Contributors

This is a personal thank you letter to those who I know have helped me get this business running and make a dream come true.

Unfortunately my memory is not the best and I will forget people and get details wrong so please contact me if you see an mistake or missing thank you. I really appreciate every single person that have over the years helped Open Active even in the smallest way. The South African tennis community benefits at large.

When I started, I did not know any good programmers so I looked online and found a website called Upwork, I outsourced to 3 different programmers before I found Sunny Bhonsale and his team. They did a great programming job and at a good price. I will always be thankful for them starting this journey and getting the first version of the platform up and running, at that stage bookings was not even on my mind and I was trying to build a sports social network, but they later coded in the booking feature at Constantia tennis clubs request. There is currently still a review I posted for them on their site: https://www.supernova-systems.com

We where colleges at Super-Brands, a company that distributed Slazenger & Dunlop tennis products among many other sports categories. I can’t recall my initial idea, but as good friends and also tennis rivals, we had many conversations about creating something for sport. Over time, we brainstormed and formulated numerous concepts for our potential sports social platform. We attended meetings in hopes of securing investment, but those efforts fell through. Despite this, he financially supported the project, covering some of the development costs. In return I allocated 25% of the shares to him. He always provided valuable feedback and insight.

By 2022, I found it increasingly challenging to communicate frequent changes and invoice him for continued development. Therefore, I proposed buying out his shares, a suggestion he accepted. We’re currently in the process of settling that deal.

Starting on a new venture can feel isolating, especially without the support of enthusiastic collaborators. If not for Pierre, Open Active wouldn’t be a reality. My gratitude towards him is boundless. Should the project achieve resounding success, I would undoubtedly compensate him further for his foundational role in its inception.

I like telling this story, but don’t think I do it justice. It stands as a testament to how shifting people’s perspectives is achievable, even when it seems insurmountable to me. During my time on the committee at the Constantia Tennis Club, Friedl Basson proposed an online booking system. The idea was swiftly rejected in the meeting, and given the lack of enthusiasm, I held back my opinions, convinced the concept was doomed.

However, Friedl approached me privately. He inquired if I could implement such a system. Though I hesitated, concerned about the complexity of the task, Friedl’s persistence eventually persuaded me.

By then, I had developed a social platform on Joomla, integrating features for recording Tennis and Golf scores. Yet, the platform saw minimal usage. The silver lining with the proposed booking system was that it guaranteed at least some activity on the site.

Friedl took it upon himself to converse with each committee member individually. He highlighted the current unpractical process, where one had to physically be at the club to make bookings — an impractical system for young, working individuals.

At the subsequent committee meeting, Friedl reintroduced the topic. When questioned if I could develop the system, I hesitantly agreed, daunted by their extensive feature requests. Yet, when it came to voting, the room experienced a profound shift: members who previously opposed now unanimously supported the initiative. Little did I know then that this new feature would eventually become the only feature for many years.

I’m immensely grateful to Friedl for his tenacity and for orchestrating that pivotal moment. His actions, within such a short span, arguably made the most significant impact on Open Actives future.

To this day I still frequently turn to him for his insights. Having a sounding board is invaluable, and he consistently offers profound perspectives and solutions.

Turning our attention to the pioneering tennis club, they bravely ventured into uncharted territory by adopting a online booking system. In truth 18 plus tennis clubs now run on a Constantia Tennis Club Booking System.

The initial version of the booking system had some great things going for it, but wasn’t without its significant challenges. A notable drawback was the cumbersome process of integrating a new member. Each time someone joined, it required extracting the entire member database, connecting the new member to every existing member, and then re-importing the updated list. This rendered the process of onboarding a new member exceedingly tedious.

I vividly recall a conversation at the club with a Ingrid a committee member who was busy highlighting some issues with the system, but paused and said you will now see how it does work. At precisely 4 pm, as if on cue, players on the court wrapped up their games and made way for the next set of players. This marked a noticeable departure from earlier times when games would often overrun their allocated slots. There’s something about a streamlined and accessible booking system that instills discipline.

Acknowledging everyone’s contributions is crucial, and while I fear I may unintentionally omit some names, I would like to extend my gratitude to Chris Potterton, Carlos Gomes, Hilly Theodor, Darryn Kuter, Oliver Hoffman, Ray Stuart-Steer, Alex Anderton, Ingrid Aronson and Guy de Wieuw. Every suggestion from the committee & members was a great present to make the system better faster. There are still features I would love to include from those early discussions.

For five years, Constantia Tennis Club was the sole user of the system. However, five months before the onset of Covid, the software it ran on had become so outdated that it risked becoming defunct. The club generously offered to finance its reconstruction, but that would mean they’d own the software. Still harboring aspirations of expanding the system’s reach, I opted to invest in a developer to rejuvenate it. I took a chance and hired a developer to rebuild it, better and stripped away all of the social media features and just focus on a great and simple booking process. Government mandated a booking system for clubs during Covid and more clubs needed the feature.

A massive shout-out to all the members of Constantia Tennis Club in Cape Town!