Numbers, Numbers, Numbers

By Charles E. Vasoll

I am certainly aware that most of us are not fond of numbers, especially when they are used in place of our name for identification. It has taken a couple of generations for many Americans to accept and be able to quickly recite their Social Security number. So it would seem that the APTA was moving in the right direction when it eliminated its membership number for a large percentage of its members. The number was unused, never remembered and often not entered on the entry form when requested. Now you may still have such a number but if you joined the APTA this year through a League or Association, the membership number is history. Instead these members have a three-digit number which identifies their organization and applies to everyone in it.

As a tournament director, when you get an entry form from an APTA member who is registered through a League, I guess you must contact the APTA office to determine if the entrant is a legitimate member. While there seems to be an attempt to keep this three-digit number confidential, I can’t imagine how that can be accomplished.

It is probably true that there are very few "cheats" who enter APTA tournaments. By "cheats" I mean players who avoid paying the Association’s dues. Nevertheless, they do exist. I believe this system is going to make it even easier for them to play in sanctioned events without a paid membership. In other words, I think this new system needs to be revised to avoid aiding the ones who do not pay the annual dues.

A further consequence of this lack of individual numbering is that it will be impossible to track a player’s attendance and performance in tournaments. This has not been done in the APTA to my knowledge but I understand that it is a method used by the United States Tennis Association. (They must have some good ideas.)

Each year the APTA assigns a new number to each individual as they join. (Only Life Members have a permanent membership number) I suggest that the APTA should be moving in the opposite direction. That is they should assign every member a permanent number. With the ability that computers have to track what everyone is doing, it could be a big help in determining who played in tournaments in previous years and make it easier to invite them to participate again. It could also inform the Tournament Directors of the results of that event and help them in making the draw by determining the seeds and placed teams as the result of a prior play rather than rely on the opinions of committee members.

I believe this subject should be looked into in more depth to determine if there is a better and more useful way of identifying the members of the APTA.

FLASH: An e-mail received October 29th from the APTA web master, Terri Gollinger, advises me that the APTA Board has decided to assign individual numbers to league members as I have suggested in the above article. (Someone must be spying) If you have an APTA membership through a League, an individual membership number will be assigned to you for use on the APTA web site and on entries for tournaments.

CEV

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