Welcome to the 2024 OHTA Season.    

2023 Members can login to your Court Reserve account  and select your renewal membership

Please review  the online booking system announcements for additional offerings including available lessons and information on "Scheduled Play" once your membership has been activated.    

New members inquiries please email the membership director at  ohtamembers@gmail.com  with any questions or for instructions  on how to join.  

Public Open houses for the 2024 Season are:    TBD

 2024 Rules & Regulations

• The Orchard Heights Tennis Association (OHTA or the Club) adheres to the City of Mississauga’s Community Tennis Club Court Guidelines that are posted at the Club’s gate and its Debris and Anti-Littering By-law 219-85. It also meets the yearly requirements of the City’s Community Group Registry Program. At all times, members and their guests must adhere to current and subsequent updates of Tennis Canada’s documents Rules of the Court 2020 and Tennis Etiquette 101.

• The Board of Directors (Board) may  temporarily or permanently suspend any member who is in violation of the Club’s Rules & Regulations.

• The Orchard Heights Tennis Association will not be liable for any injuries a person might sustain while standing, sitting or playing on court or for loss or damage to players’ equipment or personal belongings.

• Members’ conduct and behaviour shall be governed at all times by the principles of courtesy, respect, empathy and good sportsmanship. Members shall be cognizant of their surroundings and aware that the Club is situated within the Orchard Heights community and adjacent to a family playground. Inappropriate or foul language, physical or verbal violence and throwing racquets, paddles, balls or other objects will not be tolerated.

• In alignment with Ontario’s Human Rights Code, the Club and its Board are committed to recognizing the dignity and worth of every Club and community member, providing equal rights and opportunities without discrimination and aiming to maintain a climate of understanding and mutual respect for the dignity and worth of each person, so that each person feels a part of and able to contribute to our Club.

• Members shall refrain from deliberately abusing facility amenities, court accessories and maintenance equipment.

• While on the courts, players shall wear appropriate tennis/pickleball attire, including shirts and shoes.

• Paid-up members only have access to the courts for the season every day from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Unless authorized by the City or the Board, non-tennis or non-pickleball activities are prohibited on the courts.

• Guests shall always be accompanied by at least one Adult member. The Adult member hosting a guest shall be responsible for the guest adhering to the Club’s Rules & Regulations and if this is not done, may suffer the suspension penalty outlined above.

• Juniors are those members between the age of 13 and 17 years at time of registration , as stipulated by the City’s Tennis Club Management and Operations Agreement. Children are those members under the age of 13.

Highest priority for court usage is given to Scheduled Playing Times as shown in the clubs online booking system "Court Reserve". Each member is welcome to book all other playing times, up to  60 minutes  for practice  , 90 minutes for singles  and 120 minutes  for doubles, once per day.

Incident and Complaint Resolution
On occasion, an incident between members or a complaint about Club activities or plans may arise. The Board is committed to seeing such incidents resolved in a fair, respectful and timely manner. At all times members must keep firmly in mind the Club’s rule that players’ conduct and behaviour be governed by the principles of courtesy, respect, empathy and good sportsmanship and remain aware that the Club is situated within the Orchard Heights community and adjacent to a family playground. Members are expected to make every effort to resolve issues themselves. If an issue cannot be resolved to parties’ satisfaction, member(s) shall follow the Club’s Incident and Complaint Resolution Process, and if necessary, our Conflict Resolution Process, outlined below.

1. Clarify what the conflict is about. Clarifying involves getting to the heart of the conflict. The goal is to get both sides to agree on what the issue is. To do this, parties need to identify what needs are not being met on both sides of the conflict and ensure mutual understanding and ideally, mutual empathy, so they both see each other’s position and understand why they feel as they do and how/if their beliefs led to actions that triggered the conflict. During the clarifying process, obtain information on each side’s point of view and listen to each other. Continue asking questions until all parties fully understand the issue and how it arose.

2. Establish a common goal and shared outcome. Here both sides must agree on an acceptable shared outcome to the conflict – they need to find a common goal. When people know they’re working towards the same goal, they’re more apt to participate to ensure they reach that goal together. To accomplish this, parties must discuss what each would like to see happen and find commonality in both sides as a starting point for a shared outcome. That commonality can be as simple as “both sides want to end the conflict.”

3. Discuss ways to meet the common goal. This involves listening, communicating and brainstorming together to identify strategies, practices, behaviours, etc., to achieve the common goal and outcome agreed to in Step 2.

4. Determine barriers to the common goal. Here parties acknowledge what has brought them into conflict and talk about what barriers may prevent a resolution. Understanding barriers and challenges lets parties proactively find solutions and put plans in place to handle present and future issues to avoid further conflict. Define what can and cannot be changed, Club Rules & Regulations, for example, and discuss ways of getting around those barriers to achieve the common goal of resolving the conflict.

5. Agree on the best way to resolve the conflict. Both parties need to come to one conclusion on the best resolution. Start by identifying solutions both sides can live with. Then identify areas of common ground. Then discuss the responsibility each party has in maintaining the solution. It’s vital to use this opportunity to get to the root cause of the conflict to ensure it does not come up again. A lot of times when we try to fix problems, we get so caught up in fixing them that we do not identify what we need to do to avoid their happening again.

6. Acknowledge the agreed-upon solution and determine the responsibilities each party has in achieving and maintaining the resolution. Both sides must own their responsibility in the resolution of the conflict and express aloud what they have agreed to. As both parties acknowledge a win-win situation, they should use phrases such as “I agree to…” and “I acknowledge that I have responsibility for…”

Court Etiquette Reminders

• Only leave recyclable items, not food, tennis balls or garbage, in the courtside blue recycling bins. Take your turn and empty our blue recycling bags regularly.

• When entering or leaving the courts and others are playing, wait for a break in play before passing through the gate and proceed quickly and quietly to your court.

•  Before leaving a court at the end of a booked timeslot, please collect all balls and possessions, return any borrowed club equipment, re-lock deck boxes and do not leave anything behind, including garbage and old balls.

• Players must relinquish courts promptly at the end of their booked timeslot. As a courtesy, incoming players must allow vacating players to finish the point. Vacating players may not finish a game unless the courtesy is expressly granted by the incoming players. As a courtesy, if a court is vacant and others are playing on your scheduled court, warm up on the empty court and let players finish a game and then move over to your booked court. If appropriate, let them know you are extending this courtesy.

• Return balls promptly and quietly in the direction of the player from the other court who has lost them and ask for the return of balls quietly and politely at the proper moment, not while a ball is in play.