Lawrence Park Tennis Club 
"Between the Lines"
 June 29, 2016

It's been another busy year on the LPTC Board. With prior year's challenges mostly behind us we focused on the court usage survey conducted last season and we continued to focus on improving and professionalizing all our operations and procedures.

Caroline Gray led the court usage sub-committee that brought many recommendations to the Board. Some changes have been introduced this year and we will be inviting your feedback on those changes later in the season at an Open Forum. Based on the survey results we shifted organized pre-booked activities and programs away from the mornings when there is high demand, and we're starting to establish other programs in the evenings. I hope you're participating in these new programs, please let us know what else we need to do!

Cecelia Thng has served the club extremely well this year by instituting more formalized procedures and operational directives that touch on all aspects of her HUGE Games Director portfolio, I hope you've observed the changes and appreciate them. We now have clinics for house league players offered by our professional staff prior to the season. As well, there were two opportunities for interested members to come out to the team tryouts and all team members were selected by professional staff. Both programs continue to be run and organized by fellow (volunteer) members, but I feel strongly that the inclusion of objective professional staff perspective is a benefit to us all (not to mention less work :-)). Thanks go to Joe Novak for intoducing good people.

Tony Ercolani, David Douglas and I recently attended a 2 day Court Maintenance seminar at the Granite Club given by the Har-Tru Corporation under the auspices of Tennis Canada's Tennis Professionals Association. We learned a lot and have changed some of our procedures and approaches to our courts. I know that you will appreciate these changes as we go forward.

We're 2/6ths along in the journey through our short but busy season - I hope you've all been on the courts as much as you've wanted to be? Looking forward, it's almost time for me to convene the Nominations Committee; hands up everybody willing to help keep our club great to play at and fun to play with! Many hands make light work.

John Mowat

ITALIAN DINNER NIGHT
.....
AN AMAZING SUCCESS


 

On a beautiful summer Saturday evening, the club again hosted a fun night that started off with a tasty Italian dinner while great old Italian tunes played in the background. After dinner, the 80-90 participants competed in teams for a Trivia Challenge, answering questions on a variety of topics, including trivia on Canadiana, Tennis, Entertainment, Geography, Arts & Entertainment, Science, History, and new this year, a "Name that Tune" portion, thanks to Wayne Snell, who also provided Italian music during dinner. It was a great evening which could not have happened without the help and support of many people in the planning stages, setting up for the event, registration, food preparation, serving, and cleaning up afterwards. Heart-felt appreciation for their hard work and support goes out to Adele Breslow, Adrian Baldeo, Anna Caton, Deb Hoffnung, Eddie Durham, Ellen Peers, Gertie & Gerhard Weiss, Janet Blair, John Mowat, Margot Willoughby, Molly Greenwood, Myra Mandel, Nellie Poucheva, Raza Ali, Rita Strah, Shumin Lee, Suzanne Bowen and Wayne Snell, and apologies if I missed anyone.  

The winners each received a $5 Tim Horton card.

Anita Strauss

Congratulations Anita for another well done social evening!!!
 

OUR WINNERS !!!

Coming up on Sunday July 10th, is the Wimbledon Strawberry Social from 2 to 4 p.m.  Come by and participate in the Round Robin and enjoy some Wimbledon treats of strawberries and cream, baked goods, and a faux Pimm's drink.  No signup is required.

 

Last year, many people expressed appreciation for the After Dinner Doubles we ran several times later in the season. The Board agreed that this would be a good way to encourage members to use the courts, especially on Wednesday evenings when there are no Team Matches or House League, so this year After Dinner Doubles commenced mid-June.  Wednesday After Dinner Doubles is on every week and we encourage all members to come out and meet other evening players who are there to enjoy some good social tennis.
We also want to remind you that Tuesday and Friday evenings tend not to be busy, as well as Sunday mornings, as the Intercounty Teams have moved their practices to late Sunday afternoons.  Come and enjoy some cool summer evening tennis.

Anita Strauss

Just a gentle reminder to all members who enjoy the Club kitchen to please make sure you leave it better than you find it.

Thanks as always, from a disgruntled House Chair,

Anna Caton