QUAD CITIES PICKLEBALL CLUB ANNUAL PICNIC AND MEETING
SUNDAY, SEPT. 24 4:00pm
From Club President, Steve Morrison: here are some comments and highlights from the past year.
Welcome everyone, and thanks for coming.
We extend a big thank you to Julie Miller and the Social Committee for once again putting on an extraordinary event.
I hope everyone realizes that just by attending this picnic you have received full value for your $15 annual membership!
· Tenth Anniversary
This is the tenth anniversary of the forming of the Pickleball Club. We have come a long way since 2013 and are grateful for all the work done by all the people who paved the way for what the Club has become today. There were 119 members at the end of 2013 and over 650 members today. There are still 29 people on our membership roster from that first year.
In 2013 the membership fees were set at $15.00 per year… and have not changed since then!
· Tournament
On behalf of the Board of Directors and everyone in the Club, I thank Yen Dao, Laurie Ochs, Susie Archer, the rest of the Tournament Committee, and all the volunteers for everything you did to ensure the success of this year’s Quad City Classic. In addition to providing an excellent experience for all the participants, the tournament provides funds to the Pickleball Club that we use to improve the playing conditions throughout our area, as well as to fund a variety of social events throughout the year.
Club members attending the picnic this year received a small token of this financial benefit in the form of two free pickleballs.
The 2023 tournament was again a great success, with 351 participants.
The Past Year
Let’s quickly run through some of the highlights of the past year and recognize the people who made them happen:
1. Memberships
As usual, we thank Annie Edwards for all her work behind the scenes to keep our membership roster up to date and send countless communications out to our members.
We currently have about 650 members. This is about 100 more than this time last year, and the most members we have ever had.
2. Court Amenities
Last year we spent more than $6000 on anything from windscreens to nets to squeegees and ball holders, for ten different locations.
We increased our budget to $10,000 this year, but only received requests for about $4500 of improvements.
We plan to run the same program again next year.
Thanks to all the Court Ambassadors who worked with Gina DeWulf on this project.
3. Pickleballs:
We bought 2000 pickleballs at discounted prices and resold them at cost, saving our members about $2000 compared to retail rates. In fact, if you bought as few as nine balls from the Club you already paid for your annual membership.
We’ll continue buying them as long as you keep breaking them.
4. Training:
Sharon Walters, Cathy Gaines, Judy Peterson, and Diane Noll, along with their many helpers, taught about 400 new pickleball players how to get started with the game, through the Pickleball 101 classes, and the new “Newby Tuesday” and Pickleball 102 followup activities.
We owe our Club’s substantial growth this year to the fine work (and salesmanship) that these instructors have provided to so many new players.
Steve Ebner and his group of volunteer instructors ran five intermediate clinics this year, helping 88 people improve their game through their 3-day, 2-hour clinics.
Frank Cincola and his Youth Committee put on 11 clinics and camps throughout our area, teaching pickleball to more than 270 young players. This is almost double the number of kids that went through these programs last year!.
5. Social Events
Julie Miller’s Social Committee organized numerous fun events for us in the past year, including a beautiful Christmas party, a night out with the River Bandits, an evening with Backwater Gamblers, several Dinks and Drinks sessions, free donut and pizza distributions to our various locations, and, of course, this picnic.
6. Media:
Our website, new last year, continues to see significant traffic. We’ve had over 1000 visits in the past month alone.
Please continue to use it and pass on any suggestions you have to make it work better for you.
Thanks to Kate Parr for keeping the information current.
7. News about Playing Locations
a. Six new courts in Muscatine were finished
b. DeWitt added six new courts
c. We lost the Life Fitness Center in Bettendorf
d. Mel McKay courts will be completely redone this fall
Bragging rights about courts in our area:
Recently, there have been some statistics published that show the number of courts per capita throughout the country. There have been several versions with differing statistics, but when we take into account the population in our Club’s geography and the number of dedicated outdoor courts in that area (73!), there is no doubt that our region ranks in the top half-dozen or so communities in the nation for the number of outdoor courts per capita!
8. Thanks to all Board members and Committees
Everyone on the Board and on the various committees puts in a lot of time and effort to provide the best possible pickleball and social experiences for our Club members. We are always looking for ways to improve, so if you have any ideas, whether you are on a committee or not, please pass them on to any Committee or any Board member.
9. Thanks to our outgoing Board members:
a. Caroline Hingst
b. Christine Rodrigues
c. Terry Wangler
10. Your 2023-24 Board
Incumbents: Steve Morrison, President; one more two-year term
Gina DeWulf, Vice President; one more year
Calvin Moss, Secretary; one more two-year term
Frank Ludgate, Treasurer; one more year
Brad Dye, At-Large, second year
Sue Erickson, At-Large, second year
New Nominees: Dennis Boehme, At-Large, first year
Pam Hansen, At-Large, first year
Sandy Paredes, At-Large, first year
Please contact any of these Board members with suggestions for making our Club even better.
11. Thanks again to Julie Miller and the Social Committee for organizing the annual picnic and for all the other activities during the year.