AGM 2025

Our AGM took place at the National Tennis Centre, Roehampton, on the middle-Sunday of The Championships at Wimbledon and was attended by 56 delegates, representing 33 out of the 41 ICs invited. 

The agenda covered:

1. The approval of the formation of the new IC of Bolivia (you can read more about this here)
2. The decision to notify two inactive ICs (Bulgaria and Romania) that they will be suspended at the next AGM, unless any rehabilitation to their activity occurs before then
3. A generally healthy financial position, albeit reserves could be stronger and more introductions to potential donors are needed
4. A strong level of events activity, with a significant number of upcoming anniversary celebrations (find out more about these here)
5. A strong improvement to our communications, with all ICs sharing the eNews with their members and our IC Council Instagram account reaching over 1,000 followers
6. The results of this year’s Business Returns survey, which you can read in more detail in the Members’ section of the website here
7. An update from the IC Philanthropy Foundation, who are now supporting 17 programmes in 15 countries and have recently introduced a new Global Cultural Exchange Programme (you can read more about ICPF’s work here)
8. The success of the inaugural wheelchair tennis event at the 2024 IC Week and an ask to more ICs to include wheelchair members and players.

The AGM was preceded by a workshop on Saturday 5 July, which focused heavily on the theme of driving greater engagement with younger former players. We ask all ICs to discuss this objective more with their Regional Reps and Boards – including the nomination of potential mentors from your IC for current or former professionals.

For further information and the documents from the AGM, please log in to the Members’ section of the IC Council website. Each IC’s President and Honorary Secretary has these details and can share any information or answer any questions you may have.

Ethiopia philanthropic highlights

Closely monitored by the IC of Germany, children from the city slums of Ethiopia are given tennis coaching, education and free meals. Discipline in tennis and at school is a requirement for participation in TDKET and each year over 50 children take part.

In 2019, the project was recognized by the government as the best private sports funding program for poor children in Ethiopia! As a result, Tariku Tesfaye, the founder and manager of the project, was invited to two tv-shows and was able to present his project to a wider public. Some local sponsors were found through this presentation.

Once more Tariku and some of the best kids spent some weeks in the Racket-Center Nussloch, Germany, in order to train and to play junior tournaments.

In October 2019, TDKET for the first time participated in the African IC Rod Laver Junior Challenge representing Ethiopia very well, Tariku´s team (2 boys and girls aged 16 or younger) beat a Development Team from South Africa 5:1 and a team from Botswana 6:0. Only the South African top team could stop Tariku´s team on the final day. The participation in this event was a wonderful experience for the players. It was their first trip to South Africa.

In November 2019, Tariku received a high-ranking delegation from Germany led by the Minister for Economy and Building of the State Baden-Württemberg. The minister was very impressed and spontaneously donated 1.000,00 €.

Thanks to private sponsors, some of Tariku´s kids can attend a private high-school. 2 of them successfully passed their final exam some months ago.

Last, but not least, we can report a reactivation of Manfred Lautenschläger, a former top-sponsor of the project. With his foundation he is ready to fund for up to 30 boys or girls from TDKET the attendance of a private high-school for a period of 5 years. This is an annual engagement of 21.000 €.

For further information, see the IC Philanthropy webpage and TDKET website.