April 16, 2006
Dear GRTA Tennis Players:
It is time once again to renew your individual or family annual membership in GRTA. Membership fees are the same as last year: $20 for students, $25 for adults and $60 for families of three or more players. These fees go to support our youth instruction programs and youth clinics that take place throughout the year. Current association memberships expire on April 30, 2006. New memberships will be good through April 30, 2007. To participate in youth clinics, adult leagues, and any programs sponsored or organized by GRTA, you must have a current GRTA membership.
We thank you for your continued support of the game and support of our youth players. The fees collected from individual memberships and from registrations for the Summer Industrial League teams cover less than one-fourth the costs of our junior programs. Our goal is to make tennis affordable for all of the youth in Muscatine. At only $20 per year per child, and well over one hundred hours per year of available quality instruction and organized, supervised play, we think we have made a good effort in making tennis affordable for all of our students!
Our junior programs are designed not only to teach the game of tennis but also help our players to be solid citizens. We attempt to do this by teaching confidence, patience, discipline, concentration, fitness, leadership, and teamwork. To be able to continue to meet these goals, the GRTA organization has been and is working on a number of projects. These include:
?• Incorporation of the organization in the state of Iowa
?• Completion of the approval process with the Internal Revenue Service to become a 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity.
?• Ongoing work with Rich Klimes and the Muscatine Parks and Recreation department to improve both GRTA and park district youth programs and to improve the quality of our public park tennis courts in the city.
?• The development of a formal business plan and budgets for ongoing operations. We are concurrently working on short and long term funding, various grant opportunities, as well as private and public donations to grow the outreach of the organization and serve a larger number of people in the community.
?• We are also working on the potential layout and feasibility of a new 3-court indoor facility with adjacent exterior courts as part of a public tennis complex.
All GRTA directors are volunteers. All of the net proceeds from our tournaments, membership dues, league fees, and contributions go back into paying our coach, our youth assistants, and for support of tennis facilities. Please contact Bill Chrisman or Tom Beckley if you have not already received this letter by e-mail or hardcopy and we will get you the membership form.
Thank you again for your support of Muscatine tennis,
Bill Chrisman,GRTA Youth Programs Director
Tom Beckley, GRTA President