April 22, 2004

Dear friends:

Cambridge Tennis Club. There is a club; there will be tennis; and Cambridge was, is and will be.

Club.      Since the end of last season, your club has been active, if not always visible. The staff have helped coordinate the improvements to the clubhouse, notably the rebuilt deck, and they have worked tirelessly to remove the huge quantity of water from the court area. They are at work right now on the annual rebuilding of the courts. I’m sorry I can’t announce when the courts will be ready for play, but I can assure you the staff is doing all they can to make them ready. At the annual meeting, I announced that Lucy Fowler will be retiring from her many services to us as clerk, bookkeeper and conscience and that Tom Wassner has now become a full member of the staff.

The volunteers have also been busy making plans for a great season of tennis and busy with finance and, particularly, with membership. Come, meet the new members at the reception on May 2.

We have been working with the Cambridge Skating Club to have the entrance to the club rebuilt. But completion of this project seems to be slipping, for reasons beyond our control, and I ask for your patience if we must go through the clubhouse to get to the courts when they first open.

Tennis.      Rick Rose and Keith Warner will return as pro and assistant pro this year. Please call them directly for lessons: Rick at 617-492-6289; and Keith at 617-285-7136. For those who want to engage a hitting partner, who will hit but not give lessons, Rick has arranged a group of able and willing prospective partners. The rate will be $25 per hour and arrangements can be made through Rick. He will need advance notice, preferably 24 hours.

The regular features of the tennis season – availability of courts, with some prime-time limitations; schedules round robins; holiday tennis and cookouts; community outreach tennis; and a variety of tournaments – are all spelled out in the handbook which you will soon have received. Enjoy the tennis.

Cambridge.      Each of us may think this is our Cambridge, the place we have chosen to live. I do. But we share this place. We share the club facilities with the Cambridge Skating Club. We share the streets near the club with our neighbors. And we share the club with each other. May we share well.

Enjoy the upcoming season!

Sincerely,

Dick Harter