North Carolina's NWTO Ambassador Event
North Carolina held its version of an NWTO Ambassador Fun Doubles Day on June 15, and it went very well. For starters, it was a cocktail party format, and Honey Deuces were served!
New member Virginia Dirschl generously hosted this event in her beautiful home. With the casual cocktail party format, we were able to accommodate a large, variable number of people. In the Triangle area, there are more than a dozen clubs and players are quite spread out between Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and the surrounding towns—so it had been a challenge to get a group of 12 or 16 players together at one time and at one club. Thus, the cocktail party idea was born! After socializing for a bit, we gathered in front of a large TV where we projected the NWTO website. We presented a ~30-minute program about the NWTO and age-level tournaments. We walked everyone through various parts of the site—such as “Who we are,” tournaments, the various tournament levels, the five-year incremental age-levels, how to find tournaments, how to register (no qualifying!), member benefits, finding a partner, etc. We made sure to hit the highlights and then mostly answered a lot of questions. We also had printed information available for participants to take home and read or snap a picture of.
One common question was, “Do I belong, and am I good enough?” We made it abundantly clear everyone there (mostly 4.0-4.5s, age 50-75 league players) absolutely belonged and would really enjoy these events. We emphasized there was so much more to them than just the tennis, such as traveling to fun places, meeting new friends, and learning more about your own game. We also discussed the reality of the costs, but we translated that into being somewhat like playing in States, Sectionals, or Nationals—which they all could relate to. We also addressed that these events were complementary to, and not an either/or with, League play, but that they would have to block off time for a tournament and might miss a league match that week.
At the end, we had sign-up sheets ready for various Carolinas L1–L4 events that people might be interested in playing. Many signed up on the spot and those players will be getting together for their own, smaller group, “fun doubles” and practices, as well as to discuss sharing lodging or rides and other tournament logistics.
All in all, it was a very successful and FUN event. The cocktail party format followed later by smaller group “fun doubles” worked especially well for our area. We generated so much enthusiasm that we may be having another event soon for those who could not attend the first one.