News
Minutes from August 2011 meeting
2/28/2012
LADIES INTERCLUB TENNIS LEAGUE
GENERAL MEETING
AUGUST 29, 2011
President Vicky Marty called the meeting to order at 9:40 a.m.
Vicky welcomed everyone and introduced the Officers who were in attendance: Annemarie Wilson; Nan Rhodes, Paulette Gardner, Dee Carroll, Betty Austin, and Sherry Butler. Vicky then gave the Level Coordinators, Club Reps, and Captains in attendance the opportunity to introduce themselves and tell which club/facility they were representing.
REPORTS:
Vicky reported on topics discussed at the Officer’s Meeting held on July 26, 2011.
Those topics included:
(1) Banner headlines have been placed on the LITL website. Officers discussed what guidelines should be followed regarding what to put up. Officers accepted the suggestion to women’s tennis related postings.
(2) Traveling Teams Policy – Officers restated a policy for alleviation of court crowding. A majority of players on a traveling team need to live out of town. In investigating a question concerning one team, the Board learned the team has been adhering to its club membership policies and a substantial majority of team members were from out-of-town. Interclub does not monitor individual membership procedures.
(3) Players competing above/below their level – LITL will monitor players/teams who participate above/below level and encourage movement when appropriate. The 85% Rule covers players who need to move. Starting in Fall 2011 Doubles Only players will be evaluated by the number of matches won rather than by sets. The Ethics Committee will continue to calculate Regular Division statistics by sets.
(4) Discussion about 5.0 problems for top teams with nowhere to go – Teams are already ranked from top to bottom in three levels to provide more even competition. The addition of a new team at the top should make competition more interesting in Division I.
(5) Substitute Rules – A captain asked LITL to change to allow a player the ability to sub three times per season rather than two. Officers agreed that there was not enough interest to change the rule.
Sherry Butler, Secretary, called for a motion to approve the February 22, 2011 minutes, as posted on the website. Patsy Cate of Vestavia made the motion, which was seconded by Mary Shelton of Trussville Racquet Club. The minutes were approved by a unanimous vote. Sherry then called roll. The Clubs not represented were Greystone Country Club, Inverness Country Club, Lakeshore Tennis Academy, Mountain Brook Country Club and Old Overton Club.
Nan Rhodes, Treasurer, reported that as of August 29, 2011, the balance in the LITL account is $12,144.33, and the balance in the Susan Briggs account is $5,702.17.
Annemarie Wilson, V.P., Scheduling, reported on the scheduling day that was held at her home on August 26, 2011. She thanked the following ladies who helped with the scheduling: Patti Porter, Paulette Gardner, Sherry Butler, Betty Austin, Kathleen Dunn, Mary Shelton, Vicky Martin, and Carla Talley. Annemarie also gave a special thank-you to Nancy Thomas for proof-reading. It was reported that we have 84 Doubles Only teams, and 8 Regular Division teams (three 3.5 teams and five 5.0 teams) for a grand total of 92 teams participating in Fall LITL. Fall season begins on September 6, 2011.
Annemarie also reported for the Ethics Committee:
(1) The Ethics Committee received 14 move-down requests. Most of the requests came from a team that can no longer support a 5.0 team
(2) There was a problem with teams forfeiting entire matches. Captains should be made aware that you cannot forfeit an entire match and before giving the opponent three make-up dates they should first ascertain that their own team is available.
(3) The 75% Matches/85% Stats letters have gone out. The Committee tries to monitor this closely, but reserves the right to examine individual players who make stats but did not play 75% of the matches scheduled.
(4) It is acceptable to send a move-down request by email. You can use the official form but email is much quicker for all involved.
Betty Austin gave a report on the 2011 Susan Briggs Tournament. She began handing out entry forms and scholarship applications to all Club Reps to take back to their club/facility. The date has changed because of conflicts with the Highland Racquet facility and the Super Seniors Sectionals. The new dates will be October 17-19, 2011, with October 20-22 reserved for rainout days. The money collected for “Mulligans” and “Aces” proved to be a huge success in raising more scholarship money. This will be used again in the 2011 tournament. Betty stated that if anyone needed more applications to contact her and she will see that you receive them. Vicky stated that she will be contacting the Club Reps regarding door prizes.
Vicky gave an Internet Report for Nancy Thomas, V.P., Database Administrator.
She reported that we are aware of the intermittent down-time for the website. She is checking to see what type of contract we have. It was stated that the Susan Briggs Tournament will have its own website to hopefully avoid problems with down-time.
OLD BUSINESS:
Annemarie explained the Substitute rule. A player from any lower level team may substitute. If the player is rostered for a particular club, she may only substitute for that club. A player rostered on a lower level team may sub for the higher level team twice. If the rostered player subs a third time for the same team, she automatically becomes a member of that team and any matches played for another team prior to that will be forfeited. Captains should make sure any subs are listed on their player list before a match. If not, the level coordinator should be contacted to have the sub’s information entered on the website.
NEW BUSINESS:
Vicky asked the ladies to break into small groups to discuss the following questions: (1) Should LITL change its levels to mirror USTA? (2) How important is it to enforce level play? Are we social? Competitive? (3) How should LITL use banners for tennis promotion? and (4) How might LITL encourage large Doubles Only teams to participate in Regular Division play? A vigorous discussion followed.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
It was brought to our attention that there was a typo in the “Match Day Helper” sheet regarding time of play for the Regular Division. Vicky said she would email a corrected copy to the Club Reps.
Mary Shelton has developed a new Doubles Only Score Sheet which can now be found on the website.
Vicky recommended the USTA booklet Friends of the Court as a good reference book for every Captain.
In closing, it was stated that Captains should be encouraged to appoint an acting captain when they are unable to attend a match. The appointed captain should stay and make sure all scores are correct before leaving the site and as a courtesy, a captain might notify the opposing captain if there is to be a change from the normal cour
