Open Day & AGM - Sunday 23 March 2:30pm

Dear all

The Club will be having its Open Day from 2:30pm on Sunday 23 March, expected to last until 4:30pm when we will hold our AGM, which is open to all members.  Please come down, meet some of the Committee, have a game, join for 2013/14 and tell your friends.

If you have anything you wish to raise for the AGM, it helps if you let me know in advance, but you are also welcome to raise anything on the day.  I'll post an agenda in due course.

Thanks

Hugh
BTC Chair

BTC WIMBLEDON BALLOT 2013

Dear All This year we have been allocated 10 pairs of Wimbledon Tickets (24 June - 7 July). We will be holding a ballot on Friday 24 May using BTCs own "randomiser" (a very sophisticated excel spreadsheet). The first name on the list will get the first choice of the tickets on offer, the second second choice and so on until all tickets have been taken. Before you all respond please note the following rules and regs, including eligibility criteria. Ballot winners will be required to sign a LTA declaration and give me their cast iron word that they have met and will meet the conditions of the ballot. Please let me know by Midnight Thursday 23 May if you would like to take part. Send an email to alexkrprince@yahoo.co.uk giving your name and a number I can easily get you on, if you are successful, to discuss your ticket options. Only 1 entry per household please folks. ARE YOU ELIGIBLE? Only 'affiliated' British Tennis Members linked to Butterfly Tennis Club are eligible to enter the ballot so please ensure you are registered and linked to the venue. Hopefully you should all have signed up so you can double check by logging into the members area of the LTA website and clicked on 'Manage Account' and the 'My Tennis Venue(s)' www2.lta.org.uk/Login IMPORTANT! If you are one of the lucky few to win a pair of our tickets to this years championships I will need you to give your word that you will not resell them or transfer them to any other person. We are required to return a list of the names of members attending and provide an undertaking that the conditions of sale and distribution of tickets have been met. The LTA take a very very dim view on the resale or transfer of tickets allocated to clubs to distribute (via ballot) amongst their members. If we do not comply with this rule as a club our future requests for tickets can be refused (this has happened before to other clubs). If you are unable to attend for any reason please let me know so that those tickets can be returned to the club and our obligations can be met. GOOD LUCK!!! Alex Prince BTC Treasurer 07775 030775

Open day and AGM Sunday 7 April

Dear all We are planning to hold theannual open day from 2:30pm on 7 April when you will have the chance to come down andhave a game, meet members of the committee, join for 2013/14. We will also combine with our AGM. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible and any potential new members there. thanks Hugh BTC Chair

Open day tomorrow

a reminder to all that it is the club's open day tomorrow, sunday, between two thirty and four thirty tomorrow.

i hope to see as many of you there as possible.

hugh

Kids coaching

Hi Everyone, We're pleased to confirm that the next set of children's coaching at Butterfly Tennis club is with Simon starting 26th February each Sunday for 6 weeks through to 1st April. Class Details As before we will have two groups the times of which will be; Gamma 8-12 years, starting at 9.00am and finishing at 10am - So far we have 3 children Beta 6-8 years, from 10am to 11am - With 6 children Unfortunately the demand wasn't there for the 3-5 year olds. These are not final numbers so it would be good to get a few more into the Gamma group. If you know anyone who would like to come along then please can you tell them about these fantastic and reasonably priced coaching sessions. Just send me an email of anyone who is interested and I will send them all the details. Next Step If you would like to go ahead and officially reserve a place for your child(ren) please email me back with your child(ren)'s name(s) and age(s). I will email you back to confirm your place(s). I shall also send you a form which you will need to fill in and bring along, with payment, to the first lesson on the 26th February. Again, please spread the word, visit the website (www.butterflytennis.com) and look forward to seeing you all on Sunday 26th. Any questions or suggestions please get in touch. Kurt Carroll kurt.carroll@rocketmail.com

Re: Wimbledon tickets next year

OK the good news is that I overstated the cost - Saturday 7 July tickets are £62 the pair and Sunday 8 July tickets are £52 the pair. All who want, please drop your cheques (payable to Butterfly Tennis Club) through 52 Grove Lane indicating which day(s) and how many pairs (only available in pairs I'm afraid) you want by 18 December and also your name, email & postal addresses please. Thanks Hugh

Wimbledon tickets

Dear all

We have been offered the chance to some tickets for number 1 court for the finals weekend next year.

I went on the Sunday this year and saw the girls, boys doubles and veterans doubles finals - slightly surreal while the main event was going on next door but a lot of fun and we also saw some wheelchair tennis on the outer courts and the mens finalists leaving.

The tickets are something like £52 a pair on Sunday and £68 a pair on Saturday (when you have the chance of seeing more mainstream action).

If you would like to apply, then email me directly. I would need cheques payable to Butterfly Tennis Club by 18 December and you would need to make sure your memberships were up to date.

Thanks

Hugh

BTC Chair

butterflytennis@yahoo.co.uk

Various updates

Dear all
I hope you are enjoying your tennis this summer. I thought I would write to you all to update on the following:
- Booking rules
- Coaching
- Court maintenance & security
- Yahoo group tidy up
- End of season tournament
- Yoga
- Community Amateur Sports Club

Please let me know if there are any other burning issues you have or just general feedback on your club.

Booking rules

Following some comments at the AGM (minutes for which are now up on the notice board), we undertook a consultation on the rules, which previously stated that members could book for an hour each, but two members playing together could have 2 hours.

The poll results can be found here and it was clear that there was a demand for individual members to be able to book for more than an hour. We have therefore amended the booking rules, which can be found here – http://tinyurl.com/BTC-BookingRules (and are also posted to the noticeboard) to state that individual members can book for 90 minutes, but that two members can still book for two hours as long as both are named.

As before, you can only have one future booking in existence at any time and if you don’t need a booking, you should delete it.

Thank you to all those who voted and for other feedback.

Coaching

Kate Mudie, who has been looking after the kids coaching is stepping down and Stine Goetrik will be taking this on. Thanks to Kate for all her hard work and good luck to Stine. If you are interested in kids coaching please drop Stine an email at stinegoetrik@googlemail.com.

We have also had a number of enquiries about adult coaching. We are trying to set some group sessions up for this as well and should be providing more information shortly on this. In the meantime the coach, Simon Tricker, is available for ad hoc sessions on 07905 768 891.

Court maintenance and security

All club officers are volunteers and we do not pay anyone for general cleaning and maintenance other than a once a year pressure clean of the court surface required for the warranty. We therefore rely on people keeping the courts clean. Please clear up after yourselves and use the dustbin. If there is a pile of leaves around on the court and you have the time, it would also be much appreciated if you could also use the brush available on court to sweep them up and put them in the bin.

We are also holding a clear up session from 12-2pm on 17 September (also the date for the club tournament – see below), where we will do a little more serious tidy up and weeding of the edges. It will also be an opportunity to meet other members and maybe have a drink and a bite to eat.

Finally, please keep the door shut and challenge anyone who you suspect should not be there. We had the lead from the clubhouse roof stolen last week.

Yahoo group tidy up

We have 175 members of the Yahoo group and only 95 paid up memberships for this year. Of course, some of this may be due to family memberships etc, but not all. I shall therefore be reconciling all yahoo group members to paid up members and may be asking some of you to confirm. Please bear with me through this process and if you haven’t yet paid your subscription, now is the time to do so.

End of season tournament

We plan to hold an end of season tournament on Saturday 17 September (with a break for the midday clearup and some lunch). Plans currently are for a doubles format with rotating partners leading to a final of the top ranked two women and top two men (or handicapped in some way to arrive at a similar conclusion). Exact details will depend upon number of entrants, so please email Marcus Cowles if you want to take part - marcus.cowles@googlemail.com.

Yoga

The clubhouse has now been used for Yoga since the handover at the end of May and is proving popular. The more classes that are held, the more the club makes and a bit of yoga also complements tennis well, helping you to get in shape ahead of and after a game, so if you are interested, you can find out more and book courses through http://www.zenyoga.org.uk/index.html

Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC)

We have now applied to be a CASC, which allows us to get discounted rates and not to have to pay tax on any subscriptions (as long as we continue to retain all monies for the club). This also allows us to qualify for gift aid for any charitable donations. The club is in good shape at the moment, but the key will be how long the court surface lasts and also plans to apply for floodlights next year (for which there will be extensive local and member consultation).

Thank you for your support, enjoy the rest of the season and again, please get in touch if there is anything you think could be improved.



Hugh
BTC Chair
August 2011

Open day & AGM 2011

This year's open day will be on Saturday 7 May at 11am. As before please come down to meet fellow members, have a knock about and welcome new members to the club. We will follow the open day with the AGM in the Grand Union at 3pm. I hope to see as many of you as possible there. Hugh BTC Chair