Presidential Address

The Toronto Lesbian & Gay Tennis Association (TLGTA) is in the midst of an exciting era. We have over 170 members and are growing fast. This is the most members we’ve had since I’ve been with the league. Our singles tournaments attract over 30 players each. Our Winter Team Tennis (WTT) has grown to 48 players among 6 teams. WTT filled up this season in record time - less than 48 hours! The hunger for tennis in our club is growing. To meet this demand, for the first time ever, we are offering Winter Social Tennis EVERY Friday from November to the end of March.

We couldn’t have gotten to this point without the help of our previous execs.  I’d like to go back two presidents ago and thank Adrian Chang for embracing the concept of change. He really got the ball rolling by embracing Facebook and social media. In the past two years, our little Facebook page grew from a few members to 215 fans and counting. Thank you Serena and we miss you!

I would also like to thank our outgoing treasurer, Artour Kassimov. Artour has been on the committee for 10 years! He has done many of the thankless jobs most people wouldn’t want to touch - putting together the WTT package, running every Friday Winter Social and keeping track of all our finances. Artour came up with the brilliant idea to have our monthly tournaments. Thank you Artour!

Lastly, I would like to thank our outgoing president Mike Krieger for leading us when our committee only had 4 people on it in 2011. We all had to do two jobs and Mike made sure we helped each other out. Mike pushed forth for more social events like bowling, pizza nights, karaoke etc. Mike has been on the committee for 5 years and has given a great deal of himself to TLGTA. Thank you Mike!

I would like to welcome back returning members Ian Salmon, our Webmaster & Secretary and Perry Ryno, our Membership & Events Coordinator. Ian found our website host. The website has been a godsend for us. It has made messaging and keeping track of members much more efficient. It’s not perfect, but it’s getting there. Ian is always calm and cool and gets shit done! Perry’s irresistible charm and TSVL connections have helped grow our league quite quickly. Great to have you both back!

I would like to welcome our newbies – Khai Ong, Russell Evans and Nancy Huang. Khai is filling in a new position as our Social Tennis Coordinator. He will take the lead on our Friday Winter Social Tennis nights and Summer Social Tennis. Russ is our VP and will be helping me run the tournaments and the league as a whole. Nancy will be our treasurer and take care of our finances.

I feel l have a great team around me and look forward to working with them to better serve TLGTA. Together, we will grow TLGTA and make it an organization people are very proud to be a part of. We have a lot of exciting things in store for you. Stay tuned!

Lots of love,

President (aka Queen B)