The 2022 Bendigo Tennis Club AGM was held at the Bendigo RSL and virtually on October 4th, 2022 @ 7:30pm.
The purpose of the meeting was to:
- confirm the minutes of the previous annual general meeting held 3 November 2021;
- receive and consider the President’s annual report on the activities of Club;
- receive the financial statements of the Club for the 2021/22 financial year;
- elect the members of the Committee;
- confirm or vary the amounts (if any) of the annual subscription and joining fee;
- general Business
Meeting Minutes
The 2022 BTC AGM Minutes can be downloaded here
BTC Financials 2021/2022
View the club’s 2021/2022 finances here
President Report
President Report BTC AGM 2022 – Damien Saunder
WELCOME
Our first ‘official’ season as the Bendigo Tennis Club 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 almost doubled this year, from 60 members at our AGM in 2021 to 117 fully paid members at this years AGM. What an achievement.
We are breaking more ground with the numbers of players and teams registered across competitions and we are seeing more people playing more often than ever before. This Summer will see the club enter its first A Grade Pennant team, three B Grade and once C Grade team. A total of 45 players have been assigned to one of the five Saturday afternoon teams, another record for the club. In addition to this, our club, in conjunction with Spring Gully and Ironbark have 6 juniors teams playing across the girls and boys divisions, thanks to Breeze Academy Head Coach, Bree Smith.
Our mid weeks numbers continue to shine with the tight-knit Thursday Men’s 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 both women and men. We are working hard to kick start our women’s Tuesday night group again, now the longer days are upon us. This social hit offers an opportunity for social and competitive playing opportunities for women of all levels.
The club once again saw a hotly contested Club Championship Singles competition with our largest field yet spread across three divisions. The final results were as follows:
Division 3 Final
- Alex Chapman d Buddhi Wickramasinghe 3-6 6-3 11-9
Division 2 Final
- Clinton Shelly d Simon Flood 6-4 6-2
Division 1 Final
- Simon Baker d Brad Heyme 7-6 6-4
We congratulate all players for battling it out this year, and salute our Club Champions! Our Doubles club championships is set to be held on Friday 20th (night) and Saturday 21st (day), January 2023. More details to follow over the Summer.
The Club experienced a second year of profitability, which as our club Treasurer, Brad Harris reports in his Treasurer’s Report, provides the club with additional funds for new and exciting opportunities to put back into the community. All fees collected at the Club Championship finals were used to make a $500 donation to the Bendigo Winter Night Shelter. Each year, the club will continue to donate portions of its membership revenue to an important local charity. For more detail on the finances of the club please see the Treasurer’s Report.
Our social media engagement rates continue to outperform market expectations with the club seeing 20%+ regular engagement through our social channels. Our Facebook group now contains 148 members, up 23% on last year, while our Instagram followers has shifted swiftly to 222, up 40% 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. The club continues to bolster its marketing materials with stickers, stubby holders, t-shirts, hats and its first ever promotional flyer which can be seen on display at local businesses and the BRTC. All of the materials provide valuable exposure opportunities for the club.
To our sponsors, 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 to provide free BTC t-shirts to every first time member of the club.
We are excited to announce the Bendigo & District RSL as a new major partner with the club for the next 3 years. This relationship with allow us to offer free RSL membership to every BTC member and most importantly maximise the tennis courts at the RSL for developing junior coaching programs, hosting ladies social tennis during daylight savings, offering tennis community programs, playing Saturday Pennant home games, hosting “Come and Try days”, and longer term perhaps hosting tournaments. The BTC and RSL partnership will also strengthen the position of the club financially.
Finally, we would like to officially welcome Breeze Academy Head Coach, Bree Smith as our club coach at the RSL. Bree’s expertise, attitude to coaching and infectious personality is a huge bonus for our club so please get behind Bree and support her coaching endeavours. Bree will also be supporting Strathfieldsaye TC at their facility.
The club remains committed to supporting groups within the community who may not normally have the opportunity to experience tennis. This year, thanks to a $1,800 sponsorship from Bendigo Telco, the BTC took a “Big Shots” programs to two local schools, namely; Lightning Reef and California Gully. Each school was provided with 6 x 1 hour free tennis lessons by Coach Bree Smith. The programs were incredibly well received and the club aims to provide more opportunities like this in future. A huge thanks must go out to Barry Ward, Jack Rule and Bree Smith for making this brilliant idea become reality. Off of the back of this program, the club is now sponsoring two junior girls from California Gully PS to take on a term of group lessons with Coach Bree Smith.
To our inaugural committee, VP, Chris Lloyd, Secretary, Craig Stubbings, Treasurer Brad Harris, and General Committee Members, Barry Ward and Jack Rule. Congratulations and thank-you on helping getting the club to where it is today. To Hamish Hope, your continued advice in dealing with complex constitutional issues has been invaluable. To everyone else who has been providing support in the background, thank-you also.
The club remains committed to strengthening our club culture that welcomes everyone in a fun and engaging manner, and we mean everyone. We will continue to provide flexible playing opportunities and evenly graded teams—our members have told us that this is something they value the most. We look to grow our work in providing pathways into tennis for groups of the community that wouldn’t normally get that opportunity, this is something the club feels strongly about.
More broadly, the committee continues 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.