MANTUA SWIM & TENNIS CLUB

An Open Letter to Our Members and Neighbors
From the Board of Directors
Last updated: July 2026

To our members, our neighbors, and the families who are new to Mantua — welcome.

Mantua Swim & Tennis Club (MSTC) has been part of this community for more than sixty years. As more families discover the neighborhood, the Board often hears the same set of honest, important questions: How does the Club actually work? Why is there a waitlist? Why can a membership pass to the buyer of a member’s home? Who decides the rules? Why can’t everyone just join?

These are fair questions, and they deserve a clear, lasting answer. This letter is provides the answers, serving as a single place where members, neighbors, and newcomers can find the same facts. It is not about any particular project, vote, or dispute. It is about how MSTC is built, who it serves, and how it changes. We also want to say up front: these questions usually come from people who would like to be part of MSTC — and we don’t take that interest for granted.

1. What MSTC Is — and What It Isn’t

MSTC is a private, member-owned club. It was incorporated in 1962 as the Mantua Hills Swimming Association, a Virginia nonstock (nonprofit) corporation. Since 2002 it has operated under the trade name “Mantua Swim & Tennis Club.”

It is sometimes described casually as “the community pool.” That description is understandable, because the Club is physically located inside the Mantua area and many neighbors have grown up around it. But it is not accurate as a matter of governance. MSTC is owned by its 600 member households. It is not owned by the neighborhood, by Fairfax County, or by any homeowners’ association.

MSTC is also distinct from and unrelated to the Mantua Citizens Association (MCA), the civic organization that represents Mantua residents on local issues. MCA and MSTC are separate organizations with different missions, different memberships, and different leadership. Living in Mantua makes someone eligible to participate in MCA; it does not, by itself, make someone a member of MSTC.

2. How the Club Is Governed

MSTC operates under three layers of governance, in this order of authority:

• Virginia law. As a Virginia nonstock corporation, MSTC is governed by the Virginia Nonstock Corporation Act (Title 13.1, Chapter 10 of the Virginia Code). State law sets the basic rules for how the Board, the membership, and the corporation itself must operate.
• Articles of Incorporation. Filed with the Virginia State Corporation Commission in 1962 and amended several times since (most notably to raise the membership cap to 600 in 2004). The Articles set the Club’s purpose and its maximum number of members. Changes to the Articles require both a member vote and a formal filing with the State Corporation Commission.
• Bylaws. Adopted and amended by the membership, the Bylaws set the internal rules of the Club — membership, dues, elections, meetings, committees, and the procedures the Board must follow. Among other things, Article III of the Bylaws provides that “a holder of a certificate of membership shall be a life member.” The current Bylaws are available on the MSTC website.

In addition, MSTC’s property spans two separate jurisdictions. The portion of the site within Fairfax County operates under a Fairfax County Special Permit (SPA-81-P-089); the portion within the independent City of Fairfax operates under a City of Fairfax Special Use Permit. The Fairfax County portion is zoned R-3 (residential), and these permits are what allow a private recreational facility to operate across both jurisdictions. They set conditions on things like hours of operation, parking, lighting, and the maximum number of memberships. Material changes to how the property is used require approval from the applicable jurisdiction — Fairfax County or the City of Fairfax — through a public process.

3. One Membership Type, Capped at 600, Tied to the Mantua Area

MSTC offers only one type of membership for purchase: a Full Membership. There is no “social” tier, no “guest” tier, and no second class of ownership.

The Board is sometimes asked whether the Club could offer a pool-only or a tennis-only membership at a reduced price. Under the current Bylaws, it cannot. A Full Membership conveys access to all of the Club’s facilities together — pool, tennis courts, pickleball, and clubhouse — and the Bylaws do not contemplate any split or partial membership category. Creating a new class of membership would require a Bylaw amendment, which means a majority vote of the entire membership as described in Section 8.

There are practical reasons the membership has not pursued such a change. The Club is a single facility with shared operating costs — insurance, lifeguards, maintenance, capital reserves, and permit compliance in both jurisdictions (the Fairfax County Special Permit and the City of Fairfax Special Use Permit) — and those costs do not divide neatly by activity. Splitting memberships into pool-only and tennis-only categories would also expand the total number of member households served by the same facility, which raises Special Permit, parking, and capacity questions that go well beyond the Bylaws.

The total number of Full Memberships is capped at 600. That cap is written into the Articles of Incorporation, which means it cannot be changed by the Board, by a committee, or even by a simple majority at a meeting. Raising the cap would require both a vote of the membership and an amendment filed with the State Corporation Commission — the same process used in 1969, 1982, and 2004 to grow the Club from 400 to 500 to 560 to 600 members.

Eligibility to purchase a Full Membership is limited to homeowners within the published MSTC Boundary, which covers the greater Mantua area. The boundary map is available on the Club’s website.

Rental Memberships are something different. They are annual, temporary use privileges granted in years when Full Members elect to rent out their memberships. They are not ownership, they do not carry voting rights, and they do not establish a position on the purchase waitlist on their own. The number of rental memberships available in any given year is entirely dependent on the number of owners choosing to rent their memberships for the year.

4. How a Membership Changes Hands

The Bylaws (Article V) describe two paths by which a Full Membership can move from one household to another:

• Through the waitlist. When a member returns their certificate to the Club, the membership is offered to the next eligible household on the purchase waitlist.
• Through the sale of a home. A selling member may nominate the buyer of their home for membership, regardless of the position of the waitlist. The nominee must still be approved by the Board and must pay the then-current membership fee. The seller’s certificate is then redeemed, and a new certificate is issued to the new household.

It is worth being precise here, because this is often misunderstood. A membership is not literally “transferred” from the seller to the buyer like a piece of furniture. The seller’s membership is redeemed by the Club and a new membership is issued to the home buyer after Board approval. The buyer becomes a new member; the seller is no longer one.

It is equally worth noting that the Sale of House provision is permissive. A selling member may nominate the home’s buyer, but is not required to. This matters because Article III of the Bylaws declares that “a holder of a certificate of membership shall be a life member.” A member who sells their home and keeps their own membership is not exploiting a loophole — they are exercising the life membership the Bylaws affirmatively grant. The next section addresses this directly.

This home-sale path has been in MSTC’s Bylaws for decades. It reflects the original concept of the Club as a neighborhood institution tied to homes in Mantua. We recognize that this can be hard to watch for waitlist families, especially those who have already been waiting for some time. Reasonable people can and do disagree about whether the rule still fits in varying market conditions. That conversation is welcome — and Section 8 below explains how the rule can be changed.

5. Why a Membership May Continue After a Member Moves or Rents Out

Two related questions come up often: Why can a member keep their MSTC membership after moving away from Mantua? And why can a member rent out their membership year after year without giving it up?

Both questions trace back to the plain language of Article III of the Bylaws. Article III sets the residency requirement for application — a resident of the greater Mantua area may make application for membership — and then, in the same article, declares the durational nature of the membership that results: “A holder of a certificate of membership shall be a life member.” The residency requirement attaches to the application; the life membership attaches to the certificate.

Consistent with that structure, the Bylaws specify the limited circumstances in which a membership actually does end. The complete list is:

• Voluntary withdrawal at the member’s written request (Article V);
• Redemption with a home sale, when a selling member chooses to nominate the home’s buyer for membership (Article V);
• Non-payment of dues after written notice (Article VI); or
• Expulsion for cause (Article VI).

“Moved away from Mantua” is not on that list — and Article III’s life-member language affirmatively cuts the other way. A member who sells their home, moves elsewhere, and continues paying dues remains a life member of the Club. The Board has no authority to impose a termination ground that the Bylaws not only fail to provide but contradict.

For members who rent out their home rather than sell it, the Bylaws are more explicit. Article V’s “Rental of House” provision gives a member who rents out their home and departs the area three specific options:

• Continue paying dues and keep the membership active for their own future return;
• With Board approval and 30 days’ written notice, allow their tenant to use the facilities; or
• Return the certificate to the Club for rental to another eligible household, with the right to reclaim it later.

There is no limit in the Bylaws on how long any of these arrangements may continue. A member who rents out their membership for many consecutive years, or who keeps a membership active for years after selling and moving away, is exercising rights the Bylaws give them.

Reasonable people can and do disagree about whether the life-member structure should change — for example, by tying continued membership more closely to current residency or to active personal use. That would be a significant departure from the Bylaws as they have stood for decades, and like the home-sale rule discussed in the previous section, it is a Bylaw question that would require the amendment process described in Section 8.

One financial point follows directly from this structure and is worth addressing, because it comes up periodically. A member who elects to rent out their membership for a season still pays an annual rent-out fee to the Club. The fee is not an administrative charge for processing the rental. It reflects the same principle this section has described: every owner shares a continuing responsibility to help maintain and operate the Club — covering items such as insurance, capital reserves, and infrastructure — and that responsibility does not pause in a year an owner chooses not to use the facilities. The rent-out fee is a partial contribution toward that ongoing share; the renter’s separate fee covers the remainder. Worth noting: the rent-out fee has been adjusted gradually over the past decade-plus, while the number of owners electing to rent out has remained essentially flat year over year, which suggests the fee level has not materially driven the decision to rent. Whether the current fee is set at the right level is a fair policy question the Board reviews periodically.

6. Why the Waitlist Is Long

The Club’s purchase waitlist runs long, and the Board understands this is frustrating, especially for families with young children.

A few facts often help put the wait in context:

• The 600-member cap is set in the Articles of Incorporation and exists in part because the Club’s Fairfax County Special Permit, City of Fairfax Special Use Permit, parking, and infrastructure were all sized for that membership level.
• Comparable swim and tennis clubs in the region have reported waits of eight to ten years; MSTC’s wait, while real, is shorter than many.
• Turnover each year is driven by members who move, downsize, or decide the Club no longer fits their life stage. The Board cannot create turnover that does not happen organically.

Waitlist snapshot — July 2026: More than 260 households are on the purchase waitlist. The current wait to reach the top of the list exceeds five years.

None of this changes the basic fact that waiting is hard. To the families on the list: the Board is genuinely grateful for your patience, and we wish we had a way to make the wait shorter. We don’t — but the patience itself is part of what holds this Club together, and it is not unnoticed.

7. About Rental Memberships and How They Are Allocated

As noted in Section 3, Rental Memberships are temporary, annual use privileges that become available in years when Full Members elect to rent out their memberships rather than use them. They are separate from Full Membership and do not establish ownership or voting rights.

Demand for Rental Memberships has consistently exceeded supply, which means the Board has to decide each year how to allocate them fairly. Over time the Board has tried several approaches, each with real trade-offs:

• A permanent rental waitlist. An earlier system kept a date-and-time-stamped rental waitlist that carried forward year after year. It was difficult to administer and made it very hard for families newer to the neighborhood to ever receive a Rental Membership.
• First-come, first-served. A later system opened applications on a single fixed date and time. The website and payment systems were repeatedly overwhelmed, families submitted multiple applications, and the process became difficult to administer fairly.
• The current framework. Today’s allocation process is designed to be more transparent and easier to administer, while preserving priority for long-standing purchase-waitlist families and recognizing tenants of owner-members who rent out their homes. The specifics are published on the Club’s website each season and are updated as the policy evolves.

A few patterns are worth noting because they are often missed in casual discussion. In a typical year, only a portion of the families at the top of the purchase waitlist elect to take a Rental Membership when it is offered to them. Long-standing position on the purchase waitlist and active summer demand for use of the facilities are not the same thing, and conflating the two tends to overstate how many families do not gain summer access in any given year. Among the households that do actively apply for a rental through the open lottery, the substantial majority receive one each year. For families who do not receive a rental in a given year, the Board recognizes the disappointment. The lottery distributes what owners make available; it cannot expand the supply.

No allocation method is perfect, and the Board does not claim otherwise. What the Board does commit to is publishing the rules in advance each year, applying them consistently, and reviewing them periodically based on member input and operational experience.

Illustration — most recent season: The Club issued 122 Rental Memberships. Of those, 9 went to tenants of homeowner-members, 26 went to families from the top of the purchase waitlist (out of 65 invited, the remainder having declined), and 87 went to households selected by lottery. Of 96 households that applied to the lottery on time, 87 received a Rental Membership; the remaining 9 applications were complete and eligible, but the available supply of rentals was exhausted before the lottery reached them.

8. How the Rules Are Changed — and Who Changes Them

This is the part of MSTC’s governance that is most often misunderstood: the Board does not have the authority to change the Bylaws. Under Article XIII of the Bylaws, only the members may amend, repeal, or adopt new Bylaws.

And the threshold is intentionally high. Article XIII requires “a majority vote of the entire membership.” With 600 members, that means 301 affirmative votes are required to pass any Bylaw amendment. Not a majority of those who happen to attend a meeting — a majority of all 600 households. An unreturned ballot is, in effect, an obstacle to passage.

In addition, Article XIII requires that written notice of any proposed amendment, including the exact language, be mailed or delivered to every member at least 15 days before the meeting at which the amendment will be considered.

This structure has two consequences that are worth stating plainly:

• The Board cannot, on its own, raise the membership cap, change who is eligible to join, change the home-sale rule, change dues structures beyond the limits set in the Bylaws, or change voting rights. Those are membership decisions.
• A small, vocal group cannot change the rules either. Any change must persuade a majority of the entire 600-household membership to vote yes. That is a deliberately high bar, and it is the same bar that governed every prior change in the Club’s history.

9. Who the Board Serves

The Board of Directors is made up of member volunteers elected each year by the membership. The Board’s responsibilities are administrative and fiduciary: it manages the affairs of the Club within the framework set by the Articles, the Bylaws, the Fairfax County Special Permit, the City of Fairfax Special Use Permit, and Virginia law.

Under the Virginia Nonstock Corporation Act, every director owes a duty of care and a duty of loyalty to the corporation — which, in MSTC’s case, means to the 600 member households the corporation exists to serve. The Board takes that duty seriously. It also tries to be a good neighbor in the broader Mantua community. Those two commitments are usually aligned, but when the Bylaws and Virginia law require the Board to act in the interest of its members, that is the obligation the Board must follow.

It is worth being clear about what the Board is not. The Board is not a legislature for the neighborhood. It does not have authority to make rules that bind non-members, and it does not have authority to make rules that bind members beyond what the Bylaws and Virginia law allow. When neighbors ask the Board to “just change” something — the cap, the boundary, the waitlist, the home-sale rule — the honest answer is almost always the same: that change would require an amendment, and an amendment requires 301 owner-member votes.

10. How to Engage — for Members and Non-Members

If you are a member:

• Vote when ballots are mailed. The 301-vote threshold for Bylaw amendments means every household’s vote actually matters.
• Volunteer for a committee, or run for the Board. Committees are how new ideas turn into thoughtful proposals.
• Keep your contact information current with the Club so you receive notices.

If you are a neighbor or a prospective member:

• Check the MSTC Boundary Map to see whether your address is eligible. If it is, joining the purchase waitlist is the first step toward eventual ownership.
• When MSTC matters appear before Fairfax County or the City of Fairfax (for example, Special Permit or Special Use Permit amendments), there is a public hearing process in the applicable jurisdiction. That is the formal place where neighbors who are not members are entitled to be heard.
• Reach out with questions — even tough ones. The Board would rather hear from you directly than try to address misunderstandings online, and we read what comes in.

A Final Word

MSTC’s rules — like any rules written decades ago — are not perfect and merit periodic review. The Board welcomes that review, and the membership has the tools to carry it out. What the Board asks, in return, is that the conversation be grounded in the facts of how the Club actually works: a private, member-owned, Virginia nonprofit, with 600 members, one type of membership, and a set of rules that only the members themselves can change.

Thank you for being part of — or curious about — this Club. Whether you’ve been a member for forty years or are reading this from the house you just moved into, you are part of what makes this neighborhood what it is. We are grateful for that, and we’re here for the conversation.

Sincerely,

Board of Directors
Mantua Swim & Tennis Club