Only one month has passed us by and already we have some
exciting news to share regarding the Ottawa tennis scene. OTA Executive Director, Jim Boyce and I spent a day
in sunny (and relatively warm) Ottawa on Jan 10th to attend a joint NCTA AGM and Presidents' meeting. We
had some lively topics for the Presidents’ meeting, with a great turnout of
clubs with at least 15 in attendance. We started with City Park & Rec
manager Ward Cosman discussing the role the city has in administering
insurance, programs and activities on city-owned property, followed by the OTA
(Jim and I) presenting and gathering feedback on a value proposition which would see most if not all the Ottawa area
clubs (about 26) joining the association, something that has never happened in
the history of the OTA. This topic took the bulk of the meeting, and in the
end, lead to very positive support for
joining the OTA. We will get full confirmation on how many clubs plan on
joining by mid March, but we remain optimist that this could be a banner year
for tennis in Ottawa with a strong partnership with the OTA. Many thanks to
NCTA President Sean Sweeney and the entire NCTA board for supporting this
effort; it has been a long time coming but we can see the light now.
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| Ottawa Clubs attend NCTA AGM |
The OTA Strategic
Planning Committee met again on Jan 21 to review all the club input
received in December. There were a handfull responses, and those that did
respond provided some useful input that we used to tighten up some of the
strategy wording and make it a more effective document. I look forward to
presenting some
of the detail at a seminar at the April 13th AGM, and beginning with my March blog, I will begin outlining some of the initiatives the OTA is taking to achieve the strategies outlined in the plan.
I was fortunate enough to be able to attend some
Tennis Canada meetings in Vancouver over the Feb 1-3 weekend and
also enjoy some great Davis Cup matches. The results were beyond expectations.
Milos did a great job against Spain's #2 Ramos to win the first match, but
Frank's match against Spain's #1 Granollers was simply amazing. Canada finally
clinched a spot in the quarterfinals with Italy (to be played April 5-7) by
winning the 4th rubber: Milos vs Garcia-Lopez in an easy 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win! Check out Milos' winning point below:
Business wise, a lot of ground was covered, including a review of TC's strategic results from 2012, their 2013 operational plans, and a number of ongoing project updates. A common theme and priority for most provinces is the implementation of the new ranking system, Visual Reality, improved communications with its members and facilities advocacy. More to come on these topics in future blogs.
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| L-R COP Presidents: Stephen Kimoff (BC), Pawan Chugh (NWT), JF Manibal (QC), Scott Fraser (ON), Bruce Waschuk (MB), Glen Scott (AB), Nancy Taylor (NL), Dana Brown (NB), Craig Bethune (NS), Tim Makahoniuk (SK). Missing is Lorne Acorn (PEI) |
