In this issue:

Upcoming Board Meeting / Nominations	Indoor Play - Red Willow
Preparations for Outdoor Season at Alpine	Changes to DUPR
Membership Breakdown by Rating

Upcoming Board Meeting / Nominations

Treasurer - Laura Spencer 

Director at Large - Douwe Spriesma

A number of the Board positions are up for re-election so members were able to apply for these positions which are as follows:

President - Eileen McClean, will stand

Vice President - currently held by James Porter, will not stand for re-election)

Director at Large (Tournaments) - Ken Dentzien, will stand 

Director of Information and Membership - Art Au, will stand

Director of Communications - Roger Hutlet, will stand 

A Nominating Committee report covering candidates who are interested in the positions will be sent out to all members with the notice of the AGM in the next few days - on or before February 28, 2024.

Indoor Play

Red Willow Play Registration

In respect of other members trying to register, please ensure you wait until NOON on Saturday before registering for additional Red Willow sessions.  Nicole and the Club are very impressed with how many members do watch the time and don’t register early, but we just need to see that everyone honors this time frame. As you can appreciate, once one person registers early, it then it encourages others to want to follow suit; this is frustrating for those who are patiently waiting and, potentially, see that the last spot available is taken prematurely. 

Thanks to Ken Anderson

Thank you Ken for fixing the net at Bertha Kennedy.  We really appreciate the efforts of all indoor players who assist our captains in properly setting up and taking down the nets at our indoor venues - not doing so correctly can be costly and time consuming.

Preparations for Outdoor Season at Alpine

Preparations are under way for  the Alpine outdoor season.  Anyone interested in volunteering to be a captain should send an email to venuemanager@pickleballstalbert.ca .

Captains meetings will take place at Red Willow Church on April 16th from 9:00 to 10:30am in the morning and from 6:30 to 8:00pm in the evening.

Please respond even if you are already one of our many faithful captains.  We thank all members who volunteer in advance, as we anticipate an overwhelming response - remember, we cannot have the outdoor sessions without captains.  We appreciate all those members who generously donate their time in this capacity!!

Changes to DUPR

As our members will know, for approximately a year now, our Club has adopted DUPR as our predominant player rating system.   Details about DUPR can be accessed from our website by clicking here.  

You should be aware that DUPR is making changes as outlined by their communication to registrants as inserted below:

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January 30, 2024

Dear Player,

Today, we released significant updates to our rating, which will ensure more accuracy, connectivity, consistency, and reliability — and an even better pickleball experience for you.  

Your rating will now take into account: 

1. Points Matter.  Was this a tight match or a blowout? DUPR now evaluates the closeness of the match, so a score of 11-0 will have a bigger impact on your rating than a close match of 11-9 against that same opponent.
2. Recency Matters.  A match you played today will impact your rating more than a match you played six months ago.
   
3. Total Match Count Matters.  If you've played in a lot of matches, your rating will fluctuate less compared to a player with a lower match count.
   
4. Every Match Matters (even against unrated players).  Every match counts towards your rating, even if you are playing against someone who is unrated or new to DUPR.

These updates will be applied across all your match results in our platform, as well as to all future results you submit. Due to this, your rating has gone up!  For a deeper look into the new rating updates, check out our new blog written by DUPR’s Head of Analytics, Scott Mendelssohn.

We are thrilled to bring these improvements to DUPR to support you with a more accurate and more reliable rating. We can’t wait to hear what you think.

DUPR thanks you for your continued support! 

Membership Breakdown by Rating Level

734 members have already renewed their memberships for 2024.  As is typically the case, many of our members - particularly snowbirds - do not renew their Club membership until spring or early summer.  To that point, we currently have hundreds of members with a "renewal overdue status".  If all of those members were to renew later this year, we would have over 1,000 active members!

In terms of those members who have already renewed for 2024, the breakdown of those members as of February (with comparative figures for January) are as follows:

                                January          Feb (Current)       Inc/(Dec)

No Rating                  190                     220                     30

2.5 Rating                    16                       20                        4

3.0 Rating                  115                    123                        8

3.5 Rating                  195                    208                      13       

4.0 Rating                  129                    145                      16   

4.5+ Rating                  13                      18                         5            

Total Members        658                   734                      76

All members should note that memberships purchased prior to October 1, 2022 expired on December 31, 2023, so we request that if you haven't done so already, you should consider renewing your membership as soon as possible.  For instructions on how to renew your membership, please click on this link (Note: Ensure you are logged in before going past the first screen).

Until next time keep your paddle up!