An Important Moment
2021 was one of the most successful years in Riverside's history. Following recent facility developments such as the resurfacing of courts 1-3 as artificial grass and building courts 7-8, membership grew to an all time high of 340 (adults and juniors). The LTA awarding us the 'South West Club Of The Year' award was the icing on the cake.
What was apparent going into 2022 was that the club was changing. It was moving from what at times felt like an oversized, small club, to a medium sized club. The demands on the committee and its volunteers was increasing and it became clear that a proper plan was needed to ensure the club could operate as well as possible in the future.
The vision for our plan is for Riverside to be the best option for every tennis player in the Salisbury area, regardless of age or ability. We believe the key to achieving this is to consistently review and improve the club in various areas over the next few years. In particular we aim to:
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Give all players the opportunity to reach their maximum playing potential.
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Ensure that the opportunity to compete is available to all ages and abilities.
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Offer a social activity programme to enable members to meet others and make friends.
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Maintain a first class, LTA accredited, coaching team.
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Establish a court programme to maximise the use of facilities and offer a wide range of activities for all ages and abilities.
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Use modern technology for efficient administration and marketing to raise the club profile.
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Expand and improve facilities to meet the needs of all users.
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Have a flexible membership policy to attract and retain new members.
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Maintain financial stability and increase available capital.
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To have suitable governance to plan long term and improve effectiveness.
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Be a more community focused and environmentally sustainable club.
We aim to do this whilst retaining our values, such as:
Being welcoming, friendly and inclusive to all ages, backgrounds and abilities and ensuring that we are following our Diversity & Inclusion Policy.
Encouraging participants and build confidence so that players can enjoy their tennis.
Providing a safe and sustainable environment to play and socialise.
Being open and transparent about how the club operates and being responsive to suggestions.
Key Objectives
In order to add structure to our action plan we came up with some key objectives for the next five years. Our objectives are to:
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Retain the existing membership
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Increase membership at the club to 400 (adults/juniors)
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Improve the standard of play
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Maximise the use of the club facilities
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Look after our facilities, carrying out timely cost-effective maintenance
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Improve the quality and range of tennis & social facilities over the next 10 years
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Improve the day to day running of the club to facilitate sustainable development
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Introduce Social, Community and Environmental Initiatives
Facility Developments
Over the next ten years we are proposing significant upgrades to facilities at the club. These facilities will help us to improve our tennis offering, increase membership and usage of our facilities to generate additional income. For most of the facilities proposed below, fact finding and research is required before the club can make a decision to take anything forward. This list requires prioritising and then setting deadlines for research, costings, timelines and ramifications.
The list below was updated with comments on 20/5/2024 and will be reviewed this summer.
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Resurface Court 4 with artificial grass. Completed in 2022.
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Install floodlights to Courts 7 & 8. Completed at the end of 2022.
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Improve existing court floodlighting – replace existing lights with LED bulbs Completed at beginning of 2023.
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Install solar panels to power the floodlights. Action voided as not viable.
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Resurface Courts 5 & 6. Resurfacing done - re-roll & painting to be done in June.
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Install WIFI /Postcode. WIFI Installed. Postcode not required.
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Contact Wiltshire Council to improve signage to the club. Explored but signage too expensive.
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Continue to refurbish/furnish the club house to make it a more welcoming space. Ongoing.
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Offer a Bar/Café facility in the clubhouse.
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Develop the spare land to expand tennis facilities and offer improved spectating areas.
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Develop and increase the car parking available – potential overflow car park. Overflow parking would have been by the flood defences so now no longer feasible.
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Acquire the remaining land behind the school for further development. No longer viable as the area is now a community wildflower meadow.
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Subject to member support/funding - install eg Padel court/additional hard court. Padel explored and action shelved.
Action Plan
A few of the key actions from the plan. The full list of action plans - linked to the key objectives with dates and leads on the actions can be found on the full plan.
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Investigate and prioritise the potential improvements to the club’s facilities listed above.
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Run a biennial membership survey, review results, and take necessary action
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Review the court programme v capacity - introduce sessions/courses during quiet times to maximise usage
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Create opportunities for adult teams to improve their match play
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Develop junior performance programmes to increase number of juniors playing tournaments.
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Ensure customer journey to join the club is easy & quick.
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Review the internal adult competitions and launch a new annual programme
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Offer to host more county squad practices & county matches
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Run one annual adult open tournament.
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Hold a racket demo day for club members.
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Improve the marketing of Pay & Play
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Develop the coaching offering for beginners & improvers at peak times
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Paint the Hitting Wall
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Install bike racks
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Acquire at least one sponsorship deal
Acknowledgements
This Plan was developed considering the market conditions and the available financial and human resources required to realise the outcomes contained within it. Subject to variations caused by factors beyond the control of Riverside Tennis Club, a commitment is undertaken to achieve and strive towards realising the requirements of the Plan. This is a live document so the dates and actions might change at the annual review of the plan. It is hereby acknowledged that the 2022 -2027 Plan was adopted by the Management Committee in April 2022
Do You Want To Get Involved?
At Riverside we are extremely lucky to have so many members who are willing to give up their time to help out the club. This helps us keep the cost of running the club down which in turn means lower membership fees for everyone! We are always on the look out for anyone who wants to get involved. Whether you want to be on the maintenance rotor, join a committee, run a social event or anything else - please get in touch.
