Author: David Cook

New PIckleball Court Scheduler

The Villages Pickleball Club will be using an online reservation system from YourCourts.com that is going live on Thursday, August 13th. Your account has been created, using your email address as your login and “Villager” as your password. You will be required to change your password the first time you log into the system. 

NOTE: All signups done in the current system this week will be transferred to YourCourts.com.  Do not sign up using YourCourts prior to Thursday! 

All signup restrictions previously announced are in place effective for any reservations made for Monday, August 17th and later.

  • Players can only play once per day.
  • Players can only play 5 times per week.
  • Players can only have 3 active reservations (regardless of whether you make the reservation or someone lists you as a player).

Example: If you are playing Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, you will not be able to play (or be listed on a reservation) until after you play on Monday. After playing, you will only have two active sessions left. This helps to ensure all members have access to play time. 

  • Reservations must contain at least two and no more than four players. Do not enter anyone as a partner without confirming with them!

We are very excited about this system as there are many benefits to our community. This is the same system used successfully by the Villages Bocce Club. We have attached a user’s guide that will help you to learn how to use the system. However, it’s very straightforward and easy to use. This should help to alleviate reservation issues our members have had.

Contact vgcc_pb_yourcourts@googlegroups.com,  with any immediate questions.

Please be understanding during the initial implementation while we work out any growing pains!

If you already have a YourCourts account set up for Bocce or a different club with the same email, you have two options:

  1. If you use the same password, you will be prompted with a list of clubs that that your account has access. You can choose which club you want to access for that session.
  2. If you prefer to use two different passwords, your access is controlled by the password you enter.

Thank you,
The Villages Pickleball Board

Hello from our new President!

On Sunday evening April 5th,  we quietly transitioned to our 2020/2021 pickleball year.

I was hoping to have a bigger event, but the San Jose Symphony was Dr y sequestered, and the fireworks were canceled because of the rain.
 
Our club is special. We’re going to have a great year.
 
I’m very grateful to serve with a super team of our members who have volunteered to serve on the board, and/or as committee chairpersons.
 
Construction of our new courts are going to be delayed along with the rest of our lives. We’ll keep you informed as to the progress of events to obtain approval to construct the courts.
 
My goals for the year are simple:
 
Continue to support the fundraising and publicity activities related to the construction of the new courts
 
Provide a smooth transition for play on the new courts
 
Provide a welcoming, friendly atmosphere for our players, especially for our new players.
 
Offer a variety of tournament and social opportunities for our members
 
Provide instruction and assistance for new players in our sport.
 
There is no way I can adequately express my appreciation for our members who made the club such a great success last year. Larry Martinson in his message thanked the key players who made last year such a great success. I can only second his praise.
 
I want to again recognize and thank Larry Martinson for his outstanding year, and of course, we would all be lost without Anahid’s
support and assistance.
 
Larry Martinson was an outstanding president. He was the right man for the job at the right time.
 
Stay safe. Be healthy. Say Hi as we pass on our daily walks.
 
Bill Pomeranz

Welcome to the New Club Officers!

ELECTED OFFICERS

President                                               Bill Pomeranz
1st Vice President                                Terry Holmquist
2nd VP and Secretary                         Anahid Gregg
Treasurer                                               Betty Olsen
Tournament Director                       Sheryl Ruth
Social Director                                     Cheryl Heusser

CHAIRPERSONS

IT/Web                                                                  David Cook
Publicity                                                               Linda Eige
Membership                                                       Ginny Spencer
Ass’t Secretary                                                  Kathi Ashby
New Courts Project Manager                      Garry Gray
Court Operations                                              Jim Valenti
New Courts Fund Raising                             Garry Gray   
Club Activities Fund Raising                       Anahid Gregg
Player Introduction and Instruction       Mike Walias
Past President / Advisor                               Larry Martinson

Farewell from Outgoing President Larry Martinson

Today April 5th. Sunday was to be the final meeting of our fiscal year and the election of our new officers/social. So it’s my duty and honor to pass the gavel to our newly elected President Bill Pomeranz and his board on this special day. Even though we are not allowed to gather in person, I do want to recognize this in writing.

I would like to thank my 2019-2020 club board. Going into my year as President, my goals were:
 
1. Maintain an active vibrant Club and grow the membership by 35 members. Thanks to my membership chair Ginny Spencer, I believe we came very close to achieving that goal.
 
2. Achieve a successful community vote on the Pickleball new courts project. This goal has been delayed do the Coronavirus but we are confident still that once we are able to vote, it will be passed. Our past president Garry Grey continuers to be the pulse of this project goal.
 
3. Continue to raise funds via EVF to build the courts. Again Garry Grey who is also a member of the EVF board has been very inspirational in obtaining EVF matching funds to our club fundraising.
 
4. Have the 2nd annual Pickle Up July 16th-Aug. 1, 2019. Thank you Joe Spada for chairing that very successful project. We obtained a lot of new members as a result of this program.
 
5. Continue to support our Pickleball Web Site. Thanks to David Cook assisted by Anahid Greg, our website has expanded into a very newsie wonderful website where you can enjoy article content, pictures and also sign up for up coming events.
 
6. Continue to have club fundraising projects. Thanks to Anahid Gregg and Sheryl Ruth, working alongside EVF, raised over $5,000 on a very Fun Pickleball Prohibition Speakeasy and Casino night. Everyone had a Blast at this very successful party/fundraiser.
 
7. Have Pickleball Club articles in every edition of the Villager. This would have been an almost impossible goal to achieve but thanks to Linda Eige, we had articles in at least 75% of the Villagers newspaper. She did a phenomenal job with great pictures and articles through out the year.
 
8. Hold three fun and successful tournaments. Sheryl Ruth our tournament chair would have reached this goal if we could have had our final tournament yesterday which had to be canceled due to our Sheltering in place. She created some fun new takes on tournaments and we all were winners because of her hard work.
 
9. The Casino night took the place of our goal for a 2nd annual Holiday Club members party and I want to thank Robyn and Sheryl our social Co-Chairs for making this a very successfully social year for our members.
 
10. Maintain our borrowed tennis courts 5 & 6. Frank Houghton was our maintenance guy with the special yellow tape making sure the courts looked sharp. It’s a lot of work and you did a great job Frank.
 
I also want to thank my Vice President Bill Pomeranz who was always there to run a meeting in my absence. He also took the newbies from the Pickle Up program and got them playing every Sunday morning. He will be a great President moving forward. Thanks to my secretary Kathi Ashby and her assistant Anahid Gregg for always making sure we had the proper minutes from each meeting. Betty Olsen my treasure who always paid our bills on time and collected and kept track of our dues and accounting. Thank you Betty. David Cook who not only is our web guy but also gave reports from the Pickleball Ad Hoc committee at our board meetings. Mike Walias is the best Pickleball teacher in our club and he did another great job teaching our new prospective members on Wednesdays and Fridays at 1:00 P.M. Thank you Garry Grey for being my advisor and sounding block when I needed it through out the year. 
 
Finally, I would like to thank a person that I would have given the MVP award for the year! Anahid Gregg (Ms Pickleball) does literally everything for our club. She always has the clubs best interest in mind and isn’t afraid to take charge when she sees something needs to be done to better our club. You are the most energetic and talented volunteer I have ever worked with and you make us a better club!
 
I now Pass the gavel to our new President Bill Pomeranz and his board!

 

Cheers,

Larry Martinson
larrym711@comcast.net
408-528-0746