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Welcome Letter by Beth Sopka
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Badminton Friends –
The Northeast Badminton Association can and should be a powerful force for supporting and promoting badminton in our area. Spanning the thirteen mid-Atlantic and northeastern states from Virginia to Maine, also including the District of Columbia, we have some of the most enthusiastic and skilled playing communities in the United States. We count among our members many current and past national and international champions at all levels - junior, adult and senior along with many local enthusiasts who simply play for the sociability and exercise. By all accounts our area is one of the most vibrant in the US and for this I would like to thank each and everyone of you who has been involved in one way or another - playing, organizing, volunteering, sponsoring, and simply 'talking up' the sport!
Our regional organization has been trying hard in the past few years to reconnect our wide-flung community to allow us to work together to do more than before. Our chief goal is to improve communication to help all of you to stay informed of the great opportunities for more badminton. We have had our ups and downs in our endeavor and I want to assure you all that we are working again with renewed vigor in this area. Our website, www.northeastbadminton.net, has been undergoing renovation in recent months - we are building on the prodigious effort put in by past president Adrian Smith to whom we all owe a huge debt of gratitude.
The Event Calendar is now up and running again, allowing you to register your event on-line. Please make use of this now! Notice in particular that the next several months have some very important tournaments scheduled, including our Region 1 MidAtlantic Classic, November 9-11 at Bryn Athyn, PA. Coming soon to the website, will be increased ability to post news content and to receive email updates from the region. We are working hard in the hope that you will soon feel that your badminton membership is an important link to the sport you love to play!
Finally, I would like to highlight the huge volunteer effort that keeps us going. In addition to Adrian Smith, cited above, there are two others whose service more than deserves recognition and appreciation from all of us. Past president Diane Cornell has spent many long hours in recent years keeping us on track and pushing us forward as an organization and continues even now behind the scene. The other is Dave Fehm, also a past president, who has taken on two of the largest and most valuable region tasks - heading up the MidAtlantic Classic and the website renovation project. Both of these require huge commitments of time, energy and clear-thinking - only a couple of which does Dave have in abundance!
The best way to honor those who have done so much for our sport in the northeast is to volunteer yourself to help out whenever possible. This can be a small commitment such as making yourself available to run the registration desk for a few hours at a tournament, writing up a news article for the website, inviting your friends and neighbors to play at your club. If time is not easy for you to donate, then (surprise, surprise!) we would be very happy to receive a financial contribution. You should know that our budget has been exclusively based on the regional funding provided in past years by USA Badminton, derived from membership dues. This funding has been cut substantially and we cannot expect to rely on it any further.
I am looking forward to much exciting progress and hope that you will let me know your thoughts and hopes for the region!
Beth Sopka
President, Northeast Region
USA Badminton
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