The 2023 Bendigo Tennis Club Inc. AGM is to be held at the Bendigo RSL and virtually on Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023 @ 7:00pm.
The purpose of the meeting is to:
- Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held 5 October 2022;
- President’s annual report on the activities of Club;
- Financial statements of the Club for the 2022/23 financial year;
- Election of members of the Committee for the positions of President, Vice President,
- Secretary, Treasurer and general committee members;
- General Business
Meeting Minutes
A copy of the minutes can be found here
BTC Financials 2022/2023
Download the BTC Financials 22/23 here
Download the Treasurer report for the BTC 22/23 financials here
President Report
President Report Bendigo Tennis Club (BTC) AGM 2023 – Damien Saunder
WELCOME
Our 2022/23 season could not have gone better. Central Victoria’s newest tennis club continued to build on the momentum from its previous year and the CoM are very much looking forward to another bumper tennis season. The committee, its members and supporters should all be congratulated.
Our membership increased by 29% this year, from 117 members at our AGM in 2022 to 151 fully paid members at this year’s AGM. What an achievement!! The breakdown of our membership is as follows:
- 22% of our members identify as Female
- 78% of our members identify as Male
- 11% of our members are Juniors
As you know, the BTC began as a seed amongst a Men’s social group who played on Thursday nights at the BRTC. In just three years we’re starting to see a more diverse membership with Females making up 22% of our membership alongside continued junior growth, thanks to Breeze Tennis Academy. Of course we can do more, and we will.
WOMEN IN TENNIS
Tonight, I’m excited to announce that the Bendigo Tennis Club and Breeze Tennis Academy is committing to recruit women into tennis by investing $15,000 over the next 3 years into a program that will target women (aged 18+). I can’t give too much away right now, but stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks about the program.
STRATEGIC PILLARS
The Women in Tennis program is off the back of a set of strategic pillars that the CoM of the BTC drafted and put forward for consideration at its most recent committee meeting. Once adopted, these pillars will provide areas of focus for the club over the next three years.
The Priority 1 Pillars being proposed are based around “Facility”, “Women in Tennis”, “Junior Development” and “Coaching”.
The club also identified ongoing priorities around, “Play”, “Membership”, “Finance and Sponsorship”, “Governance”, “Marketing” and “Off Court” social activities. More details regarding the Strategic Pillars can be viewed on the club’s website once formally adopted by the CoM of the BTC
SUMMER TENNIS
Last Summer our club made up over 30% of the teams playing in Saturday Senior Pennant, a significant achievement for a club in its infancy. Our A grade team made the semi-finals, while the BTC Stingers took out the B-Grade competition, plus a number of BTC players were included in the ‘player of the year’ teams. The club will again this year field an A Grade Pennant team in conjunction with Spring Gully TC, plus one B Grade team. We will again be fielding 5 junior teams again this year, in conjunction with Spring Gully TC and Strathfieldsaye TC, playing across the girls and boys divisions. Recent changes to the Senior and Junior playing format implemented by the Association have made fielding teams challenging this year for all clubs, but we’re pleased to still be able to provide these playing opportunities to our members given the circumstances.
MID WEEK TENNIS
Our mid weeks numbers continue to shine with the tight-knit Thursday Open group of approximately 45 players turning up each week to battle it out for bragging rights both on and off the court. The club continues to support 2 teams in Wednesday night mixed competition which is a great social night for everyone.
CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS
The club once again saw a hotly contested Single Club Championship competition with 30 players spread across two divisions. The final results were as follows:
Division 2 Singles Final
- Sean Penno defeated Chris Lloyd
Division 1 Singles Final
- Simon Baker defeated Michael Smyth
We changed the format and timing of our Doubles Club Championship this year, and it appeared to be a raging success with 20 pairs entered. It was played over a Fri night/Saturday (day) and was held the weekend after the Pennant finals. The club intends to lock in this time slot for future years. We will also roll the club’s end of season party into the finale of the Doubles Club Championship. The doubles final was won by Simon Baker and Aaron Stewart who defeated the father/daughter combination of Terry Smith and Tova Penno. We congratulate all players for battling it out this year, and salute our Club Champions.
COACHING
Breeze TA continues to offer group and private lessons for our juniors and adult members as well as conducting numerous Holiday Camps and Hotshot Match play day tournaments at the Bendigo RSL courts. Breeze TA also offers Adult Cardio Tennis for persons of all abilities. Breeze TA continues to be involved as a coach in Victorian team for the 12/u Bruce Cup and 18/u Pizzey Cup, as well being employed by Tennis Australia to as Head coach of its regional 12/u zone squad. Finally, if you haven’t picked yourself up a Breeze TA beanie for the winter months you should!
In conjunction with Breeze TA the club hosted its annual Come and Try at the Bendigo RSL in early September with over 40 kids attending throughout the morning. The smile and joy seeing so many kids try tennis for the first time was priceless. We’re pleased to share that Bree had a bunch of emails in her inbox on the following Monday morning seeking to learn more about the coaching programs on offer.
FINANCIALS
The BTC experienced a second year of profitability and the closing cash at bank balance is $10,026. Rather then repeat the numbers reported by our Treasurer, Brad Harris, I recommend that for more detail on the finances of the club please see the Treasurer’s Report hosted on the club’s website here and here.
SOCIAL MEDIA & MARKETING
Our social media engagement rates continue to outperform market expectations with the club experiencing an average of 100 views on our Facebooks posts. That group now contains 196 members, up 32% on last year, while our Instagram followers has grown swiftly to 274, up 23% on last year. These two platforms continue to provide the club with endless possibilities to engage with its members and the greater tennis community. WhatsApp continues to provide a fast and effective way to share important club information and provides an entertaining platform for many to socialise with our members or find a hitting partner. In the coming weeks the club will also be releasing its first Social Media Policy to protect and educate its members and to promote and encourage the appropriate use of Social Media by BTC members.
SPONSORS
To our sponsors (in no particular order), Bendigo RSL, Kebab Run, Grant Rule Men’s and Ladies Fashion, Brylie Jayne Injectable, Dynamic Health & Sports Osteo, Favourite Flavours, Monotti & Hope Lawyers, Maher Real Estate and Notts Timber Design, thank-you for your continued support.
IN THE COMMUNITY
The club remains committed to supporting groups within the community who may not normally have the opportunity to experience tennis, and the club is once again looking for partners to support another “Big Shots” programs which provides 6 x 1 hour free school tennis lessons by Coach Bree Smith.
OUR COMMITTEE – THANK YOU
To our committee, VP, Chris Lloyd, Secretary, Craig Stubbings, Treasurer Brad Harris, and General Committee Members, Barry Ward and Bree Smith. Congratulations and thank-you on helping getting the club to where it is today. To Hamish Hope, your continued advice in dealing with complex issues has been invaluable. To everyone else who has been providing support in the background, thank-you also. To our 151 members, thank-you for spreading the word and bringing more wonderful people into the club this year. The club continues to go from strength to strength and you’re an enormous reason for its success.
SEEKING VOLUNTEERS
If you would like to get more involved in the BTC then please reach out to express your interest in joining the Committee or taking on one of our volunteer roles. The club is growing at a rapid pace and there are plenty of fun things to get involved in going forward.
CLOSING REMARKS
The club remains committed to strengthening the club on and off the court, and will continue to provide flexible playing opportunities and evenly graded teams for everyone, and we mean everyone.
More broadly, the committee and its members continue to work hard to encourage the local tennis community, and its Association to be more open to thinking differently about some of the old problems at hand. We hope to continue to be able to have open, transparent and constructive debates with key stakeholders and other club’s about what’s best for tennis in Bendigo. These discussions will provide important opportunities to learn other points of view and drive progress forward.
Finally, we will continue to lay the foundation of a great club for many generations to come, and the Committee are very much looking forward to creating many more memorable moments on and off the court.