At The Pickleball Club at Monroe, they are all about just that–pickleball. Located in Central New Jersey in Monroe Township, The Pickleball Club at Monroe is a dedicated pickleball facility with 10 indoor courts “built by pickleball enthusiasts for pickleball enthusiasts,” according to their website. To share their enthusiasm for pickleball with community members, The Pickleball Club at Monroe maintains a straightforward membership philosophy based on “simplicity and affordability,” says the club’s owner Michael Rosenberg. This mindset serves their members by creating a welcoming environment and allowing members to focus on what they came to the club for–pickleball.
The mission of The Pickleball Club at Monroe is to be able to provide pickleball for all, whether you’re a novice player just learning the rules and mechanics or a skilled player years into their pickleball journey. With an annual membership fee of $100, members have the “ability to book courts two weeks out and avoid a guest fee, while guests can book four days out and play with only a $5/event guest fee.” They believe focusing on simplicity and affordability as they engage with their members helps them fulfill this mission by creating a low barrier of entry for individuals to become a part of this pickleball community.
In addition to booking courts far in advance and not paying a guest fee, players benefit from the membership by partaking in the 100+ hours/week of programming offered by the club (see Figure 1 for their October 2023 programming schedule). Some of these opportunities include “specialized clinics, lessons, seasonal contracts, junior programs, ladders, open play and tournaments.” Through clinics and both private and group lessons, members can learn from their 10 instructors who specialize in various aspects of the game. As a member at The Pickleball at Monroe, you are eligible to complete their customized Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating (DUPR) program to measure your official DUPR and gain a solid understanding of where your skills rank within the pickleball world. Further, The Pickleball at Monroe is always looking to add new programs to their repertoire to meet the needs and interests of their members.
To gauge whether their members believe they are getting value from their membership, The Pickleball at Monroe maintains regular communication with their members through social media and emails. Additionally, they seek to engage with members by “speaking with them at the front desk and continuously asking for feedback…and any changes they would like to see in the club.” While they have only been open since mid-September 2023, they have already sent out one survey to members seeking their insights on the membership process so far. Moreover, they will look to formalize members’ feedback with a Net Promoter Score-based survey at the end of the year.
Based on the feedback they have received so far, members at The Pickleball club at Monroe “feel the membership fee is fair and is worth the money in order to book earlier than non-members.” Recently, the club’s leadership has decided to cap the membership to ensure court availability for members, displaying that their priority is not just increasing their revenue, but also following through on their commitment to make pickleball play available. Having a succinct membership philosophy in which members are the clear priority gives members a sense of assurance that their needs will be addressed and their concerns will be taken seriously by leadership. Additionally, through the survey and organic feedback, members have expressed that they appreciate the club’s quick turnaround time for any issues that arise and feel their opinions are valued by the club. Rosenberg believes this type of positive feedback stems from “having owners and staff work as one cohesive unit to create a first-class facility.”
One feature of a club that cares about its membership is their willingness to offer upskilling resources to help members advance their pickleball game. The Pickleball Club at Monroe offers a slew of various clinics, offering players, regardless of their skill level, opportunities to improve and enhance their game. One of the club’s hallmarks is a series of clinics, each lasting four weeks, developed with true beginners and those playing at the advanced level in mind. In between when these clinics are running, the club hosts “mini clinics supporting those levels, which [they] call ‘Stroke of the Week.’” Through these clinics, members are encouraged to grow in the depth and breadth of their pickleball intelligence. In addition to clinics, the club hosts a wide variety of other programming, most of which is coached, “so players can play but still get the coaching they need.” This combination of playtime and coaching gives members the opportunity to enjoy some pickleball play and continue to develop their skills. Further, they have both private and semi-private lessons and ball machines available for rent to help members work on their technique. The Pickleball Club at Monroe seeks to constantly bring value to their members through a variety of upskilling resources and tools.
When it comes to the community aspect of a pickleball club, Rosenberg has a clear vision for what he wants the community at The Pickleball Club at Monroe to look like. “An organization is at its simplest, made up of members, and ours is no exception, where most members are within 20 miles [of] our club,” says Rosenberg. Having the majority of their membership living within such a close distance gives the club ample opportunities to be a community hub where locals can easily gather for a social experience. Part of being community-focused is constantly reevaluating the interests of your members and knowing what they are looking for from the club. The Pickleball Club at Monroe is committed to running “events that are of interest to members and what they want to support.” This club is centered around community because they understand that at the end of the day, any pickleball club can offer courts and open play times for interested players, but being able to create a sense of community and belonging can set a club apart.
To communicate the membership’s value to existing members at the club, The Pickleball Club at Monroe relies on a multipronged approach to include emails, flyers on site at the club, word of mouth and TeamReach solutions to let members know what is going on at the club and any changes in scheduling. Further, they keep a detailed club calendar on the homepage of their website (see Figure 1) for members to check at their leisure. While social media certainly serves its purpose and can increase your club’s visibility with juniors and younger generations, Rosenberg has found “emails…have been the most effective form of communication” for their membership. The club sometimes sends emails as frequently as once per day to let members know about upcoming programs and opportunities at the club.
While there are an infinite number of reasons a player may be committed to returning to a club over and over, Rosenberg believes the “best way any club can get people on the courts is the product you put on it.” Any pickleball club can have the best facility–quality of courts, lighting, barriers, pro shops, or on site cafes–but quality that keeps members interested in coming to the club regularly is the quality of play on the court. One of the most effective ways to ensure quality of play within a club is for the club to maintain oversight on matchups and have a system to create evenly competitive games in all the club’s areas of programming. “It’s the club’s responsibility to ensure only that players of the same skill level are grouped together so the game play excels,” says Rosenberg. If members continue to show up to the club only to be met with over or under matched opponents, they will be discouraged from regularly returning to play. Additionally, it is imperative for a club to be aware of their member’s availability and interest in certain programs so they do not have offerings outside of popular time windows or programs that are not of interest to members. Hosting preferable programs on the right days at the right times is key to enticing members to keep coming back to the club regularly.
The Pickleball Club at Monroe is dedicated to creating an “environment where members feel they are valued and that their opinions are important and heard.” They seek to accomplish this goal in a plethora of ways, including regularly asking their members for feedback, establishing a community environment, and keeping in contact communication with their members. At this club, members are “treated as an integral part of [the] organization and contribute to the opportunities” held at the club. Leadership at The Pickleball Club at Monroe is firmly of the belief that this inclusion is essential to the growth and success of the club.
