In the fall of 2015 Pickleball Canada (PCO) approached Beverley Walker and a group of Alberta pickleball players to look at the possibility of establishing a Provincial and Territorial Sports Organization (PTSO) for the sport of pickleball. It was then part of PCO’s strategic planning and goal to become the National Sports Organization (NSO) for pickleball. One of the necessary requirements was for a PTSO to be formed in Alberta, along with other provinces and territories in Canada, and to affiliate with PCO.

That fall a dedicated team was put together to do a feasibility study including:

• Chair: Beverley Walker (President of Calgary Pickleball Club)
• Brenda Feser (Treasurer of Red Deer Pickleball Club)
• Dave Hesje (Camrose Pickleball Club)
• Ilsa Wong (Lethbridge Pickleball Club).

During the winter of 2015 this team consulted with all known pickleball clubs and groups in Alberta and found that there was support for the formation of a PTSO. 

In April 2016, an application was made to the government of Alberta for Pickleball Alberta to become a non-profit society. This application was signed by individuals from five different communities in Alberta: 

In June of 2016, Kevin Doucet organized a major tournament in Calgary with many of the players from across the province competing. A group scheduled a meeting that was to be held at the completion of the tournament to meet regarding the new society. There was a fortuitous rainstorm that allowed the first “AGM” to be held during the delay with a whopping 60 people showing up. To a packed house, a brave group of individuals stepped up and were elected, becoming the inaugural Board of Directors for Pickleball Alberta.

2016 Charter Board of Directors

• Beverley Walker President – Calgary (2016) 
• Doug Fogg Vice President – Edmonton (2016)
• George Frohlich Secretary – Calgary (2016)
• Brenda Feser Membership Director – Red Deer (2016)
• Brian Popowitch Communication Director – High River (2016)
• Mike Cooper Director at Large – Edmonton (2016)
• Trevor Burndred Treasurer – High River (2016)

The new Board then met in Red Deer on July 28, 2016, to undertake some initial planning. Some of the early issues that were identified included: 

• How Pickleball Alberta and Pickleball Canada would work together.
• How Pickleball Alberta would work with clubs and communities to develop the sport of pickleball in Alberta. 
• Proposed provincial zone organization and governance. 
• Membership year, membership fee, and membership application process. 

The following clubs provided funding to Pickleball Alberta to help with initial start-up expenses:  Calgary Pickleball Club, Edmonton Pickleball Club, and Parkland Pickleheads Club.  

The first AGM for Pickleball Alberta was held on October 6, 2016, at the Pines Community Hall in Red Deer.  Key orders of business included: mission, vision, values for Pickleball Alberta, Proposed zone voting structure, provincial membership fee of $5 per member, and discussion on how to phase in the new membership structure. 

Red Deer was the first club to officially affiliate with Pickleball Alberta and Pickleball Canada, paying a Pickleball Alberta the membership fee of $5.00 for its 142 members in September 2016.  

Parkland Pickleheads hosted the first Pickleball Alberta Provincial Championship in parallel with their September Smash tournament, with 145 entrants contributing $500 of the proceeds to Pickleball Alberta.  

It is important to remember our past and celebrate our history. This is one of the objectives of the Legacy Project.  

The name for the registered Society was finalized as Pickleball Alberta Organization, with Pickleball Alberta as a registered trade name. This was officially approved after considerable communications by George Frohlich with Service Alberta.

The first Pickleball Alberta logo was agreed to in February, with Chris Wharton from the Calgary Pickleball Club creating it.

The first Pickleball Alberta website was launched at www.pickleballalberta.org in September developed by Good Company from Calgary.  The Pickleball Alberta not-for-profit Google Suite was set up at no cost and provided a powerful business suite and tools for the operation of the association.

Pickleball Alberta set the annual renewal process for clubs, with the membership year running from May 1 to April 30. Clarity was required on how Pickleball Alberta and the Pickleball Canada membership renewal would be integrated.

Pickleball Canada communicated the terms of the Commercial General Liability insurance provided to clubs who were affiliated along with the Player Accident insurance provided to individuals. This included the use of liability wavier forms and wording.   Pickleball Canada communicated the process for a club to obtain Directors and Officers insurance through the group program.

The bank account was set up with Servus who recently added the capability to send and receive Interac transfers.

Base line operating costs for Pickleball Alberta were projected to be approximately $2,000 per year.

It was reported that Pickleball Canada had just over 7,000 individuals and that the plan was for attaining Sport Canada funding status in 2020.

AGM 

The AGM was held in-person on September 24 at The Pines Community Hall in Red Deer.

Beverley Walker, Doug Fogg, Brenda Feser and Mike Cooper were continuing for 2018.  The Secretary, Treasurer, and Communications Director positions were open.

The 2018 Elected Board: 

• Beverley Walker President – Calgary (2016) 
• Doug Fogg Vice President – Edmonton (2016)
• Bob Philip Secretary – Red Deer (2017)
• Terri Hampson Treasurer – Red Deer (2018)
• Brenda Feser Membership Director – Red Deer (2016)
• Norm Kowalchuk Director at Large -St. Paul (2018)
• Mike Cooper Director at Large – Edmonton (2016)

The Secretary and Communications Director positions were left open and communicated to clubs and posted on the website.

Items discussed moving forward for 2018 were:

• A school-based education guidelines for pickleball so clubs can approach schools to develop programs for students.
• Look at establishing a ‘youth’ category in the provincial tournament.
• Safety best practices for tournaments.
• Share how to get funding from government grants and how to obtain club sponsorships for events.
• Participate in Pickleball Canada player development / coaching (NCCP) development.
• Work towards PTSO requirements which includes developing a strategic plan.

Pickleball Alberta continued to progress the aim of sports organizations with player development, officiating, along with the decision to move to a robust membership system.

The decision was made to migrate to the Wild Apricot membership system for the May 1, 2018 membership renewal season. This would streamline the administrative work in tracking membership information and collection of Pickleball Albert and Pickleball Canada membership fees from affiliated clubs. Pickleball Alberta covered the subscription costs for the system.  Clubs using Wild Apricot paid just the processing fees for their members.  The centralized membership system was given high remarks by the Edmonton and Calgary clubs.

Financial accounting and reporting were improved.  Invoice protocols to collect the Pickleball Alberta/Pickleball Canada fees were introduced to better manage the previous manual process.

Recognizing the need for player development, Pickleball Alberta subsidized one member per club to attend the IPTPA teach-the-teacher training to improve skill development at the club level. 22 participants from 12 clubs attended the training sessions held in Calgary and Edmonton.

Walt Buehler took on the Provincial Chief Referee role for Pickleball Alberta and conducted five referee training sessions with 78 participants from different clubs across northern Alberta.  Pickleball Alberta covered expenses for the training. 

Parkland Pickleheads hosted the 2018 Provincial Championships in August in conjunction with their Summer Smash tournament.  The Provincials were an open championship that attracted 218 registrants, with over 150 volunteers and 51 sponsors.  The 2019 Provincials were awarded to Red Deer.

The demographics of the association were 62% male and 36% female.

AGM

The AGM was held in-person on September 23 at The Pines Community Hall in Red Deer.

Voting procedures were introduced and explained with eight Sport Zones in Alberta with three voting Delegates per zone being able to vote.   The Pickleball Alberta bylaws adopted the voting procedures to those of Softball Alberta.

The Elected 2019 Board of Directors

• Beverley Walker President – Calgary (2016) 
• Doug Fogg Vice President – Edmonton (2016)
• Brenda Feser Membership Director – Red Deer (2016)
• Bob Philip Secretary – Red Deer (2017)
• Terri Hampson Treasurer – Red Deer (2018)
• Norm Kowalchuk Director at Large – St. Paul (2018)

Committee Chairs

• Walt Bueller – Refereeing/Officiating
• Peter Walker – Player Development/Coaching

Membership at the club level continued to grow dramatically with more than half of clubs exceeding 200 members. Pickleball Alberta led initiatives to help clubs accommodate the rapid growth in membership.

Pickleball Alberta implemented the Wild Apricot membership system to handle the spring membership renewal. Nine clubs were integrated with the membership system to collect their membership fees along with Pickleball Alberta and Pickleball Canada fees. Other clubs provided membership data and fees for import into to the system. Perry Young, Calgary Pickleball Club stepped up to offer technical skills to assist with this implementation.

Continuing to support player development, Pickleball Alberta subsidized one member per club to attend the IPTPA teach-the-teacher training.  46 participants from 12 clubs attended the training sessions held in Calgary, Edmonton, Medicine Hat, and Red Deer. 

Red Deer Pickleball Club hosted the 2019 Provincial championships in August.  The Provincials were an open championship with players from different provinces and some players coming from the United States.  There were 376 registrants, with over 200 volunteers, and 59 sponsors.

Pickleball Alberta assisted the Rocky Mountain House Pickleball Club in organizing, promoting, and running the pickleball event for the 2019 Masters Games trialed by Alberta Sport Connection.

Coaching and Player Development

To promote consistent and professional coaching in Alberta, Pickleball Alberta subsidized a member from each club to attend an IPTPA Teach-the-Teacher clinic, as well as facility fees.  Three clinics were held in 2019:  Edmonton, Red Deer, and Medicine Hat.  Representatives from 12 clubs were subsidized by Pickleball Alberta with a total of 46 participants.  Appreciation to Mike Cooper who ran the clinics.

Pickleball Alberta fully supported the development of a National Coaching program aligned with the NCCP program.

Referee Development

Pickleball Alberta Chair of Referee Development, Walt Beuhler, sadly passed away leaving a void in this position.  Pickleball Alberta will develop a focus for referee development in consideration of the new and emerging directions being established by Pickleball Canada.

AGM

The AGM was held in-person on September 22 at the Balmoral Hall in the County of Red Deer.  

Kirk Jensen from the Edmonton Pickleball Club was elected President.  Kirk is the second president of Pickleball Alberta, taking over from Beverley Walker, who had completed a four-year term as President.  Kirk was able to recruit a full contingent of directors with him for the 2020 year.  He introduced operational Director positions that included: Youth Director and Technology Director. A Past President board position was also created where Beverley stayed on for a smooth transition and corporate legacy.

Pickleball Alberta will be seeking interest from clubs to host the Western Regional in 2021.  A list of 2020 tournaments were presented.

The Elected 2020 Board of Directors

• Kirk Jensen President – Edmonton (2020)
• Brenda Feser Membership Director – Red Deer (2016)
• Norm Kowalchuk Director at Large – St. Paul (2018)
• Haddow Thul Vice President – Calgary (2020)
• Dwight Chalifour Treasurer – Edmonton (2020)
• Sara McNeill Secretary – Edmonton (2020)
• Ian Miller Competitions – Spruce Grove (2020)
• Blair Morton Director of Technology – Red Deer (2020)
• John Lee Director at Large – Calgary (2020)
• Beverley Walker Past President – Calgary (2016)

The year of 2020 was like no other, and one many wanted to forget for a plethora of reasons.  The COVID pandemic paralyzed our game, with AHS guidance stating that groups could not gather.  All organized club play and tournaments were halted starting in March and through to the end of the year.  The 2020 Provincials were to be hosted by Parkland Pickleheads but were canceled due to the pandemic.

A Strategic Planning session was completed with the facilitation of Marcel Latouche.  A Strategic Plan is one of the required steps for pickleball to become a recognized sport in Alberta and for future government funding.

In February of 2020, the first edition of the Pickleball Alberta newsletter was released through the Wild Apricot membership system.  Ed Neuman was the first profiled in Faces Around the Court as the person recognized bringing pickleball to Alberta.  

A new Pickleball Alberta logo was designed by Danie Hardie Creative showing the Rockies and motion of the game along with the Alberta provincial colors.  It was unveiled to the membership in the February newsletter.

Pickleball Alberta introduced a referee training program that saw referees from across Alberta start to become accredited Level 1 officials, and Level 2 officials.

The 2021 Pickleball Canada National Championships were awarded to the Red Deer Pickleball Club.

The 2021 Elected Board of Directors

• Kirk Jensen President – Edmonton (2020)
• Haddow Thul Vice President and Competitions – Calgary (2020)
• Dwight Chalifour Treasurer – Edmonton (2020)
• Sara McNeill Secretary – Edmonton (2020)
• Brenda Feser Membership Director – Red Deer (2016)
• Ian Miller Competitions – Spruce Grove (2020)
• Blair Morton Director of Technology – Red Deer (2020)
• Danica Wu Communications – Edmonton (2021)
• Beverley Walker Past President – Calgary (2016)

COVID continued to be a big part of the narrative for the first half of 2021.  In July the Alberta government started to ease AHS guidance and started to allow large gatherings. With this the Pickleball Alberta Provincials were hosted by the Parkland Pickleheads in Spruce Grove which drew over 300 players and 30 referees.  It was an open championship with many players coming from across the country to compete, with many also playing at the Pickleball Canada Nationals in Red Deer in two weeks time.  For the first time live streaming was set up for some of the gold medal matches and posted to the Pickleball Alberta YouTube channel, @pickleballalberta, constructed and setup by President Jensen.  Play-by-play was done for the games by Kirk Jensen and Garand Jones along with post game interviews. 

The 2021 Pickleball Canada Nationals were hosted by the Red Deer Pickleball Club and set a new national standard with the number of players (789) and accredited/certified referees (80).  There was a beer garden, evening meals and live entertainment that were very popular.  Pickleball Alberta hosted one evening which was a great success.  

The online system Pickleball Brackets was implemented for tournaments and used for the first time at a provincial championship, and later in the summer at the national championship.

A new membership system called the Pickleball Canada National System (PCNS) was introduced across Canada by region, consolidating data from the different software systems used by the provinces.  Vice President of Pickleball Canada, Kirk Jensen from Edmonton, was tasked by President Richard Chambers to chair the national implementation.  This represented the task of replacing different systems used by the provinces and converting the different systems data into the PCNS format.  Business rules were introduced nationally including a consistent yearend across all governing bodies, making it much clearer and easier for members to pay their annual dues.  The system was designed and selected to greatly reduced the membership administration for clubs, provinces, and the national body.  

Beverley Walker chaired the team for Pickleball Alberta and installed and trained the affiliated club’s implementation.  All data was converted and vetted with the clubs being installed by October.  

AGM

Due to COVID restrictions put on by AHS, for the first time the AGM was held online using Zoom.  An operational position, Officiating Director, position was created and added to the Board.   Garand Jones took on the initial Officiating Director position.

The 2022 Elected Board of Directors

• Kirk Jensen President – Edmonton (2020)
• Brenda Feser Juniors – Red Deer (2016)
• Beverley Walker Past President – Calgary (2016)
• Haddow Thul Vice President – Calgary (2020)
• Dwight Chalifour Treasurer – Edmonton (2020)
• Sara McNeill Secretary – Edmonton (2020)
• Brad Hurshowy Director at Large – St. Albert (2020)
• Garand Jones Officiating – Spruce Grove (2021)
• Danica Wu Communication – Edmonton (2021)
• Ilsa Wong Coaching – Lethbridge (2022)
• Wanda Lazar Competitions – Medicine Hat (2022)
• Ray Keroack Membership and Technology– St. Albert (2022)