December 2009 -- When USPTA develops new member benefits, its goals are twofold: to increase your business opportunities and help you make more money.

While we've been able to improve many of your benefits through technology over the last 15 years, the rate at which technological advancements are occurring and our ability to use them to your benefit has never been so evident than over the past 12 months. While I could fill this magazine with a list of programs and their details, this month I'm going to discuss GetCourtside.com and why you should be using this program, which is provided at no cost to you as a USPTA member benefit.

USPTA develops almost all of its own technology, but we also recognize the importance of partnerships with other companies when their technologies can offer you unique benefits. GetCourtside is a great example of a relationship we formed that meets and exceeds our goals of increasing tennis participation and improving your bottom line.

Together, USPTA and GetCourtside are building a business platform that will allow you to take control of the programs within your community or club, and generate income from them. We are completely invested in your success.

The beauty of GetCourtside is that you can make money through the Web-based system while you're on the court or performing the other duties of your job. You won't have to spend hours doing paperwork, updating scores for ladders and leagues, or posting pages on a bulletin board.

To get started, visit GetCourtside.com, or go to the GetCourtside link on your USPTA personal Web site. Remember, there's no charge to you as part of our partnership with GetCourtside. And, what's even better, is that you get all of the money collected for various activities (except for a $3 transaction fee per person). You can build this cost into the price of leagues or other activities, so there's no real cost to you. For example, if you want to make $25 per person for a league, you can charge $28, and the transaction fee is passed on to the consumer.

You'll see that GetCourtside has two components: player Web sites and pro Web sites. Create a "Pro" account and get started building your network of players. There are no restrictions on the number of pro accounts or business platforms you can have. For example, you can create an account for your club and a personal account for other tennis activities you may organize outside your club and within your community.

After you've created your account, the next step is to tell your club members, students and any other tennis players you know to sign up for their free player accounts. The key to this system is that your pro account and all of your player accounts will form a dynamic tennis network that is minimal work for you, and lots of fun for your players, who play matches, input scores and monitor the competitions. When players create an account, they pick a home location and are automatically added to your network.

If you create a club account, you can include all the pros on your staff, and you still maintain private administrative access to your own ­activities.

Currently, GetCourtside allows you to run flex leagues, challenge ladders, team flex leagues, team ladders, travel leagues and round robins. You can also organize club events and manage lesson bookings and court reservations. You and your players can post photos and other news. Tournament management will be added in 2010.

You can set up different groups of players and e-mail your players based on their activities, age group, etc., and you can personalize your messages to these players, who are notified when they have messages from you. It's a great system, and one that's very popular with young players who communicate with their friends on similar social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

Players pay only when they sign up to participate in activities. They can pay you through an e-commerce account or through their club account, depending on how you set it up.

Eric Huntley, USPTA and director at The Falls Tennis and Athletic Club in Lubbock, Texas, said GetCourtside helped him to increase his club's business in several ways. First, his court reservations are up 40 percent and he credits the easy online system with much of this growth now that 90 percent of all reservations are done online. This has doubled the members' participation in leagues and play days.

Huntley says club revenue is up about 25 percent with the growth in tennis participation. Also, the system has lowered labor costs because his desk staff, which previously spent much of its time manually signing up people for tennis activities and answering the phone, is now able to dedicate its time to assist in other profit centers.

When Huntley first introduced the GetCourtside system, he stopped people at the desk and signed them up on the spot. He and his staff also handed out slips of paper with the GetCourtside Web address and details on how to sign up. He even visited some senior members' homes where he signed them up and showed them how to use the system. Now that's service!

And, best of all, Huntley estimates that his personal income has increased 20 percent. "More importantly, it is efficient income in the sense that I really don't spend more hours at work," he said.

GetCourtside has given club members an outlet to play more frequently, according to USPTA Professional Hunter Lipscomb, director of tennis at Timberhill Tennis Club in Corvallis, Ore. He also credits the system with helping members network and find new playing partners.

"Interestingly, we found that the more the kids got to know each other, the more they wanted to hang out and play. This increased many of the kids from once-a-week lesson takers into four-or-five-times-per-week players!" Lipscomb said.

Lipscomb said using GetCourtside has provided him with a "nice additional stream of revenue" that he will build upon as he increases the number of flex leagues and ladders that he runs. "My plan is to keep the leagues affordable with the knowledge that this programming will benefit our membership and drive lesson demand," he said.

As you can see, it's been a success for fellow USPTA members. More than 1,800 of you have already signed on with GetCourtside. If you haven't created your pro account, I hope this message has encouraged you to do so.

GetCourtside's goals are the same as USPTA's. We want you - the teaching professional - to control your own tennis activities and earn the money for doing so. Its two components will create your personal tennis network and provide you with an organized, socially interactive way to manage your players and increase your business.