Ladies,
As you know, we had our first event of 2025 at River Trails on Sunday April 27th. We had 28 women participate in the Round Robin. Afterwards we had the Spring Fling meeting with officers’ reports.
We also discussed the proposed Challenge Ladder change. Due to internet security issues, the proposed rule change was not received by Gmail account users. Therefore, these members were not able to vote. In fairness to all, we have included a link on the home page for EVERYONE to vote on this proposed change. More information about the proposed rule change is listed below.
The official outdoor season starts on Thursday, May 1. A special thank you to our Membership Chair Lori Lamey, our Treasurer Ellyn Ryan, and our web guru Ann Iremedio who have been especially busy getting us ready for the season. Lastly, thanks to our Vice President Wendy Varygiannes who has been busy coordinating the chairs for our upcoming events. Thank you also to the ladies who stepped up to be event chairs.
Open Play is on May 1. We have courts 1-5 reserved at Hinkley Park on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings from 8am to 11am. We also have evening times on Monday & Thursday nights from 5pm to 9pm. As South Park will be under construction until sometime in June, we will only have courts 1-4 in the evenings as the Park District will be doing lessons on Courts 5 & 6. As a result, the Park District is giving us 3 courts on Friday nights from 5-7pm for Open Play too. Please do not schedule challenge matches between 5pm to 7pm as Open Play has priority. Lastly, the courts will be re-surfaced May 24-June 1. We can use Northeast Courts during that time.
May Open Challenge is on May 1. This month is to determine which division you will start in for the season. Players may challenge anyone on the ladder during this whole month. Look at the ladder to see where you are and then you can challenge those above you. Report your result within 24 hours so the ladder can be kept current. A challenge does not need to be accepted if it is made after May 24 as there needs to be a full seven days for the match to take place. But if you want to play and can play, that is up to you. For questions, review the challenge ladder rules on our website.
A separate email will be sent with the password to access the PRWTA Directory of our members. This password must NOT be shared with anyone who is not a member of our Association. This directory is used to contact members for challenges. If you do not want to go into the Directory each time, then print a copy of the directory for yourself. Another suggestion is to bookmark our website on your cellphone to report your match results and turnover dates.
50th Anniversary Party: Thursday, May 15 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at Harp & Fiddle, 110 Main Street, Park Ridge. Appetizers will be provided but cash bar. Open to ALL members past & present. If you did not receive a Punchbowl invite, please contact Sherri Wolff sfwolff235@gmail.com by May 6. Hope to see you there!
June Events: Remember to sign up for the June events as soon as possible. Don’t worry if you are on the waitlist as plans do change and you might end up playing. June Singles is on Tuesday, June 10. June Doubles is on Wednesday, June 11. Both everts are from 8am to 12pm at Hinkley Park. Both tournaments are single elimination. You need to sign up with a partner for doubles but if you need one, we can see if someone else needs a partner.
Remember: Sign up for all events start one month before and will be on the HOME page of our website (PRWTA.org)
Tennis Clinics: We will have two this year-one in June and one in July. You may only sign up once unless there is extra room. June Tennis Clinic is on Saturday, June 14 from 9-11am. It will be conducted by tennis pro Matt Smucker.
Proposed Challenge Rule Change:
“On June 1, the ladders will be established. You may challenge any of the
five names (10 players/teams) above your own. You may skip over any players (players/teams) turned over when counting five (10) positions”
Basically wherever the rule says Five, the proposed change is to make it Ten.
Pros and Cons of proposed change:
Pros: Members complain that it is difficult to schedule challenges.
Allows for more teams/player that you can challenge
Allows team/player to move up the ladder more quickly
Allows team/player who cannot take advantage of May challenge rules to move up quicker
Why not try something new and see how it works?
Cons: The ladders don’t have a lot of people, so the what’s the point?
Do not see any reason to change the rule
People will still complain.
It has always been only 5 above, so why change now?
Not fair to the people who have been abiding by 5 above rule for all these years
We voted on this before (True: but only 10 people voted at that meeting and that was before electronic voting was allowed. Isn’t it more fair to have whole membership vote on this change?)
Voting: If you are on a Challenge Ladder, please vote. If you are currently a Social member but have been on a Challenge Ladder before, please vote. Voting is open to ALL members. In order to vote, click the link to the Proposed Rule Change above.
If the rule is passed, it would apply to all Challenges starting June 1. Deadline to vote is May 9th. Even if you voted before, please vote on this link again.
Wow. So much to cover and a lot to digest. Sorry this is SO LONG. Looking forward to playing outside and seeing all of you.
Sincerely,
Tori Jepsen / President
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