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The 89 th AGM of the Burnside Park Tennis Club, Incorporated Saturday, July 19th, 2014

The Burnside Park Tennis Club, Inc. - 89 th AGM July 19 th , 2014
ANNUAL PRESIDENT’S REPORT
I am happy to present my President ’s Report to this the 89th Annual General
Meeting of the Burnside Park Tennis Club, Inc. at the end of a typically active and orderly year’s activities. As most of you will know, my business commitments restrict my ability to spend as much time down at the Club as I would ideally like to, and I am deeply indebted to Lisa for her wonderful attention to the daily details of running a large organisation like ours. I wish to publicly thank her for her work as the friendly face of this Club, for her assistance to Robyn with the preparation of funding applications, and to Carol with the many and varied social activities undertaken this past year. Equally, Tony, Mary and of course Gareth depend a lot on Lisa for the smooth-running of their facets of the Club. She is our point of contact for communications from Canterbury Tennis and other service providers with whom we have regular dealings, and she always operates willingly and graciously. She has been a tremendous asset to this Club over the past six years, and it is with considerable regret that I advise that she has decided to accept a significant position with a leading local support organisation, and thus she will be resigning her full-time
BPTC Club Administration role when her contract expires at the end of this season.
The really good news is that we w on’t be losing her altogether, and she will be staying on as our part-time Secretary and as our Finance Administrator.
Management Committee Member, Matthew Clark will not be standing for re-election this year, as his day job has now become sufficiently demanding to compromise his time availability for the Club. Matthew has been a valuable contributor Club in the
Grounds and Property area, but he tells us that he will still be able and willing to help out as required, so we intend to keep him up to that. A big thank you to Matthew for his efforts as a Management Team Member for several years past.
This is my fifth Presidential report, and that is hard to believe – as the old saying goes “time flies when you’re having fun”. Working for and within this Club is very enjoyable, and I'm happy to offer myself to the Club for another year as President.
Perhaps the end of this up-coming year will see someone else stepping forward to take over. I did indicate last year that I would be happy to see a successor materialize, but that of course just hasn’t happened yet!
Our Management Team has made it relatively easy to ensure that things within our organization continue to happen on an orderly basis. My thanks to each and every one of the Management Team members for their attention to their duties and responsibilities, and for the considerable time they make available to the Club.
Looking at tennis regionally, despite substantial recovery from a lot of the difficulties imposed upon us by the earthquakes, many sports clubs are still looking at ways to stem erosion in their memberships, and, specifically on the tennis front, the muchvaunted FDT (Future Delivery of Tennis) report is still yet to receive any tangible attention from Canterbury Tennis.
The 89 th AGM of the Burnside Park Tennis Club, Incorporated Saturday, July 19th, 2014

As an individual Club, our endeavours to be more innovative in the structuring and pitching of our membership offerings remains a top priority, but we must remain ever mindful of the fact that we have large and expensive facilities which require instant
(and long-term) maintenance and progressive refurbishment. Thus, we must continue to try to induce optimal commercial use of our facilities, whilst making sure that we remain competitive with our Club subscriptions, avoiding too much focus on casual and fragmented subscriptions, which potentially create severe difficulties around cash-flow and sound financial planning. These are very fine lines to tread, but the disciplines are required if we are to remain sustainable as a long-term recreational organization and community service provider.
May I take this opportunity to thank everyone who has contributed to the success of our Club over these past twelve months. Especially our extremely valued sponsors
(who are listed at the end of the subsequent commentary document) along with our leading team of coaches headed up by BPTC Head Coach, Gareth Robb. Thank you all immensely. Thanks also to those who act for us in honorary capacities -
Brett Thompson (Auditor) and Ben Frampton (Solicitor), as well as our Vice
President, Bruce McDowell whose company (Tax Link) continues to provide extensive accountancy services to the Club, at no cost. With on-going help from people such as these, our Club will continue to remain in very good heart indeed.
The Burnside Park Tennis Club continues at the forefront of tennis governance and policy making in our region with three of our executive members on Regional boards. John Campbell and Bruce McDowell are members of the Canterbury Tennis board (with John due to finish his 3-year term at the up-coming Canterbury Tennis
AGM). The Club ’s Immediate Past President, Geoff Holgate is a member CT’s sister organisation, The Wilding Park Foundation board.
In accordance with the Rules of the Club, all Officers retire automatically at the end of the Club year, but remain eligible for re-election where they so desire. The existing Management Team (with the exception of Matthew Clark) has decided to offer itself to the Club once again as a collegial group. There having been no further written nominations for Officers or Committee members to be elected (and assuming there are no compelling nominations from the floor of the AGM), I shall declare all of those currently nominated as re-elected.
I’m very pleased to advise that our current Patron, Sir Richard Hadlee, has agreed to continue in that role, subject to his re-election at the AGM.
John Campbell
President
The 89 th AGM of the Burnside Park Tennis Club, Incorporated Saturday, July 19th, 2014

President’s COMMENTARY on the 2013/2014 Year at Burnside Park Tennis Club.
The ensuing commentary consists of an integration of reports from various section leaders within the Club, around activities over the past 12 months. Their reports are interlaced with continuity material throughout.
Members have continued to indicate that they enjoy this approach, and thus the format is being continued.
A Club’s success from year to year is no different from any champion’s situation – we are only as good as our last match (figuratively this means our last Club
Season), and it is difficult to maintain a quality product in a changing environment such as the current afterquake “club land”. BPTC has, along with the majority of
Club’s in our region, experienced a reduction in our overall membership, but we remain in a sound position financially, with an earthquake remediation programme about to start. This will involve the repair and re-surfacing of all of our hard courts, and a much awaited refurbishment of our perimeter fences (thanks to Brian Harris who brought this up at last year’s AGM, and picked up the challenge offered to him).
As at the writing of this report, we feel we are close to settling our insurance claim for earthquake related damage to our courts after a considerable period of discussion and negotiation with the assessors appointed by our insurers. We are hopeful that an acceptable outcome will be able to be announced at the AGM.
Some considerable time after our claim was lodged for court damages to all our hard courts, the Club received an indication from our insurers that they had instructed a particular contractor to effect repairs (albeit without consultation with the Club).
Despite immediately requesting details of those repairs, and considerable on-going pressure to firm up a time for them to be undertaken, the Club received a copy of the potential contractor’s quote, accompanied by Terms and Conditions of engagement.
Unfortunately, there was very little if any indication of specific repair methodology, and furthermore, the potential contractor specifically excluded any guarantee of future integrity of repairs , citing possible further “ground movements” and confining guarantees to materials and workmanship. As disclosed previously, the Club had concerns about the substrate to Court 8 in particular, and felt that it was prudent to ensure that any repairs would be sound for a reasonable period after completion.
The Club solicited additional quotes with this outcome in mind, and both sides have now moved to what may finally be acceptable positions.
We have been able to capitalise on the improvement of our bar and canteen facilities, and this continues to enhance our social income, and afford members the opportunity to engage with one another in a comfortable environment. As Carol mentions in her report (below), The Captain’s Table has become a popular event after a good day’s Saturday tennis.
Our annual sponsorship initiative , which has become a critical part of our financial well-being, was unfortunately let slip this past year, and a satisfactory result was only achieved with a last minute flurry of spontaneous activity. We must not lose sight of the importance of sponsors to our financial well-being, and members are encouraged to actively and consciously support existing sponsors to the fullest possible extent – without these generous people we would need to go to our grassroots with increases in subscriptions and other measures which may dilute the Club experience for the majority.
The 89 th AGM of the Burnside Park Tennis Club, Incorporated Saturday, July 19th, 2014

Our Monday Business House competition , (which is run by Bruce McDowell and
Ben Frampton) continues to be another very important part of our annual revenue generation.
Club finances are carefully monitored , managed and reported on by Lisa Barnes, with Ben (Treasurer) and Bruce (Chairman of Finance), accepting responsibility for the state-of-the-Club, all the way through to completion and final audit by Brett
Thompson, our Honorary Auditor. The Club greatly appreciates the work done in our financial area, and acknowledges the thoroughness of our processes.
Just a reminder to all members, to ensure that you keep yourselves fully up to date with your Management Team’s month-to-month running of your Club, by referring to the notice board where the minutes of the previous month’s Management Meeting are displayed - after having been approved as a true and correct record of the business which was transacted at that particular meeting.
Social Convenor, Carol Manihera reports that “our social calendar has lacked its usual spark this past year, but we still seem to be busy. The pre-Christmas
Champagne and Strawberries fun tournament held on Saturday December 21 st was spoilt by the inclement weather, which ensured that everyone was more than happy to proceed upstairs to nibble and imbibe. Lucille Ibbitt was the lucky, popular winner on the day, taking home a bottle of bubbly for her effort. The Captain ’s Table, which continues to expand, enjoyed an afternoon with Peter Caulton at the end of February prior to his Johnny Cash Tribute performance at Flaxwood Festival. Peter has an ease with the music of Johnny Cash rarely found in an artist, which makes it understandable how he has made a living performing overseas for 25 years. He has certainly raised the bar on entertainment at the Captain’s Table! The Interclub
Teams Dinner held on Friday March 14 th was a great success thanks to Gareth and
Lisa. At $20.00 a ticket this bought us a delicious Thai meal and 2 drinks from the bar. Mixing socially with the younger members of our club was certainly the highlight of the evening. Mary organised a Pot Luck Dinner and Movie Night on Friday March
28 th , to watch the movie “Once”, an Irish musical. Those who attended really enjoyed the evening. We have found the weather to be less than ‘tennis-like’ twice this year, when we arranged trips to Kaiapoi to defend our AFTERSHOCK trophy.
Our third attempt resulted in Kaiapoi defaulting due to a lack of players available on the day. For those of us lucky enough to be involved, the social highlight of the last season was the Labour Weekend trip to the Bay of Islands. It was super to be hosted by our ex Club Captain, Gary Sherwood and his wife Jocelyn, at the motels they manage in Paihia, and to enjoy meeting up once again with Alyn and Jaki
George, who are now happily settled in Kerikeri. Our games were played at the
Waipapa Club, just out of Kerikeri, and we found it very interesting to learn how another club is organised, especially as their social tennis is played in groups of people of similar ability, so most of the players never get to know all their fellow club members, and they were delighted to meet more of them during our visit! We look forward to another socially enjoyable year ahead.
”
As well as our Social Convenor, Carol is also our Saturday Captain , and we thank her very much for her enthusiasm and dedication to her roles. She is never afraid to
The 89 th AGM of the Burnside Park Tennis Club, Incorporated Saturday, July 19th, 2014

chase down interlopers (regardless of size), or in fact anyone at all who omits to pay their court fees when visiting us for casual play. This is something we should all be monitoring by inspecting shoe-tags which verify current membership. It is very unfair of nonmembers to expect to utilise our facilities for free. We don’t have to be abrasive towards non-members, but we do owe it to ourselves to ensure that they abide by our rules and pay their contribution towards the maintenance of our wonderful facilities.
Lisa and Gareth have worked well together to ensure that our Juniors have a great playing experience at our Club, and they report that ….
“We held our Junior Opening Day on 7 September 7 th , 2013, which was also the start of our Saturday morning Learn To Play programme, which provides an opportunity to assess players who are interested in playing InterClub for the first time. We had 58 young junior members participating in the Learn To Play programme by the end of the season, and we were very fortunate with the weather, with no Saturday mornings being cancelled throughout the entire season.
The InterClub Season got underway on October 18 th and 19 th , with 19 boys teams and 9 girls teams registered. This was the second season using the InterClub
Handbook and the on-line entering of results, and it was much improved over the previous season. After the Christmas break we identified a group of girls that were keen to participate in InterClub for the second half of the season, so we added another girls ’ team. All these teams get 1 hours coaching per week with their particular coach. This is a great way to get them together as a team before their matches, and for them to learn the game of tennis with a big emphasis on technique.
These training are on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays each season to avoid lessons being interrupted by Public Holidays and Friday Night InterClub which require the availability of Club courts to operate. We had five teams that played in finals this season, and whilst this was lower than in previous years, it was because we placed many of our teams into higher grades to make sure they had extremely tough games each week. This gave our players some valuable experience, and the final results were:
WINNERS:
Boys Challenger 1 Red Boys 12s Div 1 Red
RUNNERS-UP:
Girls Senior Satellite Div 2 Boys 11s Div 3 Gold Girls Challenger Reserve
We held our Junior Club Champs on March 22 nd , which was a Saturday, starting after 4:00pm, and was a really enjoyable afternoon/evening. Our numbers were good, and everyone enjoyed the BBQ and social aspect of the tournament. With a new on-line entry form available now we will look to build the numbers of this tournament up.
We also held a Parent and Child Tournament on Sunday April 6 th . The weather wasn’t looking promising, but fortunately improved enough for us to run the
The 89 th AGM of the Burnside Park Tennis Club, Incorporated Saturday, July 19th, 2014

tournament, and it turned out to be a really fun day. The numbers we had for this were ideal, and everyone really enjoyed themselves.
This year, holiday programmes featured heavily in our junior calendar, to encourage non-members from the various schools around BPTC to try tennis and see if it is the sport from them. It is also aimed at our membership base and tends to be very busy leading into Christmas. This year we decided not to offer a program in July as weather plays a big part in cancellations and numbers are usually low, this coupled with the fact that a big part of our coaching team heads off to Thailand, with some junior players to train and experience the culture.
Our EPS Program continues to be a big part of BPTC . We continue to have 15 or so competitive players who are part of the EPS Programme. These children have been playing tournaments regularly and will look to serve the Club well in the
InterClub season. This group travels away together around South Island tournaments 2 or 3 times a year. The tournament matches are where we see valuable experience with the top players around the South Island. These players ’ training schedules range from a low 4 hours a week to about 12 hours a week for the more dedicated ones. The ages of these players range from 9 through to 16 and are at different levels in their development.
We continue to look to take our EPS group on trips to various tournaments for match play, and this year we went to the Nelson Junior Open 2014. This was another fun trip away for the 11 dedicated tournament players. We all stayed together across the road from the courts and had 2 days of solid tennis. BPTC players performed well throughout the long weekend and really enjoyed the team spirit that they were surrounded with.
We strive to always have a strong contingent of Junior players playing in Senior
InterClub teams. This is great for their tennis and allows them to play against players who hit the ball differently and bring a lot of strategy to the game, making them think a bit more on the court, as good shots alone won't win matches against these cunning players. We are still aiming to have the majority of each senior team made up of senior players, as that is why it ’s there and it’s important to keep the social side of the game alive.
Easi-Tennis (adult coaching) continues to be a success with numbers staying strong. It has been running well now for the past 3 years with new people joining each term. We have kept it going for all 4 of the school terms to keep continuity and it is run at the same day and time each term so everyone knows the schedule. The program is designed for adults who want to learn the basics of tennis in a friendly environment, and at the same time raising their heart-rate and getting a good work out. There are a few Easi-Tennis players who have started participating in organised play on Saturday afternoon at the Club. This is a good stepping stone for them. The ultimate aim is to get Easi-Tennis players to a level where they feel comfortable enough to join the Club and come down with friends and family as often as they like and take advantage of the great facilities at BPTC, while also participating in Club days.
The 89 th AGM of the Burnside Park Tennis Club, Incorporated Saturday, July 19th, 2014

Unfortunately the Thump Sports Pro Shop has proven itself to be unsustainable in its pure form as an in-Club Pro Shop. This is quite simply down to the expense of staffing the facility extensively (but not always at the precise times when members wanted service), plus a lack of commitment from Senior Members, who would exercise their right of choice to shop with their more traditional suppliers (who ironically do little if anything to support our Club financially). The fact that members often chose to impose on Thump’s good will by taking up the opportunity to trial equipment before moving out to the wider market to bargain for better discounts is disappointing. Surely we all understand that the best “deals” are struck when the buyer is waving banknotes, and not just tyre-kicking to leverage a better deal somewhere else. It’s such a shame that people don’t always have the inclination (or ability) to see the bigger picture in this particular case. The Pro Shop will continue in a stripped down format, with support from Gareth Robb and Club coaches.
The much vaunted FDT Report commissioned by Canterbury Tennis and jointly funded by Canterbury Tennis and Sport Canterbury has gone nowhere up until this point, but it is understood that a new consultative process has been initiated, and some details of the extensive FDT Report may be addressed in the future, if they continue to be foremost in the minds of Canterbury Tennis stakeholders. With the settlement of its outstanding insurance claim, and Business Interruption Insurance,
Canterbury Tennis has moved to reinstate some of its damaged facilities at Wilding
Park, as it considers its future shape, location and extent of facilities provision.
BPTC’s representatives on the Canterbury Tennis board (John Campbell and Bruce
McDowell) are strongly advocating a zero affiliation fee model for the future as
Canterbury Tennis now operates in a debt-free environment.
In our endeavours to maintain the best possible environment and facilities for our members, we continue to receive a wonderful level of support from our very generous and loyal sponsors. Without these contributions we would struggle to provide the levels of services expected within an organisation such as ours, so our sincere thanks go out to our sponsors. Similarly we must thank our charitable supporters who continually provide us with grants to support our Club activities and aspirations. All our supporting organisations are shown at the back of the AGM documentation as well as on the "Sponsors" page of our website. Whilst we do not disclose individual levels of sponsorship, we do report our successes with respect to charitable grants applications, and this year we gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Pub Charity who kindly sponsored tennis balls again this year.
Our Club Captain , Tony Simons congratulates all the BPTC teams who took part in the 2013/2014 InterClub competition and specially thanks those who were appointed to take on ‘Team Captain’ responsibilities; communicating and liaising with team members and taking responsibility for entering results.
Tony points out that … “As in previous years some teams struggled to make up their numbers at times, after team members became suddenly unavailable. Next season the Club intends to make it much clearer to all those players who sign up to play
InterClub, that they are agreeing to be available to play in every scheduled match as
The 89 th AGM of the Burnside Park Tennis Club, Incorporated Saturday, July 19th, 2014

required, and if they can’t they must take personal responsibility for finding a replacement. It’s a little too much to expect team captains to constantly shoulder this responsibility on their own.
10 teams took part in the InterClub competition, up to and including our Premier
Women’s team which finished a highly creditable 2nd in pool play, and won the semi-final against Waimairi. Our application to have the final rescheduled (due to player unavailability) was unfortunately declined and, after a lengthy legal battle with various levels of the Judiciary, the title was ultimately awarded to Hagley without the final being played. It was a process we hope Canterbury Tennis will learn from so the same regrettable outcome can never be repeated.
Congratulations to all our players for representing the club so creditably, and special congratulations to our winning Burnside Park teams …..
• Div 1 Men’s was first after pool play with Te Kura taking the final.
• Div 3 Mixed ‘Team Dollin’ finished 2nd and ‘Team Reddy’ finished 3rd
• Div 4 Mixed finished 2nd
• Div 1 Men ended up 4th in pool play losing the semi-final to Cashmere
• Div 2 Women’s finished 4th with Beckenham taking the final.
Mid-Week Tennis Captain, Mary Dollin reports …. “the season opened on Thursday
September 4 th with approximately 30 members attending. Gordon Armstrong hit the first ball for the season declaring the season open. Mid-Week members have played on both Tuesday and Thursday mornings throughout the year, although at times the rather wet season has disrupted this. Attendance is very steady on both days with usually 4 or 5 courts in use on Tuesdays and often 6 or 7 in use on
Thursdays. Marie Armstrong suffered a severe heart attack and was temporarily unable to care for Gordon. We all miss him as he has been a Club icon for such a long time.
The Christmas lunch was held on Thursday December 12 th following play, and several of our Social and Life members joined us as well as Bruce McDowell (Club
Vice-President). Many members expressed that they were delighted that Bruce had been able to come along in his capacity. Our choir, once again organized by Peter
Rowe, led the carol singing which was enjoyed by everyone present. This year we replaced printed song sheets with the words up on the TV screen for everyone to see, and this seemed to be an innovative and popular move. We thank Michael Ellis who was gladly received as he distributed gifts, dressed as Father Christmas. Two large boxes of groceries were collected and donated to the City Mission. Hamish and Alison Wilson took care of this task on behalf of the club. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed a shared lunch and a good old chat.
A pot luck dinner followed by a movie was enjoyed by about 18 people on a Friday evening at the end of March. This was open to all club members but was mostly patronised by Mid-Week players. Members and their partners appreciated the opportunity to get together informally to chat and to enjoy refreshments from the bar.
Feedback has been positive and some members would like to repeat this at some
The 89 th AGM of the Burnside Park Tennis Club, Incorporated Saturday, July 19th, 2014

time in the future. Unfortunately the weather was not kind to us and the planned
Easter Yankee Tournament had to be cancelled.
Mid-Week InterClub continued as previously throughout the summer season as we played various clubs around Christchurch. We had only one team competing but we would really like to attract some new players to be part of this team next season.
At the time of writing this report, a Winter Lunch was to be held on Friday July 18 th
Patterson’s Restaurant, Airport Commodore Hotel in Memorial Avenue. As our
at major sponsor, Pattersons are always very generous benefactors of our club, and we are glad to be able to support them on this occasion. Social and Life members have been phoned and invited to attend, and interest is good. A group of between
25 and 30 was expected to come along to this event.
Thanks to Mid-Week sub-committee members - Lucille Ibbitt, Colene Vincent,
Rhonda Ding, Peter Rowe, Judy Fitzgerald, John Lamb, Ellen Harris, and Vivienne
Marshall for opening-up and locking-up the club rooms each day of organized play.
Indeed thanks to everyone who has taken a turn on the roster and helped out with making announcements when I have not been able to be present.
”
Robyn Campbell is our Grounds and Property Convenor , Grants Convenor and
Club Almoner. She is always attentive to the Club and its well-being, and of course easily recognized around the complex as the first to grab a broom when needed.
Being an exPresident she is highly aware of all aspects of the Club’s activities, and we thank her most sincerely for all her continuing good work. This past year there have again been a number of Working Bees, and these have been a great success due to a wonderful response from all members - it was particularly gratifying to see the attendance of Junior Players and their parents (Gareth is acknowledged for his encouragement within this division). It is the Management Team’s intention that once we have received our insurance payout for the repairs to Courts 1, 2, 3, 8, 9 and 10, we will engage a contractor and on completion of this task we will proceed to repair/renew our fencing as required. Thank you to Brian Harris for his input/negotiation around the fencing to date. A special thank you to the following members who have greatly assisted with Grounds and Property: Hamish Wilson,
Matthew Clark, Lisa Barnes, David Mitchell, John Campbell and Lolita Jellyman.
As Almoner , this has been another busy 12 months of extending the Club ’s outreach and compassion to members and their families as and when required.
Grants Applications were sent for consideration to both The Lion Foundation and
Pub Charity for financial assistance in the purchase of our annual tennis ball quota.
Pub Charity responded by granting us $2,000.00. The Lion Foundation declined - this being our first ever rejection from them. No doubt a sign of the times.
--- ends ---
The 89 th AGM of the Burnside Park Tennis Club, Incorporated Saturday, July 19th, 2014

We would like to thank ALL our sponsors for their generosity and valued support, and more especially the following - who are our major sponsors …..
If it were not for the generosity and support of sponsors like these, it would be extremely difficult for the Club to maintain the very high membership and tournament standards we have set, so …..
The 89 th AGM of the Burnside Park Tennis Club, Incorporated Saturday, July 19th, 2014