THE SOCIAL SIDE OF THE CLUB.

The social side of your club can be as important an area as the playing side.

There are two elements to the social club.

A/.  Social Play – as against serious play.

B/.  Social events to the enjoyment of everyone.

Here are some suggestions on these aspects.

1/.        Social play, i.e. make sure there are times set aside for

            all members to just play some social tennis. These times

            need to be fairly well organised with rules to suit your

            club environment.

I will separately give some ideas in this connection.

2/.        Get the better club members involved so that there is

            an overall spirit of togetherness. One suggestion that

            has worked very well is that a different club team has

            to attend and run a social period.

            We have found that if you have a number of teams,

           then this is not too onerous.

            The mens first team organise the first week, Ladies

            first team the second week etc.

            In this connection, we have guidelines as to how

            members qualify for team places. Obviously, if you

            are aiming to field teams of a fairly high standard

            and players join because of that reason, then the rules

            may need modifying. You have to consider what is best

            for your situation.

3/.        THEME EVENINGS.

            Fondu evening

            Itallian evening

            Spanish evening  etc., etc.

4/.        Fashion Show – tie in with a local sports shop and have

            them show their new seasons range of sportswear.

            Perhaps your own members can be the models.

5/.        Hold a racket testing day, together with the local

            sports shop and members can buy racquets etc.

            Both the above at the begiining of the season.

6/.        High the local leisure centre for an afternoon,

            invite two other local clubs and have a three way

            competition – featuring Tennis – table tennis, hockey,        

            basketball, swimming.

            But hold it at the end of the playing season as you

            might get some injuries.   Have a trophy to be competed

            for each year.

7/.        Finish each social evening with a bar-b-que.

8/.        Hold a quiz evening and after the first event, the

            winning team have to set the questions and organise

            the next one.

9/.        Hold a Barn Dance.

10/.      Have an annual or bi-annual dinner dance, if  you

            can do it have it as a full dress evening.

11/.      Hold a fancy dress tennis afternoon – make sure

            the costumes allow for the playing of tennis.

12/.      Hold a treasure hunt in the vicinity of the club or

            hold a car treasure hunt, but be careful of the

            regulations when organise the latter event.

13/.      Do you have any charactors in the club!  One we

            held was ‘To Hollywood and back’ the member

            had left the area to go to become a movie star

            and then returned.

14/.      A mister and mrs evening – great fun.  Get the

            agreement of one or two couples, one half is sent

            out of the room and their other half is asked some

            searching questions. The one comes back into the

            room and they are asked the same questions,

            some of the answers can be funny.