Below are the candidates for the 2022 Capital Tennis Association Board of Directors. Members will receive an email with voting instructions on Monday, December 6, 2021. Voting will take place starting Monday, December 6 at 6pm ET through Sunday, December 12 at 11:59pm ET.

If you have any questions please contact the Nominations Committee at nominations@capital-tennis.org.

Election Guidelines

1. President

Rob Treadway

Hello! I'm Rob Treadway and I'm running for CTA President. If you'd like to see my volunteer/sports resume, please click here.

I'm one of only a few current Board members seeking to stay on next year. We find ourselves in need of a new generation of CTA leaders to step up. As such, I see this next year as a period to:

• Teach new Board members about the processes that make CTA run as well as it already does and prepare them to move up the leadership ranks
• Modernize a few processes, policies and safeguards
• Continually look for ways to improve upon our programs to serve you better

I promise that the Board will always be in good communication with you, be transparent, and dutifully strive to serve all members. I'm firmly committed to that last part. So much so that I'd like to ask a couple of members to sit on the Board as non-voting co-chairs of a new Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee. Why? Everyone deserves a seat at the table and for years we have not had a woman or African-American on the Board, and have never had representation from the transgender or non-binary community on the Board. The purpose is to help us look at what we do from the perspectives of ALL of our members.

I also want to challenge you to become more engaged in CTA. Over the past few years, I've seen a small group of people do a whole heck of a lot behind the scenes to make things happen. A club of 400+ members should really have more volunteers. I ask you to do anything you possibly can to help us be greater. It may include:

• Coordinating a league a few times a season
• Volunteering to help with the CTA Championships or Cap Classic tournaments
• Asking your employer and/or friends who own a business to sponsor or donate prizes to our tournaments and events
• Mentoring a new member
• Leading one of our monthly winter socials

Or a slew of other ways. Anything is greatly appreciated.

I humbly ask for your vote and your trust that I will help guide CTA forward over the next year along with the fabulous nominees you see here. I've heard it said that the key to being a great leader is to surround yourself with great people. This would be a dream team. 

Happy holidays!

Rob

2. VP of Membership

(in alphabetical order)

Claire Liebmann

Hello! I am Claire Liebmann and I am running for the role of Vice President of Membership. I am running because I believe that recruiting, managing, and retaining a diverse group of players is crucial to the organization and function of CTA. Particularly if trends from the past year or so continue and the organization sees further increases in new members, I think that it will be essential to the team's success to more actively manage and welcome new members of the team.

As VP of Membership, I am prepared to tackle that challenge by working with the Board to find new ways to recruit members, such as more broadly advertising the team among other LGBTQIA+ groups throughout the DMV. I see finding proactive ways to welcome and integrate new members into the organization and familiarize them with the various ways to participate in CTA-- such as by reinvigorating the mentorship program and by being a point person for any questions new members might have-- as a key role of VP of Membership. It is my belief that by helping new members navigate joining the group that we will also increase retention rates. I also plan on working with the Board to organize more give-a-ways of membership materials (who doesn’t want more CTA water jugs or other paraphernalia?) and will aim to provide a voice for the women of CTA in my capacity as a Board member.

As a member who joined CTA in the past year, I have been lucky to have been welcomed by many members of the team but I also understand some of the struggles that new members may experience in navigating the team. This relatively new experience joining the team places me in a position to empathize with new members and, in my role as VP of Membership, to provide the same-- or even warmer-- welcome which I received from other CTA members.

Vadim Pogosov

Since joining CTA over 5 years ago, my volunteerism includes: coordinating league play every year, helping secure significant Capital Classic sponsorships and donations, and for the past 2 years negotiating locker room access for players during the tournament (something the tournament lacked for many years) with the Washington Tennis and Education Foundation (WTEF)

I have used my personal and professional networks to achieve many of the above tasks. Since being elected to the board 3 years ago I have successfully accomplished quantitative membership growth as well as growth from a diversity standpoint including increasing the ranks of racial minorities and women, which is a huge accomplishment for all of us in the CTA family. Cheers and thank you to all members who help recruit new members and help CTA continue growing.  By pursuing new partnerships with regional leagues and organizations, I will remain focused on increasing our diversity ranks and help our league look more like the communities where we live and play.

I’m also excited to keep focusing on bringing in new and maintaining current partners and sponsors for CTA. It took a good deal of effort to bring in sponsors like CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield and the Athletic Brewing Company, and I am more than willing to put in the time and energy into these relationships to ensure they stay on as supporters. Similarly, navigating a still delicate and young relationship with the WTEF to ensure that we retain locker room access for our tournament is something I’m very comfortable with taking on.

Thank you for your consideration for retaining me in this position!

3. VP of Operations

Phil Scott

Hi my name is Phil and I'm running for VP of Operations.  I've been with CTA for many years.  I may have been a coordinator for one of your leagues in Fairfax or Hains Point.

As VP of operations I will make sure all coordinators have the resources they need including the balls and schedules.  I will also provide support for other seasonal operations and tournaments.

Thank you for your consideration

Phil Scott

4. Social Director

Fernando Armendaris / Andy Lamb

Fernando and Andy, hereto after to be referred to as Fernandy, would like to propose a double ticket for the Social Director. Our approach is multifaceted; working together we will share the various responsibilities of this role to maximize CTA excitement and turnout for social tennis events as well as planning for a wider reach for recruitment by executing non-conventional CTA gatherings. As a proven collaborative partnership - equal to that of Cardi B with Megan Thee Stallion -  we want to make sure each CTA member feels as comfortable having fun at our events as we do each time we show up. We will also make sure that all of our social media have plenty of regular updates (including tagging you so that you can humble brag to your friends and family), and will include dates/times of new events and league signups as well as monthly profiles/interviews of current members so that we can highlight the amazing and friendly atmosphere of CTA. We want to foster a welcoming environment for ALL people! CTA has been a place where both of us have made great friends and we want to make that available to everyone who comes to our event or scrolls through social media before going to bed. VOTE FOR FERNANDY!

5. Secretary

Brett McBride

Over the past ten-plus years, CTA for me has been a great source of friendly competition, social interaction, and of course exercise. If elected, I hope to give back to the organization by serving as Secretary on the Board. While I haven’t served on the CTA’s board before, I have past experience serving on the board of a community organization and would also bring my diligence and friendliness to the position. I have assisted CTA in various capacities over the years - volunteering to help the Cap Classic operate smoothly the last two tournaments, coordinating a league, swapping spots when able, and serving in the CTA Mentor Program. I want to help keep members informed of the activities of the CTA, and accordingly would promote transparency and clarity in Board minutes.