuesday night competition is so popular that we have billeted some teams out to accommodate the numbers.
If you want to play singles, doubles or both, we can help. Talk to Deb, Chris Woods or me.

There are no shortage of great ideas for our Club. Almost all, require a lot of money. Unless someone has a lazy $2,000,000 lying around, we need money from the Council and others. Julie Kealey is heading the charge here.
We have a medium term plan to upgrade all our courts to something that drains better, wears well and gives more playing time. There will be a dedicated task force around this.  We also want to add "Hot Shot" Courts as part of our Family Club approach.
The Carpark remains a challenge as VicRoads owns it. They would sell it, but the price tag is unmanageable. .
After that, comes the Clubhouse and surrounds.
We would also welcome ideas to retain the "Lost Generation of Tennis Players". I am referring to the 18 - 30 year olds.
We have Paul Lidgerwood sorting out sponsorships, and we will keep you informed. We will have new signage as part of this initiative.
The pool remains very popular and we will continue to enhance it.

Please take the time to offer any of the Committee constructive suggestions. The second round will be on you.

If you love playing tennis, EMTC is the place to be.

Regards Ralph

Ralph Muir-Morris
President
East Malvern Tennis Club