Dear NBPC Member,
It’s hard to believe that our 2024 season has already come to an end. It seems like just yesterday that we were squeegeeing off the courts in April and working hard to get the backlog of 2023 challenge-up sessions completed.
On reflection, I feel 2024 was a very successful season in a number of ways.
One obvious success was the introduction of our first evening sessions. These two evenings per week turned out to be very popular and your exec will no doubt consider requesting additional opportunities for evening play in 2025. Another success was the introduction of weekly Pairs sessions, which were very well-attended, plus the acquisition of a ball machine, which has been really useful for drilling.
Our three tournaments were all well-subscribed and participants indicated they had a lot of fun. Yes, there were a few glitches but no one can control the weather and I think our volunteers and organizers did an outstanding job in delivering on three completely different tournament styles. A special thanks to Linda Rann for her organization and on-court leadership and to Tim Rann for setting up and prepping the courts beforehand.
The Club’s weekly Skills and Drills Sessions also continued to be immensely popular. A very special thanks to Wade Dawe, our coach and player development leader. These sessions are one of the things that make NBPC truly unique.
In terms of the utilization of our Club’s allotted times, many of our weekly sessions were well-attended again this season, while other sessions (particularly those on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays) were less-well attended. I believe that the lower-attendance rate of some sessions is quite natural and is due to a number of factors, including that many of our members are only looking to play one or two times a week, and also that some of our members only play with our club occasionally (perhaps because we are not “home club”). Your exec is alive to this issue, and we will try to add some additional kinds of play formats in 2025 with a view to increasing the usage of our less-used times. If you have any suggestions which may help , please send them to the Club (via our nanoosebaypickleballclub@gmail.com website) for our consideration.
Your exec would like to take this opportunity to thank all our incredible volunteers that supported the Club through the year. In particular we wish to extend our deepest gratitude to our Group Coordinators that kept things running so smoothly on-court all season long.
Special thanks also to Lyle Evans, who set up and manages the Club’s website, and thanks to Gill Redpath, our SignUpGenius Coordinator. Gill, with assistance from Kelly Francis, was instrumental in keeping the playing opportunities and our communications happening all season long.
For those of you that didn’t make the fun tournament in late September, special awards were presented to Wade, Lyle and Gill for their outstanding support for the Club. These awards were unique ornamental pickleball paddles carved by Club member (and well-known Haida carver) Mike Bellis. They are truly one-of-a-kind gifts and are a fitting tribute to these three outstanding volunteers.
Your exec will be meeting soon with the Club’s Group Coordinators for a debrief on our 2024 season and to collect any suggestions they have for 2025. If you have any suggestions for the Club, please feel free to send them in to us (via the Club’s website).
2025 Season Membership Renewal Reminder: Just a reminder that you can now renew your membership for the Club’s 2025 season (which runs from April through September). To do this, please follow the following steps:
Ken Collingwood for NBPC