[gvttc general] Club Notice: Discussions and Execution toward a 5 Year GVTTC Club Initiative

[Andre MARONIAN]

All,

Upon completion of our Sept. 1, 2021 EC meeting, this note serves as the first of many down a long road we will head toward better organizing our club.  A few things have been the catalyst for this discussion and initiative
Desire to have a 7 Day facility with minimum 12 tables and 24/7 access
RSG Rent Increases which cause league dues to increase.  We anticipate more coming!
Potential ownership change at RSG puts us in jeopardy of having agreements change and potentially rapidly
Space Limitations:  Limits league size, coaching clinics, tournaments, long wait times for league and open play and ultimately our growth as a whole.
Losing Open Play fees: Many players either don’t pay, forget to pay or think they are under a league umbrella when they’re in fact not
What is a Member?  Our model where league players seems to be defined as the true member creates a cap to our growth potential tying our club size to max league capacity.  With this model, the club’s max “membership” is stuck at 96 people (60 Monday and 36 Tuesday players).  The only way to grow that base is to add another league.  This is backwards and limits us.
Overall Thought:
	We’ve been talking about getting our own place for at least 25 years and we’re no closer today than we were then.  If nothing changes nothing changes but now we’re being forced to take a serious look as we experience rent increases, space decreases (in some cases) and more.  RSG/Mike Johnson has been a GREAT partner and friend to us but the facts are the facts.  Mike loves having GVTTC in his place at his club and appreciates our long relationship BUT he clearly makes more money per square foot with every other sport he has in the place.  Follow the bouncing ball as this has been a big catalyst for our recent increases already but we’re still not close to his revenue with the other sports.  It’s his heart that keeps these prices reasonable but that could change when he passes the torch and suddenly.  Maybe yes and maybe no but it is a big risk for GVTTC.  We’re also watching clubs in different markets start within the last 5 years and far surpass what we’ve done in 100 years.  There is a method to the madness and a significant opportunity for us to become a big name in this corridor of the United States if we play our cards right.  We could attract/partner with USATT for bigger tournaments and more.  As all this plays out, it's our time to put a strong 5 year plan together to have our own place and maximize our growth ability.

So, this email serves as a notification that the Executive Committee is engaged in ongoing discussions to take a deep dive into this effort.  

The goals:
A true 5 year trajectory to get our own facility
Further invest and evolve our coaching program which is a KEY FACTOR in our future and increasing members
Increase space:  12 table setup minimum at all times
Buy/Sell 4 tables per year!  No old tables
Redefine GVTTC Membership model:  Membership Plus Model.  Become a  member and add appropriate extras (league, tourney, coaching, etc.) and adjust the pricing scheme all together.
Hope to announce these changes prior to the 2022-2023 season.  There are factors that could push this out a bit but it is a goal we’d like to meet

In order to handle the eventual rent increases coupled with an "attacking mentality" toward getting our own place, we anticipate fee increases that are coming anyway.  That said, by adjusting our model, these increases end up spread over many more people which makes it much more tolerable.  To date, all increases have only really impacted league members that may only play a portion of the year.  We’re open much more than that and have some players that don’t play in a league that actually play more than league players do.

A few commonly asked questions I can think of?

What changes this year?  Nothing
When will we know?  I’ll send progress as I get it but hope to have this clearly defined by Jan. 1, 2022
When would this start?  We will start no earlier than September 2022 but could delay to 2023 depending on unknowns
How is Membership Plus different?   By making the “Membership” the doorway into GVTTC, we would price leagues much much less than you see today.
Membership Types?  To be continued but we’re going to make a Yearly Membership the main draw with greatest savings and added benefit
Why not start this season?  The main reason is because we want to properly go through the process.  This allows members to provide their input, allows the EC to circle up based on them, and make sound decisions.  We want to do this once and then be done with it.  If we rush, I anticipate mistakes and needing to make many more adjustments.   It’s a ready, aim, fire mentality with a stress on aim.

Anyway, this is enough for a first email.  Change is a tough talk yet necessary.

John F. Kennedy said “Change is a law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”

As always, if you have any questions or input, feel free to send me a private note and we can make sure to incorporate your thoughts into our EC discussions.  Stay tuned and thanks for your attention to the matter.

Sincerely,
Andre Maronian
President GVTTC


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