President's Message: Kim Cresci
December can bring rain, quiet courts and holiday lights but most importantly it brings time with good friends celebrating the season. There are so many wonderful things to celebrate this year at the PTC. Members coming together to bring a fresh new look to the club, finding a fabulous new tennis pro and captains offering their time to gather teams. I am excited to see everyone at the festive holiday party and from my family to yours, I wish you all the joy of the holidays.
Manager: Lona Means
The next USTA league season is rapidly approaching, please let me know if you may be interested in captaining a team. The following teams are registered in the USTA Over 55 league: Mixed 6.0, Mixed 8.0 and Mixed 9.0. Additionally, in the USTA Over 40 division: Women and Men's 4.5+, Women and Men's 4.0. We are searching for volunteers to captain the Women's 3.5, and Men's 3.0 and 3.5 teams. The last day to register a team is December 10th. Season play is from January through March 2018.
Please let me know if your address or email has changed since the last printed roster. A new club roster will be printed soon.
Finance Committee: Jeff Eliason
As reported at the membership meeting on November 28th, PTC managed the 2017 Improvement Project to come in 6.3% under budget, and are well on our way to replenishing our Reserve Account. We’ve also made changes to a couple of the fee structures for the club that will ensure our solid financial stability going forward.
First, the final cost tally for the 2017 Improvement Project was $507,665, a full $34,085, or 6.3%, below the $541,750 that we were authorized by membership to spend. We saved $39,045 to the contractor by eliminating some unnecessary work and doing some of the work, mainly the tile work, ourselves. As a result, although PTC's portion of the budget was 20% under budget, we ended up $5,700 higher because of the tile and other work we decided to take on. We spent virtually all of the contingency, but it was nice to have that cushion going in – we obviously needed it.
From a balance sheet perspective, we converted Cash in the Reserve Account to Improvements, ones that we will enjoy for years to come. We need to give a special shout out to Stuart Batchelor, Lona, Kim Cresci, and Duncan Grenier who spent countless hours to oversee the project, rein in costs, pick a classic design, and get it done right. Nobody will ever know what they gave but it was well worth it. Thank you to all of you so much. Also, thank you to the members for their support and their patience as we completed the project, a little delayed, but within reason to get it right.
The PTC Board made a couple key changes that will ensure that the club operates on a solid financial foundation going forward. First, we increased initiation fees from $12,500 to $15,000. This is a very modest increase and the new fee still represents a phenomenal bargain for what members get from the club. Whether it’s tennis, various activities, social, or the camaraderie, I hope you all agree that being members together at PTC is one of the best bargains on the Peninsula! With the new men’s lockers, we decided to increase annual locker fees from $50 to $80 for the smaller lockers, and from $60 to $96 for the large lockers. This includes men’s and women’s lockers. This is still only $6-$8 per month and a great value for what members receive in return.
Our Reserve Account went from $603,820 down to $96,155 after the Project, but has since been built to $168,445 with the $15/month/Member that we all contribute to the Reserve ($444,070) as well as net initiation fees from five new members ($36,250). Assuming four new members per year (we have averaged five-six the last three years), we will increase our Reserve Account by $73,200 per year. This means by the end of 2018, we will have $241,745, by year-end 2020, we will have $388,145, and by year-end 2023, we will have $534,545. Since our project list, including a Physical Needs Analysis, new water heaters, resurfacing courts, court lighting, plus other projects totals only $360.000, we have almost a 50% cushion, or $174,545, to go to higher expected new project costs or other future-identified needs. I think we are in good shape.
Lastly, the Comerica Loan which was used to do the last project in 2007 is now only $1,205,525. With pay down, it should equal $1,178,125 by year-end. We have a Loan Servicing Account, which we all contribute $55/Member/month which now equals $540,329. We expect it to equal $591,800 by the time the loan is due in December 2018. We will use this to pay down the loan and with costs, should have a new loan of $620,000. That is an extremely conservative loan, representing 8%-9% of real value of the club if we take into account the real value of the land. If we amortize the new loan over 15 years at 5%, we will have a monthly payment of $4,900, saving $3,350 a month versus our current payment and paying the loan off completely in 2033.
Tennis Committee: Peter Stevenson
What a fun and spirited day! Under clear but cool skies, the women battled it out in the 4
th Annual PTC Ladies’ Doubles Tournament held on Saturday, November 19
th. The level of tennis was amazing and it was clear that all were having a blast playing the other teams within their pool during round-robin play. In the first semi-final, Sheila Druskin and Angie Kwan rallied from an early deficit to tie Oksana Sydorak and Louise Tierney. In the one-game tie-breaker, Sheila and Angie built on their late round momentum to defeat Oksana and Louise and secure their place in the final.
In the other semi-final, Elise Brand and Grace Voorhis took on Kristen Pierce and Kay Coskey. After a few back-and-forth games early, Elise and Grace steadied down the stretch and pulled away from Kristen and Kay and reach the final.
After surviving four rounds and four matches, the final was now set pitting Elise and Grace against Sheila and Angie. The championship match was full of some long rallies and incredible points on both sides. In the end, Elise and Grace emerged victorious as they broke serve mid-way through the match and held from there. Congratulations to Elise and Grace on winning the tournament, to runner-ups Sheila and Angie, and to all the ladies that played. Special thanks to Sheila and her Social Committee for a very enjoyable lunch afterwards and to Lona for all of her support before and during the tournament.
As I’m sure many of you have heard by now (but just in case you haven’t), we have a new Head Tennis Pro, Pablo Alvarado. Pablo brings a wealth of tennis experience, a high-degree of professionalism and an amazing level of passion to the game and to his work. I’m sure his enthusiasm for tennis and his love of coaching will spread quickly across the club membership. If you are interested in setting up a lesson or clinic, please contact Pablo on his cell phone (669-236-1277) or through his website
http://coachpabloalvarado.com. He has set up a PTC Portal on his website for our club, so each family can have their own account to manage lesson times, payments and more. Originally from Argentina, Pablo has been in the US for the past three years and currently lives in San Mateo with his wife and young daughter. Please join me in welcoming Pablo to the PTC Family!
Social Committee: Sheila Druskin
We look forward to seeing you at the PTC Holiday Party on Saturday evening. Thank you for signing up - what a great turnout it promises to be. We will begin at 6:00pm with cocktails, dinner at 7:00pm and then enjoy live music from Brian Wachhorst's band All Star Jukebox. Dress festive and be ready for a fun evening!
Membership Committee: Duncan Grenier
We have had two new families submit their applications during the last month:
Christina Funk (Sponsors - Paz/Shaefer)
Beth Francesconi (Sponsors - Sobel/Grenier)
