2022 IC Business Report

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 address ‘issues of major concerns and general improvements’ and to ascertain how it can help to improve these.

34 out of 41 ICs responded to the 2022 survey, which was distributed via Survey Monkey. The missing ICs were Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hong Kong, Hungary, Romania and Sweden – with Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hong Kong and Romania also not having responded to the 2021 survey. We have added prior data from four of these seven ICs to make figures comparable with previous years (data is not available for the remaining three). This includes:

• The 2021 reports for Hungary and Sweden
• The 2019 reports for Austria and Hong Kong.

This means we included data for a total of 38 ICs (out of 41 which excludes Russia), with missing data for Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania. In the 2021 analysis, we recorded data for 39 ICs (out of 41), including 38 template responses and one email message.

The response rate has dropped slightly since 2021. The insights provided by the survey are essential to the Council, Regional Representatives and each individual IC to inform key decision-making regarding our strategy – so we ask that all ICs make every effort to respond to future requests.

Each IC’s President and Honorary Secretary has already received a copy of their responses and an individual report.

For any questions or feedback, please email Gustavo Herrero, Tash Starling and Laura Bunster Galeno at the IC Council:

gustavo@herrero.la

ts@ictennis.net

laura@ictennis.net

Contents

Executive Summary.

Member Demographics.

Younger Members.

IC Rod Laver Junior Challenge.

Activity Overview.

Committee Members.

Communications.

Finances.

Areas of Concern and Other Comments.

Executive Summary

In comparison to the 2021 Business Returns, there has been a 2% net increase in the total number of members (accounting for deceased members).

Gender distribution has seen a slow increase in female proportion over the last nine years, with 70% male and 30% female members. And encouragingly, the gender distribution of our youngest (i.e. under 28) age category is much more even, with 44% female and 56% male.

We are still seeing an aging effect within our membership, however, with approximately 69% of the total being ‘senior’ (i.e. over 55 for males and over 50 for females), and only 14% in the ‘younger’ category (i.e. under 45 for males and under 40 for females). These figures have not changed since 2021, and the trend as a whole has become more pronounced over the last nine years. Although it is positive to see significant progress in the number of younger Board members being reported (growing from 49% in 2021 to 59% in 2022) – this will be crucial in our efforts to address the wider issue of younger IC participation.

In 2022, the Executive Committee shared membership targets with ICs, to drive the action required to respond to our major membership challenges of attracting more top players, female and younger members. So far, 19 out of 34 ICs (56%) have taken some form of action in response to this – which is encouraging, although demonstrates that there is more work to be done in this area. The Council is hopeful that this may be a subject of discussion by Regional Representatives with their respective ICs and looks forward to monitoring its progress at the next AGM.

As many countries around the world continued to be hampered by ongoing Covid-19 challenges and travel restrictions, most ICs once again reported participating in 0-5 IC events – however it was really positive to see the number of ICs reporting more than 5 events rise from just four in 2021 to 13 in 2022. It is important to reiterate that the Council is committed to supporting ICs in getting back on their feet with tennis events, fulfilling the mission of our organisation. To that end, the Executive Committee is still offering an exceptional $1,000 grant to support ICs willing to host regional quadrilateral events in 2023 and 2024.

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

• Ability to attract/retain members, especially younger members
• Demographics of members
• Low number of active members
• Types of activities made available to members
• Number of activities made available to members

The development of philanthropic activities that enhance the lives of disadvantaged young people and expand the practice of tennis amongst junior players, is really positive to see. As the IC approaches its centenary (in 2024), the community continues to broaden and deepen its impact around the World.

Member Demographics

• There has been an increase in the total number of members: 4,250 in 2022 and 4,169 in 2021.
• Of the 4,250 members, 30% are female and 70% are male (up from 29% and 71% respectively in 2021). The proportion of females has been slowly improving over the last nine years, although is still significantly lower than that of males. 

• Not all ICs provided the age breakdown requested, but those that did account for 4,244 members (2,988 male + 1,256 female).
• We are still seeing an aging effect within our membership as approximately 69% of the total are ‘senior’ (i.e. over 55 for males and over 50 for females), with only 14% in the ‘younger’ category (i.e. under 45 for males and under 40 for females). These figures have not changed since 2021, demonstrating that efforts to attract ‘younger’ new members have not so far driven any incremental improvements.
• Encouragingly, the gender distribution of our youngest (i.e. under 28) age category is much more even – of the 162 members in this category, 44% are female and 56% are male.
• In 2022, the Executive Committee shared membership targets with ICs, to help drive the action required to respond to our major membership challenges of attracting more top players, female and younger members. So far, 19 out of 34 ICs (56%) have taken some form of action in response to this – which is encouraging, although demonstrates that there is more work to be done in this area.

Total members 2013 - 2022

¹ Data for years 2013 – 2017 is <45 and >55 for both male and female.

Younger Members

• 27 out of 34 ICs (79%) actively pursue recruiting younger members.
• The issue of attracting younger members, or getting younger members to participate in fixtures is one of the most cited challenges, despite a concerted effort by many ICs.
• Of the 214 new members whose age category was identified by respective ICs, 78 (36%) belonged to the younger categories, marking a significant improvement from 28% in 2021.
• Of these 78 new younger members, 47% were female and 53% were male – representing a much more even gender distribution than across the IC membership as a whole.
• In order to recruit more younger members, some ICs do not charge a subscription fee to Juniors and ‘touring players’. Although this poses a challenge when they cease being in those categories and should start paying.
• A variety of challenges were cited by ICs in pursuing the recruitment of younger members – including the fact that IC events do not offer ranking points, unclear value proposition, IC selection criteria and lack of player availability due to other competing demands on their time.
• The Executive Committee is piloting a new event in 2023 exclusively for young categories (28-44 years), set up by the IC of Germany, called the Gottfried Von Cramm Trophy.

IC Rod Laver Junior Challenge

• The IC Rod Laver Junior Challenge Worldwide Finals will take place in La Jolla, USA in November 2023. All continents will be represented at the event.
• Only 12 out of 34 ICs (35%) participated in the Challenge in 2022.
• The most commonly cited reasons for not participating included a lack of junior players of a competitive standard and junior players having prior commitments to playing in tournaments offering ranking points – however other reasons given included a lack of female players, a lack of IC resource to organise, no support from the governing body and cost.

Activity Overview

• Despite several ICs citing continuing Covid-19 challenges and travel restrictions, there is evidence of some reactivation of events² since 2021 – with 14 out of 34 ICs (41%) reporting an increase in event participation since 2021, 18 ICs (53%) remaining the same and only 2 ICs (6%) reporting a decrease.

• The small proportion of active members was the third most mentioned area of concern amongst ICs.

² Number of IC events/ activities, which the club participated in (excluding the IC Junior Challenge): Council events, IC international matches, bilateral matches, internal competitions, and social events.

• 25 out of 34 ICs (74%) engage in charitable activities, 14 (or 56%) of which were connected to the IC Philanthropy Foundation. The overall number was down from 77% in 2021, although still above 72% from 2019. Aside from the positive impact these activities have on their beneficiaries, they are also appealing to younger members – so represent a valuable opportunity for attracting more players from this age group.

Committee Members

• 31 out of 34 ICs (91%) have female board members, which was the same as last year and 2019.
• 20 out of 34 ICs (59%) have board members <45 years, which is a marked improvement on the 49% from 2021. This is really encouraging, particularly considering the ongoing focus to engage more younger age groups in the ICs.
• 30 out of 34 ICs (88%) have board members who were ex top 10 players in their country, which is a slight drop since 2021 (89%).
• 31 out of 38 ICs (82%) have periodic discussions about succession planning.

Communications

• 30 out of 37 ICs (81%) have someone responsible for marketing/ communications on their Board.
• 23 out of 38 ICs (61%) have active websites, which is an increase from 57% in 2021.
• 29 are Council websites (16 one pagers and 13 full websites) and 13 non council sites.
• 37 out of 38 ICs (97%) communicate with their members via email, and 21 out of 38 ICs (55%) produce a periodic newsletter (up slightly from 54% in 2021).
• 31 out of 38 ICs (82%) re-distributed the IC e-News (IC Council newsletters) to their membership base. This is a strong increase from 63% in 2021, however since this is such an important way to keep in touch and update all ICs around the world, we want to get this to 100% - so please try to do this if you are not already.
• 28 out of 38 ICs (74%) pass on information received from the IC Philanthropy Foundation (an increase from 69% in 2021), which is really encouraging.

Finances

• Five ICs did not collect subscription fees in 2022 – four of these had not done this in 2021 either, and the other waived the fee for the year due to Covid-19. Six ICs increased their fees, two reduced them and the remaining ICs kept the same fees as in 2021.
• Across all ICs, an average of 14% of members were in arrears with their subscriptions, which is a slight drop since 2021 (16%). This is really positive, although the proportion of ICs who have a policy in place to deal with members in arrears has dropped slightly since 2021 (78% vs 80%).
• Subscriptions are the largest source of revenues for ICs, followed by sponsorships and donations from friends or members.

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 same as in 2021: the demographics of members, the ability to attract or retain members and the small number of active members.
• A previous common suggestion was an event for younger members. The Executive Committee are piloting a new IC event of a high standard exclusively for young categories (28-44 years), commencing in 2023.