To our Members
The BLTC Committee is delighted with the progress that is being made so far in 2023 both on-court and off-court and there is lots more to come. We feel we have a vibrant club representing lots of different member interest groups and our links with the Community continue to strengthen.
We are now approaching a total Club membership of 800 of which approximately half are adult members and half are under 18s. Courts are being used far more extensively outside of the usual ‘rush hours’ of Mondays to Thursdays between 7pm and 9pm. We are delighted with this overall trend but are also conscious that we have a responsibility to our existing members to manage our capacity. With this in mind the Committee has made a decision to adopt a waiting list for any new member applicants until further notice. This will come into effect from end of day on Friday March 24th
Regarding annual Membership renewals, over the last year we have modified our Smart Club Cloud membership and events management solution to facilitate annual rolling membership renewals based on the month that any new member(s) joined. Membership renewals for many of our existing members are due in April so it is important also to address renewal rates in this communication. Our membership rates (outside of any minor uplifts by Tennis Ireland for player affiliation charges) have not changed in over 10 years and BLTC compares favourably with other Tennis Clubs in Cork and Munster. The Committee has made a decision to keep the annual membership rates as-is for the next 12 month renewal period. This applies regardless of which month your existing membership expires
A quick update also on our development plans. Development is a very broad term and we have a lot of smaller investments in the pipeline that we feel will enhance our Club facilities further in 2023. However with regard to our main strategic development plan which most of you are familiar with, we do not have final costings as yet for Phase 1 and neither have we explored every scenario to the level of detail that would allow us to present all the options and our recommendations to our Members. The legal process to retire former Trustees, appoint new ones for our Club and update our Lease is also taking longer than expected. We expect to have all this work completed over the next six to eight weeks and will then move to organise a Member EGM before end of May. This will ensure that our Members are a key part of the final decision making process here in line with our Constitution
Whether it is for health, social or competitive reasons or all of these, we hope that everyone continues to have fun as the tennis season ramps up and the weather improves !.
Best regards
The BLTC Committee
