Call for volunteers 2014

Highgate Cricket and Tennis Club – Call for volunteers for 2014

The Highgate Tennis club, like all clubs run by volunteers, takes a lot of work to keep it ship-shape.  The club’s Tennis committee do a lot of the behind the scenes work to ensure that team fixtures are organised and agreed with other clubs, that our courts get cleaned, managed and repaired, that the concerns of members throughout the year are aired and debated, and many other things beside.

But the club is also supported hugely by a number of volunteers across our membership who help with social events, who organise and run tournaments and who support our growing and thriving Junior programme.

This year, at the AGM, we want to continue to take advantage of the diversity and talent of our membership. To that end, as per usual, we are seeking volunteers to put themselves forward to be nominated for this year’s Tennis Committee.  Attached to this note is an annex that sets out what the Committee does and the type of roles people play, to give you an idea of what you might be able to contribute.

But we’d also like to attract expressions of interest from people who don’t want to be involved in the more formal committee structure – but who would be happy to lend their support on an ad-hoc basis to various activities around the club. What we’d like to do is to tap the interest of everyone who would like to give something back to the club.

Notices will be posted in the clubhouse and on the website inviting people both to stand on the Tennis committee, but also to put themselves down as a more general “volunteer” – and I, along with my fellow committee members, would really encourage you to think about signing up.

If you would like to speak to me, or any other members of the current committee, please don’t hesitate to do so.

Best wishes

Liz Berryman
Tennis Captain – 07775 782522

Being a member of the Tennis Committee

What does it do?

The Tennis Committee, like the Highgate Club itself, is open, inclusive and friendly.  Our constitution provides for 9 committee places. In this last year, it has been comprised of 9 Members, who have met on a 4-6 week basis to discuss the running of the club.  Our constitution provides for 9 committee places so the committee have done tremendously well to keep things running smoothly. There are certainly opportunities for more members to be involved and you would be welcomed aboard – we are a friendly bunch, honest!

The principles of the committee are:

  • to encourage people of all ages –  juniors and adults – to play tennis and play tennis better;
  • to shape and carry out tennis section policy;
  • to ensure that tennis section is run within its resources; and importantly
  • to minimise bureaucracy

What sort of time commitment do I have?

That is very much up to the individual. We would encourage people to apply for the Tennis Committee who are prepared to commit themselves to 6-9 meetings a year.  It doesn’t have to be too onerous, and there is a real degree of flexibility about how much you would want to give, whether it’s an hour a day or an hour a month.

Roles and Responsibilities

This section looks at the roles of the individuals on the Committee, and the sort of functions that we hope that they can fulfil. Some roles do not require you to serve on the Committee so if you are interested in helping in some way please discuss with a current committee member.

1.    Tennis Chair

  • Chairs the Tennis Committee
  • Act as ambassador for the club, attending LTA and Haringey tennis forums as appropriate
  • Promotes club policies, ensuring Tennis Committee and coaches are implementing appropriately
  • Works with Tennis Committee to develop club vision into the Clubmark Action Plan and to deliver this
  • Liaises closely with the Junior Tennis Co-ordinator
  • Reports to the general committee on overall tennis matters
  • Works with GMC on the Club Business Plan
  • Member of the Coaching and Scheduling Sub-committee which works with coaches:
    • to ensure coaching programmes delivered in accordance with coaches contracts and Club Coach Charter
    • to agree court schedule for each term, ensuring usage is in line with the allocations agreed by the Tennis Committee

2.    Tennis Captains – (Two roles with representation from Men and Women’s teams}

  • Organises the club’s competitive team’s structure
  • Support coaches with team selection
  • Identifies team captains and provides support to them throughout the season e.g. with interpretation of league rules, and finding reserve players
  • In conjunction with Social Secretary organises team events e.g. Team Dinner
  • Ensures there is an appropriate balance of coaching, competitive play and opportunity for practise within the tennis programme to reflect the needs of team players
  • Manages the Club tournament, including seeding of players, progression of the draw and final day presentations at Club Tournament

3.    Tennis Secretary

  • Club Main Contact for Tennis Section for LTA and Place to Play communications
  • Maintains club LTA Place of Play web information
  • Organises the Tennis Committee meetings
  • Responsible for prompt minutes and agendas from Tennis committee meetings

4.    Clubmark Secretary

  • Manages the Clubmark documentation
  • Monitors LTA Clubmark developments and keeps the Tennis Committee informed of any changes required
  • Undertakes an annual review of documentation
  • Co-ordinates updates to individual documents from document owners
  • Liaises with LTA on Clubmark matters
  • Supports Fundraiser by ensuring the have appropriate documentation for any fundraising bids/grant applications
  • Maintains Clubmark documents on the Club Notice Board

5.    Junior Tennis Co-ordinator

  • Works with the coaches to help determine and develop the clubs junior coaching programme
  • Supports coaches with achieving Clubmark
  • Attends the Coaching and Scheduling sub-committee
  • Organises the club’s junior fixtures
  • Acts as the gateway between parents and the tennis club.

6.    Membership Co-ordinator

  • Acts as the point of contact on the committee for the Club Administrator in relation to membership matters
  • Supports Club Administrator in developing fee structure, membership policy and membership terms and conditions
  • Deal with non-standard enquiries from new members.

The following roles do not require formal nomination to the Tennis Committee, although attendance at 2-3 meetings a year may be required where matters relevant to the role are a key agenda item.

7.    Communications and website manager

  • Management and oversight of the club’s communications, via its website, social media, in club posters, emails etc.
  • Liaison with the coaches and administrator on dissemination of information
  • Responsible for the timely update of the clubs website
  • Responsible for design and print of relevant material
  • Copy writing, editing and managing production of marketing collateral

8.    Internal Tennis Competition co-ordinator

  • Responsible for the organisation of internal club competitions excluding the main tournament i.e. – Brookside, Winter League, Tennis Ladders

9.    External Tennis competition co-ordinator

  • Responsible for liaison with the LTA organiser of external club competitions e.g. the Highgate LTA supported tournament
  • Liaison with coaches on junior tournament requirements
  • Liaison with Communications Secretary to ensure tournaments publicised

10.    Tennis Facilities manager

  • Liaises with Nick Fowler on court maintenance matters
  • Overseas the court maintenance programme
  • Works with the Tennis Committee to review maintenance priorities
  • Manages key projects such as Court 5 renovation

11.    Fixture Secretary

  • Maintains the club’s calendar
  • Liaises with the LTA to organise the clubs participation in Middlesex summer and winter competitions
  • Liaises with Team Captains, Bar Secretary and Treasurer regards fixture arrangements, catering and match fee collection
  • Is the first point of call for fixture related enquiries both from Team Captains and visiting clubs

12.    Fundraiser

  • Identify and seek potential funding opportunities
  • Engage club and organisation members
  • Identify and approach potential sponsors
  • Prepare grant applications
  • Identify when club fundraising events are required