The Green Lake Community Center had offered 9 hours of weekend afternoon/evening table tennis since 1995. These hours were not restored following the pandemic closures. Players have been advocating to have the hours restored since 2021. Please sign up for our WhatsApp discussion group to take part in discussions about restoring weekend play. This advocacy document can be used when communicating Seattle City government.
Following is a timeline of our discussions with Seattle Parks & Recreation (SPR)
- October 2021 – SPR announced that weekend table tennis would not resume following the pandemic. SPR proposed that weekend table tennis could become a rental, paying the full fee as a rental (~$80/hour) Discussions continued for some months within the Green Lake Advisory Council (GLAC)
- April 2022 – Several of us met with SPR. At the meeting, the north end recreation manager for SPR, Barb Wade suggested the rental amount could be reduced based on our volunteer efforts and that we could apply for a “service contract” or partnership agreement.
- May 2022 – We sent Barb a draft proposal under which we would provide free table tennis on weekends, funded through donations.
- July 2022 – Seattle Parks Foundation (SPF) agreed to become the fiscal sponsor of the GLTTC
- November 30, 2022 @ 2 pm – SPR met with the GLTTC and SPF. Jacqueline Oaksford presents a plan under which the gym rental fee could potentially be reduced from 50% to zero based on player volunteer efforts and the $6000 from our 2019 fundraiser
- November 30, 2022 @ 3:30 pm – Jacqueline Oaksford wrote back that she may have been incorrect about management’s willingness to reduce the gym fee below 50%. No clarification was ever recieved from SPR.
- April 5, 2023 – Follow-up meeting held with SPR, GLTTC, and SPF
- July 13, 2023 – We attended a meeting of the “Board of Parks & Recreation Commissioners” and presented a petition with comments signed by 275 players
- July 19, 2023 – We attended a “listening session” with the Director of Recreation, Daisy Catague and Barb Wade.
- August 7, 2023 – Kim Goldov presented a report detailing the history of the GLTTC and the discussions that had occurred since October 2021 to Daisy Catague, and asked for SPR to consider our proposal for free table tennis.
- September 6, 2023 – Daisy responded with a document listing five options. One option was a full cost rental of the gym. A second was a partnership with up to 50% gym fee reduction.
- September 26, 2023 – GLTTC/SPF submitted an “Expression of Interest” application to establish a partnership with SPR.
- November 27, 2023 – SPR sent a draft service agreement (partnership agreement).
- December 19, 2023 – GLTTC responded to SPR with a letter explaining why we could not accept the agreement as written, and an edited contract that we felt could be workable.
- February 5, 2024 – Barb responded that SPR’s original service agreement was non-negotiable. In addition, she let us know that the Friday evening table tennis time slot was being discontinued, and mentioned that Tuesdays could be canceled as well if the players continued using their match scheduling system.
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