In 2005, Peter Bretherton (my predecessor as Chairman) prepared a 4-year strategy document which identified important tasks to be achieved by 2009.  This strategy has been the basis for the development work of our Council since that time and is not the basis for a new 4-year plan.

Accomplishments
We have continued to manage the core activities of our association successfully.  We have encountered changes in personnel and successfully attracted new members to our Council.

Promotion of our activities is increasingly aimed at enablement through the use of IT where possible.  We recognise that IT is not the preferred tool of all our players, but as time goes on we anticipate that our website and email will become our main communication method.

Our representative teams have achieved success at the ITF World Championships.  In May 2009 our Women’s 50 team became World Champions.

Finances
In 2008 we submitted a 4-year financial plan to the LTA Finance Director and received broad approval resulting in an increase in our annual budget for 2009.  Part of our financial plan anticipated the appointment of an administrator during 2009.  This has not yet taken place but, with the continued support of the LTA, we hope to achieve our aim by the end of 2009.

Apart from the annual budget, we aim to keep sufficient funds to support our annual expenditure and to enable us to promote our activities and development.

Challenges
Membership 
The Rules of our Association indicate that our membership is open to clubs affiliated to the Lawn Tennis Association.  At present our paid-up membership represent less than 10% of clubs in GB.  We believe that every club can benefit from our experience, services and events but we need to communicate better and we feel that this communication may be best achieved through the services of the County Committees and County Veterans’ Organisers (CVOs).  With the help of the LTA, we are asking every County to identify keen volunteers to represent them and to promote events and services.  If we achieve success through the CVOs, we will grow our membership.

Inter-Club and Inter-County
We recognise that, at a time of economic hardship for many people, we must offer our events at a realistic price and provide competition in as flexible a manner as possible.  This may mean some changes to inter-club and inter-county events.  To this end, we have already changed inter-county regulations to allow for timely completion of matches thus reducing the effect of covered court charges and lengthy travel delays.

Communication and services
We want to improve our understanding of the needs of Clubs, Counties and players whom we serve and to continue to develop our website in order to provide modern methods of providing information and communication.  Through advances in the LTA system, we expect we will soon be able to introduce “on-line” entries for GB-based tournaments.

Council members
We are a volunteer organisation and therefore, to succeed, we need to attract committed people to work and with our Council to assist and, as necessary, to replace the current team.  We shall encourage new talent to work with us.

Competition
We want to maintain and add to our already comprehensive Calendar of National and ITF tournaments (seethe website) in order to provide events which are accessible to players of a broad range of standards.  Through our CVOs, we shall encourage and assist tournament organisers to provide local and national competition.

Representative teams
In recent years, British veteran players have won ITF World Team and Individual Championships and have received Honours.  We recognise the commitment required for success and we shall continue to identify and encourage talented and keen players to play in our events and qualify to represent their clubs in European competition and Great Britain in the ITF World Championships.

Alan Purnell
May 2009