At the GRF Policy Committee meeting in September, during the discussion about a revised rule 106.1 regarding use of the Buckeye Tennis Complex, the committee considered omitting the phrases "proper tennis attire" and "proper tennis etiquette" from the revised draft of the rule.  

This generated a great deal of heated discussion at the RTC Board level.   The rule changes were an agenda item at the September RTC Board meeting, there was a meeting between GRF staff and 2 board members (at which Warren Salmons said that "proper tennis attire" is an unenforceable term, and "we've always done it this way" is not a valid argument), an "emergency" meeting of the RTC Board when the next Policy Committee meeting agenda was published, and finally another RTC contingent attending the October Policy Committee where the Rule 106.1 language was finalized for submission to the GRF Board.

In the final draft, the term "proper tennis etiquette" was allowed to remain, but "proper tennis attire" is gone.   The new rule mandates that shirts be worn at all time (but says nothing about skirts or pants), and requires tennis shoes with non-marking soles (although it doesn't say that they actually have to be WORN).   But everyone seems to be OK with the language. WHEW!

On a related note, I found an interesting item in an article about tennis related letters in a recent issue of Inside Tennis Magazine, which I think encourages us all to lighten up a little.  Here it is:   "There is no other genre of letter-writing quite like the enraged, self-righteous and opinionated letters to the editors of London's papers every year during Wimbledon, in which incensed readers rail against spitting, sweaty towels, THE LOSS OF SARTORIAL STANDARDS (capitalization mine), naughty language, and anything and everything which is not tidy and proper.   The basic message here:   Don't mess with good old Victorian standards."