October 2008

Dear Platform Tennis Member,

The geese are headed south and the leaves are turning. This can mean only one thing. It must be time for platform tennis in Vermont!

The club has spent over $30,000 on the platform tennis courts the last 2 years for repairs, deferred maintenance, and safety items. We are spending an additional $7,500 this fall to replace rubber hose with metal pipe, and to install timers on the heaters. We hope to save money on gas by not having the heaters inadvertently left on while nobody is playing.

We are not immune from the significant increase in fuel prices. We are increasing membership rates by $30 to pay for this increased cost. Otherwise, platform rates are being held comparable to last year.

For the past few years, Greg Roberts has been the sole platform representative at board meetings. He has also been the point person for all platform issues. It would be great if some other platform members would start coming to board meetings and give him a hand in managing the platform tennis program of BTC.

We continue to be concerned about kids "using" the warming hut and just generally being around our property when nobody is there. Please remember to lock the warming hut door and turn off the lights and heaters when you are done.

The club has experienced some significant financial challenges over the last 5 years. After 4 years of negative cash flow, we finally generated positive cash flow last year (~$8,000) and again this year (~$10,000). In the past we have not aggressively collected unpaid accounts. The board decided to address this issue by not allowing anybody who has an amount outstanding from a prior year to join the club until that debt is paid. The affect on platform members is that you may lose your prime time spot. It is very time consuming and costly to follow up on these amounts. The board would rather spend its (volunteer) time and money moving the club forward.

You might not be aware that we have a website for BTC - http://www.burlingtontennis.com/. Any feedback on the site is welcome.

We intend to send out email notices regarding upcoming board meetings. You are always welcome to attend. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the president of the club, Gene Richards, at 343-9909.

We look forward to a successful platform tennis winter.

Sincerely,

The board members of Burlington Tennis Club