COMMENTS FROM THE PRESIDENT

DECEMBER 2008

The council met in Orlando on November 3, 2008 where we made some changes to the upcoming Florida State Club Team Tournament that will be held in Clearwater on January 24, 2009. The rules for this tournament are printed elsewhere in the newsletter. I would like to point out two changes. Looking at last year’s data I made a motion to cap the entering team average at 260. This motion passed by a 3 to 2 vote. The second change is, in the past the club that won the event would be host the following year. Starting with 2010 tournament the host club shall be picked by drawing of clubs (that participated in the 2009 tournament) that have a minimum of 18 courts and willing to host the tournament. No club shall be eligible to hold it two years in a row. The reason for this change was that the host club has the advantage of fielding more teams and in the past with the exception of one time, either Clearwater or Brevard hosted this event. So the clubs that have 18 courts I hope that you will put your club in the hat to have a chance of hosting the 2010 Club Team Tournament. Last year 15 clubs participated and we hope that more will join this time for a fun day of competition.

In the September Newsletter I addressed the need to look for ways to increase our revenue to make up the loss of GRI revenue that ended in 2006. The council addressed this issue at our August 1, 2008 EC meeting. Three options were outlined in the minutes of this meeting. I made a motion to increase the tournament assessment from $1.00 to $2.00. This motion failed 3 against 2 for. We revisited the 3 options at our October EC meeting and after much discussion a motion was made by John Peplinski to raise the tournament fee from $1.00 to $2.00 to be effective starting in June 2009. This motion passed unanimously. The council felt that raising the dues on the heels of the NHPA raising theirs would not be in the best interest to our members at this time. The other option was to charge $5.00 a year for the newsletter if you elected to receive a hard copy instead of off the website. It is estimated that the option we approved will increase our yearly revenue between $2600 and $2700. This is assuming that entries to our tournaments remain the same as past years.

We have several of our members that have health issues this summer. They are, Past President Jerry Randall, Glenn Rains, Ken Duquet, Pat Kanaly and Mike Tantonetti. I wish all of you a speedy recovery.

Bill Miller of my home club passed away. Bill was a happy go lucky guy and I know that he enjoyed life to it fullest. We will miss him.

Next EC meeting will be held at the Clearwater HSC January 23, 2009 at 1PM.

Pat and I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a prosperous and health New Year.

Bob Hilpertshauser

President FSHPA Inc.