Dear Member - click the newsletter title to read articles on:
| Re-Opening for Organized Play-when? |
| Alpine Courts Noise Complaints |
| Call for Captains At Alpine |
| Facilities Task Force |
| Membership Directory |
| Website Coordinator: Position(s) Available |
| Equipment Coordinator: Position Available |
| Pre-AGM Registration Reminder |
| St. Albert Community Recreation Newsletter- May 2020 |
Re-opening For Organized Play- When?
You likely know that the Province released some “Phase 1” guidelines effective May 14th for Outdoor Recreational Play (link to these rules). In accordance with this Provincial Government direction, the City of St. Albert announced soon after that “spontaneous, public, unorganized, non-contact “play can resume at a “selection” of the Larose courts (St. Albert COVID updates). No doubt, some of you are lining up your sunscreen and outdoor gear! Unfortunately for a little while longer, league play that includes round robins or paddle play continues to be banned.
So, what’s happening for “organized club play? Can we affect what the “Phase 2” rules for safe play will be? We do know that St. Albert is indeed underway with considering how to re-open organized play at Alpine courts, and that the timelines and conditions for full re-opening are evolving. While the City has asked for our input and we appreciate that, we also recognize that the City will has its own prerogative for deciding what will be allowed for subsequent Phases. We are certainly very pleased to see that serious COVID cases are low enough for our hospitals to handle, and that pickleball play is beginning to open back up.
Alpine Courts Noise Complaints
We are pleased to announce some positive news about the Alpine Courts. Those two courts that were closed off last year will now be opened and available (when more public play and league play resumes)! We appreciate how the City was put in a position of conflict last year with some noise complaints. During the year we have been monitoring the situation and last month on April 24th, the SAPC Board provided the City with this letter, stating our hopes and interest in having those courts opened. The City responded with an invitation for a meeting that occurred on May 13th. That’s when we heard directly from the City that courts 1 and 2 will not be closed this year.
Call For Captains At Alpine
With a positive view towards when organized play resumes, we have need of helpful folks to please step up for volunteering as Captains at Alpine. Let our Alpine Courts Venue Coordinator know.
Facilities Task Force
To further our club goals for having more opportunities for members to play, we have created a mandate for a Facilities Task Force. If you have business experience with strategic planning and capital projects, or have other experience that could be useful on this Task Force, please consider serving on this ad hoc team. Take a look at this mandate for more detail on the website. We hope you will consider being a part of examining some exciting possibilities for future public and private sports facilities, and for helping our club be at the forefront of these new developments. If you are interested, please email the Secretary, at stalbertpickleball@gmail.com.
Web Coordinator: Position(s) Available
The club has need of some volunteers who can help with some aspects of our expanding internet / website world. Would you like to help us post info updates, suggest web page enhancements and other technical matters? If you have an interest and some aptitude for learning and contributing to this role as part of a larger Communications team, please peruse the Web Coordinator job description for more detail and let us know! Interested persons are asked to email the Treasurer at Treasurer@pickleballstalbert.ca. No web experience is necessary and lots of training and guidance can be offered.
Equipment Coordinator: Position(s) Available
This key role of coordinating and maintaining the availability of equipment is very appreciated by all members. We have need of someone who will work with our Venue Manager to help keep operations running smoothly. Please visit the Equipment Coordinator description on the website for more detail and email the Secretary at stalbertpickleball@gmail.com with your interest in volunteering!
Membership Directory
You may now enjoy searching the club website Member Directory for member players and discover it can help with a few things! You can you find players at your skill level to play with, team leads can connect with team members or recruit more team members, and you can now more easily connect socially with members.
By default, we display member’s Names, Rating, Home Phone and “Interest in Volunteering” (to help with Venue coordination etc). Individual members can override their defaults if you wish, but we hope most will continue to allow at least this information to be contained in the directory.
Also by default, member email addresses are NOT displayed, but members can nevertheless use the directory messaging capability to send messages to each other. Neat feature! Note: the directory is only available to members. No member should use any posting information for any purpose other that club play or for individual social connections.
We hope this ability to find and connect with your club community increases your fun with pickleball play dates and social events!
Pre-AGM: Registration Reminder
Registration for this AGM “practice session” is now open. If you are interested in testing your online “web conferencing” equipment and abilities, we will be conducting a Pre-AGM on May 26th. Simply get your information registered (click the "REGISTER" black box) so you can connect with us online! Registration for this pre-AGM closes May 24th.
St. Albert Community Recreation Newsletter- May 2020
The SAPC was featured in the recent St. Albert Community Recreation Newsletter, detailing our club’s efforts to connect members online during this period of social distancing. We appreciate being contacted for the article (link here) and receiving local community attention to our club’s existence and organization for pickleball!