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PROPOSAL
BY THE
LOCH RAVEN BADMINTON CLUB
MEMBER OF THE
GREATER LOCH RAVEN RECREATION COUNCIL
FOR THE UTILIZATION
OF THE
NORTHEAST REGIONAL RECREATION CENTER
A White Paper
Prepared by Richard Shingles
President Loch Raven Badminton Club
September 25, 2010 (Revised March 20, 2011)
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary…………………………………………3 I. Who We Are…………………………………..………………..4 II. Background…………………………………………………….5 III. The Issues……………………………………………………….6 IV. The Solutions…………………………………………………..9 V. Review of Facilities for Badminton………………….11 VI. The Proposed Plan…………………………………...…….13 VII. Implementation……………………………………..………16 VIII. SWOT Analysis………………………………………………17 IX. Costs………………………………………………………..……18 X. Summary………………………………………………………21 XI. Contact Information………………………………………21
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This white paper was written to provide information to Baltimore County Parks & Recreation, its affiliated recreational councils (in particular those associated with the Northeast region), and to Baltimore County facility managers to inform them about the state of the sport of badminton in Baltimore County. The paper outlines some of the pressure being placed on badminton in Maryland and Baltimore County, some of the issues badminton clubs currently face, a summary of possible solutions, the state of facilities for badminton, and a proposal for establishing the future growth of badminton in our area. With the recent purchase of the old Perring Athletic Club, now renamed the Northeast Regional Recreation Center (NERRC), there is an opportunity to improve and expand playing facilities for badminton and to absorb the increased membership that would occur. Currently there are only two badminton clubs in all of Baltimore County, Catonsville Badminton Club and the Loch Raven Badminton Club. Both clubs are formed under their respective Baltimore County recreation councils. This proposal outlines how badminton can be incorporated as a sport held in the NERRC and details how it can happen with little to no modification of the current tennis facility. This also means that there would be no cost to the NERRC or the recreation council to establish the club in that facility. Given that there are impending construction modifications proposed for the tennis facility at NERRC the proposal describes how those modifications can actually benefit the badminton club. The proposal provides an outline for implementation and finishes with an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to establishing a badminton club in the NERRC. Basically we see this as an opportunity to establish a low cost, highly populated activity at the NERRC, which will be flexible in terms of scheduling and easy to implement.
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I. WHO WE ARE Richard Shingles is the President and past Secretary of the Loch Raven Badminton Club as well as its current Junior coach. Trained by Maurice Robinson, England’s National Coach, he was an active junior and college player. He has also competed successfully at the senior level winning several gold medals in the Maryland Senior Olympics. Since coming to Baltimore 16 years ago he has obtained his Level 2 Coaching Certificate through USA Badminton, the NGO for the USOC. He coached the varsity badminton team for 4 years at Garrison Forest School, and has run a badminton club, coaching clinics, the Maryland Badminton Camp and several badminton tournaments out of that facility for the last 5 years. He was the Regional Coaching Coordinator for 7 years for the Northeastern United States and has just finished a 5-‐year appointment with USA Badminton and the USOC as a member of the Coaching Education Department. Jeff Miller has been the clubs’ Vice-‐President for 12 years and coordinates the annual purchases of the clubs shuttlecocks. Jeff has also medaled in the Maryland Senior Olympics. Alexander Wilson is the clubs’ Treasurer and junior coach. Trained in Baltimore by one of the most famous families in badminton (the Devlins) he was a winner of the Maryland Junior Badminton Championships and he has also been a past gold medal winner at the Maryland Senior Olympics. Alec is also a certified Level 1 coach and was named the 2007 Volunteer Coach of the Year by USA Badminton for his successful efforts in developing the High School athletes in Baltimore County. Song Shi is the clubs’ Secretary. Song has been very active in the badminton club since being “converted” from the Baltimore County Parks and Recreations’ tennis programs in which he participated for many years. Steven Page is the clubs junior representative. He participates with the junior club and liaises between the juniors and the executive board. Steve was the 2008 singles winner in the Baltimore County Schools’ Badminton Championships.
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II. BACKGROUND
The modern day version of badminton had its rules established in 1873 by the Duke of Beaufort at his country place, "Badminton" in England. During that time, the game had no name, but it was referred to as "The Game of Badminton," and, thereupon, Badminton became its official name. The game was actually played on a court laid out on one of the ballrooms in the palace and hence was actually played “indoors”. Today, when one hears about someone who says they play badminton the immediate image that comes to mind is that they have a net strung in their back yard and they play with a racket in one hand and a drink in another. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Competitive indoor badminton is a sport requiring stamina,
fitness and desire. It is a fast, dynamic, challenging sport excellent for toning muscles or burning off those extra calories. It is also a sport that can be played at your own pace for exercise and enjoyment. There are few sports where boys and girls or men and women can play together or where fathers and mothers can play with their sons and daughters, but badminton is one such sport. This gives the sport great family appeal.
Baltimore County currently has just two badminton clubs and
there are no badminton clubs in Baltimore City. Catonsville hosts the Catonsville Badminton Club while the Greater Loch Raven Recreation Council hosts the Loch Raven Badminton Club (LRBC). LRBC has been in existence for 55 years as part of the GLRRC and 8 years ago they established the Loch Raven Junior Badminton Club (LRJBC), which is administered by the LRBC.
In this proposal the LRBC will often be referred to as the adult club and LRJBC as the junior club. However I do want to point out the difference in the makeup of the members of these two units. LRBC is considered an adult club but it has always allowed junior players who are of high school age (14-‐18) to participate with the Club. This is because Baltimore County has over 20 High School Varsity Badminton teams and their players appreciate having the savvy of adults who know how to play the game and also to provide sparring partners for them to improve their playing skills.
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The LRJBC consists of elementary, middle and high school players. Its mission is primarily to provide coaching to the students to teach them “How to Play the Game. So that this mission can be focused on the juniors themselves a special session of two hours per week is set aside just for their training utilizing all the courts at the Loch Raven HS.
Badminton is a good alternative sport to the more traditional
American sports. To play badminton requires just a pair of sneakers and a racket so there is a low cost to entry to play this sport. The club sells shuttlecocks, rackets and provides a racket stringing service for the benefit of its members. III. THE ISSUES
The sport of badminton has seen increasing popularity in the USA, Maryland and Baltimore County over the last 10 years.
Nationally the sport of badminton has been steadily growing over the last few years. In 2010 the National Sporting Goods Association reported that participation in the sport of badminton had increased almost 5% in the previous year. This is in contrast to several other mainstream sports that have actually seen participation decrease over the same time (Baseball -‐13.5%, Basketball -‐5%, Volleyball -‐11.7%, Tennis -‐14.5%, Football -‐6.2%, Softball -‐7.9%). Badminton was established as an Olympic sport in the1992 Barcelona games and was a featured sport in the 2004 Athens games getting lots of TV coverage here in the US.
In the 2008 Beijing Olympics a local Marylander, Bob Malaythong, participated in Men’s Doubles and got further in the tournament than any American competitor before him. Two current Marylanders are trying to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics, which has led to an increase in the number of local Maryland tournaments to raise funds for their efforts. These factors have heightened interest in badminton here in Maryland.
In Baltimore County expansion of varsity badminton due to
building of new schools and addition of new schools to the IAAM varsity schedule have also increased the number of high school participants in
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the sport. In all there are over 50 schools and over 700 students playing varsity badminton. Many of these students have seen the benefits of joining a local club, to develop their skills, and this has led to an increase in club enrollments.
The establishment of junior badminton clubs by LRBC 8 years ago
and more recently by Catonsville Badminton Club has led to the development of a pipeline of skilled players that feeds into the high school teams, the local colleges and back into our clubs which also has led to an increase in club enrollments.
In the last 5 years there have been 5 new badminton tournaments,
all held annually in Baltimore County, which has also served to increase the popularity and competitiveness of this sport. The new tournaments and number of participants are listed below.
Maryland Junior Open 120 participants Maryland Badminton Championships 80 participants Baltimore Red Cross Charity Open* 120 participants Maryland Featherbowl 80 participants Maryland Funkybowl 80 participants
*This tournament has raised over $4000 annually for the Red Cross and is sponsored by Catonsville Badminton Club and Loch Raven Badminton Club. The limiting factor in this tournament is the number of courts we have available at Loch Raven HS (6) where we hold the tournament, which means we have to exclude potential participants.
A number of years ago LRBC established a website: http://www.marylandbadminton.net which has become one of the most highly ranked badminton club websites in the USA with over 2300 visits per month (see figure below for details). A large number of visits are from people interested in participating on the sport.
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While the effects described above sound like a success story, and
in fact it is, the consequences are that we have very crowded playing conditions at our local clubs. LRBC plays at Loch Raven HS, which has 6 badminton courts. Each court can accommodate 4 players, if playing doubles, and a typical match can last 30 minutes. Full capacity at the club would require just 24 players to show up to play. LRBC has been playing at full capacity for the last 10 years. All courts are utilized every single night that the club plays. To handle the overflow the club set up a “tag board” system to ensure rotation of play and give all members equal playing time on the courts. However on some play nights even that system has been overwhelmed. The following formula was devised to estimate optimum numbers for membership totals
# courts x #players/court x 1.5 x #nights/week
Adult club 6 x 4 x 1.5 x 3 = 108 Junior club 6 x 4 x 1.5 x 1 = 36 The 1.5 is a multiplier for having 50% of the players (12) waiting on the sidelines to play. With 24 players on court and 12 waiting, (36 total) players may only have to wait about 15-‐20 minutes to get on a court. The nights/week is important because multiple nights of play allow for club membership to be spread out over the week.
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The first issue we have is that the club is way past these optimum levels. In 2009 the club had 120 adult members and 40 junior members. On typical nights 40 to 50+ members would show up at the club to play. For each of the last 5 years the club has had to close its membership (last year membership closed after only two weeks!). When we close membership this leads to a sequence of emails, phone calls and in person visits to the club to “plead” for entry into the club. As a club that serves the local community it pains us to have to close membership but when courts get overcrowded the wait times can run from 30 min to an hour to play. In addition people ask to be placed on a waiting list, which gets hard to maintain when the total number of enquiries reaches over 100 people.
The second issue we have is that the club has no recreation council facility to play in during the summer months, as the High School is not available to us. The club has resorted to renting a private school facility during the summer months but the facility is less than adequate and we can only play until the first week of August due to the startup of the schools’ own athletic practices. In addition due to the escalating costs we can only play once or twice a week a drop of one day per week from our Fall-‐Spring schedule.
The third issue, which is ultimately related to the first and second issues, is that the Junior club can only be run from September to the end of May. This is due to the availability of Loch Raven High School, or rather its unavailability, during the summer months. Again, due to prohibitive costs and availability of a private school facility, we have not been able to accommodate the junior club during the summer months. This is unfortunate as many of our high school age players are gearing up for their team practices which start in the middle of August and we cannot provide them with coaching much less a place to play It is important to realize that badminton is a not a seasonal sport but rather it is a year-‐round sport. Having to utilize different facilities does not provide the club with a sense of a “home” as we are always trying to accommodate the High Schools or Private schools preferential use of the gyms and we are constantly displaced by school activities, rescheduled events, and shut down during school holidays in winter, spring and summer and refurbishments in the gym.
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IV. THE SOLUTIONS
There are four ways in which to alleviate overcrowding at the Loch Raven Badminton Club. I list them here from least optimal to most optimal. 1) Close club membership after we reach a certain membership number. This has been done each of the last 5 years at the club. As mentioned above last year we closed membership just 2 weeks after we opened. This is not the preferred solution as it stunts growth in the sport and produces ill will from the members of the community who have to be continually denied access to the club. 2) Extend our playing time during evenings when club meets. This has the effect of spreading our membership out temporally as some people arrive and leave early while others arrive and leave late. However the bulk of the club does arrive early and leave late so its effect is minimal. Also the school generally wants all evening activities to cease by 10 PM so we cannot extend our evenings. 3) Add additional play nights. This would have a greater effect than (2) as many people can only play on certain nights and have other commitments on other nights. The issue here is that the High School has many other activities scheduled on the other nights of the week so unless an activity is dropped from the schedule we cannot find another night to play at this facility. 4) Find a facility with greater court capacity. This would be the most optimal solution. It would allow us to expand greatly if we had additional courts to play on. In addition it would accommodate the greatest numbers of players on the play nights. Having a large number of players present is important for matching up “sparring” partners, which helps develop badminton players’ skills. But even for the more social players they will have an opportunity to play with, or against, a large number of partners which enhances the playing experience. Finding such facilities that are suitable for badminton is difficult though.
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V. REVIEW OF FACILITIES FOR BADMINTON
Badminton has a number of stringent requirements for playing this sport. Here are a number of the key factors used in selecting a facility to play badminton
• ceiling clearances of 30 feet with no obstructions • wall clearance of 2 feet to accommodate a swinging racket • no basketball nets projecting into the court • clearly marked lines (white or yellow in color) • non-‐slip floors • a dark background for sighting the shuttlecock • little or no cross court ventilation
Here is a synopsis of the different facilities that are used to play
badminton in Baltimore County. Middle Schools
Small gyms with 3-‐4 lined courts. The courts are often too close to the walls. The gyms sometime have windows which cause glare. In some gyms they actually will share lines between two adjacent courts. Not a good idea with people swinging rackets. LRBC used a middle school one day a week for a few years but basically only one court, of the three, was playable. High schools
Since badminton is a Varsity sport all High Schools have 4-‐6 lined courts available to play on. The common problems with these gyms are basketball nets that extend into the court when they are lowered or reduce ceiling height when they are raised. Court lines are often an issue in these gyms too as they are usually not the recommended white or yellow lines. High contrast lines are good but most gyms lately have resorted to painting tan lines on a wood floor that require a GPS to find! With badminton shuttlecocks travelling at speeds over 100 miles an hour it is important to be able to see the lines well in order to make the proper line calls as to whether the shuttlecock lands in or out. Also in some of the school gyms the lines are discontinuous especially around the school’s logo painted on the middle of the floor. The High Schools also have bleacher seating and of late many of the schools have installed automatic retraction systems that require a remote control to operate.
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There are many times when these bleachers are left out after a school activity and we have no way to retract them, resulting in the loss of playable courts.
Most High School gyms have reasonable clearance above the courts but not all of them meet badminton standards. Since High Schools also meet the standards for many other sports their availability is low. I have visited all High School gyms in Baltimore County (except for New Town which was recently built) and by far Loch Raven High School is the best High School venue for badminton. Community Centers
Community centers do have more time available than schools. However there are many issues in trying to use them for badminton. First of all they are small. We could only fit 3 courts in most of them. These courts would all have basketball nets protruding into them, which would affect play. It is one thing to hit the backboard or basketball rim with a cheap $1 shuttlecock but yet another to hit it with an expensive $200 racket.
The community centers also do not have badminton lines on the
floor. Laying tape on the floor is a process than can take up to an hour per court and costs $18 per court for the tape. With other activities going on in the community center, in particular basketball, this tape will not stay down long and would have to be continually replaced. Some community centers also have windows which cause glare on the court. Recreation Centers
Specialized recreation centers such as the Bloomsbury Field House have been used for badminton. The Catonsville Badminton Club, our sister club and only other badminton club in all of Baltimore County, plays in this facility. While the facility does have badminton lines it only has 3 full courts and one singles court. Play time is also limited to just one day a week during the school year, which increases to three days a week during the summer. Rick Wiker, their club president also reports increasingly crowded conditions at the club.
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NERRC Fortunately the NERRC does meet the standards required for
badminton. The high ceiling with no obstructions allows for clear play over the courts. The inverted lighting that sits along the edges of the courts, and hence not in the area of play, allows for an unimpaired view of the shuttlecock. The green backdrops also improve the visibility for badminton players. The only issue with the NERRC would be the cross-‐court ventilation that occurs as s result of the air conditioning units, which project above the current screens placed behind the tennis courts. This would affect the flight of the shuttlecock. But overall this facility would be a great improvement over the current High School facility that the badminton club is playing in. VI. THE PROPOSED PLAN
The plan, and hence reason for this white paper, will be outlined first as to how we can utilize the tennis area to set up badminton courts without any modification to the current facility. What the club can do is utilize badminton green court mats, essentially carpets that can easily be rolled out across the tennis courts and rolled up when we are done for the session. These badminton green courts are available commercially. It would take 2 people about 10-‐15 minutes to set up one court and with a large team of volunteers provided by the club membership itself it wouldn’t take much more than that to set up all the courts in the facility. Rolling up the carpets at the end of the session would take just a few extra minutes. The badminton carpets could be stored between sessions along the end walls and dividing nets of the four tennis courts so as not to interfere with tennis play. The tennis court areas in the NERRC are 52 feet wide and 114 feet long, plenty of room to accommodate badminton courts that are 44 feet long and 20 feet in wide. The court layouts will allow for, initially, 8 badminton courts to be laid out in the facility, an increase of two courts over our current facility. In addition if the planned work to convert two of the tennis courts into a multi-‐purpose area moves forward we can still utilize the same area and in fact increase the number of badminton courts to 10! (This works due to the removal of the permanently placed tennis net posts where a center court would be placed).
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The figure above shows how the badminton courts (light green) would be laid out over the current tennis courts (dark green) with two of the courts showing how the potentially renovated courts would accommodate the badminton courts. As to the issue with wind movement we could hang tarps across the exit vents of the air conditioners to deflect the wind sideways or the air conditioning units could simply be turned off turning club play time.
This plan would allow for an immediate expansion of the membership in LRBC and LRJBC and also future expansion as additional courts are added.
With the explanation of how we can utilize the tennis facility, as is, to play badminton I want to make three proposals on how we can utilize the NERRC for the badminton club. It is important to realize that each proposal is mutually exclusive and should be considered independently. In addition the proposals are being presented in order of importance to the Loch Raven Badminton Club beginning with the most important. PROPOSAL ONE – Junior badminton club at NERRC
3 hours per week of play time Establish a year-‐round home for the Loch Raven Junior Badminton Club (LRJBC) at the NERRC. Our requirements would be for one 3-hour period a week preferably on the weekend. Possible days and times that would work the best, listed in preferential order, would be: Saturday morning 9 AM to Noon Sunday evening 6 PM to 9 PM Friday evening 6 PM to 9 PM Saturday afternoon 1 PM to 4 PM PROPOSAL TWO – Summer badminton play at NERRC
6-‐9 hours per week of play time Utilize the NERRC for two nights a week (3 hours each session) for the LRBC during the summer period between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Pending availability the LRBC could even consider 3 play nights a
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week for a total of 9 hours per week. Having an extended period of play at the NERRC would allow the club to remain active all summer and to better serve the high school students who play with the LRBC adult club as they get ready for their high school team tryouts. PROPOSAL THREE – Fall-‐Spring play for adult club at NERRC
8 to 9 hours per week of play time Move the LRBC Adult Club to NERRC.* The club currently plays on Tuesday and Thursday nights from 7-‐10 PM and Sundays from 8-‐10 PM at Loch Raven High School. We would request 2-‐3 play nights at NERRC with 3-‐4 hours of play at each session per week. The club plays from just after Labor Day until just after Memorial Day and we would request the same calendar period for the NERRC. *The corollary to this proposal is that the club would relinquish its current play days and times at Loch Raven High School. This opens up a fine facility for other events such as basketball where there are two half courts, one full court, two new scoreboards, a refurbished floor and stands for spectators. VII. IMPLEMENTATION
Depending upon which proposals are accepted, implementation would occur at different times of the year. Proposal One could be implemented probably within 2-‐3 months of being approved. Initially we would probably purchase four badminton green courts and then add two per year until we get up to capacity (8-‐10 courts) in the NERRC. Proposal Two could be implemented in June 2011. The LRBC would play on 4 badminton green courts for the first summer and then add 2 courts each year after that until reaching capacity (8-‐10 courts). Proposal Three could not be implemented until September 2011. However should the proposed construction modifications be approved
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for NERRC it would be prudent to keep the LRBC at Loch Raven HS until all construction is completed. The LRBC would need a minimum of 6 badminton courts to play on during fall-‐spring and if only half the gym at NERRC is available due to construction in the other half there would only be four badminton courts available. It is important to realize that the badminton club would be very flexible in the NERRC. The club could utilize 2 to 4 current tennis courts at any time and could use courts even while other activities, such as tennis are occurring on the other courts. VIII. SWOT ANALYSIS
Business plans often include a SWOT analysis, which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This seems to be a reasonable approach for this proposal as well. Strengths Reduction in overcrowding of badminton courts. Club membership can be opened year round. Year-‐round program for junior development and coaching. More assessment money paid to GLRRC from increased membership. Summer gym rent money paid to NERRC instead of private schools. Consistent year-‐round revenue stream for rental of NERRC. Badminton Club schedule will no longer be dependent upon High School facility availability. Weaknesses Future expansion of play dates and times may be difficult in a multi-‐purpose facility. Clubs’ financial resources will be tied up in gradual replacement of worn badminton green courts over time (their estimated lifetime is 6 years with continual wear).
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Opportunities Increased participation by community members in the badminton club. The premiere badminton club on the east coast of the USA that would be the biggest (in terms of number of courts), the best (in terms of badminton playing facilities), and the largest (in terms of membership). Exchange of one facility (Loch Raven HS) for another (NERRC) to better match activities that can be offered in both of them. More Leadership opportunities due to extended play. Hosting additional badminton events, tournaments and clinics. Possibility to run daytime weekday badminton activities such as a Seniors club. Possibility to offer “after school” badminton programs. Ability to offer summer badminton camps. Threats LRBC will be in competition with other sports for court time in the tennis facility at NERRC Having the best badminton facility in the area may draw members away from Catonsville Badminton Club (although, since they too are overcrowded, this may actually be a benefit to them in terms of increased court play time) IX. COSTS I have left this section until near the end as the proposed costs are for equipment that LRBC/LRJBC would purchase so said equipment would belong to the club and not the NERRC. Basically the costs listed below are not a barrier to LRBC/LRJBC utilizing the NERRC and would not be encumbered on the Baltimore City Parks & Recreation Council. Cost per badminton court Badminton “green” court $1300 each Badminton poles $ 230 each pair Badminton Net $ 35 each Shipping costs $ 75 each court Total $1640 per court
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If the NERRC wishes to own some or all of the equipment for other badminton events it may want to run out of the facility we can discuss cost sharing. Some of these potential events are listed in the Opportunities section in the SWOT analysis above.
CLUB COURTS
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DONATED COURTS To facilitate the purchase of additional courts we will also consider donated courts, which will be stenciled with the donors name as shown above.
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X. SUMMARY
Prime time hours at the NERRC would be M -‐ F 7 -‐ 11 PM and Sat/Sun 9 AM -‐ 11 PM for a total of 48 hours.
Proposal One requests the use of the NERRC for 3 hours per week for the LRJBC (junior club) year round. This would be just 6.25% of the prime time availability at NERRC
Proposal Two requests the use of NERRC for 6-‐9 hours per week for the LRBC (adult club) for June to August. This would be just 12.5% to 18.75% of prime time availability at NERRC. Given that this is the summer period there is likely to be less competition with tennis since this activity can move to outdoor facilities.
Proposal Three requests the use of NERRC for 8-‐9 hours per week for the LRBC (adult club) from September to May. This would represent just 16.7% -‐ 18.75% of prime time availability.
The plan presented here has a lot of flexibility with respect to other events held in the NERRC tennis facility. For instance if tennis just uses 2 courts then badminton can play on the remaining two tennis courts. This plan would allow for the badminton club to fill in court space and time at the NERRC and thus benefit the NERRC by increasing facility use by the members of our community. To facilitate this the NERRC should invest in some scheduling software to accommodate the various activities in the space. XI. CONTACT INFORMATION Richard Shingles 309 Lord Byron Lane Apt 203 Cockeysville, MD 21030 443 857 4744 [email protected] http://www.marylandbadminton.net