The Mundaring Tennis Club has enjoyed a number of major improvements over recent times, thanks to the tireless dedication and commitment of local resident and club volunteer Barry Roff.
A finalist at the 2019 Tennis West Volunteer Achievement Award and club Treasurer since 2017, Roff has been instrumental in securing local, state and national funding, paving the way for significant facility upgrades including the resurfacing of the clubs six courts, installation of competition grade LED lighting and introduction of Tennis Australia’s online court booking system Book-a-Court.
And with this year’s May 18-24 National Volunteer Week championed by the theme ‘Changing Communities. Changing Lives’, there’s never been a better time to recognise and celebrate Roff’s ongoing efforts.
Noted for his unwavering commitment to service, be it on the end of a shovel or at the back end of the website, Club President Pam Wilkinson says Roff’s dedication to advancing the club and creating a sense of community for everyone to enjoy has been tireless.
‘Barry is forever putting forward new recommendations and ideas for improving our club, and when he first joined the committee as Treasurer in 2017, he invested many hours developing the clubs strategic plan,’
‘His willingness to do so meant we were able to push ahead with funding submissions which have helped take the club in the direction the committee had always envisaged,’
‘Through the successful submissions, the club has been able to install new LED competition grade lighting, the online court booking system Book-a-Court and most recently the resurfacing of our hard six courts,’
‘And beyond all of that this, Barry encourages a diverse range of players to our club by making everybody feel welcomed and included which makes our environment a great place to be for everyone,’ Wilkinson said.
Humbled by the opportunity to be involved with to so much change at the club over the last three years, Roff says that seeing the club elevate itself to be able to offer so much more to the wider community has been very rewarding.
’Clubs don’t survive without volunteers and I’ve been fortunate to be involved and contribute to a lot of change, it doesn’t matter if your contribution is big or small, what matters is that your contributing,’
‘As volunteers and committee members we’ve worked to grow the club, but to also grow the participation in tennis and physical activity in the wider community. By improving the facilities and making the courts more accessible to the community, we’re attracting more people to play tennis,’
‘Book-a-Court, website upgrades and improving our social media presence have helped to make court bookings easier as well as assisting community members feel more involved and connected to the club,’
‘Tennis is great for the community because it brings different people together to socialise and be active. The wider community now have better access to being part of the club, or to just hire the courts for social play,’
‘Seeing the progress has been very rewarding. Seeing people come to tennis and be happy to be there and knowing that you have helped to contribute to bring the community together at the tennis club has been great,’
‘You get a great deal of satisfaction in contributing where the reward is seeing the enjoyment of others,’ Roff said.
And when asked about the impact of volunteering on his own life, Roff attests to the friendships, the strong sense of community and the learning of new skills which have all been ancillary benefits to contributing to the local tennis club.
‘Volunteering has given me a sense of community and helped me form close friendships. It is also given me an outlet, outside of work, to be creative and be an important part of community change,’
‘I’ve been involved in things which I probably wouldn’t have otherwise, such as social media marketing, community engagement, and assisting with website design,’
‘Volunteering is truly its own reward. With the right intention and spirit, a lot of things can be achieved. Every small step forward is worth doing,’ Roff said.
Tennis West CEO Michael Roberts applauded Barry and the countless volunteers, recognising them for the collective dedication to the delivery of tennis and proficient running of clubs across by metropolitan and regional WA.
‘Without a doubt our volunteers are the lifeblood of our sport, without them we simply couldn’t operate or deliver on our projects, programs and pathways,’
‘Australia wide, more than 5.8 million volunteers are estimated to collectively contribute more than 743 million voluntary hours to the community and we know that many of those hours are at the hands of the hard working volunteers in our clubs,’
‘We are enormously indebted to our volunteers and look forward to celebrating their efforts virtually throughout National Volunteers Week,’
Facilitated by Volunteering Australia, the 2020 National Volunteers Week will this year be a virtual celebration of Australia’s volunteers.
For more information you can head to: https://www.volunteeringaustralia.org/#/
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