2018 IC Business Report

Executive Summary

The IC Business Report is designed to provide the IC Council and all ICs of the World with a yearly update of the club’s members, events and general activities. It allows ICs to share best practices, to learn from each other, and to give feedback to the IC Council. Furthermore, the Council is then able to monitor ‘issues of major concerns and general improvements’ and to ascertain how it can help to improve these.

36 out of 40 ICs (excluding Hong Kong temporarily from the 40 ICs) responded to the survey, which was distributed via Survey Monkey. Two ICs (Austria and Canada) requested that its 2017 data be used, committing to complete the survey at a later date. The two remaining ICs (Bulgaria and Romania) sent brief responses, indicating only the number of members that they each have, and were unable to complete the rest of the Template. It’s really positive to see such high responses and ensures that the information collected is more informative for both the Council and each individual IC.   

Each ICs President and Honorary Secretary has already received a copy of its responses and an individual report. 

Vis-à-vis to last year’s Business Returns (taking the 37 respondents which completed both years templates), there has been a modest 0.5% net increase in the total number of members (accounting for deceased members). Gender distribution remains fairly stable over the last six years, with 72% male and 28% female members. It can be perceived that we are experiencing an aging effect of our membership, with approximately 65% of the total being ‘senior’ (i.e. over 55 for males and over 50 for females), with only 17% in the ‘younger’ category (i.e. under 45 for males and under 40 for females). 

Activity remains stable year-on-year. ICs are expressing an interest to participate in more fixtures, particularly the smaller ICs. There has been a small increase in the % of member participation, however this is still an area that could be improved. This is also a challenge cited by a few ICs. 

There are some general consistent areas of concern and request for help cited. 

• Number and recruitment of younger members 
• Smaller ICs, bilateral matches – having a common strategy for smaller ICs
• Low % of member participation in fixtures 
• Unpaid subscriptions and lack of funding

Now in its 95^th year, the IC continues to build and broaden members, increase activity, promote the objective of good sportsmanship and to enhance the lives of various disadvantaged young people. We continue to encourage new nations to join and are delighted to see the reinstatement of Hong Kong, making it a total of 41 ICs. There is also the formation of the new IC of Croatia, which has been approved by the Executive Committee per the power bestowed to it by the 2018 AGM. This brings our current total to 42 ICs from all continents.

For any questions or feedback, please email both Gustavo Herrero (Honorary Secretary) and Tash Starling (Website & Communications) at the IC Council:

gustavo@herrero.la

ts@ictennis.net

Member demographics

• There has been a small increase in the total number of members: 4,488 in 2019 and 4,407 in 2018 
• Of the 4,488 members, 28% are female (1,264) and 72% are male (3,224). This proportion is broadly in line with the last 5 years 
• If you exclude Brazil, Bulgaria and Romania from the 2018 numbers for a vis-à-vis comparison to 2017, there are 4,430 members, which is a modest 0.5% net increase
• Not all ICs provided the age breakdown requested, but those that did account for 4,038 members (2,931 male + 1,107 female)
• It can be perceived that we are experiencing an aging effect of our membership, with approximately 65% of the total being ‘senior’ (i.e. over 55 for males and over 50 for females), with only 17% in the ‘younger’ category (i.e. under 45 for males and under 40 for females)

Younger members 

• 28 out of 38 ICs (74%) actively pursue recruiting younger members
• Many ICs noted a big effort made to recruit younger members, particularly through the Junior Challenge, but also that there are challenges
• The issue of attracting younger members, or getting younger members to participate in fixtures is the most commonly cited challenge 
• Challenges cited include; younger people not knowing what the IC is, lack of interest, and sometimes problem with payment 
• However the trend of new members is encouraging: of the 156 new members whose age category was identified by respective ICs, 66 (42%) belonged to the younger categories
• A recommendation to help with recruiting younger members, is to focus on having a younger board 

IC Junior Challenge

• 2018 was the year when only the Finals were played in Tokyo. This was the last year when the event was sponsored by Compass.
• 20 teams participated in the 2017-18 cycle (qualifying rounds in 2017 and Finals in 2018). Eight in Europe, four in South America, three in Africa, two in Asia and three in North America. 
• Australasia is the only region that does not participate in the Junior Challenge 
• Between 22 and 24 ICs are expected to participate in the 2019 IC Rod Laver Junior Challenge qualifying rounds 

Activity overview

• The number of events* participated in remains stable year-on-year, with 31 out of 38 ICs (82%) stating that they participated in the same number of events as in 2017. 5 ICs experienced an increase and 2 a decrease. 

• 24 out of 38 ICs (63%) engage in charitable activities. This is up from 57% last year. 

Committee Members

• 35 out of 38 (92%) ICs have female board members 
• Only 21 out of 38 (55%) ICs have board members <45 years. This is no change to last year and an improvement in this could be a way of ICs effectively recruiting younger members
• 33 out of 36 (92%) ICs have board members who were ex top 10 players in their country (this was a new question in this years survey)

Communications 

• 28 out of 38 ICs (74%) have someone responsible for marketing and communications on their board
• 24 out of 38 ICs (63%) have active websites
• 28 are council websites (including Hong Kong) and 13 non council websites 
• All but two ICs communicate with their members via email 
• 20 out of 38 ICs (53%) produce a periodic newsletter 

Finances

• ICs subscription fees averaged USD 56.76 in 2018
• Dues collection in arrears average 18% for al ICs. Most ICs have a policy in place to deal with members in arrears 
• Not surprisingly, dues are the largest source of revenues for ICs
• More ICs are citing discussions with sponsors or donors for increased support 

Areas of concern and other comments 

• The graph below shows the main areas of concern for all ICs, with the most prevalent areas being; the ability to attract or retain members, the demographics of members and the small number of active members
• Other cited answers are shown in the table below the graph  

Download the 2018 report here