Howard County Pickleball Association

After playing at the Villages in Florida during the winter of 2016 Duane St.Clair felt the need to organize the pickleball players in Howard County to expand playing opportunities within the County. He started collecting email addresses of players within the Columbia Association, the County Recreation and Parks pickleball programs and the Central M... D YMCA. He invited them to an initial meeting on April 3, 2016 at the East Columbia Library to discuss interest in organizing a club or an association. All attendee's agreed there was a need to organize and promote the development of more pickleball venues and opportunities to play. As a result of this first meeting a small group of the attendees agreed to develop ideas on how such an organization should be formed. This initial committee met twice and created a draft of potential by-laws, roles to manage the organization and possible committees to support the members. Reaching out to a multitude of interested county pickleball players, these ideas were presented at a larger meeting held on May 12th 2016 at the Ellicott City YMCA. The group decided that an association rather than a club would better serve our purposes. The bylaws were accepted and officers of the association were elected. Duane St.Clair was elected President, Charlie Brown and Ken Greco were elected Vice Presidents, Rocky Brown was elected Treasurer and Joanne Griesser was elected Secretary. Earl Sneeringer was asked to be a member at large of the Board because of his work on the membership committee and the association website. The Howard County Pickleball Association (HCPA) was incorporated with the State of Maryland in June 2016, opened a bank account and received its non profit status from the IRS in July 2016. Membership registration started in August 2016. Association pickleball play started in the Summer of 2016 initially at the tennis courts at the Atholton Park, then at the Oakland Mills High School tennis courts and the basketball court at Centennial East Park. Finally the tennis courts ...Read More