Dear Member - click the newsletter title to read articles on:

Facebook Coordinator Needed	Rating Clinics Open for Registration
Welcome New Coordinators	January Stats

Always check the website calendar for the most updated play information. See also our SAPC Facebook site for any last minute notices. 

Facebook Coordinator Needed

Our club members make good use our Facebook site to connect with each other, communicate with each other about club and pickleball-related activities, and post club-related photos.  We are better connected and more engaged through Facebook.

The Facebook Coordinator's job is simply to:

• periodically review content to ensure it meets the club's suitability requirements, and
• review and approve about 1 or 2 requests per week from members to join our closed Facebook group.

No Facebook experience is needed -- we will show you the steps needed to look up members, approve join requests, and review content. Please join our large and expanding team of volunteers and help your fellow club members by taking on this small but important role. If you are interested, please send an email to stalbertpickleball@gmail.com, our new email address for our corporate secretary Douwe Spriensma.

New Rating Clinics Open for Registration

Are you itching to play up?  Want to see if the skills you've been developing are ready for the big time?

A new rating clinic for aspiring 3.0's will be held March 9 and a new clinic for aspiring 3.5's will be held March 30.  Maximum 12 per clinic. First "registered and paid," first served!

How to register?  This process has changed.  It is now as automated as we can make it, further reducing your club's administrative workload on volunteers.

• Find the rating clinic you want in the Rating Clinic calendar on our website. Click it to open it..
• Press "Register" and fill in the next couple of screens.
• Pay your $23.35 via credit card on the last screen.

If the clinic is full, please put your name on the automated waitlist. This gives you a shot at registration if there are any cancellations, and the more people on the waitlist, the sooner we'll schedule the next clinic.  People going on the waitlist don't have to pay until and unless a spot opens up and they choose to fill that spot.

Check out our Skill Levels and Ratings page ( https://www.pickleballstalbert.ca/Skill-Levels-and-Ratings ).  It contains valuable advice and links to the sheets that will be used by our evaluators during the clinic.  Practice the skills listed on these sheets.  And if you have any doubt about why skills like dinking are important, take one of our mentoring clinics or Google the many online videos available on pickleball tips and strategies.

By the way, please think of these rating clinics as fun -- just like play. Think of them as simply another opportunity to get advice on skills needed to further develop.  We know any "test" can be a bit nerve-wracking, but try not to tie any ego or pride on this.  Contrary to Yoda's advice, "just try." Ignore the thought of "passing" or "failing." If you don't make it the first time, you'll know what to work on for your next try.  And to repeat, above all, HAVE FUN.  We are a friendly club and want you play at whatever level you aspire to.

Welcome Rating Coordinators

Thanks to Gerry Gartner and Karen Cabot for stepping forward and becoming our new rating coordinators.  Welcome to your new volunteer roles Karen and Gerry!

January Stats

In the following tables, we report player attendance in terms of court capacity, which is the number of players on the courts at any one time. For example, if 16 players show up at Red Willow, which has a court capacity of 8, we divide the 16 by 8, convert the answer of 2 to a percentage (200%), and report the attendance as "200% of court capacity."  As a second example, a venue with 3 courts has a court capacity of 12, and if 18 show up to play, then the attendance is 18/12 = 1.5 or 150% of court capacity. Note that these are monthly averages; attendance on any particular day may be quite a bit above or below these averages.

Most Crowded Indoor Play (Most Social Time!)

Rank	Average Attendance	Venue	Day/Time	Level
1	240% of court capacity	Red Willow	Fri 9am	All
2	225%	Red Willow	Mon 9am	All
3	213%	JJ Nearing	Thu 6pm	2.0-2.5
4	211%	Red Willow	Fri 11am	Mens
5	188%	Red Willow	Mon 11am	All

Least Crowded Indoor Play (Most Play Time!) - excluding Reserved Play and Clinics

Rank	Average Attendance	Venue	Day/Time	Level
1	71% of court capacity	Sturgeon H	Sun 9am	3.5+
2	75%	Bertha Kennedy	Fri 6pm	3.0
3	86%	Bertha Kennedy	Sat 915am	3.5+
4	97%	Red Willow	Wed 230pm	3.0+
5	100%	Sturgeon H	Sun 9am	3.0+

Other Interesting Stats

91	Play and training sessions in January, excluding rating clinics and beginner's lessons
1309	Member-plays at the above sessions
11	Visitor-plays at the above sessions
4	Rating clinic this month (48 players)
21	Ratings clinics since May 1
258	Players rated by your club since May 1
616	Club members as of January 31

Until the next time, "Keep your paddle up!"