At its annual June meeting, the MSHA board voted to combine the two singles tournaments into one event. Starting in 1999, the age divisions will be combined into the Open Singles tournament. Due to comments received at the annual membership meeting in April, the separate Master's Doubles and Open Doubles tournaments will remain separate. Each division will require a minimum of eight entrants or the division will be combined with a compatible classification. You will be asked to provide a second choice on the entry form. These changes are in response to declining entries and to ensure an appropriately competitive field for each of our state championships. If you do not like this change, vote with your and your club players participation.

In other news, Brett Broxey was re-elected as your president and Matt Hiber was elected as vice-president. Larry Larson will continue as treasurer and Sheldon Silberman continues as secretary. Steve Johnson is our MSHA Youth Director and Greg Taylor to coordinate Hall of Fame activities.

The 2000 Nationals, to be held at the U of M, will be moved (pending USHA approval) a few weeks earlier (June 3-10) to avoid conflict with the National Racquetball Tournament to be held later in June at the same facility.

It was noted that Kemps-Marigold will no longer be a major sponsor since Al Abrahamson has retired. Thank you Al for all of your generous support over the years! This means the cows will no longer be on our t-shirts. More importantly, it means we have to find a new sponsor if we want to continue providing top-notch tournaments.

The board is interested in stimulating development of some three-wall facilities and is looking for some member to lead the effort. Several contacts with the Minneapolis Park Board have been suggested and some preliminary inquiries will be made.

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