The Alstonville Tennis and Pickleball Club held their Annual General Meeting on Sunday, 23rd March at the Wollongbar tennis courts clubhouse. The meeting was quite well attended by club members.

An annual report was delivered by the club’s president, Nathan Kempshall, outlining the club’s growth in membership, major additions to the club’s facilities, including pickleball courts, a refurbished Alstonville clubhouse with a coach’s shop and an outdoor, covered entertainment area attached to the clubhouse at Wollongbar. Nathan extended a welcome to the club’s new, highly credentialed coach, Olivia Rich who has already put in place a range of coaching plans and services available from her Alstonville clubhouse shop.

A financial report from the club’s treasurer, Andrew Leslie revealed that the club has expended $589,689.00, derived from club funds and grants, on improvements to the Alstonville and Wollongbar facilities. Notwithstanding this substantial outlay of funds on structural improvements, with little to no contribution by council to the various projects, the club remains in a healthy financial state and is building reserves for future court resurfacing.

 The Club Committee for 2025 was elected at the AGM. Nathan Kempshall (President), Andrew Leslie (Treasurer), Christine Rijks and John Boulton (Vice-Presidents), Jim Crowley (Secretary) were elected officers, unopposed. There was a secret vote held in the meeting to elect five Ordinary Committee Members from seven nominees resulting in the election of Michael Buckler, Maureen Coulter, Ellen McGirr, Kurt Moeller and Douglas Thompson to the new committee.

At this meeting, there was a confirmation of the nominations for Club Life Membership for Andrew Leslie and Jim Crowley, for long and meritorious service to the club.

Andrew Leslie has been a club member since 1984, first as a junior during which time he won his first Club Championship. He took on the role of treasurer in 2010 and has worked tirelessly for the club. He has secured seventeen high value grants, totalling over $467,000, for club projects. Andrew has recently managed the works programs that saw the development of the Alstonville Village Pickleball courts with installation of LED lighting, a refurbishment of the Alstonville clubhouse with pro-shop and, together with John Boulton, has managed the addition of an outdoor entertainment area and fencing enclosure of the Wollongbar tennis facility. In addition, Andrew and his family members, Ken and Scott Leslie, have been involved in hands-on activities that have resulted in significant financial savings for the club.

Jim Crowley has been a club member since 2008. In 2010, Jim took on the role of club secretary. In the period up to December 2024, he maintained communications with members and council and managed the membership records of the club including the contacts with individuals about membership renewal and court access codes. Jim, working with a local webpage designer, developed the club’s first on-line presence, alstonvilletennis.org.au and maintained the website content. In December 2024, when the ClubSpark system was initiated, Jim was instrumental in the transition to the Tennis NSW ClubSpark website, play.tennis.com.au/alstonvilletennis, populating the system with member data, setting up web pages and developing Membership packs. He has managed the council related business, Lumley Park (Alstonville Village courts) crown land licence and Wollongbar site lease, and continues to monitor membership, communication with members, news and information pages and court bookings on the new website.

An important item of business at the recent AGM, was the vote on three special resolutions. The members attending the meeting unanimously approved of the resolutions that included the adoption of a new club constitution and a change of registered name to Alstonville Tennis and Pickleball Club Incorporated.

The new committee thanks Ken Leslie who has retired from the committee after many years of service to the club. Thanks are also extended to Beth Hansen for her service to the club particularly in developing participation in pickleball and to Steve Raisch who nominated for a position on committee and continues active roles in managing social playing groups.

Club members can contact the secretary at secretary@alstonvilletennis.org.au if they would like to be sent a copy of either, or both, the President’s and Treasurer’s reports.