Member Letter

Table of Contents

Reflecting on 2011
2012 Membership Prices
2012 Preseason Discount
Workday Fees
Long-Term Memberships
BTC Financials

Reflecting on 2011

Greetings from the BTC Board at the tail end of our 2011 summer season.  2011 was a banner year at BTC featuring:

• Our sixth consecutive state swim championship from a team bursting at the seams with more than 40 8-and-unders.
• A revived junior tennis program with over 80 participants.
• A vibrant Wednesday night men's league that often filled all 8 courts.
• A return to a full-time club manager, improved communication, an expanded WWW site, and new payment options (credit cards!).
• Perhaps most importantly, an enormous number of new families, which helped us reach a cash-positive position for the second year in a row.

As our season winds down, it's not too early to begin planning for 2012.  In particular, we would like to introduce you to our membership changes for 2012, changes which we think should be welcome to most members.

Before we outline the changes, here is a review of the challenges and issues we wanted to address for 2012:

• Our swim team and pool facility reached near capacity in 2012.  Managing the swim team numbers, in particular, is difficult when we can't determine the size of the swim team until a week or so before the season starts.  In order to budget swim team and life guard staff, maintain the quality of our swim team, and to guarantee placement on the swim team for existing members, we would like to open up 2012 membership signups as early as possible.
• Like any endeavor, the cost of running BTC increases from year to year although our membership prices have remained remarkably steady.  Membership pricing needs to reflect these modest changes.  We would also like to give encourage early-signups for 2012 at the same time.
• We heard the appreciation for the expanded payment options in 2011 and want to offer even more options in 2012.
• A few of our membership options, notably the "Couples" memberships, no longer reflect the membership demands properly.
• We have also heard the frustration regarding the workday fee.
• We want to find a way to make long-term membership more affordable to not only encourage more long term membership, but to 'thank' those who have 'paid their dues,' literally and figuratively.

There are other challenges and opportunities, of course, but these drew our primary attention.  In response, we offer the following updates to our 2012 membership.

2012 Membership Prices

2012 Preseason Discount

Returning BTC members who sign up for 2012 before December 31st can lock in at even a bigger discount and guarantee their slots in our programming (swim team and junior tennis).   Please note - corporate/group rates are an introductory offer to new members for their first season only.

Members who take advantage of this deal must register by December 31st and can either pay in full or spread out the payments for up to six months - your choice! 

Workday Fees

While we feel it is vital that we appropriately compensate members who volunteer their time and resources to the club, we were unable to develop a suitable replacement for the workday fee for 2012.  We didn't feel comfortable raising prices any more than we have, and furthermore, we feel like we have introduced enough variables to the membership process that attempting to solve the workday issues this year might make it too confusing.  It is our sincere hope to have a more universally acceptable workday fee policy in place for 2013.  As a result, our workday fee of $45 will be applicable again in 2012.

Long-Term Memberships

We are still working on long-term member and multi-year membership options and hope to have good news for all later this year.  No matter what we are able to develop, you will not get "dinged" for taking advantage of any of the offers above, so we encourage our long term members to sign up now!

BTC Financials

A number of members have asked for financial details about BTC.  The board is glad to provide you with a digital copy via email, or printed copy via US Mail, of the end-of-year report.  We are also glad to answer questions about the report.

As always, please feel free to give us any suggestions, comments, or questions.  Remember that this is a member-owned club, which means that your participation is important to our success - help us recruit new members, help us keep the grounds in good shape, and get ready for 2012!

Sincerely,
Chip Hart
Membership Chair, BTC Board of Directors