USTA COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
COMMITTEE
Membership Services
CHAIRPERSON
Keith Collar
DATE/LOCATION September 7, 2009 USTA Semi-Annual Meeting – New York, New York
Committee Members in Attendance: Keith Collar, Chair; Sherry Beckman, Vice-Chair; Barrie
Markowitz, Staff Committee Member; Mark E. Saunders, Section Executive Director Liaison;
William S. Ballen, John J. Bregin, Ron Charron, Jacqueline Clark, Thanakom Duangmanee,
Roberta Feldman, Eddie A. Gonzalez, Jane M. Morrill, Jay A. Pfaender, William R. Schoen
Also in Attendance: Carol J. Welder, Board Liaison; Jay P. Hacker, Green Council Chair; Lee
Hamilton, Chair of Diversity Committee; Kathy Francis, Managing Director, Marketing; Gary Pina,
Schools Committee Chair; Sue Gregor, USTA JTT Committee Chair; David Haggerty, USTA
Board Member
Approximate number of observers: 40
Items Discussed Requiring Further Actions:
Previous Minutes
John Bregin made a motion that the minutes from the previous meeting be approved. Roberta
Feldman seconded the motion. Minutes were approved.
Membership Services Committee Focus
Keith Collar welcomed the committee members and reminded us of the context of the setting of
the work of our committee. He made three important points that bring to focus our committee’s
efforts.
 We care about and support our current members. Examples: USTA Membership Booth,
Membership Appreciation Days, Programs, and Benefits.
 We are working towards reaching and engaging new audiences by connecting our
membership recruitment efforts to the mission of the organization.
 We are working towards Increasing Junior Membership and involvement through
collaboration with the USTA Schools Committee and USTA Junior Team Tennis
Committee.
Future Action: Keep the focus in all the work we do. Emphasize the importance of teamwork
across committees to drive toward the organization’s highest priorities.
USTA Membership Overview and Membership Dues Update
Keith Collar summarized that during the first 1/3 of our term, we assessed and ultimately
supported the dues increase, which was approved by the Board this summer.
Barrie Markowitz reported that all Membership Reports would be posted on SharePoint rather
than take time in the meeting to review.
Future Action: Stay current on monthly reports; utilize SharePoint for analysis and discussion.
Call Item Postponement
The Committee had prepared a Call Item for consideration at the Semiannual Meeting. This
Call item would address a current inconsistency by changing Friend at Court such that a
Sectional Association would be able to run a tournament without purchasing an Organization
Membership. This raised a question as to whether District Associations and the other
subdivisions under Sectional Associations need an Organization Membership to run a sanctioned
tournament, which triggered a number of related issues. The committee, after review with
Constitution & Rules and with Staciellen Mischel, decided it would be best to withdraw the Call
Item at this time and revisit for the 2010 Annual Meeting.
Eddie Gonzalez made the motion to withdraw the Call Item. William Ballen seconded the motion.
Future Action: Develop the new Call Item by December 2009 for the 2010 Annual Meeting.
Membership Appreciation Day Report
Roberta Feldman gave the report from Membership Appreciation Day.
 Gift—Reusable lunch tote made from recycled bottles plus 6,000 bags of cookies
donated by Kraft.
 Stations available to members--Photo area, Wii, Pancho Segura Book signing, Steve
Furgall trips, USTA Serves Jewelry, Membership and tee shirt sales.
 There were more than 60 volunteers from 10 sections, 79 memberships were sold, 244
shirts and 43 books. There were more than 5,000 attendees.
 Final numbers will be reported at a future date as well as recommendations for 2010 to
improve traffic flow and all other aspects of the day.
Future Action: Engage in a full review of Membership Appreciation Day and seek future
opportunities.
Membership Booth Report
John Bregin gave the Membership Booth report for Renee Lemmerman, Booth Chair, who was
unable to attend the meeting. Dina Ingersole was present, as well.
 The results through Saturday for memberships sold—817—7.36% increase over last year
 2414 tees sold, 42% decline from last year.
 More than 70 volunteers are scheduled to work in the Membership Booth; 1/3 are new.
 Serena Williams Book signing
 Outer signage in front of booth and in the East Plaza as well as display window—all are
very professional.
 Air conditioning
 DVD loop highlighting the special membership offers is very informative.
 Carpet helpful for standing comfort for volunteers and staff.
 Smash Zone next door is driving traffic to us.
 Testing new lead generation ideas (dampeners and overgrips)
 The working managing staff at the booth consists of Cheryl Smigelski and Tom Fricano
who are both extremely knowledgeable and always helpful, with Erin McMannon as a
wonderful addition.
 The public has been friendlier.
 We are only giving the USTA Member pin for new members and renewals, not to
everyone who visits.
All this information will be reviewed and applied as we make plans for future years.
Future Action: Engage in a full review of the Membership Booth and seek future opportunities.
Liaison with the Community Tennis Committee, which is interested in having a table with
available information at next year’s booth. Consider collaborative opportunities with other
committees.
Youth Tennis
Kathy Francis, Managing Director, Marketing
Gary Pina, Chair, USTA Schools Committee
Sue Gregor, Chair, USTA Junior Team Tennis Committee
The Membership Services Committee subgroup including Keith Collar, George Duangmanee,
Jackie Clark and Roberta Feldman met earlier in the day with staff and committee chairs from
Marketing, Schools, and Junior Team Tennis to advance discussions on how we could
collaborate to drive growth in junior tennis, building on the initial success of the Quick Start
format.
Kathy Francis reported on a Youth Product Update including a completed market analysis
comparing tennis to other sports. She reported on various consumer issues:
 Kids want to play on a team.
 People are looking for a National Organization to drive the team.
 Parent involvement as coaches is a critical element to success in junior sports. We must
raise parent awareness of USTA and tennis. We will fail if we do not involve parents.
Kathy Francis further focused on the USTA as the National Organization and what we need to do
in order to successfully create the Youth Program that we all envision. There will be cross
functionality between Schools, Membership, Data Technology, Single Focus Youth CTA’s, and
partnering with youth oriented companies. The market research has further indicated that if we
provide a good value product, bundled with membership, and involving the parents by enhancing
the parent/child relationship through the program, it will work. Best practices such as the Midwest
Section Ace’s Kids Club was mentioned as an example.
Bylaws dictate that our initial 6 to 10 year old membership product will be presented as a test
product before it is put in place as a regular membership category. The Membership Department
is looking to break even financially with this product.
Future action: Advance concrete collaborative work that Membership Services, Schools, and
Junior Team Tennis can drive forward. Test market the 6 to 10 year old Membership Product and
develop the Youth Product of USTA Junior Team Tennis and Quick Start using all the research
completed.
Marketing Membership at the Grassroots Level
Sherry Beckman presented a Grassroots Guide for Membership Recruitment for Volunteers. This
guide was developed by the USTA Florida Volunteer Council to assist volunteers throughout the
section Recruit, Retain, and Renew USTA Members. The Guide was based on the research that
was presented at the USTA Member Services 2008 Semi Annual Meeting one year ago. The
Taylor Research and Consulting Group presented research that basically verified which benefits
triggered the “join” or “renew” response for various categories of USTA Members and Potential
Members. The Guide illustrates to the volunteer how to categorize which target market the
member or potential member belongs to and which benefits to present to trigger a positive join or
renewal response. In addition, the importance of the USTA Mission and local involvement cross
over all six categories of target markets.
Future Action: This Grassroots Guide for Membership Recruitment will be distributed to all
sections that request it and can be used throughout the sections as an aid in growing
membership in the field. Membership Services will seek to collaborate with the Learning and
Leadership Development Committee to share the resource throughout the organization.
Asian Festival
George Duangmanee presented the experience of an Asian Festival in Reston, Virginia that was
developed in partnership with a $50,000 Challenger event. Prior to the Asian Festival the event
attracted less than 200 people. With the addition of the event they had more than 65,000
attendees.
Future Action: The concept of adding this type of an event to a Pro Tournament Challenger event
exists throughout the Pro-Circuit. This is a tremendous opportunity to raise awareness of the
sport as well as recruit new members to the USTA. George mentioned the possibility of bringing
this event to one of the Challenger events in Florida.
In closing, we all agreed, there was much to do!