The US Squash Annual Meeting of the Members took place at the National Singles in Philadelphia, PA, on Saturday, March 10, during a reception at the Philadelphia Cricket Club.

The purpose of the Annual Meeting is to elect Directors duly nominated by the Board upon recommendation by the Nominating and Governance Committee. The four candidates nominated for the Class 3 positions available July 1, 2018, were all re-nominations of currently servicing Directors, including Francis Johnson, Praveen Kankariya, Julie Menin and Shanin Specter. For information on the current US Squash Board of Directors, visit the Board of Directors page.

US Squash President and CEO conducted the meeting, and the slate of Directors were re-elected with the full unanimous support from the membership present at the meeting, as well as by overwhelming support by online proxy.

Klipstein continued the meeting to reiterate US Squash’s vision to be the best national sports governing body in the United States and the association’s plans to achieve it, including the goal of the US Squash National Team as being “Always on the Podium.” To this end, he detailed how US Squash invests hundreds of thousands of dollars to support top U.S. playing professionals in the Elite Athlete Program. He also noted that the organization has created an end-to-end elite development program involving dozens of top coaches across the country supporting regional squads, the summer US Squash Academy and international team competition.

Klipstein noted that the association’s recent operational strength has allowed it to invest heavily in the development of technology to help deliver value to the squash community. As a result, the US Squash-owned Club Locker software has become the world’s first cloud-based enterprise application software and platform for sports governing bodies, facilities and competition-based organizations.

He also shared that World Squash recently decided to use Club Locker as their database and tournament software for World Squash Championships. England Squash already uses the system to operate their organization and manage competition, and other countries are expected to follow. These developments position squash as the first and only sport that could become globally, and vertically, integrated through software.

Klipstein concluded his remarks before the meeting was adjourned by adding, “Looking ahead, the organization will remain focused on developing and supporting its technology to the benefit of the sport and related racquet sports. The establishment of a National Center also appears within reach, and the two initiatives combined will allow the association to provide well-trained pros and coaches running effective programming to an ever-increasing number of accessible courts across the country.” He stated the goal over the next two decades is to have 10,000 courts available in the U.S.