DATE: October 2010 [PDF]

Presidents Parley | From the Manager | Hunter's Lair | Results | New Members | Last Month's News

Presidents Parley [Top]

W e now have a mission statement for the club (see below). It gives us a succinct vision of our club and a guide for future development. It emphasizes the fact that we are a members’ owned club and that we are the ones who make policy.

We continue to address the concerns and desires which the members expressed in the survey. The principal concern was the roof and the leaks. Progress is incremental. It will be expensive and we want to do it right. Ken Lefton will bring you up to date on where we stand in a separate article in the newsletter. Another concern was the lighting. Gary will address that issue in his column and explain our plan.

We have also taken up the problems associated with the women’s dressing room. At the moment, we agree that something must be done and we have a committee looking into the various possibilities. There is also the problem of financing such renovations and we plan to address them as well. Sally Clark assisted by Kim Schlesinger will spearhead this initiative and they welcome ideas about the renovation, the financing and other concerns.

We will soon be electing a new board to run the club next year. There are many hard decisions to be made. We need an independent board, innovative thinkers, members with ideas about the club and its future. Heidi Igarashi (Email: heidiigarashi@aol.com) is in charge of nominations. Contact her if you wish to run for the board. We have also considered changing the way the election will be run this year. If several members would like to run as a group, they would be listed as a slate of candidates. Jim Krueger assisted by Mark Koenig will be in charge of the election this year. The candidates will be announced in October, the election will take place in November, the results published in December and the new board will take over in January. There are five free positions this year. Please consider running.

Now let us close with a final note on winning tennis. Have you ever noticed how the excellent players and pros always overlook the critical shots that tip the balance in your favor. These shots are often referred to as “the breaks”, but you can make these breaks work for you. We have discussed the various miss hits and so on. I watched Federer win a tie breaker with two net crawlers. A close relative of the net crawler is the net skipper or net hopper. I saw Kim Clijsters hit one of those. Her opponent was at the net, the ball bounced up off the net, the opponent was startled and barely made a weak return and Clijsters nailed it. Yes, those are the shots that win points, games, sets, and simultaneously discourage opponents. My advice is to master them.

See you on the Courts,

Ron Guenther,
President, TTC Board

From the Manager [Top]

Roofing Committee
The roofing committee is meeting with an architect to discuss the design and planning of the skylight leaking. We will talk about the feasibility and the replacement of the panels and if we can keep the courts leak free in the rainy season. This summer however we will not be doing any panel replacement, only patching, since we do not have enough money to take care of that task. We will be putting away some extra monies so that next summer we can do some sort of replacement and potentially some other improvements as well. We are working hard to take care of this problem, which was our #1 item on our survey and few months ago that you the members wanted fixed.

Summer Club Improvements
Many of the concerns you replied about on our Timberhill survey six months ago were addressed this summer and we continue to work towards improving the club based on your feedback.

1. The club parking lot has been resurfaced and relined.
2. Courts #4-6 have been resurfaced.
3. The Court lights on #1-3 have been placed differently to address the lights in your eyes or hitting the fixtures issue that many members complained about. We have just finished doing court #1-3 and want your feedback on the light placement (good or bad).
4. The work continues on getting bids and saving up enough money to replace the skylights in courts #1-3 the summer of 2011.
5. A committee has been formed to look at potential improvements to the locker rooms, making them a nicer place to use.

The last two items will continue through the Winter and will be addressed next summer as well as hopefully courts #1-3 being resurfaced as well.

The Board has listened to your feedback and is addressing them as quickly as our resources allow us. It is important to tell us what you think so we can make good decisions based on membership feedback!

Enjoy this Winter's tennis!!

New Members Social
We have a social event geared towards new members on Sunday October 24 from 4:00pm - 6:30pm with a light dinner afterwards. It will be organized tennis format with sign-up required. The sign-up will be in the clubhouse or email Gary at gquandt@comcast.net to sign up. This will be a good time to welcome some of the newer members and meet some new potential tennis partners for the upcoming year. Please contact Gary with any questions

Junior Rookies Tournament
Timberhill will host the Corvallis Rookie Junior Tournament Saturday November 6 for juniors just starting their tournament career. This is a one day event and the open to all juniors players 18 and younger. Entry blanks are in the lobby so help yourself or register online at the USTA.com/TennisLink site using the Tournament ID # 6007117110. Entries close on Saturday Oct. 30 at 5:00pm.

Ted Carlson All Comers Tournament
Timberhill Tennis Club will hold its 23rd annual All Comers NTRP tennis tournament. This year we are honoring Ted Carlson for his support of Timberhill over the past 35 years. Ted has served as president and helped TTC in numerous projects. We will offer NTRP rating categories in Men and Women's singles, doubles and mixed doubles. This event is open to any adult or junior players. You do not have to belong to Timberhill to play in this event. You can register by filling out an entry form in the club lobby or online at the USTA.com/TennisLink site using the tournament ID # 600110610 (or clicking here). Entry close Saturday October 2 at 5:00pm

Board Members Wanted!!
We are looking for some individuals interested in running for the Timberhill Board of Directors. There are five openings this year. It is a two-year term and we have monthly meetings, usually the second Monday of the month. The Board makes many decisions about the running of Timberhill as well as policy changes and improvements and financial issues. If you are interested in getting involved and making sure Timberhill stays the great club it is contact an existing Board member of Gary at the club and we can submit your name to the Board to be put on a ballot the membership will vote on next month. If you have never served before this is the time to step up and help the club stay the top tennis facility in the Mid Valley.

Fall marketing Campaign
Timberhill will be running a promotion for attracting some new members for the Fall. From September 20 -October 20 Timberhill we be offering a $0 initiation fee. This is a great time to introduce Timberhill to some potential tennis players and get them involved in our great club. Remember that if you sponsor a member then you will receive a free monthly dues when the new member joins. This only pertains to monthly dues paying members that join. You can also bring a perspective member once as a guest for free. Just make sure that you sign their name and write perspective member next to their name.

Fall USTA Tennis
September through November the weekends will have lots of mixed doubles, senior and super senior USTA matches. Matches consist of three doubles matches so there will always be three courts available to members. (usually courts #4-6).

Hunter's Lair [Top]

Fall is here at the club, and that means lots of new programs beginning for players of any category. Our junior and adult clinics, as well as the Tennis Welcome Center classes, are in full swing, as is the fall membership drive.

We've begun our Fall Men's League on Thursdays at 7:45, and our Fall Women's League on Mondays at 7:45. If you're interested in playing, we can get you on our sub lists for the fall so you can see what all the talk is about.

For the kids, we're continuing with a Fall/Winter Rookie League, and picking up again with Quickstart Rallyball and Junior Team Tennis. Look on the calendar or on the Junior bulletin board in the lobby for details. Finally, congratulations to Colby Jager, who got married in September.

Final Results:

Results [Top]

USTA results

Fall USTA League results as of September 15, 2010
Mixed 7.0 Doubles "Rice" 0-0
Mixed 7.0 Doubles "Gottfried" 0-0
Mixed 8.0 Doubles "Gottfried" 0-0
Mixed 8.0 Doubles "Schmitz" 0-0
Senior 3.0 Women's "Vajda" 0-0
Senior 3.5 Woman's "Shields" 0-0
Senior 3.5 Men's "Rice" 0-0
Senior 4.5 Woman's "Edinger" 0-0
Senior 4.5 Men's "Koski" 0-0
Super Senior 7.0 Men's "McDonald" 1-0

New Members / Substitute List [Top]

Looking for substitutes or new people to play? Please feel free to use these new members listed below to fill-in play times, or you can join our Timberhill Yahoo Group, check out our substitute listings in the TTC clubhouse, or check out our Web directory. Access to that involves a user and password.
User: ttc
Password: GaryandHunter
There are lots of ways to find other players as well as joining up to play in many of our programs. If you really get desperate for players you can always call or email Gary and he can help you out as well.