After a late night meal of a Whopper meal from Burger King and a delicious cup of Slurpee (of course I had to get one with Mountain Dew) I decided to blog about my tennis racquet. Some may know that I spent many months to find the perfect racquet for me even though I already had an expensive one {Expensive as in a $185 without any discounts}. But after a lot of demoing and trying out different racquets, I finally found the right racquet for me, the Head Youtek Speed Midplus 18×20.
But the point isn’t that I found my new racquet that cost me $140 (after discounts and three months of demoing. The point is that after I did so much research of what I want in a racquet, I realized that each part that makes up a racquet is similar to what makes up a club, in particular AAA. I’ve been playing tennis with some of the officers for some time now and I can somewhat relate them to my tennis racquet.
The president of an organization is the head of the tennis racquet. The head is where all of the action takes place on the racquet. That is what a president does, takes action. Also the head directs where the tennis ball goes. Without the head, the racquet becomes a giant fork, which is pretty useless unless you plan on cleaning up some hay later. The president is very crucial to the club because without them, the club may be nothing at all. There is no one to help the club move forward towards a goal set by them.
The area that connects the head of the racquet to the grip of the racquet is called the neck that is conveniently shaped as a V. The vice president (the neck of the racquet) is someone who connects the president (the head) with the other members of the organization: the treasurer (the grip), the secretary (the grommets), the strings (the members), and the tennis ball (the event chairs). The vice president is someone who can work with all of the other officers and connect them together. This person has to be pretty versatile as they should be able to do a little bit of each officer’s job. Also, they send information between all of the members and officers to keep everyone connected with what is being planned or happening. The vice president is the connection between everyone because as I turn the grip of the racquet (the treasurer), the neck helps the head (the president) turn which also leads to the grommets (secretary) and strings (members) turning also.
Now to the bottom of the racquet: the grip. The grip is where all of the dirty work is done. The palms of the tennis players become sweaty as the grip absorbs in all of the moisture. Without the grip, the racquet can’t do a lot because it is what makes it useable. The treasurer does in fact do some dirty work for organizations. Besides being the most annoying, financial part of the racquet (I often replace the grip about every week costing me about 5 bucks per month), the grip controls how the racquet is going to work. An organization can’t do certain activities without the treasurer because not everything is free. The treasurer has an indirect control over what the club can and can’t do. I have been irritated that I can’t play tennis because my grip is either torn or not useable. Although some may not think this but I consider the grip to be as important as the strings.
As a member of many different organizations, I have received many emails from one particular person from the organizations, the secretary. I noticed that the secretaries are usually the one that contact the members of the organizations. The grommets of a tennis racquet are perfect to describing the secretary. Why? The answer is because the grommets are directly connected with the strings (the members). Why must the secretary be directly connected with the members? The secretaries have easy access to the information of the members. Also, the secretaries are there to help members interact with each other. The grommets help the strings stay in place without popping due to the rubbing of the strings on the frame. Without the grommets, the strings will pop easily. If the members are no longer connected with each other, the club will lose some of their other members as a result. The secretary is there to help everyone stay together.
I have done so much research on tennis strings over the summer. I want the best strings so I can play at my best level. The strings of a tennis racquet are very important because without them, the racquet is also useless. An organization is useless without the most important people, the members. The members of a club on the tennis strings of a racquet because there are so many of them, similar to the many crosses that the strings make on the racquet. The members are the people who help the club advance towards their goals. The strings are important because they are the only part of the racquet that makes contact with the ball. The members are important because they are the organization. Without them, there is no club, nothing. A racquet with a broken string is nothing but a stick; a club without the members is nothing but a group of officers setting goals for no one.
Unfortunately, I was unable to find a position for event chairs on a tennis racquet because not all organizations have one. But after a while, I was able to find what brings everyone in the club together. Tennis is not tennis without their green, fuzzy balls. Event chairs are hard to describe but I feel that they are the tennis balls. The strings (members) of the club interact with each other at events is similar to when a tennis ball (event chairs) makes contact with the racquet. The strings work together to send the ball back when it came from. Some of the big events that are planned are not always attended by all of the members, but the event chairs are able to attract some members to participate them. The ball doesn’t always hit in the same spot on the racquet, which may mean that not the same members always attend the big events, which may not be the greatest but shows that there is a possibility that everyone has attended events that the event chairs spent so much time planning out.
Sorry if some of the analogies are very confusing or not that great. I started feeling the sugar wearing off and my thought processing began to slow down as well. But I wanted to write this blog relating officers to a tennis racquet because first of all, I love the game of tennis. It has become a huge part of my life. But also, I believe organizations are what keeping me alive in school. I don’t think I can handle going to school for four (or five) years and not become part of the many great organizations on campus.
“It’s only stalking if the other person doesn’t like it”
-Andy Roddick
-Duy Truong
What a splendid blog! Thanks for putting in the time to write this. It was an enjoyable read.