I am going to the Tennis Canada workshop this week-end for the Building Tennis Communities program. I am excited to learn new things about the latest in tennis, meet new people and talk to some old friends. I look forward to the opportunity and I am extremely fortunate to be involved at the community level where we can make such an impact to so many people.

I look forward to a real positive experience and hope to be able to apply some of what I have learned at the community level with our organization. It is a real opportunity to be able to grow our organization and I look so forward to the challenges and the opportunities next year.

After the workshop I will continue to explore our business plan and hopefully complete it shortly.

Well the Tennis season has finished for the year except for the hauling of the fall leaves and putting away all the nets and windscreens so I needed a small break. It has been extremely busy since the nets were put up in the spring but it has been a successful year with many great accomplishments. The Inner City Program is amazing and the kids had a fantastic time but what impressed me the most was our amazing staff. They had a wonderful time, did a fantastic job and made our place somewhere that participants wanted to go to. All the staff commented on what a great place Hillcrest was to work at and what a great place for the community to play tennis. What more could we ask for. We were privileged to have such dedicated staff.

When I was preparing for our Board meeting last night I realized how much work has to be done behind the scenes. I decided to take one section at a time and perfect the programs that way. As I continue to work on our business plan I get quite excited in what the future has for us. It will be hard work but there are many amazing opportunities.

It is not easy operating a business in today's economy let alone a not for profit organization. There is plenty of competition around each corner and so many organizations asking for donations for great causes. I do feel that we do have something so great, we have terrific people to work with and if we continue to work hard it will all come together.

I am going to put a bit more thought into some of our programs and keep you posted on the latest.

The last day of class for our A love of Tennis group. I was sure sad to see this. They are amazing kids and I love them all. They really are what makes me want to go to the courts every week and I will sure miss them. I had to leave early today and the kids all came and gave me a big hug it was amazing and then I got a very special card from Mariym our summer student. It had extremely kind words and I will treasure it forever.

Driving home I was so determined to make the program even better for next year. These kids have really made the program super special for myself and all the others who have helped this year. Gary one of our pros was also amazing and each time when I looked over to see how he was doing on his court he had a big smile on his face. I could tell he enjoyed the kids also. We sure will take home many special memories. Eliza told me she did a story about herself for a school report  and she brought in her tennis medal that she received. She ended up with an A++ on her report. Lucy another student in our program also got an A++ and brought in her medal. It really makes me proud that they can show what great things they did in the summer right on our courts!

I am more focused now that the program is complete and our next meeting will be in October where we will begin to focus at each meeting on one of our objectives and determine what we need to do to improve, grow and continue to make this such an amazing program.

I can't wait to get started and in the meantime I will continue to work on the business plan where I am on the marketing section. Every section of the plan is so important but marketing has been an area where we need to really sell to the segment of the population that we want to reach. I will need more data for this but it is exciting that we can narrow it down to who we want to target, where they are, what type of population and then how we are going to do it. The other major issue is how much will this cost. It has been difficult on a limited budget but I know we can do it. It is also exciting that this plan will be a terrific blueprint of what we want to do and how we will do it. It is pretty exciting stuff and I love it. A lot of it comes from my gut of what I want to happen in the future but it is nice to have it in writing.

There are so many more kids we want to reach, so I have to get working.

Oh Boy it has been much too long since I updated this blog. Trying to recruit people for our tournament, getting the kids trophies, awards, and racquets organized and managing the day to day operations as the students have gone back to school has kept me way too busy.

However, we had a perfect day for the tournament and met amazing people, played a lot of tennis and David McGuinty M.P. Ottawa South came by to present the trophy. The kids also received their awards and brand new racquets and balls. It was very rewarding to see the excitement in the kids. Some stayed after everyone left to play with their new equipment.

It was worth every minute of being so busy! I really do wish that more people could see first hand the excitement in the kids every time they come to the court. I also wish to thank everyone who came out and played all day - we really appreciate your tremendous support. A real thank you goes to our Board members Allan, Isabel, and Gary who also gave up their day to contribute to the success of the event. We really are a great team which I am so proud of and they are a lot of fun to be with.

 Now I am going to focus on the business plan and the growth of the organization for next year. It really has been a very successful year and we have a lot to be thankful for.
For our future Board meetings I am going to focus on our strategic plan and focus on one of our goals at each meeting so we can take a good look at what we have accomplished, how we can improve and what measures we need to take to have greater success in the future.  We really have to focus on the direction of the organization so we can continue to have success and be able to reach our goals in the future.

I really don't know where the summer has gone! Saturday was the last day for our summer students. I am always so sad to see them go as they help us out so much and they add so much to the organization.

But now that the camps are over it is time to prepare for our annual fundraiser. The promotion, planning and trying to recruit teams is a challenge but the event is so important to our organization. It will also be the awards ceremony for our A Love of Tennis Program. So I must prepare their report cards.

The season is sure coming to an end quickly. It really has been an amazing season.  I will look forward to a break so that I can continue to focus on the business plan which has been put on hold until I complete our programming.

Next week we will be video taping our dance - it really is amazing and over the top. Our dance instructor who is an amazing volunteer has been fantastic. She has choreographed the whole dance using tennis.  I really have enjoyed the time with Evvy as she has so much enthusiasm and has been a very positive influence on our program.

It is hard to believe that camp is almost over and soon school will be starting. It has been a busy summer! That means we are almost in to September and the A Love of Tennis McGuinty Grand Slam will be here before you know it.
Our wonderful graphic designer Ying did our poster for us again this year - Michelle Gagnon had done the art for it and every year Ying keeps the same format and just updates with a new picture and information. I love the poster this year as the team is having so much fun!

It really is such an amazing event and you spend such quality time with family and friends. I look so forward to it every year. We do really need a lot more people to promote the event but I am hoping this will come in the near future.
For know I enjoy every moment of it and the money raised goes to such a good cause I couldn't really think of a better way to spend a week-end. So over the next few days I will be trying to advertise and recruit some teams for this.

The season has gone by so quickly and with only two weeks left of our summer program the kids will all be going back to school.  That means our annual fundraiser is just around the corner as we have it every September. This year we wanted to change is to the second week-end as the army race week-end was the original day of our event and that is becoming so popular we didn't want it conflicting with our event.

By moving it up we really have to get going on the advertising as it means so much to our organization.

One day we will have someone who takes charge of this as it really requires someone to plan it a year in advance but we really do the best we can with the resources we have at the moment.  So I have been working with our volunteer graphic designer who has helped us so much and we have finally completed the poster and registration form so we will be working to get the word out.

I went to the courts on Saturday for the match play and it was amazing - I love working with the kids because they are so keen and enjoy the tennis so much it really is a privilege to teach them. We practiced the dance at the beginning of the session and it was fun.

Well it was nice it was a holiday Monday it gave me a chance to catch my breath! It has been busy but a great busy I wouldn't change for the world. I completed the charitable application and all the many attachments, picked up all my papers and put them into some kind of order -some in Love of Tennis, some in the OTCC organization and some in the A Love of Tennis organization.

I can really see we are moving in such a positive direction but everything seems to come at the same time and I have been swamped. If you don't take the time to organize all my important papers get lost at the bottom of a file somewhere.

We had our Board meeting the other night and I really enjoyed getting together with Isabel and Allan - they are terrific and we do have a few laughs along the way. We did spend a lot of time discussing the A Love of Tennis McGuinty Grand Slam our annual fundraiser. It is an amazing week-end but it has been difficult getting the word out. We hope to recruit more teams and try to raise some much needed revenue for our Inner City Program which is taking off and has been an extremely positive program for the community and the kids who participate.

It is an amazing week-end spent with family and friends and I enjoy it so much. Tennis really can bring people togeher and I must say I am very privileged to be able to make a difference in the community through tennis.

Anyway once I found the flyer from 2010 I was able to look at what needed to be updated and I sent the information to our wonderful graphic design volunteer who can hopefully update it. In the next week we will be starting our quest to get teams and individuals signed up for this event.

Now that I feel a little more organized I can again focus on moving the organization forward and this fundraiser is a very important part of the process. I look so forward to playing in it and seeing the teams who come every year and have been so supportive to us.  The most supportive group and the first to always sign up are the team from Almonte. What a wonderful group of people. I sure look forward to seeing them again.

Oh My gosh! Evvy the dance coach came and she was fantastic, very enthusiastic and great with the kids. She lined the kids up into 5 lines and taught them a few beats of the music, then played the music and I couldn't believe how terrific the kids were.  It was a Cuban song but she had the kids spinning around with their racquets in their hand and it looked fantastic even though a few were spinning the opposite way - it is going to be so cute when completed.

We wanted to practice on Saturday but because it was a long week-end a lot of the kids were not there. We will have to get a copy of the music to make it easier to practice with. I really can't wait until it is complete.

Well this year a 3 million dollar soccer field was built right beside our courts. It has drawn some kids away for sure especially since it is a bright artificial turf, has lights, fancy benches and it looks amazing! So we went back to the beginning and began to think about our opportunities and threats and how we can use them to grow tennis on our courts. I knew we had to do something fun and exciting, that would catch someones eye and maybe a kid or parents heart and bring them to the courts to see what tennis is all about. Once we have them there we know it can be fun!

So I posted on Volunteer Ottawa for a Dance choreographer to come and do fitness with the kids once a week. I got a reply within a few weeks. The dance instructor is all pumped up -"this is over the top" she said "but I love the idea and I want to help."

So we are going to combine tennis music and dance - I really can't wait and I am sure the kids will have a lot of fun! Next Wednesday will be our first class and she has told me she has chosen pumped up music that will be catchy!

That is why I love this program so much because it challenges me to do better, I am inspired when I am on the courts with the kids and I am amazed at how wonderful and appreciative the parents are. The other thing is that the students have completed putting up the windscreens, and the place looks amazing. I love the positive feeling I get everytime I go to the courts.