BAIE D’URFÉ TENNIS CLUB
Minutes Annual General Meeting
Friday September 11, 2015
Red Barn
Committee members present: Margaret Hill, Suzanne Warren, Joanne
Ioanidis, Erika Pfister, Wine Mansfield, John Ahrens, Debbie Kemball, David
Bowen
Absent: Renate Schwiercinski
Minutes of the AGM
Margaret called the meeting to order at 7:33pm
Tony Lanza approved the meeting, Frank Barth seconded
Opening remarks
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Town of Baie d’Urfe is in the process to evaluate the tenders that came in;
town engineer is presently on vacation, when he comes back, the city will
probably have to do another call for tender since there was a lack of
responses
Club house will be open as long as possible, depending on availability of
staff and in case the city will begin with the project of redoing court 1 to 4
Little History of the club:
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Club is 50 years old
Before 1966 – the McDonald Tennis Club (St. Anne & Baie d’Urfe)
In 1966 – red clay courts – no club house, picknick Round Robin on
Saturdays on Sundays
1966- cost per court was: $9000 /court
1971 the clubhouse was built
1975 – red clay was changed to hardcourt
2000 – clubhouse
2008 – new tennis courts
1967 – Margaret Hill joined the Tennis Club
Special Thanks from Margaret Hill to:
 Werner & Danielle did the sausage party – assistant BBQ (Norm Walker)
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Alain Brunet has been very helpful – maintenance work on the court
Erika did a very good job in social
David Bowen for tournaments
Debbie has been working on Junior development
John Ahrens is Treasurer
Holly Myles for her work as secretary of the club for many years
Membership – Joanne Ioanidis
355 members this year (25 less members then 2014 where we had 380
members)
Breakdown of overall membership:
 220 adults
 23 intermediates
 112 juniors
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Breakdown of Baie d’Urfe resident membership (total of 150 members):
 70 adults
 12 intermediates
 68 juniors
Breakdown of non-Baie d’Urfe resident memberships (total of 205 members):
 150 adults
 11 intermediates
 44 juniors
In 2008 we had the highest membership number with 510 members, but the
years after we have seen a steady decline in membership with the only exception
in 2014 where we had 35 more members than in 2013.
Ideas to increase membership
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More people would become members if they would have more chance to
come for trial – volunteers that give a tour of the clubhouse, provide
information about the club, provide that information in the News and
Views. Would require a couple of volunteers that would be willing to come
and do the tours. – mentor program?!?
Distribute flyers door to door
Opening Round Robin is open house
Call people that didn’t renew their membership to find out why
memberships are not being renewed.
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Aging membership is a challenge
Special offer to Baie d’Urfe Industrial Park
More Round Robins – Friday night or Sunday afternoon or Monday night
Bring Top guns – find ways to interest the younger generation
Introducing a ladder for adults – David will be looking into this for 2016
Maintenance - Wine read Michael Cloghesy’s report (please see below)
Maintenance guy’s Report Sept. 2015
Apart from a somewhat rainy summer, most of the courts held out pretty well.
Courts 5 and 6 required more watering than normal due to the drier periods.
In such cases, the sprinkler system was left on for a couple of hours to saturate
the surface.
I wish to thank the staff for their excellent work and in particular, Katie Ball, who
agreed take on the responsibilities of Manager. She set the work schedules,
prepared the time sheets and trained the new staff. In addition, the staff
received training in CPR and the use of the defibrillator.
I would also like to thank Alain Brunet who repaired a number of deficiencies in
the clubhouse and on the grounds. His help was invaluable and saved the club a
lot of expenses.
In conclusion, I would like to affirm that the maintenance job is quite onerous
and required a lot of my time and frequent visits to the club to resolve various
issues including the new court project.
Michael Cloghesy
“the maintenance guy”
Further comments in regards to maintenance: Werner Hoffman said that when
they are watered, the sprinklers should only be on for 10 min. at a time – or the
staff should use the watering hose – court 5 and 6 – the sprinklers soak the
courts.
There are multiple issues with the sprinkler system, the valves etc. are not
conditioned to be under ground, one of the heads is dripping, …
Town got a quote in and the price went up from $400,000 to $600,000 for four
courts.
Alain Brunet mentioned:
 new BBQ: should be cleaned better and it should be moved off the
grass, when the lawn is mowed
 The floor in the shed is rotten, needs to be replaced – before someone
gets hurt (Margaret Hill will follow up with the city)
Tournament – David Bowen
 Good turnout for the tournament
 All events had people registered
 Next year it would be good if more members would participate
 Winner of mens singles – Chris
 Winner of ladies singles – Margaret
 Ladies doubles - Danielle and Renee
 Mixed doubles - Danielle and Pierre
 Mens doubles – Samy and Erik
Finance – John Ahrens
Revenue: Membership revenue: generate some fees from the John Abbot
daycamp, canteen
Canteen – revenue: $5500 / cost $4500
Staff remuneration is the biggest expense: Last year $23500, Year to date 2015
is $18000 – expected to be around last years expense by the end of 2015
Court maintenance costs: in 2014 year $11,500 / in 2015 $13,600
Other costs (clubhouse phone, electricity, …) – not substantial
Total starting balance on Jan. 1st 2015: $10447
Revenue minus expenses should leave us with cash balance of about $11000 as
an ending balance of 2015
Total debt of the club: $26000
Social – Erika
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Club opened on May 9h with opening Round Robin – the Round Robin
continued all season on Saturday mornings
Social RR. June 26th RR with the Pro -6pm to 8pm – bring your own meat,
bring your own bottle, Salad, Coffee, Dessert provided for $5 35 people
participated in the RR
Popular Octoberfest on July 25th after a Sat. Round Robin
Sept. 6th Adult –Junior RR – followed by BBQ, piñata – 24 children +
parents, a lot of children went back on the courts after the BBQ
Saturday (September 12th) will be the last BBQ after the RR – while the
RR will continue.
Interclub
 We had two teams
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Twice 6 courts were required
Three times no courts were required at all
Junior Development – Debbie Kemball
Chris does all the programs
Chris
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Junior Program
About 70 kids participate
Advanced clinics in addition to regular program
John abbot Day Camp came for 3 days – would like to come back next
year – Monday to Thursday (2pm to 3pm)
Team practices started earlier (in May)
First official match on July2nd
Junior fee was $80 for the season (double the previous season, but
coaches were attending all practices & matches)
Even so there was considerable turn over in the assistant coaches (from
Jason, to Charlie to Lars) – all matches were attended and the juniors
worked well with all the assistant coaches
2016 fee is planned to be $100
15 juniors were dedicated to the program
Outlook for next year is promising – 5 committed members for U18 and
11 for U14
Publicity – Suzanne Warren
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News and Views – relationship improved, Suzanne will publish something
in October, and April 2016 and June 2016 spots reserved
Suzanne does most of the translation into French, so almost all documents
are in both official languages.
Comments by the public:
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Send reminders to ex-members about registration.
Suggestion to publish in Gazette, Chronical, Suburban, …
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Suggest an oldtimer tennis – dressed in white with wooden rackets as a
special Round Robin
It would be good to have pictures of the juniors on the website, but we
need to change the registration form to get parental approval to publish
pictures.
Membership form should be available much earlier in January.
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One month membership – trial month at a reduced fee (suggestion)
Frank Barth would provide small speakers, an amplifier would be needed
and the calling of the names at the round robin would be much better.
Other matters:
Thanks
Thanks
Thanks
Thanks
Thanks
Thanks
Thanks
Thanks
Thanks
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
to
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Chris & Frank – coaching staff
Katie & Shawn – staff
Werner & Danielle – Oktoberfest
Norm – assistant BBQ
Alain – help with maintenance
Erika – retiring from Social
Holly – Secretary for 10 years for the club
the committee
the public for attending the meeting
Elections:
Candidate for every position
No nominations from the floor
No formal vote, candidates will be
Margaret Hill - President
Wine Mansfield - Secretary
Joanne Ioanidis - Membership
Suzanne Warren - Publicity
David Bowen - Tournament
Renate
Werner Buchmann
Debbie Kemball
John Ahrens
I move the nominations to be accepted – Roger Tittman, Frank Barth second the
motion
Meeting adjourned at 9:05pm