For Members

On November 12th, we held the 67th annual meeting!

This year, we joined by a special guest, author James Zug, who wrote the definitive book on squash, “Squash: A History of the Game.” Jim previously visited the annual meeting when the book was first published in 2003. This month, the book was re-published with a new afterword on the last 20 years of squash! He gave an exciting and informative presentation, and gave us insight to the future of the sport, including the rapid growth in China (they’ve built 1,000 courts in the past 2 years!)

Present members discussed several important topics such as:

• Updates on the potential 2026 transfer of land ownership from Markem to the club.

• Thanks were given to our Facilites team for their continued hard work, including plowing, tree cutting, and replacing the burned out lightbulbs, which we learned is quite the high-wire act!

• Thanks were given to Gary and Phil Gargan for sanding the floors and repainting the service boxes in the proper spots.

• Thanks were given to the Keene UCC for the gift of tables and chairs, which we now own!

• Recapping the October hardball session, and discussed making that a recurring event.

• Financial report from treasurer Gavin Key revealed financial success in the 2024-25 year, due to cancelling phone and Club Locker services, some members paying for two years, and prize money gift from Sydney Key. Dues were kept at $275, with the acknowledgement of a potential mid-year addition based on property tax increase.

• Discussed interest in carpool to watch Tufts matches, as well as Gary Gargan’s new program to train with Tufts players.

• Discussed our reciprocal relationship with the Great Billings club, a freestanding squash court in Northampton City, England, which was facilitated by Jim Zug last year.

• Discussed a potential trip to the T&R club in Boston.

• Leadership team announced their role model for the coming year- the first and only president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. In 2025 after being sworn in for his 7th term, he told his critics, “you have no future.” We look forward to emulating this wonderful leadership in the coming year.

• And of course… Doug Brown led the meeting in an extraordinarily discordant rendition of the Fireman’s Band song.  Each year, we imagine that the voices cannot sound worse…but they do!