RTC Board Meeting --- January 18, 2016 --- Minutes

President / Opening Remarks - Randy Kuhl

• Previous meeting minutes were approved without discussion.
• Over the past several days, Randy conducted a telephone election to fill the recently-vacated RTC secretary position.
• Randy welcomed Les Hoskyns as the new RTC secretary.

RTC Information Technology Committee - Randy Kuhl

• Over 600 RTC history photos are now up and working in test / review mode.   When captions have been added these photos will published as part of Kerin Baker's RTC history.
• The RTC Information Technology Committee will meet this week to address email use, 2016 website content, and preparation of the 2016 RTC Directory.

Court Engineer / Supplies - Rolf Kvalvik

• Acquiring good usable balls for the ball machine was discussed at some length.   Rolf will triage all balls donated and/or recovered from tournament use to either ball machine use or set aside for donations to charity.   Rolf and Randy will prepare a detailed website blog entry explaining how we'd ask people to help us collect usable balls for the ball machine.
• The court screens have been re-positioned as we requested.

Tournaments - Bernie Wolf

• Bernie announced that the first tournament of 2016 is scheduled for April 16, 2016.   Rossmoor will host The Villages with Randy Kuhl acting as the tournament director.
• Bernie will prepare a complete list of 2016 tennis tournaments (to be included in the 2016 RTC Directory).

Wild Card - Barbara Phillips

• The September Wild Card tournament will be RTC entry in Rossmoor Games.
• We wish to emphasize again that RTC Wild Card Tournaments are open to ALL Rossmoor residents.

Secretary - Les Hoskyns

• Complete lists of 2016 tournaments, 2016 team schedules, 2016 board meetings, and 2016 social events (for inclusion in the calendar, the website pages, and the 2016 RTC Directory) need to be prepared and provided to Les and Larry.
• Internet security (email, website, and online documents) was discussed at length.   The board reaffirmed our commitment to NOT put members' email addresses and telephone numbers on our website.   (a very few specific exceptions were noted)
• All emails sent from the club's Gmail account will be BCC'd (blind carbon copied) to recipients.   Members are reminded that most emails are informational in nature and are not solicitations for comments or responses.    Many emails to members will contain links into specific areas of the website when appropriate.

Treasurer - Barbara Schwartz

• Barbara submitted the 2016 RTC budget.   The topic of slow membership renewals was discussed.   A special recruiting effort will be made this week by a number of board members and volunteers.
• The idea of 'comping' the price of events to those who sponsor each event was discussed.   The idea was not adopted.

Vice President/Trophies - Ron Wyman

Publicity - Ron Wyman

• Ron discussed the ongoing challenges of getting tournament photographs that pass the Rossmoor News's new standards into the paper.   We discussed the option of having some photos targeted to the Rossmoor News and (presumably) some of our better photos displayed on Ron's website Publicist's Blog.

Social - Loc Barnes

• Loc reported that she is having little success in recruiting party sponsors/volunteers for the 2016 social calendar.   As a result, she has cancelled the annual Valentine's Day Party and the Spring Fling.
• A possible Kentucky Derby Party was discussed.   Details to follow later this spring.
• Loc will prepare a complete list of 2016 social events (to be included in the website calendar and the 2016 RTC Directory).
• It was clarified that the reservations person for each event is to be recruited by the organizer of each event.

Membership - Larry Fredricks

• Preparation and printing of the RTC Directory was discussed.   Les reviewed how he and Joyce Niebur prepared it over the past three years and how Wes Henderson and Louise Ng prepared it prior to that time.   Larry will work with Les to prepare the 2016 directory.   The idea of scheduling a "mailing party" for preparation of the 2016 RTC Directories for mailing was discussed.
• Membership renewals are considerably lower than last year's.   We discussed this shortfall with an eye on how to encourage last-minute renewals.   The deadline for renewing members to be included in the 2016 directory has been extended to January 24, 2016.

Maintenance - Jerry McConnell

Sunshine - Nancy McConnell

• We need a new volunteer for this position.   Nancy has performed this duty with caring and grace for many years.   Getting someone who has the same abilities will be our goal.

Old Business

• The club has been considering the purchase of a new ball machine.   Two alternative approaches have been under consideration.   One option is the purchase of a mid-range model at approximately $1800; a second option is for a (presumably) more rugged model in the $4300 price range.   The board has felt that the club cannot afford either option at this time.   Discussion over past few months has centered on remedial funding options for this purchase.

New Business

• The idea of having raffles (at tournaments) specifically designed to fund the purchase of a ball machine was discussed.
• The idea of having a 'special' tournament or social event specifically designed to fund the purchase of a ball machine was also discussed.
• The membership renewal shortfall was discussed again with an eye to immediate remedial action to be taken by a few board members and volunteers.

Next Meeting --- February 15, 2016, in the Ivy Room at the Stanley Dollar Clubhouse