Dear Sun Valley Community:                                                                             December 18, 2023

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The shortest day of the year is upon us and we are in the midst of the holiday season. As we anticipate the first snowfall it is hard to believe that we are already preparing for next summer and the 2024 season at Sun Valley Swim and Tennis. On behalf of the Sun Valley Board let me thank you for wonderful summer of swimming, tennis, and friendship at Sun Valley as we extend our heartfelt wishes to you for Happy Holidays and a Healthy New Year.

 

When you arrive in the spring you will be surprised by the remarkable transformation our tennis courts will have undergone. After many years of patching and repairing our tennis facility, the board made a much-needed commitment to replace the courts and deliver to our growing and enthusiastic tennis community a state-of-the-art facility. The construction is well underway. The new post-tension concrete surfaces have been poured, fence posts are in, and we only have to wait for warmer weather to finish the project.

 

You will also see new storage sheds for our tennis equipment and swim equipment. A number of other repairs and improvements to our club, including replacing one of our pool heaters and automating the equipment used to add chemicals the pool, will be undertaken over the winter to ensure that your experience at Sun Valley is as safe and enjoyable as possible.

 

We had exceptional attendance this past year, with nearly 260 member-families active at Sun Valley. Our membership continues to grow, and with a healthy waitlist for new members we consider ourselves fortunate to be able to offer a Sun Valley experience to more families than ever before. In response to a number of requests from the membership we are also considering adding Wi-Fi access as a benefit to our membership. More to come on this as the details are worked out.

 

We intend to open the new tennis courts as soon as possible in the spring; an exact date will depend on the weather as it must be consistently warm and dry to complete the final surface work and painting. The pool opened in mid-May this year and our swim season continued through mid-September. We expect a similar schedule for 2024.

 

We have continued to improve our advanced reservation system for lap swimming and tennis bookings and continue to work toward increasing as many group activities as possible, including swim team and swim lessons. Our tennis programs continue to grow in popularity with an increasing number of members participating in the various tennis activities at Sun Valley. We had terrific attendance at our kids night, teen night, and adult night gatherings and continue to extend our hours on several Fridays throughout the summer for family and friends to gather at Sun Valley.

 

As we enter 2024, with unrest in the world around us, we are mindful of how fortunate we are to have Sun Valley as a respite from the stresses surrounding us. COVID has become manageable, but economic instability continues to influence our planning. With the much-needed construction of the tennis courts, increasing labor costs, increasingly expensive materials and supplies, and supply chain challenges, our expenses continue to rise. As a non-profit organization, we rely exclusively on our membership fees for the revenue needed to operate Sun Valley, and having recovered from challenges brought on by COVID, we are focusing now on managing our operating expenses and maintaining a healthy capital fund for larger and unanticipated expenses.

 

In considering 2024 membership fees the Sun Valley Board, mindful of the expenses associated with the ongoing improvements at our facility, was unanimous in voting to increase fees. This increase, while slightly greater than inflation, keeps Sun Valley membership fees in line with or below other comparable swim and tennis clubs, and is within the range of price increases elsewhere. The mission of the Board is to provide responsible stewardship for Sun Valley, and we aim to set membership fees that allow us to pay our tennis staff, lifeguards and management staff competitively, while striving to keep Sun Valley a place that as many families as possible can still afford and enjoy.

 

We continue to be very fortunate to have our manager Laura Conti working tirelessly throughout the year, updating and improving our technology and online systems, while overseeing the many operational and maintenance efforts needed to keep Sun Valley running and ready to open in the Spring. The Board has been enthusiastic in its support for her efforts.

 

We wish everyone in the Sun Valley community all the very best for the upcoming Holidays and the New Year as we look forward to the warm weather ahead and another terrific season of swimming and tennis.

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On behalf of the Sun Valley Board,

 

Sincerely,

Stephan Voss

President

Sun Valley Board of Directors

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