Dear current Toronto Tennis City members and former Greenwin members,
 
 
Wednesday, May 12, 2010

First off, it has been a pleasure getting to know those of you who have stopped by the club. You’re excitement and interest in this new venture has assured me that our facility will be an excellent representation of the family community that surrounds the club.  I have anticipated gaining ownership of Greenwin for over a year, especially when being made aware of the discontent of some Greenwin members with aspects of the club’s operation. However, I am also aware of the member’s love for the club atmosphere, staff, location and most of all, potential.

 
My new vision for the club has been guided by the following three objectives:

1. Overall, a financially sound operation that offers first-rate services in a top-notch facility to the members of the club. In other words, a private club offering quality clay courts and instructional and competitive programs administered by certified coaches. We want to provide superior services at the lowest possible cost to our members.

2. More specifically, a club that offers adult members the opportunity to enjoy the efforts made by management to provide a fair and equitable way to share the first-rate facilities while having access to programs administered by certified coaches.

3. A club that offers the youngsters in our community and Toronto area a training environment which would provide them with the opportunity to fully utilize their skills in a progressive and systematic manner.
 

ABOUT ADULT MEMBERS                        

                                                                  
Recruiting former Greenwin members to join our club is a top priority of ours. In my opinion, the Greenwin members were the heart of the former club and will help us create our desired family atmosphere at Toronto Tennis City.  We have not been able to actively pursue previous members due to legal ramifications [such as using a membership list].

 ABOUT THE JUNIOR PROGRAMS

  

We have brought ACE Tennis, Canada’s top tennis development school to redesign and offer a progressive all inclusive program for youngsters aged 4 – 18 years old. This was done by revamping all of the Greenwin junior programs for the 2010. We have also recruited respected coach, Ben Armstrong, a multiple winner of the Tennis Canada annual coaching award, to head the tennis section for both juniors and adults. Finally, we added programs at the 6 – 7pm slot Monday through Friday which was previously used for private lessons. We also took 3 courts from 6 – 8 am Monday to Friday [please note the club opened at 7am in the past]. Finally we discontinued discounted memberships which were created to fill non prime-time and replaced the 2 – 4pm time slot from Monday through Friday with our top international junior program. There is no variation in the amount of court time being used on the weekends by the juniors.

 
We want the heart of our club to consist of former members who enjoyed the family-like atmosphere of the Balliol street club. Therefore, we have offered to waive the $1000 initiation fee if former members wish to continue with Toronto Tennis City. We have also acknowledged the concerns of former Greenwin members and are working to ensure these concerns are addressed. For example, we have removed the mould in the locker room during our first week of operation. We are in the midst of repainting the club and replacing the carpets.

 

We have also kept the same programs and the same pros for the spring and summer to help facilitate the changeover.

 
On May 1st we opened our doors and met with former Greenwin members and new potential members to discuss any issues and concerns:

 

1. We were clear on the role of junior programs in the fall and provided the hours of operation as outlined above.

2. We understood the concerns relating to availability of booking courts.

3. We agreed to let any member rejoining to save the initiation fee and the opportunity to leave the club before September 1 by providing us with a written 30 day notice.

4. We explained that we discontinued all discounted memberships to alleviate demand on the courts and to provide the same cost to all members.

5. We explained that we would not recruit new members till we had an indication of the response of former Greenwin members.

 
Following the meeting a newsletter was sent to members and prospective members, encouraging them to follow up with any concerns. We explained the non-prime hours of the junior program, we put in writing the guarantee of new members leaving by September 1 if dissatisfied, and most importantly we made two major changes to booking policies which were suggested to us by actual former Greenwin members:

 

1. In regards to private lessons, we discontinued the practice of having pros book courts for lessons ahead of the general membership and restricted certain times for lessons. This means that more members will be able to access more courts.

2. We want to discourage “block booking” by members who reserve many courts and then cancel. Unfortunately other members who find no courts available seven days in advance will make other plans that they cannot change when a court does become available. On the other hand, if you book a court and request for the reception desk to arrange a game seven days in advance, and we are unable to do so, we will let you cancel the court 24 hours from your booking.

 
In addition, we would like to clarify 2 more late cancellation issues:

 

1. Members are not charged for rain days.
2. Members who have requested a lesson from a pro are not held responsible for the court if the instructor is not available: however, the court will be cancelled right away.

 
Among other issues raised during the first week of the club’s operation were the following ones:

 

1. Comments on booking at 6am:
We are sorry for any confusion but as it was previously mentioned in the newsletter, the courts can be booked seven days in advance starting at 7.30am.

2. Game arrange service to continue:
Unfortunately, the Game Time is not available for the members yet. Nevertheless, we are currently working on it and hope to have it ready for use very soon. All the members will receive an e-mail asking them to contact the club’s front desk in order to get their personal ID number.

3. The voicemail not being set up yet:
The voicemail is functioning. When you make a call and no one is able to answer, it gives you an option to reach the front desk or Allan, TTC Club manager, through the correspondent extensions 0 or 22.

 
So in conclusion, no question this club will be successful and will offer a top-rate facility with top-rate services. It’s a recipe that can’t miss in this location, with this market and the available options.

 

 There will be many changes in order to help the club reach its full potential. However, having a great group of members is something we hope to maintain.  We have implemented the following policies to encourage you to continue to play at this facility:

1. We will design policies that are fair to the membership in general.
2. We will waive the $1000 initiation fee till May 31 for anyone rejoining as of May 1, 2010.
3. The membership fees are annual fees which can be paid on a monthly basis.
4. We will have a strong junior component of the club like in the past.
5. The club is going to be the best value for a year round club in the middle of the city.

 
I hope to see you all at our new fantastic tennis club. If not we understand and wish you the best of luck in your new environment.

 
Sincerely Yours,
 
Pierre Lamarche
Toronto Tennis City, Director
Office:  905 632 9500
Cell:  905 616 6970
Fax:  905 632 9482

 

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