October 22, 2007

In attendance:

Racquet Den update

Society status

The Revelstoke Racquet Den is a legal entity as a society complete with a board of directors which includes:

Lease

The Revelstoke Racquet Den has a 2 year lease with Snow Valley Holdings with an option to renew for another year which provides us with fairly long term stability.  Snow Valley Holdings don’t seem to have any intentions of doing anything with this space as long as we continue to meet our obligations.

Membership

Our membership is doing well to date with 42 paid members currently with 6 more possible members joining this week.  The topic of abuse of the key system was discussed and while the key/key deposit system isn’t a perfect one for avoiding abuse, it is the best we have now.  The Revelstoke Racquet Den needs to challenge the abuse when it is encountered (conversationally, of course).

Financial report

Currently, we have adequate cash flow to get us through the next 5 months or so which leaves us with between $2K to $5K shortfall to get us through to September.  We need to raise more money with memberships to the point that we sufficient membership revenue to assure that rent obligations will be met each year.  We are selling annual memberships at the full rate expiring in September, 2008 until end of October.  After the end of October, we will pro-rate the sale of membership so that they will expire in September, 2008 as well.

Squash ladder

The squash ladder is going very well and everyone is encouraged to report the results of their matches.  Ladder activity will increase when the new members join up.  There are presently 28 ladder participants which will increase to 34 real soon.  Everyone agrees that the ladder seems to be working well.

There was a brief discussion about eye wear, in particular during ladder games.  The Revelstoke Racquet Den very strongly encourages the wearing of adequate eye protection.  There is a pair of glasses on the small table outside the squash court for those who don’t have any.  Kevin reiterated that if any member buys an iMask and doesn’t like it, the club will buy it from them.  So try the iMask and save your eyesight.

Squash Clinic

Very exciting news!

The squash clinic is to take to place on November 7^th with Brooke Siver from Kamloops coming here to Revelstoke.  He will be offering half hour lessons from 2 pm to 6 pm with groups of 2 or 3 players of a similar skill level for $10/person.  Then he will be offering a rules clinic at 6 pm at a cost of $5.00/person (this session is included in the lesson fee).  Finally, Brooke. will participate in our regular drop-in night from 8 pm to 10 pm.

Brooke is an equipment dealer and will have a variety of gear with him to demonstrate and sell.  Let Kevin know if you are interested in lessons or the rules session.

Racquetball Court Conversion

We currently have 38 squash members compared to 4 racquetball members and Kevin reports that he is getting lots of calls about converting the racquetball court into a squash court.  He warns that the Revelstoke Racquet Den will likely have to refund up to 4 memberships for the racquetball players.  He also suggests that the club might be able to make that money back by running one tournament involving two squash courts.

Dale felt that converting the racquetball court into a squash court might be short sighted in that we will be limiting the community to a single court sport while both sports are useful to the community.  Funding is available to get this conversion accomplished using a movable wall.  We need to further investigate gaming grants or CBT grants, but unless the club is going to exist for at least 5 years then we aren’t likely to see the benefits of installing a movable wall.

To convert the court without a movable wall involves a bit more money in materials and it should be remembered that moving the wall isn’t totally permanent as it can be replaced as easily as it can be moved initially.

The sliding mechanism costs $10K alone and there has to be an additional folding piece to fix up the empty wall space where the cinderblock wall fits into the existing back wall.  A custom solution would cost more yet.  Brooke has a company that builds courts so he can give us further advice when he arrives in Revelstoke.  Dale would like time to investigate further advice from more than just one supplier.

The point was made that the squash bookings are very busy so there is a need for the second court and that there is a greater potential to grow the club by having a second squash court and capitalizing on the momentum and the social aspect (drop in nights and tournaments) of club activity.

It was agreed that we don’t need to wait six more months to make a decision and that we should have another meeting some time around mid-November to revisit the decision to convert the racquetball court.  While Snow Valley Holdings won’t interfere with us renovating the courts and we are assured that we can take the wall with us if we moved to different premises, Kevin is less certain that our landlords would allow us to make serious structural changes to the courts. 

Due to the level of the bookings in the past couple of months, it was decided to move to a shorter court booking time of 45 minute between 6:00 pm to 9:15 pm.

Membership Drive / Fundraising

The big issue we are facing is how can we stimulate membership drive?  Suggestions included:

• incentives for members such as a free month or $25 credit toward your membership
• a fun tournament involving a guarantee of 3 games over a weekend including beverage and sandwich sales and a 50-50 draw
• a club dinner as a fundraiser
• a reduction in the lease cost to Snow Valley Holdings by the equivalent per centage area of the club as a tax deferment from the City of Revelstoke
• open the tournament to spectators to engender interest
• rent a glass court to show off the sport (in the middle of Mackenzie Avenue…for all to see…during Winterlude?)(may be too expensive)
• publish the results of the ladder in the newspaper to stimulate interest

Tournaments

The Revelstoke Racquet Den would like to have a couple of fun tournaments with one occurring before Xmas and one later in the early spring.  The most convenient date seems to be the Friday, November 30th to Sunday, December 2nd weekend. 

Other business

There will be a work weekend this Sunday, October 28, 2007 at 10:00 am to begin to spruce up the squash court.  The Revelstoke Racquet Den will be offering Troy and Jake Biggs a father/son membership in recognition of their contributions to the club.

It was determined that web based court booking software was not necessary presently since no one is having any difficulty with the Community Center booking system and Kevin assures us that they are not having any difficulty with booking the squash courts.  We need to think about how many courts can be booked at one time in the future, though it isn’t a common problem at this time.