2010-2011 Terrace Adult Badminton Club Newsletter - Jan 4/2011

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Happy New Year and welcome to the continuation of the 2010/11 badminton season

This year the Clubs’ first night of the 2010/11 season was Sept. 21^st and finished up for the Xmas Break on Dec 16, 2010. We will continue from today (Jan. 4/11) through to mid -April meeting every Tuesday and Thursday (except school holidays) from 8:00-10:00 pm at Thornhill Junior Secondary School.

A successful first half of the season was the consensus by most and that is in large part thanks to the membership volunteers who support this great sport here in Terrace.

The club continues to maintain an elected Executive (brought back in 2005/6) in an effort to maintain a club like atmosphere. The Executive operates solely on volunteer time therefore its effectiveness is often tied to the dedication and availability of members. Our first club meeting was held September 9^th, 2010 and amongst the usual items on the agenda, discussion on the clubs direction was discussed as well as solidifying the 2010/11 Executive( shown below). The junior club started up (October 7^th), and once again has a strong membership (35) as well as a core group of volunteer coaches (5). Thank you to Ron, Herb, Surinder, Norm and Andrew for their continued efforts!

UPDATES:

To date the club has 20 full-time members (membership list now available) and an equal number of DROP-INS.

Vice-President Norm Parry applied for a Legacy Fund from the 2010 BC Winter Games. We await the outcome.

For those of you not yet aware it is now officially recognized that Thornhill Junior Secondary School is slated to be closed July 2012!

This has the potential to seriously affect the club’s future. A letter of support was provided by the Club to the School Board in hopes of keeping the school open and barring that; at least finding some means in which to keep the gymnasium available for the communities of Terrace and Thornhill to utilize. We will be pursuing this matter further in the upcoming months.

PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES:

To date the Executive has followed through on its commitment to hold several promotional activities including:

1) Continuation of the annual Black Knight sponsored ‘Knight to Remember’; where participants pay $10 to demo a variety of racquets while receiving a T-shirt and their names put in a draw for a free ‘high end’ racquet. Organizer Ron Julseth noted this year was the best attended so far with over 53 participants including most of the junior club! Black Knight charged $680 for this event and put up 2-racquets for the draw. The admission was purposely lowered to attract more people with the club pitching in the additional $150 owed.

2) November Doubles Tournament:

A successful, although perhaps smaller than average group participated in this tournament, due to some unfortunate scheduling conflicts and challenging road conditions which knocked out a number of contestants from Pr. Rupert & PG. A total of 20 players including several from Smithers and Kitimat did attend and a competitive tournament it was.

3) Christmas Turkey Tournament: This is perhaps the most participated in by Club members (if not attending other Xmas functions!) as it promotes everyone playing together regardless of calibre. 20 participated this year and fun was had by all. Five food vouchers were drawn out of the hat at its conclusion and a total of $70 dollars and a box of non-perishable food items were collected for the Terrace Food Bank.

4) Donation Gratefully received! Thanks to the generosity of one of our club members (… thanks MC!) we will be putting some additional funding towards promoting badminton here in Terrace. Our first effort will be to provide T-shirts to all junior & adult members (either already a member or who will be signing up in the New Year). Wear them around town!

MEMBERSHIPS: We encourage everyone to purchase season memberships which not only offers a significant saving to that of regular drop-in fees if you plan on coming out regularly, but also gives us more recognition as a viable club. The money collected goes towards paying for the gymnasium, plastic birds, tournaments etc. Membership dues remain the same as the 2009/10 season. Everyone playing badminton whether as a member or as a drop-in must initially purchase a $15 Badminton BC Membership to cover Executive liability etc. This offers you some BBC membership privileges and protects us as a club. If you haven’t done so already, please sign-up asap. You can go to the Badminton BC website ( www.badmintonbc.com ) to see the current membership list.

For those wanting to become fulltime members for the remainder of the 2010-11 season (Jan-April/11) we will offering memberships for & $65 (incl. BBC membership) for a limited time.

DROP-IN fees of $5.00 will remain in effect for those who can only come out on a part-time basis. Please sign-in each night. Drop-Ins must also pay a one time $15 BBC Membership fee. Please fill out registration form or go online to Badminton BC website.

NOTE: Memberships and drop-in fees are presently the only source of revenue for the club and allow us to pay the $15/hr or $60/week gym fee. The season runs from mid-Sept through to mid-April.

TOURNAMENTS: Several local and ‘out of town’ tournaments are scheduled throughout the remainder of the season which are open to all skill levels including the following confirmed date.

Our Annual season wind-up TERRACE OPEN TOURNAMENTS are confirmed for April 15^th 16^th, & 17^th and will include both the adult and junior tournament (PUT THIS DATE ON YOUR CALENDAR –it’s a lot of fun!). Combining these tournaments on the same weekend has proven effective in attracting ‘out of town’ teams to attend as well as to allow the juniors to participate and/or watch some of the adult play. Juniors will play Friday after school & evening and Saturday morning. Adults Saturday afternoon & Sunday. Dinner, trophies & prizes

There are several out of town tournaments coming up as well which some members have expressed interest in attending.

Provided there is enough interest we may try to attend at least one as a club. Four of upcoming interest are: Brentwood Masters Feb. 11-13, Victoria: BC Masters Prov. Championships Mar. 11-13, Vancouver: Ogopogoo Masters Mar. 25-27 Kelowna & North Central (PG) Mar.18-20 & North Central Junior Tournament May 13-15th.

CLUB OPERATING FORMAT:

It is still the general consensus that a continued effort must be made to try and attract new-members to the club. Because, the calibre of play ranges from beginner to advanced it is important to keep in mind that everyone should try to be included in play. That said, there will be times when pre-arranged ‘equal calibre’ match-ups are organized, at which point we ask for your patience and understanding. The emphasis is on playing Doubles whenever possible (lots of people etc.). That said, singles play is encouraged when court space permits.

Feather Birds can be pre-purchased (by the ‘tube’) from any of the Executive. A tube of birds contains 12 feather birds is sold for $24/tube. Typically one player provides a bird and the other player(s) pay 50 cents each (for Doubles or $1.00 for Singles) to the person providing the bird. Plastic Birds are provided free of charge.

New-Members: If you are a new player (‘in town’ or ‘out of town’) or new to the sport please introduce yourself at the start of the evening and we will do our best to find you a partner or hit the bird around with you. If you are a first-time beginner we will gladly give you some free instruction please ask and someone will be more than glad to give you some basic instruction which will undoubtedly allow you to enjoy the sport much sooner! If all else fails feel free, in fact we encourage you to approach others and ask for a game; don’t be Shy!

Please make sure you bring a separate pair of non-marking indoor running shoes to play in.

Ron Julseth (President) 635-3088
Norm Parry (Vice-President) 635-9422
Jane & Andrew Blix (Secretary/Treasurer) 635-0804
Harold Fedderson (Promotions) 635-3088Herb Resch (Advertising) 635-1454
Twyla Rudd & Tatiana T. (Food / Catering)