TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
ANNUAL REPORT
2021-22 1
cover photos: Jeremy Weiss
The Maplewood Club 2021-22 Annual Report
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2021 —Year Two of the Covid-19 pandemic— provided its challenges, but overall it was a year of rebound and growth for MLC. Vaccines helped us have an almost normal season, full of fun and safe events, and our summer camp was hugely popular. With commuting to NYC still largely paused, working from home made tennis more in demand than ever, and our neighbors were clamoring to be a part of the club. MLC’s membership grew at an unprecedented rate: we added 43 new memberships in 2021! In order to support our growing membership and its demands, we hired our first-ever General Manager, Sheri McKinstrie, to help with day-to-day club operations. The biggest undertaking in 2021 was the acquisition and renovation of the Wyoming Club, now known as the MLC Learning Center (LC). Thanks to the incredible efforts of many MLC’ers, its courts were up and running by July, and they were a great addition to the club: hosting lessons, clinics for adults and kids, and helping with court overflow. A major courts improvement project took place at the end of the 2021 season, and they will be in really great shape for spring 2022. As for the LC Clubhouse, we have discovered that it needs major work. There is now a Learning Center Development Committee in place working to assess and explore the property and clubhouse development and usage. Potential options include adding paddle tennis courts, an additional tennis court, and/or rebuilding the current structure. There are many zoning and land use restrictions to consider, as well as neighbor approvals and budget implications, but I look forward to seeing where it leads MLC in the future.
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photo: Jeremy Weiss
2021 saw the drafting and publication of the official MLC Diversity and Inclusion statement. While MLC has always been an all-inclusive club, an official statement was something that the Board has long wanted to put to paper. The statement has already helped to attract potential members and resulted in MLC welcoming the most diverse group of new members in our history. We have more work to do to ensure that the MLC community better reflects the SOMA community at large, but I believe this was a big step in the right direction. We also announced the MLC Volunteers initiative in 2021, to be implemented in 2022. MLC Volunteers will help foster a stronger sense of community for all of our members, keep costs down, and share the large workload that our board of trustees and some members have been tending to for so long. Beginning in 2022, we are asking that each family donate their time and expertise as volunteers to help our club flourish. We are asking for a minimum of two hours/tasks of volunteer time per family to pitch in each season. I truly hope that this will be a rewarding initiative that helps to strengthen member connections and makes MLC a more enjoyable place for everyone. Thank you to our fantastic and hardworking Board of Trustees and to all the volunteers who make MLC such a wonderful and welcoming place. I look forward to a successful 2022 season.
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photo: Jeremy Weiss
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photo: Jeremy Weiss
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MLC invited 43 new families into the club between the months of March and September 2021. Eight of these families joined from The Wyoming Club. At the end of 2021, we had a total of 166 families. We launched the MLC Diversity Initiative this year, and in doing so we welcomed in the most inclusive group of new families that the club has ever had. We recently invited five new families to join and we currently have 35 families on the waiting list for 2022.
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2021 was another fantastic year for MLC on the courts, with a wide variety of playing opportunities, strong and fun competition, and plenty of great tennis. Our teams competed well in the local men’s and women’s leagues. These are open to all members who are interested in participating, just let Tom know and he will find the right team for you. We conducted 11 championship events which as always produced plenty of terrific competition and a very enjoyable championship weekend. We conducted at least 19 separate tennis-oriented events: holiday round robins, open tennis, twilight tennis, world team tennis and more. We encourage everyone to participate in these since they are a great way to get to know more members and have a lot of fun. They also provide a chance to help and get in your volunteer hours (hint, hint). Of course, the biggest change on the tennis front was the addition of the Learning Center at the former Wyoming Club. Adding these two courts and focusing them on clinics and instruction enabled us to offer more court time and flexibility at MLC. 2021 was a “learning year” for how we utilize this new resource, and it was a huge success (we learned a lot). As those courts and the facility are improved, it will provide even more options and flexibility for our membership. We completed our second year using the court booking website to schedule court time, which has been a big help in managing court time and giving members visibility and the ability to plan in advance. We also successfully re-introduced Open Tennis – our “just walk up and put your name on the chalkboard” experience, which provide another way to find a game and meet and play with more people. Lastly, we are thrilled to welcome Mary Francouer as our new Tennis Trustee. I have no doubt that she will do a fantastic job – please let Mary know if you have questions or ideas, and when you are available to help out, there is always plenty to do. Looking forward to another great year on the courts in 2022, see you out there soon.
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During the 2021 Season, we extended the digital foundation built over prior years •
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We launched a more modern club website in January of 2021 under the leadership and tremendous efforts of Linda Thibodeau. In addition to the fresh re-styling, we added a private member area for community, collaboration, e-commerce, court reservations and more. The site is also greatly improved for membership information for prospective members. We also renovated the Event Rental section for non-members to find out more about using the clubhouse for private events. Thanks Linda! With the addition of the Learning Center, we added a new TennisCam to view the courts at our South Campus We took ownership of the Google address for The Wyoming Club so we can direct people to MLC when they google the Wyoming Club New mesh wifi was added at the MLC main campus. Xfinity internet and wifi was added at the Learning Center We extended the online court reservation system, adding 2 courts at the LC and pickleball The migration for club email to Constant Contact has been a great improvement in delivery over the prior platform We discontinued online ad spending with Facebook and Google for two reasons. With a long membership waitlist, we do not need to attract new members. With COVID, the club rental market is greatly depressed. Jeremy Weiss took over as curator for the club Instagram account and has greatly improved content and relevance We increased social engagement with 795 people following The Maplewood Club on Facebook. Sadly our Instagram account only has 296 followers. Let’s get the word out. Website traffic increased over 100% comparing 2021 to 2020 reflecting continued interest in our club by the community
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In the 2022 season we hope to make multiple improvements, look for opportunities on the Maplewood Volunteers list! • Add a Learning Center section to the club website • Update the Club History section with Wyoming Club acquisition and more • Create a promotional video for club rentals • Increase use of Google and Instagram Ads for club rentals as we expect rental interest will increase this year • Digitize the past club presidents on a new MLC page • Add a Pickle-cam and security cams
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