TBA Fall Newsletter 2017

December 05, 2017

President’s Message

It is hard to believe that we are just a few weeks away from celebrating the holiday season. It is also that time of year that the TBA starts to look forward to the summer of 2018. We cannot move forward until we recognize the contributions of our Past President, Andrew Macdonald. I personally would like to thank Andrew for his leadership, guidance and a job well done. He will continue to sit on the TBA Executive and we will continue to welcome his ideas, recommendations and his overall contribution to provide an easy transition for us all. I would also like to thank to other members of the TBA Executive for either stepping forward and volunteering for the first time or staying on the TBA Executive and working with me for a minimum one more year. These TBA Executives were voted in at the 2017 August AGM.

As I take on this new challenge, I look back on my own experiences at the beach and why it continues to be so very important to myself and my own family. It is about the memories that the beach gives year after year. I am reminded of the many traditions, events, and people that make Thunder Beach such a great place to call our own. I also believe that we need to create new traditions and to encourage the next generation to participate in building those new traditions. The Thunder Beach Association cannot do this without your feedback, your ideas or your participation. Shortly you will be receiving a link to a short survey. Your feedback will assist in building a future, so please take the time to complete it.

Summer 2017 brought an increased attendance in the weekly market (the Farmer’s market is something so unique to Thunder Beach), both the July and August Beach Balls were sold out, the Children’s program continued to increase in popularity, we saw the younger generation participating in the adult tennis tournaments and finally we saw an investment into many of our facilities such as our baseball diamond.

The TBA Executive is very excited about 2018 and we have already had our first planning meeting. We discussed a transition of roles and responsibilities and goals that we want to achieve in 2018 and over the next couple of years. One of our main goals is the Clubhouse Renovation and there will be more to come on this topic.

Appreciate your support and feedback,

Matt DuCharme

Treasurer's Report

Another fantastic summer at Thunder Beach!

We expect to end the 2017 year with a profit from activities, advertising / sponsorship revenues and membership dues of approximately $10,000. The social events were a great success and both events were profitable. Our profit from social events this year was $3,000. Advertising funds continue to be excellent sources of revenue and we encourage you to continue to support our sponsors.

We continue to keep track of the amount of money we raise from our tennis memberships for future planning purposes and we strive to operate the camp on a self-sufficient basis without significant subsidization.

Harbourview Property Management continues to perform regular maintenance duties under our maintenance contract. Additional maintenance expenses were incurred this year to bring the clubhouse up to fire code and restore the baseball diamond.

The year end for the Association is December 31, 2017. Annual financial statements will be available for distribution at the 2018 Annual General Meeting in August.

Corey Macgregor
Treasurer

Children’s Program Update

The summer of 2017 was an eventful one! True to fashion, the Thunder Beach Camp was a lively and welcoming place for kids of all ages. The weather kept us on our toes, but the rain and chilly temps didn’t keep the kids from enjoying all the activities available. We thought me might have to postpone Hallowe’en in July for the 1st time anyone can remember, but with a little luck and some help from closely watching the weather radar, the event was as bit a hit as ever! Tennis tournaments, Activity Nights (including Talent Night and Carnival), Field Trips, Teen Nights, Movie Nights, and of course our daily camp experiences saw lots of smiling faces. We thank all of our CIT’s, Counsellors and Head Counsellors for their dedication to making great memories with our campers.

It was the final year for our dedicated Head Counsellors, Emily Meyer and Betsy Smith. We thank them very much for all their efforts over the last three seasons! They were an energetic and caring team to work with. It was also the final year for Executive Members Susan and Dave Butler. The hiring and training of staff, along with overseeing the day to day operations of the camp is something we all take seriously, and their support and collaboration was integral to the success of the camp for the last 4 years. Thanks so much ‘Do Good’ and ‘Duke’!

A huge thank you to Christine Lundy who has joined me on the Executive this year as Camp Director. She jumped right in once Susan and Dave left for Brazil, and has been a great addition to the team.

Once again this year we accepted applications for the Head Counsellor position(s) at the end of September. We are excited to announce that Jenna Johnston and Robbie Butler have accepted the position of Co-Head Counsellors for the summer of 2018. We feel confident that their combined experience, leadership skills and collaborative approach will ensure a smooth transition and another fantastic year at camp.

As always we welcome ongoing feedback in order to help us reflect and make necessary changes and improvements to the camp. In our ever expanding world of technology the Thunder Beach Children’s Program continues to work toward increased access to wireless payment options, a paperless registration process which will expedite the season opening sign-in process, as well as an online application for all CITs and counsellors.

We are looking forward to a great 2018 summer season!

Melissa Gage

CALLING ALL APPLICANTS

Once again application time has arrived. Applications for Counselor and CIT positions for the summer of 2018 will be available online via the Thunder Beach website as of January 10, 2018. The official deadline for submissions is Friday February 2, 2018. We are seeking potential candidates for the positions of Counsellor and CIT. Please note that late applications (those received after midnight on Friday, February 2rd) will not be accepted. All applications will be done online through a Google form. If you have any questions regarding the application process, please refer to the Thunder Beach website or contact Melissa Gage at melissa.gage@hotmail.com or Christine Lundy at crudics@rogers.com .

Social Report Fall 2017

A big thank you to everyone who made our two sold out events a blast!

Next summer we will once again be hosting Lobsterfest and an August event. The dates will be Saturday, June 30th and Saturday, August 4th. If you have any fun theme ideas or would like to help out in planning the August event, please reach out to me (gamacgregor@gmail.com). Remember to get your tickets early, our capacity is strictly 180 and Lobsterfest sold out before summer."

Geoff Macgregor
Social Director

Thunder Beach Fall 2017 Tennis Report

Life is Always Better When I’m Playing Tennis…

Overall, I was very pleased with the 2017 Tennis season. We made some changes to accommodate increased participation in tournaments, we set the nets up a little earlier and kept them up a little later to accommodate our very keen members and we worked with Harbourview to upkeep the courts on a more consistence basis. We have asked Harbourview to take even better care of the maintenance of the courts and cut the grass/weeds in the middle of the courts, blow off the courts and fix/repair the picnic tables if required. This might affect some members when they are playing but it is something that needs to be done and we appreciate your patience.

Tennis 2017 saw a decline in membership. However, we saw an increased participation with younger members in the tournaments and increased participation in drop in. We are still trying to better understand where the decline in membership was. Was it singles memberships or families or the time periods of the membership? This will take some more analysis but will share with the members once I have a better understanding of where the drop occurred.

TBA Executive is still looking at the issue of “cracks” in the tennis courts. Thank you to the members that have step forward to make some calls and put forth a recommendation of a company we can use for repairs and recommend next steps. We will undertake this project in spring of 2018.

We have had a Request from the tennis members that enjoy DROP IN. Drop In for many years has been scheduled and happens every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10am to 1pm for the months of July and August.

The Request:

“Looking forward to next year 2018, is it possible to have one of the Drop-in Tennis times changed from 10am and moved to a 9 AM start time, perhaps the Wednesday? Since very few of the players who participate in Drop In have children in the morning camp program, an earlier start time would be appreciated by the tennis drop in players.”

We would like to hear your feedback. Some comments have been:

Maybe we also move stop time from 1 pm to noon
Maybe we limit the number of courts being used if we agree on 9 am Drop In start on Wed.
Maybe we always leave court ONE open for other members and Drop In only gets courts two and three
What about the people that want to play doubles starting at 8am for two hours?

Tennis Director Needed for the 2018 Season

I need a volunteer to take over the tennis duties which include: Organizing and running the Adult Tournaments, monitoring the courts, making sure the sign-up sheets are available. Please email me or call me if you are interested.

Congratulations to the Winners of the Summer 2017 Adult Tournaments:

Mixed Doubles Adult winners – Cathy Meyer and Craig Jarvis
Men’s Doubles Adult winners – Don Butler and Jack DuCharme
Ladies Doubles Adult winners – Vivien Horton and Deb Nettesheim

Please remember you must be both a TBA member and a tennis member to play on the courts – TBA memberships and tennis memberships can be purchased from the TBA website.

We would also appreciate your ideas, thoughts and feedback for this upcoming season matt.ducharme@sympatico.ca. It is important that we hear from you.

See you on the courts.

Matt DuCharme
Tennis Director

Thunder Beach Fall November 2017 Maintenance Report

Harbourview Property Management has completed the fall clean up in and around the clubhouse and tennis courts. Everything is prepared for the Thunder Beach winter months. Just a reminder that maintenance covers the following areas;

Clubhouse and washrooms
Garbage bins, Playground area
TBA field, Baseball diamond
Tennis courts
install and removal of buoys
clean up after the TBA parties
helping and on call for Children’s program and Head Counselors

Rental of the Clubhouse

The responsibility for Rental of the clubhouse will now be with the TBA Maintenance/Property Director and Harbourview Property Management (Evan Lahaie). TBA Executive would like to remind the membership of the following:

Clubhouse CANNOT be rented in the months of July and August. We have a couple of exceptions for memorials or daytime use limited to certain hours
Clubhouse Rental fees are different for members vs non-members. TBA contract needs to be signed. We encourage everyone and all families to be TBA members – check the website
Rentals can be made for months of May, June, September or October
Interested parties can contact either the TBA Maintenance/Property Director - Matthew DuCharme matt.ducharme@sympatico.ca cell (647)669-2475 or Harbourview - Evan Lahaie evanlahaie@harbourviewpm.com office (705)937-0714

Harbourview Property Management and I would make every effort to speak to any TBA member regarding any suggestions, issues or concerns with managing and maintaining the beauty of Thunder Beach.

Matt DuCharme
TBA Maintenance/Property Director

Thunder Beach Youth Baseball 2017

Over 90 players and coaches participated in our 26th season. Every year we see more and more players whose parents also played years ago. Thunder Beach Youth Baseball is all about leadership, community building, making new friends, fail play participation, teamwork and most importantly, having fun! Our volunteer coaches exemplified these values. Much appreciation to: Andrew Godin, Carter McLean, Jenna Johnson, Tyler White, Andie Miller, Jack Douglas, Kate Robertson, Will Meyer, Jasmine Smith, Kirsten Tighe, Mathew Godin, Nate Butler, Freddie McLenahan, Jake Butler, Robbie Butler, Samantha Comfort, Perry Guloien.

Also many thanks for our volunteer umpires - the Butler brothers - Don, Brad and Dave for their assistance and especially for correcting all my errant close calls!

Thanks also to those who sponsored the 25th anniversary baseball caps in 2016 which funded the resurfacing of the baseball diamond.

The 33rd Annual Thunder Run

The 33rd Annual Thunder Run had over 60 competitors - a record turnout. This year's champ set a new record for the course - big congrats to Sasha Gollish. And a congrats to Brendan MacDonald who was the top male finisher. We had racers ranging in age from 6 to 60s, with a great crowd of beach families at the finish line! A big thank you to Tyler Richard and Saucony for providing the prize gear, and to all of our volunteers. See you on the start line next summer!

2017 Luke Santi Memorial Flag Football Tournament

Thank you to ALL for yet another successful Flag Football season – our 14th season. We had close to 40 players and 8 enthusiastic coaches who thoroughly enjoyed the Tournament. Congratulations to the Hamilton Tiger Cats and their coaches Freddy McClanahan and Robbie Butler on winning the Tournament Championship!

THANKS to the Smeaton, Santi and Houston families. Special thanks AGAIN to head counsellors Betsy Smith and Emily Meyer for their leadership, commitment and organization over the years. Thanks to all the coaches who led and taught the young football players. We appreciate their time and energy during the week! Thanks to Don Butler, Tom Casagrande, Matt Smeaton and Griffin Bourjeaurd for reffing and working the chains. Thanks to Susan and Grant Winter for organizing the annual tailgate BBQ! Thanks to all the parents who generously donated food/beverages for ALL! The annual co-ed adult game, played after the Championship game, was enjoyed by many Flag alumni. Good news….injuries were kept to a minimum! A big THANKS to the CFL who generously donated the jerseys.

We look forward to next year, the 15th season! Same time in July. Watch for details in the Spring TBA Newsletter. Reminder, the age restrictions will be 10 to 15 (your age on the first day of the tournament). We are always on the lookout for referees, ‘chain gang’ helpers, and volunteers to assist. THANK YOU!

2017 Tawny Tournament Recap

This year’s tournament was the 20th anniversary of the tournament and we had 9 teams participating. For this year we instituted pre planned team names with each team being named for a musical artist or band. In a highly competitive tournament the eventual victorious team were the one and only rebels without a pause, Public Enemy. The team consisted of Greg Telfer, Mary Robertson, Bill Saundercook, Dyan L., Nolan Jarvis and Kyle Gross. Congratulations to the winners and thank you John Philpott for leading the charge and thank you to all those who offered their beach fronts, refereed, raked the beach, and organized the teams and game schedules. This was a truly fun year and I cannot wait to unleash a whole new theme with all new puns all day next summer.

Have a great and safe winter,

Tyler Richard

20 years of The Tawny Tournament

This summer Thunder Beach celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Tawny Richard Beach Volleyball Tournament. There is simply not sufficient space to thank each and every person who have donated their time, properties, or otherwise contributed to making sure this tournament has continued to be success and a memorial for my sister Tawny. What stands out in the many years of this tournament is the strength of the Thunder Beach community, and how that community rallies around its members when they are in need. The number of people who have had such a strong hand in this tournament exemplifies all of those who put in time to make sure the camp, field day, sports programs, and event nights happen so that we can grow up, play, compete and celebrate as a community. On behalf of my family, I want to say thank you to all of you for making Thunder Beach a special place where we can have so many exceptional memories as well as a safe and supportive environment for the children of today to grow and realize their potential.

I would not have been able to organize this tournament without the help and support of a number of individuals who know who they are. I will to send a special thank you to Amy Saundercook for being by my side since day one and for John Philpott for taking charge when I moved away (with some key assistance from Erin Gross). I also wanted to send one final thank you to my mother Trudy, whom always stuck around at the end of the day to help clean up, notwithstanding the emotional challenges of the day.

Thank you Thunder Beach,

Tyler Richard

FOTTSA/Municipal Update

The Thunder Beach Association is pleased to announce that Todd McCarthy has been appointed as a Board member of the Federation of Tiny Township Shoreline Associations (“FOTTSA”), a non-profit focused on environmental and municipal issues facing shoreline associations in Tiny. Todd is pleased to be representing Thunder Beach at FOTTSA and, likewise, the Thunder Beach Association is delighted that Todd has assumed this role.

FOTTSA monitors all meetings of the Tiny Township council and posts information on Township matters at www.tinycottager.org. The FOTTSA publication, The Tiny Cottager, is also available on the website and is still circulated in paper copy to most residents of Tiny. If you have any concerns regarding municipal issues with the Township of Tiny, you can email John Philpott at jsphilpott@gmail.comregarding your concerns.

John Philpott

Parking and Traffic Report

Thunder Beach is a thriving community that continues to grow. Once just a small community of farmers, the beautiful beach attracted many people who wanted to enjoy the area mainly during the summer. Thunder Beach road used to be the only entrance to the area. Homes and cottages were built, a church and stores were added.

Today, many cars, trucks, bicycles, and pedestrians use our roads year round. Roads have been widened, speed limits have changed, and township parking permits are now required for visitors on our roads.

In keeping with these changes, the executive of the Thunder Beach Association has added an new role to the executive: Vice President, Parking and Traffic.

The duties of the role will include:

Liaise with Tiny Township officials and Council re Thunder Beach parking and traffic issues
Update Thunder Beach community re Tiny Township changes re parking and traffic issues
Consult with the residents of Thunder Beach regarding issues of safety on our roads e.g. speed limit, signage, et.

As this is a new position, the role will evolve over time. Any comments and suggestions are welcome.

Susan Inwood
susan.inwood@hotmail.com