Over the last year we have had about 8 people coming to play regularly plus other occasional players. We have been told that we cannot play in the Student Recreation Center gym on our regular Sunday afternoon slot (for various apparently arbitrary and contradictory reasons) -- but will try to get an official Badminton Club set up under Campus Recreation as soon as possible (probably late October/early November 2009). If you are interested in playing, please get in touch, especially if you are a student, via Aihua (lia@mail.montclair.edu) or Mark (choppingm@mail.montclair.edu).

We have 6-8 people coming to play regularly. Occasionally the gym is booked for special events on Sunday afternoons. Scott Corteze is pretty good at letting us know about these. We ought to ask for a reserved slot but this would not help with special events as there are no other gyms available on campus until the Panzer renovation is completed. There are also intramurals -- good! -- but the organization could do with improvement (scheduling, appropriate levels of play etc.).

NEWS June 2008: we have mostly solved the lighting issue by playing with yellow birdies and in the NW corner of the gym. The court lines are not optimal but we can get by for now with birdies on the corners; and sunlight coming through the unshaded windows can get in your eyes in some positions. We have 4 - 6 people coming to play regularly (down from about 12 before the switch to the new Rec Center), although this varies from week to week.

NEWS April 2008: New Student Recreation Center opens... finally!
-- but there are some serious downsides for badminton: cost to guests/family members; poor lighting; and almost invisible courts! We are doing our best to deal with these issues. GUESTS WITHOUT AN MSU AFFILIATION CAN PLAY BUT MUST PAY $10/DAY.

March 2008: WE CANNOT PLAY b/c of PANZER GYM RENOVATION ( 1 year)

• If you are a member of Montclair State University and would like to play (or continue playing) badminton here, please come to play with us tomorrow, Sunday March 30 at 12 noon in the new Recreation Center. If you are not a student you must either be a signed-up member of the Rec Center with a subscription, or pay $10 per session (free for students).
• Montclair State University membership required. Bring MSU ID
• So: it looks like a halt for the wider club for now. The Panzer gymnasium is closed for probably the best part of a year and family members and guests are not permitted to use the facilities. We tried to get exceptions made in advance but to no avail. We are still trying to get a regular slot for badminton for MSU members who want to play.
• For updates and and to see if any of this changed go to the MSU badminton website ...or contact Aihua (lia@mail.montclair.edu) or Mark (choppingm@mail.montclair.edu).

We have more players! Mark C. has a new Yonex Nanospeed 7000 that is absolutely fantastic. We will probably have to shift Sunday play to the new Rec. Center when it opens (after Spring Break?) and the Panzer will be closed soon for renovation. Request for info. sent....

Intramurals ARE running this year! We hope to have a large turnout for Badminton. The meeting is Monday Sept. 17 at 10pm in the Student Center Commuter Lounge.

We have stopped sending reminder e-mails and are using the website to communicate playtimes now. So just go to the main page to check the time. We'll try to get it updated the day before anticipated play.

July 2007 play is on Sunday afternoon/evenings: please check the main page for the time (this can change from week to week).

June 2007 play moved to Sunday evenings at 7 pm as the gym is used for basketball on the weekends. Numbers are up: 14 last week!

This just in (Montclarion): Rec. Center Contractor Fired! It looks like there will be more delays and the new Recreation Center will not open this Spring after all. See The Montclarion report

We have permission to play Sunday afternoons 2 - 5 pm -- we are an official campus club! Thanks to Holly Gera, Athletics Director, and Fatima DeCarvalho from the Center for Student Involvement, for helping us make this an official time slot for badminton. Thanks too to Nicol for helping with the scheduling.

The new Student Rec. Ctr. opening is still delayed -- it is looking like some time between April and June (2007).

We have experienced a problem with the Sunday afternoon play: campus security are now telling us that we need permission to occupy the gym. We are writing to Holly Gera, Athletics Director, to ask for official permission to play. We will keep you posted. I wonder whether there will be any more intra-mural play -- and when?

Not much to report except that we have a good solid core of players and a few new people who look like they will soon be regulars here too!

We have received enquiries from new folks asking if there is badminton at MSU, as well from old friends asking if we are still playing: the answer is.... YES!

We are belatedly trying to get play organized this semester, especially since there are no intra-murals. So far we have not obtained any scheduled slots -- we will keep you informed via e-mail and the website.

This year we will ask for a *small* fee (less for students and more for faculty and staff), to cover equipment and a prize for the most best-performing, most committed players (excludes the organizers!). If you are no longer interested, please let me know so that I can unsubscribe you from the e-mail list.

E-mail Mark (chopping@pegasus.montclair.edu) or Aihua (lia@mail.montclair.edu) for times!

We are playing ad-hoc as the gym is hardly ever used. This was not the case last semester, when we only got one official hour of play per week (we usually managed to extend this to two but it is hardly adequate). Things will be better when the new Student Recreation Center opens next year.

E-mail Mark (chopping@pegasus.montclair.edu) or Aihua (lia@mail.montclair.edu) for times!

Our daytime first session will be Thursdays at 1:15 -3 pm in Gym 6 in the Panzer Gym building. A core group of players will be playing at that time -- assuming we are not bumped off the spot by a class re-scheduling later in the semester. You are very welcome to come join us whatever your level of play. We do have some very good players and we can provide a challenge if needed!

We will ask Campus Rec for a Sunday evening slot also, hopefully earlier than last semester (9:30 - 11:00), although even at that late hour we had a good number of people showing up.

Early morning badminton: We have the possibility to play at 7 - 8 am. Please let me know if you would like to play and which days are best for you and we will organize this.

Sunday 11/13/05: We had myself, Ilin, Naushad, Frank and Bob Taylor playing last night, plus we roped in one of the gym monitors (Peggy) to get one court of doubles and one of singles. Thanks Peggy!

Demonstration: There is a possibility that the West Orange Badminton Club/Mountain Lakes Badminton Club folks will give a competitive badminton demo in Klara Gubacs-Collins' badminton class this Thursday. These guys are amazingly good: one just came back from the Mid-Atlantic Classic in Philadelphia and was a semi-finalist in both women's singles and doubles! I will forward details, otherwise assume that it is postponed.

• Tues at 12:50 - 2:00 pm (3 players signed up)
• Weds....cancelled: there is Ms & Ws basketball from 3 - 8 pm
• Thurs at 12:50 - 2:00 pm (3 players signed up)
• Sunday at 9:30 - 11:00 pm (2 players signed up)

Next Thursday, November 10, cancelled classes mean that we can use the time slot 11:30 - 12:55, one time only, so please take advantage of this: since this time slot got 6 votes we should have at least 3 nets up!

*** IF YOU WANT TO PLAY ANY OF THE TIMES LISTED ABOVE NEXT WEEK Nov 7 -12
*** PLEASE SEND AN E-MAIL TO ME STATING WHICH DAY/TIME
*** DO NOT TURN UP WITHOUT CONTACTING ME -- THANKS!

No individual player could be expected to bring nets and rackets at all these times -- although Naushad has been doing an outstanding job in this respect -- so if you think you might play regular slots please contact me. We will look into a sign-out system but for the coming week at least we will need to know who wants to play when.

Times Survey: In case you were wondering, we had 8 responses. The results:

• evenings are unpopular: no more than 3/8 voted for any one slot. (Thurs 8:45 pm got 3 votes)
• there were >=4 votes for "cannot play" for any of the evenings
• daytime votes: 4/8 votes for Weds 11am and 2pm, Fris 8am, Suns 12pm 5/8 votes for Mons 10am, Suns 9am 6/8 votes for Thurs 11am (unfortunately there is a class @ this time)

• Don't forget to cross out when you CANNOT play -- not when you can play!
• Unless you have already formed a team it seems sensible to sign up as a "Free Agent" (don't forget to indicate your level of ability).
• There is a Competition League and a Recreational League: please consult Keith Fonseca on which would be best for you (if you are not sure and/or have not played badminton much before we suggest you choose Recreational -- at least that way you get to play more games). Of course, it is up to you!
• If you are attending the Sign-Up meeting please try to be there at 9pm precisely -- this makes life easier for the good Campus Rec. people who are helping us.