Growing Your Community Tennis Association (CTA) – While Keeping it Fun!

CTA Webinar Topic 1

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United States Tennis Association Texas

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May 17, 2022

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By

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Miguel Garcia

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Key Questions for Today’s Webinar

• What Are We Marketing? Selling? Transacting?

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• What Business Principles Might Offer Insight?

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• How Do We Promote the Joy of Learning & Doing?

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What Role(s) Do We Play As CTA leaders?

• Teachers/Enablers
• Hospitality Agents
• Competition Diplomats
• Babysitters
• Cheerleaders
• Health Advocates*
• Businesspersons*

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What is Our Product or Service? The 6 Fs

• Fluency
• Facilities
• Fun
• Fulfillment
• Flow*
• Friends*

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What is Flow? Or “Being In the Zone”�Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Positive Psychology�

• It is what we feel when we are fully alive
• It is when we are fully involved with what we do and in harmony with the environment around us
• It happens most easily when we sing, dance, do sports but also can occur when we work, read a good book, or have a good conversation

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What Does it Feel like? An Inward Experience

• Attention is focused on a limited stimulus field – concentration on 1 item
• Action & Awareness Merge – Not just reflex or not just self-conscious
• Freedom from Worry or Failure – not worrying about a safety net
• Sense of Time becomes Distorted (We talked for hours)
• Experience becomes its’ own Reward – No Alternative Payoff - Mystical

Friends – Current Issue of Tennis Magazine (p. 28-29)�

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• Improved General Health Outcomes in U.S. Recreational Tennis Players – Journal of Medicine and Science in Tennis
• The More You Play Tennis – in particularly league oriented – the heathier you are likely to become
• Tennis increases lifespan 9.7 years over those that are sedentary
• It is the built-in social component that aids in forming new groups that allows us to reduce stress through responsible competition without threat
• For both mental and physical health our social connections are probably the single most important feature of living a long and quality life – vitality virtue
• If Flow is Inward then Friends are Outward (Camaraderie)

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Pivot Towards Business Functions for Non-Profits�(Yin & Yang)

• Back of the House Functions (Operations/Administrative): HR (employees; contractors & volunteers); $s/in-kind resources (earned & donated); Facilities (owner operated/contracted); Partnerships*; Advocacy*; Calendaring (Seasonality); & Governance/Decision-making (non-profit status)

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• Front of the House Functions (What the Public Sees) : Programming (lessons, clinics, special needs/adaptive populations, etc.); Leagues; Tournaments; Play Days; NJTL; Hospitality (comfortable to thrive) ; & Community Building (reaching out to build common agendas)

Production Possibilities Frontier – Balanced Growth Between Operations & Programming – The Need For Strategic Planning

Operations/Back of the House

Programming/Front the of the House

YEAR 3

Year 2

Year 1

A1

A2

B1

B2

Economics 101: Towards a Small Business Paradigm – 5 Factors of Production

Maturing a framework on Growing Responsibly

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4 Primary Factors of Production:

• Labor
• Capital
• Technologies/Processes or Systems/”Secret Sauce”
• Land/Facilities/Sites

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PLUS

• Time (Calendaring & Seasonality)

Back to Reality: Non-Profit Growth Cycle

Brand Refresher – Keeping it Fulfilling & Fun for Players

• Focus on Elevating the Senses: Taste (Food/Drink); Sight (public art/murals/pop-up cardboard cut-outs); Sound (Zumba/DJ); Touch (Bring out Vintage Racquets/String Jobs); & Smell (food & drink/pleasing bug repellent/sun block & shoe deodorizers)

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• Focus on Promoting Alternative Instructors: Pied Pipers (Bollettieri) vs. Jedi Masters (Russell) – response to coaching varies (Search Institute Junior Passport)

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• Focus on Shaping Diversity: Curate a common institution that blends cultures to strengthen bonds through tennis (bridging vs. bonding social capital in Reno)

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• Focus on Cultivating a Purpose rather than a Performance-Based Identity – Did I Win Today vs. Did I Find it Fulfilling Today – Was it Worth Showing Up?

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• Focus on Celebrating both Achievement & Participation – both conquest & consistency are worthwhile virtues

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• Focus on Storytelling – within limits encourage folks to share and reward them

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Organizational Fun – Keeping it Fresh

• Encourage Public Recognition

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• Host Intermittent “Shark Tank” events to promote Innovation

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• Promote & Organize Inside “Group Wellness” activities

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• Renew or Recruit New Volunteers *

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• Identify Community Service Opportunities Outside of Programs

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• Adopt a Local Merchant for Patronage & Solicit Support (Quarterly)

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Summary & Take Aways

1. Understand and Shape Your Ecosystem

a) Determine Roles Related to Customer/Constituent

b) Define Services & Products

c) Specify Optimal vs. Desired Outcomes Across Members (Flow & Friends)

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2) Adopt a Healthy Dose of Business Practice(s)

d) Balance Front and Back Office Functions

e) Blend the 5 Inputs of Production based on Limitations & Opportunities

f) Understand your Stage(s) in the Non-Profit Growth Cycle

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3) Nurture Fun & Fulfillment

g) Player(s)

h) Staff

i) Volunteers

j) Partners & Sponsors

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