USPTA New England President's Message

USPTA New England Pros,

The year has begun sadly with the passing of our CEO of 30 years, Tim Heckler. We must say goodbye and thank you to Tim for his dedication and passion to the USPTA and its members. He helped create this strong organization. As we move forward, the reigns have passed to John Embree who is taking a proactive communication stance through his steady stream of emails and monthly conference calls to each division. He also has some very progressive and innovative ideas for our future which he explained to us at our April Executive Committee Meeting. I believe we are in very capable hands with John.

We recently held our Winter Conference at the Longfellow Club which was very successful as we had wonderful speakers and over 85 attendees including many who enjoyed the high school coaches workshop. Attendees received a fantastic sweatshirt or fleece with the USPTA logo and left with some new program ideas for their facility. Our certification testing program in New England has improved and grown with the addition of four new testers in training. I want to thank all of the tester applicants and congratulate Steve O'Keefe, Patricio Mistriano, Anne Schwartz and Doug Eng.

The board is working on a number of projects. Here is a glimpse:

1) I recently met with the Executive Director of USTA New England, Marikate Murren and we are going to have further talks on developing a more supportive relationship or partnership with each other to meet common goals and grow our game.

2) The board recently created a USPTA New England Hall of Fame. The chair is Helaine Vrana and her committee members will select our first inductees this fall after nominations have been sent by our members. If you would like to nominate a USPTA member for the New England Hall of Fame, contact Helaine at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

3) In May, members of the board will be presenting to the Club Managers Association of America - New England the value of hiring a USPTA Pro at their May meeting. We hope to strengthen our relationship in the process.

4) We plan on holding our convention in November this year. The site is The Woodstock Inn and Resort in Woodstock, VT on November 1-3.

5) CourtsideUSA has been launched in New England. You should have received the news by eblast. I hope that you login to the website and that many of you take advantage of the exceptional applications for your business. We are looking for community managers from each state to keep members informed of their states activities. If you are interested in becoming a community manager, please let us know.

As you can see, we have a lot going on and I hope that many of you will start or continue participating in our many activities. Please contact any board member to become more involved in your organization! Chris Stevens USPTA New England Preside

Chris Stevens
USPTA New England President