It’s membership renewal time. You can go online at member services through our web site or the National web site at www.poolplayers.com and pay with a credit card, or you can submit your membership fees through your team packet. Everyone must be paid up by the 4th week of the Spring session. We recommend paying earlier than that. If your envelope arrives late in our office in week 4, anyone we haven’t received fees from will have to be removed from the roster. The amount each player owes is listed next to their names on the roster. People who show $15.00 are prorated renewals for people who joined the APA after August 15th of the previous year. Checks should be made out to APA or SDAPA.
We are getting closer to setting up online payment options, but it has been a pretty tough battle. We will be providing options for teams to make payments once everything is in place, so please don’t assume that you will be forced into something you aren’t comfortable with. Part of this research process has been to make sure our players aren’t inconvenienced by these changes. Our hope is to make things as easy as possible for every one of our captains while not creating too much of a financial burden on ourselves with these changes.
As much as we love running our pool league, it’s not always sunshine and rainbows. Our pool league lost one of our most influential bar owners and league members during the break, and we are deeply saddened by this loss. Belinda Johnson and Tony Pallone are the owners of the Library. Belinda wasn’t just an owner. She was a player. She was an APA recruiter. She was a true APA friend to all of our members and to Jill and me. We’ve had a close relationship for 20 years. They started hosting APA in 1996 with 2 tables. Demand and large crowds allowed them to rent the space next door, tear out the wall in 1998 and add 3 more tables. We had our Blast and City Championships there for several years. They have had as many as 50 teams playing out of that bar on a weekly basis. Even today, APA plays out of there 7 nights a week. Anyone who knew Belinda knew a person with a heart of gold and a permanent smile on her face. It’s hard to even imagine being a bar owner and dealing with the daily grind of someone having too much to drink and creating a little mischief, but Belinda never allowed anyone to see her angry. NEVER. She loved everyone, and showed up for work every day that her body allowed her to, so that she could see their faces and thank them for being there. ”B” as she was so affectionately known by anyone that really knew her had been going through some health related problems for the last few years and suffered a stroke early last year. She was a great fighter, but her body gave up on December 5th. With over 1100 APA matches played, she was still just a skill level 2. But, she was a skill level 7 in our hearts because of the person she was on and off the pool table. Gone, but never forgotten. We love you, B!
Schedules do change a lot in the first few weeks, so try to be prepared to contact your team to play if you are scheduled for a bye or to possibly switch venues. Good luck this week and……