Mad River Tennis Club

Clay Court Tennis in Vermont's Mad River Valley

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Labor Day Weekend 2023 Follow-up

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Hi All, we are a little over a week from Labor Day weekend (huh?) and a week from our requested deadline to let us know if you’d like to enter the labor day tournament as an individual or as a team. Please refer to the original post, https://www.madrivertennis.com/labor-day-weekend-2023/, for detail. I will be commenting on that post next week with more detail, so please visit it the few days before the weekend for updates.

Also wanted to note that the notification that comes to you says “No need to click unless you want to go to the website. The entire post is in this email.” This is not truly correct. There are some pictures posted from last year that do not come with the email, so take a look at the website post.

Labor Day Weekend 2023

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  • Some photos from Labor Day weekend 2022 social mixer and round robin

Hello Tennis Friends,

Last year’s Labor Day weekend social and tournament was well attended and enjoyed, so we’re continuing the tradition! This year’s event is on Saturday, September 2, 2023.

We will conduct a matrix round robin of predetermined doubles teams divided into flights of equivalent ability followed by a member social event on Sunday Saturday. Tournament play may be spread over Saturday and Sunday as needed based on the number of entries and the weather forecast. Monday Sunday will be a rain date.

Doubles teams may be formed without regard to age or gender (womens, mens, mixed, or parent/child) but with an approximate combined average skill level not greater than NTRP 4.0.

Two to four flights will be held based on number of entries, morning flight(s) from approximately 8:30am to noon and afternoon flight(s) from approximately 1:00pm to 4:30pm, adjusting times if necessary. Everyone will get to play the same number of games during the flights regardless of winning or losing. The winning teams from each flight will face off in Club Championship match(es) after each day’s flights.

Also on Sunday Saturday at 5:30pm following play, all MRTC members and their families are invited to meet, socialize, and celebrate tennis at the club. MRTC will provide beer and soft drinks, but feel free to bring your preferred beverage as well. Please bring a potluck snack, appetizer, or dish to share. Let us know if you’d like to help out with setup and organization of paper goods.

PLEASE RESPOND BY Wednesday, August 30 to [email protected] with your intention to enter a team and the following information:

  • Team member names.
  • If you do not have a partner and would like us to match you up.
  • Estimated NTRP if you know it.
  • Your availability in at least two, preferably three or all, of the time slots Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon to allow us most flexibility in planning.

The sooner you respond, the better, as that will give us an indication of how many flights to prepare for and how much court time to reserve. We will also be watching the weather forecast. We will be back in touch with people on Friday, September 1 (or Thursday if possible) with scheduling. We will also update this post when appropriate, so bookmark it and refer back periodically.

We hope this will be a great opportunity for fun competition and a fulfilling occasion for us to visit with each other and celebrate tennis!

Woody & Darlene

P.S. Comments/feedback welcome from last year’s participants.

Annual Spring Workday, New Notification System

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Hi All, not meaning for you to be informed too many times about our upcoming Spring workday. I have installed a new notification system in our website and sent the old post again by accident. So, the goal of this post is two-fold:

First, to inform you of more detail about the annual Spring workday scheduled for Saturday May 13 at 9:00 at the courts. Work includes bringing the furniture out, repairing fences, getting the watering system operating, a bit of gardening clean-up, etc. It should take about 2 hours. Rain date is the 14th. All members are welcome. Please let Geordie know if you can make it. His email is [email protected].

Second, IMPORTANT, to ask you to reply to this email. Website notifications, like a newsletter, are notorious for being spam filtered. This will be our main way of contacting you once I know everyone is receiving it. PLEASE simply reply to this email to let Darlene know you received the notification, no words needed.

Annual Spring Workday, Testing New System

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The annual spring workday is scheduled for Saturday May 13 at 9:00 at the courts. Work includes bringing the furniture out, repairing fences, getting the watering system operating, etc. It should take about 2 hours. Rain date is the 14th.

All members are welcome. Please let Geordie know if you can make it. His email is [email protected].

Second topic: this is a new post notification system. PLEASE simply reply to this email to let Darlene know you received the notification. No words needed.

Labor Day Weekend 2022

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Some members have expressed the desire for a social/tournament on Labor Day weekend. There are still members we haven’t met and this would be a perfect opportunity. We only have a week and a half to prepare.

Please reply ASAP to the notification email you will receive or comment on the website post with 1) your general interest, 2) any particulars you care to share, 3) whether you’d like to participate/help (food/planning), 4) preference of day(s), time of day, 5) whether you mind if some of the court availability is reduced due to a club function…

If a tournament is planned, likely doubles and mixed doubles to make best use of the courts, would you like to choose your own partners or have a random rotation like our tournament a few years ago?

Calendar problems, Note re: youth camps

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Members,

We have had some calendar problems–the disappearance of reservations. Please understand that anyone can modify ANY MRTC reservations. Use care and caution. Everyone has equal event privilege on a shared calendar.

We have provided this instructional page, https://www.madrivertennis.com/using-the-google-calendar/, which I may further update when I have time. Please review it again if you are posting reservations on the calendar. The biggest problem we have had in the past was posting personal events inadvertently on this calendar, but this year numerous reservations have been deleted. The only two ways I have found in research that this may be happening are:

  • Individual error/improper use
  • Corrupted files syncing to iCloud (beyond our scope to advise on)

To avoid any double-bookings (at the court itself), please periodically check that your reservations are still intact before heading to the courts. Please review what is on the schedule before you reserve and double check that other events are still there after you post a reservation. If you attempt to clear space on your personal calendar, please be sure to UNCHECK the MRTC tennis calendar view before doing so.

If we are able to narrow down any individuals who are improperly using the calendar, we may revoke privileges at least until we can determine the cause(s).

Thank you for your understanding and assistance.

Briefly on another subject, youth tennis camps are scheduled for this week and the week of August 1st. It is possible that the camps will not take up both courts. If you do find a second court available for play while a camp is in session, please understand that stray balls are likely.

Thanks,
Darlene

Communicating with members through the website

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Dear Members,

Quick update: the court surface has been spread but lines are still being installed. Please watch the Google calendar in the next few days for the OPEN announcement.

Primary reason for this email: We are now using our website as a means to communicate to you. I will be making a test post after this email. I request that you watch for it and if you don’t receive it immediately after this email, look for it in your spam folder and save the “from” address in your contact list. We likely will still send group emails to sub-groups of membership.

The new method will allow Board members and YOU to make posts to the website which is built on the WordPress blogging platform. When a post is made, members will be notified by email and can click a link and read the post on the website. For this reason, please use discretion and post only when necessary. Examples of appropriate reasons to post:

  • a Board member has an update of interest to the entire membership
  • a member has taken some clinic or round robin pictures they’d like to share
  • a member is seeking hitting partners at a certain level*

*The membership list has been posted in the shed. Members can locate members with similar skill from this list as well.

Note: comments on a post will not generate an email to all, only to the person posting. Only a post will generate an email to all.

All members have been added to the website with a) the main email you provided (the one to which you have already received email from us, this one, not necessarily the one used for the calendar) and b) a username that is constructed as last name first initial. Examples of deviations include:

  • babbottkleind (no hyphen)
  • birnnjeff (same first initial)
  • birnnjane
  • dillonb (when signed up as Bob vs. Robert)

You may use your username or email to login. First you will need to set a password. Go here: https://madriverinternet.com/wp-login.php?action=lostpassword

This process may take you to the parent website when complete, so go back to the tennis login if needed, in the footer of the website: https://www.madrivertennis.com/

If/when you make a post, in addition to content, please provide:

  • a descriptive title, like a subject would be
  • a category (in the right sidebar)

The post notification system is unfortunately still limited to Classic Editor. There are some links to help pages on the Members page, but there is also a ton of WordPress instruction on the web.

The Google calendar has at times been used as a means to communicate short periods of court maintenance or courts too wet to play.

Even though our website is hidden from search engines, it can be accessed when someone knows the URL. Therefore, the Members area on the website is password protected. The password is (you received it by email). The membership list PDF and some help pages are posted. Please respect member privacy and only use this for purposes of tennis at this club.

Darlene
Secretary, Membership

Anticipated opening, email problems, calendar

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Dear Members,

1. The court surface material has been delivered and will be applied this week. We anticipate opening by the weekend. Rather than send another group email, we will post on the Google calendar when we are open.

2. Some people have told me they hadn’t received past emails.

  • Emails went out to members on 4/12, two on 4/30, 5/8, 5/17, and 5/24, either from me or a Board member. Please check your spam folders if you did not get these. Please ONLY write back to me if you have a problem that you think I can resolve. I cannot diagnose your email service problems.
  • I have posted the relevant emails on the website in case you did not receive them. Please go here, https://www.madrivertennis.com/news, to see those you may have missed.

If you received today’s email, please consider any problems resolved.

3. I have put all paid members on the Google calendar. Please test it now so that you don’t have a problem when you need to make a reservation. Please see https://www.madrivertennis.com/using-the-google-calendar/ if you need help working with the calendar.

Thanks,
Darlene

Good News on Court Material

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Update from Club President Bob Vietze:

Thanks Again to everyone for your patience as we have had to navigate an unexpected shortage of Red DriFast from our supplier. I spoke to Hadeka this morning and they will have material available this week. Will know on Thursday when it will be delivered to the club. Rest assured we are going to do everything in our power to get the courts open as soon as humanly possible. I’ll update everyone later in the week on an opening date for the club.

—

Robert P Vietze