Membership 1929 to 1985

It was the founders’ intention that membership should be restricted to residents or property owners on the Mayfield Estate, but following the construction of the second court in 1933, it was agreed that non-residents would be accepted as “temporary members”, without voting rights and at an increased subscription. These members were required to be re-elected annually.

In 1932 children of members were officially accepted and allowed to use the courts on weekday mornings.

The membership category “temporary member” was abolished in 1948 and the Club became open to all, provided a minimum standard of proficiency was certified by at least two members of the Committee.

To endeavour to achieve maximum use of the courts, successive committees created a variety of classes of membership. “Winter membership”, carrying an additional subscription was introduced in 1954. This category was later abolished after completion of the first All Weather Court in 1959 and all the year round play was possible.

At one stage, there was a “four day membership” for ladies but later this was converted to “weekday membership” and a further category of “non-club-day membership” was introduced. Provision was also made for “country membership” and a special category for “student and college” members.

It was always the policy of the Club to encourage juniors and coaching and tournaments were arranged from time to time.

To accommodate children of parents who did not play a category of “non-playing member” was introduced, and the Constitution provided that at least one parent must be a member before the child or children were accepted. The age limit for junior membership has varied over the years, but now stands at between 7 and 20.

For a number of years the courts have been hired to Micklefield School for use on certain afternoons and a more recent development has been an arrangement with a professional tennis coach whereby he uses the courts for coaching at certain times in return for supplying the Club with a number of balls per week free of charge. All children coached by the professional are required to join the Club, resulting in a junior membership of nearly 100 at the end of 1985.

1986 to 2006

Membership numbers remained fairly constant with total membership around the 230 mark. New member applications kept pace, in the main, with resignations (old age), relocations and deaths

The visitors’ book which proved to be a continuing problem with it being used for scrap paper, the penning of ribald remarks and the like, was scrapped in about 1995, and members were asked to add to their annual subscription, R5 for each visitor they had brought to the club over the past year .

The policy of vetting new “full” and “weekday” members was continued  MEMBERSHIP (Continued)

with applicants having to play before a majority of the committee on at least two occasions before being accepted.

Details of the membership have been kept by the Treasurer from 1987 and the details for 1987 and 2006 are as follows:

1987	Number	Subs		2006	Number	Subs
Full	75	R40		Full	67	R125
Weekday	17	R33		Weekday	18	R115
Non-Club day	83	R31		Non-Club day	78	R110
Non-Playing	14	R17		Non-Playing	1	R95

Entrance fees have remained at R100,00 per family for many years

The number of “Non-playing” members dropped as the clause in the constitution which required at least one parent of each junior member to be a member of the Club, was removed when the constitution was changed in 2001. At that time the category of “student” membership was abolished as many “students” continued to study well into their 30’s and the difference in the annual subscriptions was negligible.

Junior membership dropped significantly from being in excess of 100 members in the late 1980’s to 59 in 2006. This was because the “rule” that all juniors being coached become members of the Club had not been enforced and fell away.

It continued to be the policy of the Club to encourage junior membership and to provide facilities for coaching.

Throughout the period, Micklefield School continued to hire courts on certain afternoons and David Parkyn, the professional tennis coach, made use of the courts for coaching at specified times for which he continued to supply the Club with new tennis balls each week at no cost to the Club.