By John Lowell, President’s Appointee
That’s right! The largest local tennis league in the world is run almost entirely by its members. If you are one of those members and you’ve been in the Adult Leagues for at least five years, you’re one of the people ALTA is searching for as we look to expand our volunteer ranks.
Why do we need volunteers? Our paid staff is small — just a handful of people working full- or part-time — while the rest of the work is done by hundreds of members just like you who give of their time to keep ALTA the greatest value in recreational sports.
You probably have seen that the most visible of those volunteers are the coordinators — those people who approve scorecards, explain the rules, and serve as the main points of contact between teams and the league. But there are many more roles. That’s why we’re seeking people with a variety of skills and as great a variety of interests to help us out.
I know; you’re probably asking yourself the same question I asked myself when I got involved. Why me?
I’ll tell you why I did it. I was a many-time captain and scorekeeper, long-time player, and ardent observer. I thought, and still do think, that ALTA is a great sports league. I also thought it could be better, and I thought I had some pretty good ideas. My choices were to complain or to step up and do something about it. I’ve been volunteering ever since. You can make the same decision.
What skills and interests can be valuable to us? Perhaps you’re a talented photographer or videographer who would like to help at City Finals or special events. Maybe you’re a customer service professional who would be a great liaison for new members. Or your passion could be working with people with special needs, and you’d like to get involved with the ALTA Foundation. As the world becomes even more married to technology, IT wizards become more and more valuable to us. We always need finance professionals to ensure that we allocate and spend our resources prudently and spend our money wisely so we can keep our dues as low as possible. We need upbeat personalities to run our booths at special events. And there is nothing better than people who simply want to help and will do whatever is needed when ALTA comes calling.
For those with higher ALTA aspirations, we need leaders — people who are willing to take a shot to step up and run a business or a part of it because after all, that’s what ALTA is. We’re a membership association in the business of providing a world-class recreational sports experience for roughly 60,000 members.
You have a choice. You can be the member who sits in the background, plays your matches, and perhaps complains from time to time. Or, you can do what hundreds of your fellow members have done and make that decision to get involved.
When you do make that decision just as I did, you really won’t know what’s ahead of you. For most of you who do choose to volunteer, you’ll become part of a great, close-knit, diverse community of volunteers dedicated to keeping ALTA the place where Atlanta Comes to Play.
