Welcome to the inaugural electronic Beachcomber!  We hope you enjoy it!!

            The Finance Committee --Joe Turchyn, Bill Collopy, Joe Robertson, Don Steckroth and Greg Tourto has also done a superb job on their end.  They worked hard to come up with a finance plan to suit the needs of the Membership and our Club.  With everyone's continued cooperation, we are able to pay our bills on time, and, with our controller carefully managing our bank accounts, we are actually earning interest on our money.  For the first time in the history of the Club, we have a Capital Reserve Account. Unprecedented.

            After reviewing the surveys, it was apparent that two of our biggest concerns last year were the over-crowded parking lot and members not signing in their guests.  I have to say, that once again, with the cooperation of the Membership, the parking lot was in much better shape this season and more members than ever registered their guests. 

            This yearnew rules were put into place requiring guests to wear bracelets while at our Club.  Although some initially resisted this idea, in the end it worked beautifully --  It was a win win for everyone.  Members were able to enjoy their guests at our beautiful Club and the Club benefitted from additional revenue.  Guest revenue was up about 20%.  Thank you to the Members again for your cooperation with this new procedure... the bracelets will be back next season.

            This year on the beach, we added more chairs, more umbrellas and, to the delight of children and some adults, an ocean trampoline!  The beach was cleaner than ever and so has the ocean!  A couple of visits from sharks added to this summer's  excitement!

We have also had more adults on the tennis courts this year than in a long time --  more participation in tournaments; more ladies at the Wednesday night and Friday morning clinics; more men on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings, and we added a twilight mixed doubles party on Friday evenings.  The children have been like little bugs scattered all over the courts in the Junior Program. It is wonderful to see tennis is back at MBBT!!!

We have had record numbers of members and guests at every single party this summer.  We added an Associate Member Cocktail Party to our social schedule and it brought the Associates out of the woodwork!!  We have seen more Associates at events and on the beach this summer than ever before and we are just thrilled!  We have an Associate Member on the Tea Room, Entertainment, Tennis, Rehab and House & Grounds Committees and their input and enthusiasm has been most appreciated and very valuable.

Our swim team continues to build both in numbers and in skill.  Coach Paul Burke has been working on teaching our children stroke mechanics, pride in team and in self.  We had 106 children on the team this year, which is more than we have had in a very long time.

The Tea Room had a very busy and successful year.  Our Chef, Greg Forster, was back for his 4^th season.  We have had a wonderful season of lunches and dinners on the deck in the Tea Room, lots of private parties in the Ball Room and in both Membership cabanas.  Back, by popular demand, was the weekend breakfast and what a huge success it was!  We served as many as 90 breakfasts on Sunday mornings!  As a topping, the blessing of lots of good weather also helped to make the Tea Room a success this summer.  With our season extended through September and October, Members had a longer opportunity to use up their minimum.

Even our children had a memorable social summer.  Beach Day was a great time with bouncing things and sliding things and face painting and free hot dogs and ice cream!  If that was not enough, there was a splash party!  The kids loved bringing floats and toys into the pool normally not allowed.  To top it all off, we had a movie night in the Ballroom with about 75 young people in attendance! Oh, to have the privilege of growing up in such a wonderful environment!!!

The addition that has gotten the most attention this year is the new

e-newsletter.  We have had over a dozen publications this season!!!  It is great to be able to communicate with the Membership on a weekly basis and keep everyone updated on what is going on at the Club .The pictures in our e-newsletter add a great dimension and have been submitted by various members over the summer.  Keep them coming!  We will have an out-of-season mailing that will probably arrive once a month but we are still working out details.  It will be fun to see great, colored pictures of the beach during those cold, wet, gray winter days.

From a safety standpoint, we added additional security on the boardwalk during the day and at night.  We have had fewer problems this year with non-members walking around the property, using our bathrooms or trying to use the pool or other facilities.  We also added two defibrillators to the facility.  We now have them in the bar, key room and the tennis pro shop and the staff is trained in their use.  The good news, here, is we have never needed them!

I think the thing that we can be the most proud of is the Board itself.  This has been a very hard working, cohesive Board.  The Members of the Board give up hours of their personal time and give their professional expertise to their particular committee.  Most of you really will never, ever know how lucky this Club is to have such hard working, dedicated people working on behalf of the Club.  We have a good cross section of Members and have developed a mutual respect for each other.  We have had many, many issues to go over this past year and have had great discussions.  We don't always agree but we have learned to agree to disagree

I would like to thank the Board Members whose terms are up this year.  Diane Tolkowsky has been a Board member for 3 years.  During that time, she has helped to turn the tennis program around and has breathed new life into it.  As I mentioned earlier, the adults are playing, the kids are playing, the courts are crowded and tournaments are filled.  This is no accident. Diane's enthusiasm has paid off and we are all the beneficiaries of it.

            The E-newsletter is also a great success thanks to Diane.  She is our weekly editor and publisher.  I have asked Diane to stay on the Tennis committee and to continue with the e newsletter and she has very graciously agreed to do so.  I thank her very much. I will miss her a great deal at our monthly meetings.

            Bob Sorokolit will also be leaving this year after 3 hears.  Bob has been a very important part of the House & Grounds committee and the Rehab Committee.  His common sense, no nonsense approach to business has helped us with these important committees and with our Board meetings.  Bob has a unique way of cutting to the chase, keeping us on target and moving on all at the same time.  I will miss his perspective and support every month.

            Amanda Martinelli is our Associate Liaison.  She, too has been with us for 3 years.  She was a great representative for the Associates, bringing their voices and requests to a Board that may otherwise not have known what the Associates were interested in. 

            Lastly, I would like to welcome and introduce the new Board Members.  Cathy Hoffbauer will be our new Tennis Trustee working with Jim Ronan.  Carlos Meulener will be on the House & Grounds Committee with Paul Kolarsick.  Anthony Weber will be our new Associate Liaison and will be working on the House & Grounds Committee.

            The Committees and Chairs are listed in this Beachcomber. If you have an interest in serving on a Committee, please feel free to contact the Trustee Chair.

            Enjoy the rest of this Beachcomber and hang on, Memorial Day Weekend is only how many days away??!!!!!!!!!

 President, Monmouth Beach Bath & Tennis