Membership Play Committee
The Bylaws of the Des Moines Metro Pickleball Club states the following:
Article VI – Committees
Committees and/or chairpersons will be appointed by the Club Board.
In the Board Meetings of November 29, 2017 with Chair assignments approved at the Board Meeting of December 15, 2017, the following committees and leadership assignments are now in effect:
Member Acquisition & Retention (MA&R) – Angela Edmonson
Membership Play (MP) – OPEN
Planning & Lobbying (P&L) – John Bloom
Social Planning & Event Coordination (SP&E) - Jeanie Golliher
Training and Skill Development (T&SD) – Chuck Golliher
Technology Support (TS)-Joan Howe
This Volunteer Opportunity (VO) is for the Membership Play Committee. Also on November 29, 2017, the Board approved in "bullet form" the activities of each committee. For the Membership Play Committee, those included:
- Develop methods that assure club members can play with large numbers of players having similar abilities without compromising recreational play requirements
- Develop player ratings consistent with USAPA guidelines for those that desire to be rated
- Identify a Volunteer Leader that understands the playing requirements (days of the week, times, fees, etc.) for each major venue and communicate those to the membership
- Establish PB leagues as appropriate and assist in the operation of those leagues
- Establish coed, same sex and singles tournaments such as mixers, round robin play and rated play (matched by ratings and age) as appropriate
The Membership Play Committee is typically the largest and most important committee at the largest metro Pickleball clubs that we rated as "Best in Class" as we formed our club. Our ability to deliver on the above activities is dependent on members who either have direct experience with skill based play at another club, typically a "snow bird" community or have learned about play options via the USAPA website or other places. Skill based play does NOT favor or apply only to "highly skilled" players. It applies to players at every level. There are dozens if not hundreds of ways to organize "round robin" or "ladder league" forms of play. There are also dozens of ways to organize "open play" and this committee will provide that guidance when it is appropriate. We do NOT intend to propose changes at VCC or Pioneer Columbus. All programs organized by this committee will be developed with venue owners, public and/or private, that desire better utilization of their facilities.
Pursuant to this assignment, the Chair is requesting volunteers who have passion and skills to assure that the club can execute these activities in an effective and professional manner. Some of the desired qualities needed on this team are:
- Knowledge or willingness to learn about all forms of organized pickleball play
- Ability to identify "musts" and "wants" of our members and to identify a very short list of options, possibly only one program, that gets us started in 2018 to meet member expectations.
- Organization skills to "make it happen": inquiries, along with Planning Committee, of potential venues and their rules for use of facilities, play scheduling tools, use of club website, dmmp.club, to communicate with members (and probably non-members).
- Teamwork Skills in a Matrix Organization (Listening, Questioning, Persuading, Respecting)
All of our Committees must work together in an effective and harmonious way. The MP Committee should work with Metro District Ambassadors where they are identified. The MP Committee should coordinate with the Planning Committee when approaching City Officials or Venue Owners. The MP Committee is vital to the club's role in maximizing the community use of pickleball investments.