August 2022

2021 IC Business Report

About the 2021 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. Due to the eruption of COVID-19, we did not run the program in 2020, and we adapted the 2021 questions to assess the impact of the pandemic and to understand the actions adopted by different ICs to overcome it.

35 out of 41 ICs responded to the 2021 survey, which was distributed via Survey Monkey. The missing ICs were Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Hong Kong and Romania. For completeness, the 2019 reports for Austria and Hong Kong, the 2018 report for Finland and the member demographics for Bulgaria from previous years have been included in this analysis for a vis-à-vis comparison. This means we included data for a total of 39 ICs (out of 41 which excludes Russia), with missing data for Croatia and Romania. In the 2019 analysis, we recorded data for 40 ICs (out of 42), including 38 template responses and two email messages.

It is positive to see such high responses. Ideally, every single IC should be responding as this ensures that the information collected is more informative for both the Council, Regional Representatives and each individual IC.

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

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

IC Rod Laver Junior Challenge.

Areas of concern and other comments

Executive Summary

In comparison to the 2019 Business Returns, there has been a 8% net decrease in the total number of members (accounting for deceased members). However, we must note that the 2021 data excludes the IC of Russia and so an exact comparison accounts for a 7% decrease. Gender distribution is seeing a slow increase in female proportion over the last eight years, with 71% male and 29% female members. It can be perceived that we are experiencing an aging effect of our membership, with approximately 69% of the total being ‘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). This trend has become more pronounced over the last eight years.

Understandably, activity was dramatically down in 2021 with most ICs reporting 0-5 IC events, and with only four ICs reporting more than 5 events or fixtures due to restrictions imposed by Covid-19. To this end, the IC Council are offering an exceptional $1,000 support for quadrilateral regional events held in 2022 and 2023, to contribute to the restart of IC activities, fulfilling the mission of our organisation.

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
Impact of COVID-19
Types of activities made available to members

The Council was pleased to observe that in spite of the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, most ICs managed to adopt creative ways of maintaining the cohesion of their membership, upholding the spirit of the IC. The calendar of events for 2022 and 2023 is quickly filling up, depicting a commendable sign of resilience on the part of ICs, that the Council fully supports. The development of philanthropic activities that enhance the lives of disadvantaged young people and the expansion of the practice of tennis amongst junior players that foster relations amongst nations from all continents, 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.

Covid-19 Impact

Included this year were five questions pertaining to the impact of Covid-19, with one in each section. They key findings are as follows:

Demographics – interestingly most ICs cited no impact on current member demographics, but quite a few cited difficulties to recruit new members during the pandemic.
Activity – 17 ICs cited zero activity in 2021, with the other 18 ICs either being able to hold domestic only events, or events with other ICs. This varied greatly by region, given each regions circumstances, but 50% of ICs maintaining activity throughout 2021 is a positive outcome.
Governance – positively nearly all ICs managed to hold their governance meetings via video conference and cited that there was no impact on their governance, but instead the impact was on their activity.
Communications – most ICs decreased their communications due to the limited amount of activity to report on. Communications is key to bring members together and so we hope that that ICs can start to restore this to previous levels.
Finances – The IC Council managed to retain support from most of its donors during the pandemic - notably CQS and Lacoste for our core business, and the Fundação Lemann and Palantir for the Rod Laver IC Junior Challenge. The COVID-19 restrictions imposed on our calendar of events have resulted in the growth of the Council´s reserves, which led the Executive Committee to offer support to ICs in distress. Eight ICs requested their subscription fees to the Council to be waived due to their inability to collect subscriptions from their own members. The Executive Committee resolved all requests. Somewhat refreshingly, nearly all ICs reported in the Survey that the pandemic has not had an impact on their finances - and, if anything, they have slightly better reserves due to the decrease in expenses. On the other hand, it is recognised that 2022 is likely to see an increase in costs as activities restart. 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 offering an exceptional $1,000 grant to support ICs willing to host regional quadrilateral events in 2022 and 2023.

Member Demographics

There has been a decrease in the total number of members: 4,169 in 2021 and 4,548 in 2019. (Note that the 2021 figures exclude IC of Russia).
Of the 4,169 members, 29% are female and 71% are male. The proportion of females has been slowly improving over the last 8 years.
Not all ICs provided the age breakdown requested, but those that did account for 4,047 members (2,862 male + 1,185 female)
We are seeing an aging effect of 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 compare to 65% ´seniors´ and 16% ´younger´ in 2019.

Total members 2013 - 2021

End of year for which the template was requested	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014	2013
# Clubs responded	39	No data due to Covid-19	40	40	37	33	34	33	37
Number of members	4,169		4,548	4,488	4,406	4,086	4,251	4,244	4,299
% of females members	29%		29%	28%	26%	27%	28%	26%	26%
% of members <45 male and <40 female*	14%		16%	17%	18%	18%	19%	19%	17%
% of members >55 male and >50 female*	69%		65%	65%	62%	58%	58%	51%	55%

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

Younger Members

27 out of 35 ICs (77%) 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 216 new members whose age category was identified by respective ICs, 60 (28%) belonged to the younger categories. This is the same proportion as in 2019.
ICs which have had more success with recruiting younger members, 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.
The Executive Committee are discussing a new IC event of high standard exclusively for young categories (28-44 years), set up by the IC of Germany for 2023.

IC Rod Laver Junior Challenge

The IC Rod Laver Junior Challenge Worldwide Finals was due to take place in 2020. It initially was postponed to 2021 and then unfortunately cancelled due to Covid-19 and various travel restrictions and for concern over the health and safety of our Juniors.
The IC Council is arranging medals and a video recording with Rod Laver to commemorate all of the Worldwide finalists.

Activity Overview

The number of events* participated in, is understandably very low. With 19 out of 35 ICs (54%) stating that they participated in a decrease or the same number of events as in 2020. In more positive news, 16 clubs (46%) did state an increase in number of events in comparison to 2020.

*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...

% of member participation was a particular challenge cited by many ICs.

27 out of 35 ICs (77%) engage in charitable activities. This is up from 72% in 2019 and from 63% the previous year. This is really encouraging.

Committee Members

32 out of 35 (91%) ICs have female board members. This is the same as last year.
Only 17 out of 35 (49%) ICs have board members <45 years. This is less than last year and an improvement in this could be a way of ICs effectively recruiting younger members.
31 out of 35 (89%) ICs have board members who were ex top 10 players in their country

Communications

20 out of 35 ICs (57%) have active websites
31 are Council websites (15 one pagers and 16 full websites) and 10 non council sites
29 out of 35 ICs (54%) produce a periodic newsletter. This is down on the 64% last year, as many ICs (40%) decreased their communications during Covid-19.
22 out of 35 (63%) of ICs re-distributed the IC e-News (IC Council newsletters) to their membership base. This is an increase on 2019 and please could everyone start (or continue) to do so as this is an important way to keep in touch and update all ICs around the world.
24 out of 35 (69%) of ICs pass on information received from the IC Philanthropy Foundation.

Finances

Eight ICs did not collect subscription fees in 2021, two reduced their fees and the remaining ICs kept the same fees.
Dues collection in arrears average 16% for all ICs. Positively this is no change to previous years. Most ICs (80%) have a policy in place to deal with members in arrears
Not surprisingly, dues are the largest source of revenues for ICs, followed by National Federation contributions and donations.

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 last year: 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 discussing a new IC event of high standard exclusively for young categories (28-44 years), commencing in 2023.