As President, I would like to thank all members, committee persons and those associated with helping the Club eg. volunteers, team managers etc for the time and effort they have put in on a voluntary basis during the year.

The following report is a review of the highlights over the past year.
This past year we have put behind us the dark days of COVID and resumed a “normal” year.

During this past year the Club has continued to be successful and reinforced his status as one of the most modern and appealing tennis clubs in Melbourne’s South East. Kingston Council finally completed its work on the upgraded facilities with the completion of the revamped spectator path, at Councils cost. The new path is a terracotta coloured synthetic grass, which looks great and hopefully will be durable for many years. We have worked closely and critically with Council to ensure the work undertaken was completed to our satisfaction. The courts surfaces have hardened considerably over last summer and are now playing truer, although we are carefully ensuring our maintenance schedule is regular and appropriate. We will continue to monitor the courts and if need be, close courts for maintenance from time to time. We ask our members for their continued support and patience during this period. We also ask our members and paying public to continue with the bagging and watering of the courts before and after play. Again as the warmer weather approaches, this attention to detail becomes vital. The courts are our main asset and need looking after. We thank all members for their understanding . We are also spreading a finer porous, as recommended by the Court builders. This finer porous was unavailable for many months.

It has a greater bonding ability when mixed with the standard grain size. The Club also purchased new court scoreboards on all courts, to replace the original ones.

The Book a Court (BAC) hiring system has been operating now for close to 2 years and the Club continues to reap the financial benefit of extra public court hire. Most of the members are now more comfortable with the operation of the system and it offers all members and the public a more convenient method of accessing the courts. Our membership renewals and applications for new membership are now fully automated through the same system. The TA Club Spark software package enables us to streamline membership and make the financial work by our Treasurer a lot less cumbersome and time consuming. This system has enabled us to now make a significant change to the way our membership renewals work. In the past all membership was renewed in line with the financial year, however, the system now allows members to renew in line with the anniversary date of taking out membership or paying when renewed. If membership is not renewed, access to the BAC system is denied. In the past, we had to chase outstanding fees manually. Membership numbers have remained steady, but going forward, we remain com-mitted to increasing numbers through marketing and social media platforms eg Facebook, Instagram etc. Linda Clucas (new committee member) has assumed responsibility for social media updates and since her appointment, the Club is a lot more active in this area. We thank Linda for your efforts.

In the early part of the year the Club received court hire income from Aspendale Tennis Club, whilst their courts received an upgrade. We remain open to any dia- logue between us and other clubs to assist wherever possible.

Our new website continues to offer plenty of information for both members and prospective ones. Should any member wish to get updates on Club details, activities etc, then this is the place to go. Of course, members of the committee are al- ways accessible to assist members with further information.

Thursday evening social competition has continued and not only is it successful with 8 teams, it has ensured a steady revenue stream. We are planning to introduce a tap and go credit card payment system, instead of the cash system for weekly fees. The competition offers not only competitive play, but a chance to socialise. For a minimal charge, which includes supper, players get lights access in a social/ competitive atmosphere. A big thank you to Pippa Collier and Di Tickner, for doing a great job in making sure the nights run like clockwork.

Senior competition includes Saturday pm and Mid week ladies. We are always encouraging players to consider these competitions. A big thank you to Curtis Burge for preparing and organising the teams, with help from Pippa Collier, Judie O’Dwyer, Linda Clucas and Cathy Meddings.

Junior competition teams and Coaching numbers remain steady, although we are always looking at expanding our numbers. All enquiries should be directed through our head coach Ottavio Boran. We thank Occy and his staff for their coaching efforts and to Occy for providing his assistance and tennis experience on the Com- mittee.

For the next year, the Committee has targeted a number of areas that will help the Club grow. These include a push to increase membership numbers through Mar- keting and Social Media, looking for new committee members and volunteers and to expand Senior competition teams.

The Club has recently reached out to the local TLC multigenerational business to advertise our Club and in return for us to incorporate their business on our sponsorship page. This is the start of our intention to approach other businesses. The Committee would welcome more members to put their hands up to assist the Club on the committee or helping on a volunteer basis. Opportunities exist for volunteers to be part of a club that continues to develop and grow. Most of our members have specific skill sets that would be of great benefit to the Club. We don’t ask for an onerous commitment, or to specifically join the Committee, but just spend some time occasionally to help us out. The committee also has a responsibility have a succession plan to ensure the Club remains viable and vibrant. Please contact Mark Lovegrove should anyone be interested.

The ongoing management of the Club has once again been performed most ably by the present Committee who have taken on the tasks and issues with enthusiasm and success. A big thank you to our Treasurer Neil, who is an integral part of the Executive committee and whose efforts are vital to the success of the Club. His experience in Accountancy/Finance has assisted greatly in keeping the accounts in perfect order and his knowledge of the Club Spark financial system has been invaluable for the smooth transition to a computerised membership and accounting system.

To Karen our Secretary whose efficiency with enquiries, note taking and day to day administration is faultless. To Curtis for his enthusiasm in managing the senior teams and assisting in website management and assisting with booking courts for competition. To Di Tickner for her wonderful consistent efforts in catering for Thursday night social tennis and the money collecting and banking duties. She is a key organising member of the social competition. Many are not aware that Di also looks after the gardening and Clubhouse tidiness.

To Mark B for his practical skill and knowledge and using his trade skills to fix many maintenance problems. To Judie for her input in Club decision making and looking after the mid week ladies team and other administration matters. To Julian for helping liase with Council on Clubhouse matters and assisting in the decision making processes.

To Occy and his assistants for running the coaching programme and for maintaining the courts during difficult times. We are very fortunate to have our guru Sean Maynard, continue to assist and use his considerable computer and software skills on a volunteer basis. We thank him greatly for his assistance and hope he continues for many years.

A big thank you also to our 1st year committee person Linda Clucas (social media) and Bruce Hoskin, former President, who brings his experience on Club matters. Unfortunately, our long standing committee member, Julian Mahl , resigned from the committee in June. He served many years on the committee and played a pivotal role in many major decisions and help manage junior teams for many years. He will be greatly missed. We also welcomed the Watts/Collier family to the committee. Alex Watts who brings many years of business and management experience, Fiona Collier Watts for assisting on a Thursday night and of course Pippa for her amazing work at the back end of setting up the draw, results and other computer administrative work for night tennis.

The committee has worked tirelessly to see that not only the club continues to func- tion efficiency, but to put into place measures to move forward. Despite the negative impact of COVID, reduced revenue and Capital expenditure, the Club remains in a sound financial position. Revenue in the main, comes from Membership fees, court hire and Thursday night tennis. This revenue is used mostly to cover our expenses, but with any organisation we need to have money in the bank for unexpected outgoings.

The healthy Balance Sheet indicates the sound financial position of the Club and it’s prudent management.

I cannot speak more highly of the commitment of the Committee and the wonderful work that they have undertaken, all on a voluntary basis. They are to be congratulated!

The new year will bring its challenges as always, but at the same time the Club continues to emerge into an exciting era to be embraced by all at the Club.

Mark Lovegrove

President