By Sandy Depa, ALTA Board Chair
I am honored to be the 2023 Board Chair for the Atlanta Lawn and Tennis Association. It has been a long and interesting journey, starting over 20 years ago as a scorekeeper, a coordinator, and on to a league VP, president, and the five years served on the Board of Directors. ALTA lived through the uncharted territory of the COVID pandemic, only to emerge strong, solid, and growing. This success can only be accomplished through the sturdy base of the more than 200 ALTA volunteers, who just plain love the game of tennis.
The ALTA Board of Directors is the governing body of the “business side” of ALTA and complements the Executive Committee which governs ALTA league play. The board is made up of the chair, the 2021 and 2022 past presidents, the 2023 president, treasurer, secretary, the ALTA Foundation President, and two elected at-large members. All these board members have many years of history with ALTA, along with valued talents they bring to the board.
This will be an exciting year of growth for ALTA in several different ways. The boundaries of ALTA league tennis are expanding into Forsyth, Cherokee, and portions of Hall, Barrow, and Jackson Counties through a two-year pilot program. As these facilities are accepted for league play, the hope is these players encourage other facilities and potential ALTA members in their areas to form teams. That should result in more facilities in those areas, and in turn, this should help shorten travel times.
With the guidance of the 2023 ALTA President, Linda Shepherd, along with 2022 President Lamar Scott in his new role as Chairman of the newly formed ALTA Board Pickleball Committee, pickleball is joining our beloved ALTA! The groundwork, IT infrastructure, policies and procedures, and rules currently are in development by many talented volunteers. Watch for the premier of pickleball within ALTA coming soon!
Another key component of ALTA is the ALTA Foundation, under the leadership of Rita Maloof as the 2022-2023 ALTA Foundation President. The foundation supports and issues grants to many deserving programs that provide access to tennis for players in underserved and challenged communities throughout metro Atlanta. The foundation’s START program, supporting Title 1 high school tennis teams, continues to grow. The foundation also administers and awards scholarships to graduating high school students who have participated in ALTA junior league programs and embody the spirit and values of ALTA.
With the many charitable programs, the ALTA boundary growth, pickleball debut, and the normal administration of the business aspects of the ALTA organization, you can be assured that your 2023 ALTA Board of Directors will be busy. However, our goal is to maintain the solid, sound organization that is ALTA, while we move forward with our members by expanding into new areas — both physical locations, and other areas of racquet sports such as pickleball.
We look forward to another exciting year of ALTA in 2023.
