JOIN SMPA / RENEW A SMPA MEMBERSHIP

To become a SMPA member, or to renew your SMPA membership for the 2023-2024 season, please donate $25 via the PayPal link below – your membership donation helps provide and promote pickleball in our community!

SMPA’s membership list is updated approximately once a week. When the updates are made, new members receive a welcome email and info on SMPA’s current event offerings. They are also added to our members’ email distribution list to receive all of our announcements about event offerings and other SMPA information.

As an annual member, you’ll become a sponsor of the following events in 2024-2025.

• The Royal Oak Pickleball Courts expansion project! Beginning in the fall of 2024, Royal Oak will be completely tearing out and rebuilding the existing 8-court complexes at both Whittier and Upton Parks. This will be a taxpayer funded project. SMPA has been tasked to fundraise for the addition of two courts at Whittier (bringing the 2025 total to 10 at a SMPA cost of ~$60,000) and two-four courts at Upton (bringing the total to 10-12 at a SMPA cost of $75,000-$150,000). We are more than halfway to our $210,000 fundraising goal, and can use your help to reach our goal by fall 2024!!
• Maintenance and repair of the courts and fencing at both Royal Oak Pickleball complexes; see Facilities for more about the courts
• All pickleball equipment at both sets of Royal Oak pickleball courts – nets, windscreens, johns, signs, paddle boxes, brooms, squeegees, and more!
• Ladder league supplies for ~25 summer outdoor and fall /winter indoor pickleball leagues; see Leagues for more information
• Mixer and other event supplies for approximately monthly summer outdoor and fall / winter indoor pickleball mixers plus periodic other events
• Our 14th annual tournament in August 2024; see Tournaments for more information
• Development of pickleball programs and partnerships throughout Southeastern Michigan
• SMPA’s business overhead – website, email, PayPal and SignUp Genius membership and event registration software platforms, storage unit, liability insurance, and more. Please note: SMPA is an all volunteer run 501(c)3 non-profit organization – while our staff and other volunteers are appropriately reimbursed for business expenses, no one at SMPA receives a salary or other compensation for their volunteered time.

If you’d like to assist with any of the above activities, please email SMPA.MI.2022@gmail.com with your areas of interest.

SMPA’s Recent Membership Numbers

– April 2021, under former presidents Gordon Statz and Heather Siersma: ~200
– April 2022, under former president Heather Siersma: 533
– April 2023, under current president Frank Fedel and former president Heather Siersma: 371*
– Feb 25, 2024, under current president Frank Fedel and former president Heather Siersma: 570

* in April/May 2022, several former SMPA board members (many of whom had for years aligned themselves with the false entitlement belief that the public pickleball courts in Royal Oak belong only to them, preventing any player who did not support that same false belief from playing on “their” courts through lies and bullying) initiated a coup, violating SMPA’s bylaws plus several state and federal laws, to commit libel as well as seemingly bank fraud and other corrupt practices. Their gross unethicality adversely impacted SMPA’s May 2022 – May 2023 membership year, as is reflected in the April 2023 membership numbers. Heather Siersma and Frank Fedel have worked tirelessly with a brand new SMPA board of directors plus other fantastic volunteers including former SMPA vice president Lee Fedel to repair the damage done by these players, now permanently banned from SMPA, and all sincerely hope such chaos and criminality never again touch SMPA or its members.