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Chairman’s Review at AGM

Chairman’s Review at AGM

Tony Coyle22 Jul 2015 - 08:33
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Chairman Spike Stevens gives an update on the Club and news on going into next season.

1.0 Introduction
Thank you for coming this evening. It’s been quite a year.

3 areas of report:
1.1 Playing
1.2 Administration / Management / Finance
1.3 Chairman’s focus

2.0 Playing

2.1 Minis – numbers increased by 88 children on last season. Philosophy remains to combine full inclusivity and remaining competitive.

We are the only club in the county and wider region which runs 2 mini Development tournaments – with focus on children having the opportunity for competitive club representative tournament and festival matches for ALL players in EVERY age group.

Individual highlights were 4 boys from U11s selected to represent London & South East schools; 2 boys ( Oliver Webb and Tim Hayes ) went on to represent the national side on their easter tour of Ireland.

A huge thank you to Matthew Webb, our Mini Chair, all AGO’s, coaches, supporters, Managers, Liz B the fixture secretary and all helpers who stuck at it all through the season, rain or shine.

2.2 Juniors – U14s and U15s reached county cup finals, U15s winning without conceding a point. Colts reached U17s South West Final and U18s London & SE Final of the National Cup.

23 players represented Bucks county at 14s, 15s and 16s. James Seabrook and Joe Tunney represented South West and London respectively and from that Joe was selected for the England U16 England side and starred in the team which thrashed Wales U16. We have 4 players signed up as England Academy players.

Our biggest success is the ability to put out 2 full squads in every Junior Age group, the only team in Bucks and wider region. This fully inclusive policy is the right way for the club and the players to progress.

A huge thank you to Dave Choules, Junior Chair – who steps up this season to the club’s first Director of Rugby responsible for ALL rugby across the whole club – U6s to 1st XV – and best wishes to Hugh Griffiths who replaces Dave; to the AGO’s, managers, fixture secretaries, coaches. And what a brilliant reflection on Matt Allen’s outstanding contribution to this engine room of our club, to whom we owe a massive debt for his unstinting commitment and enthusiasm.

2.3 Seniors – we know the 1st XV, ravaged by injury and stepping into a far higher grade of rugby than we’d previously experienced in South West were relegated, after very good bookends of the season. Winning 3 of the first 4; and 5 of the last 9, we were relegated by a single point into London 1. As we were amongst the clubs in the league with the lowest playing budgets it was difficult to compete with the wealthy clubs who recruit extensively outside their area.

47 players represented the 1st XV at one time or another; which led to a big knock on effect on the other Senior Teams. The 2nd XV and 3rd XVs both had Colts regularly playing.

The philosophy of our club is to put at least 12 home grown and local players into each 1st XV match day squad and encourage organic growth.

After Ollie Choules and Giles Westgarth ( who last season played National 2 for Canterbury ) made 1st XV debuts as 17 year olds last year, Ollie again, Callum Reid Jones ( a Colt ) and Ryan Greenstreet all had sustained runs in the 1st XV at 19 years or younger. Congratulations to them.

We have boosted our coaching group for the forthcoming season as we aim to bounce back into National 3 at the first attempt. And a move into Herts & Middx Merit for the 3s will encourage younger and older players to mix and enjoy sociable, competitive, community rugby.

3.0 Admin / Management / Finance

After an early season review, we restructured our management focus into 3 distinct areas – Revenue Generation, Costs Saving and Rugby Operations – to try and eradicate our deficit.

With over £20,000 of new net revenue generated and similar cost savings achieved against budget the picture at Year End is almost smack on break even. This has been achieved with a great effort and commitment from the Exec and the club’s volunteer network. At the same time, we’ve not compromised on any rugby activity.
Clubhouse hirings are up around 40% since the autumn so we are leveraging our major asset like never before.

We continue to find ways to invest in infrastructure. Last season, upgraded floodlights, new kitchen equipment, new bar equipment and a replanned bar area constructed, the clubhouse redecorated pretty much top to bottom and the additional carparking facilities where the referees used to park. We hope this will provide extra new revenue too.

Next season we want to upgrade the food storage “sheds”; aim to have our own laundry; make more improvements to the Grayburn Room as a welcoming chill-out room; continue to invest in our pitches and playing areas; and make the terrace a real terrace with BBQ etc.

This momentum can be maintained with our new Exec appointments. Liz Bradshaw as Director of Fundraising; Jerry Green with overall responsibility for all our infrastructure; Dave Choules as Director of Rugby; and a new Treasurer (!)

Which brings me onto Volunteers. We don’t have enough. Too much is being done by too few. Should we incentivise volunteers with discounts from subscriptions for doing important, time consuming NON-EXEC, NON SATURDAY & SUNDAY COACHING etc roles, such as Press Liason Officer, IT web Controller etc etc ? Is that idea fair ? Would it work ie, produce more volunteers ?

We also say a huge thank you to Jane Grundy, Stephen Lawrence and Dave Neale who step down from the Exec after wonderful service to our club. We thank them for outstanding contributions, for their time, effort and energy.

4.0 Chairman’s Focus

With the administration and management changes now in place and functioning well and our improved financial position entering the new season, I want to continue efforts to bind all sections and ages of the club and help Martyn Fletcher and Ralph Hayward specifically much more than I have been in their efforts to keep their numerous successes with in-house activities bubbling along.

We should be looking to continue our internal investment AND reaching an annual surplus or cushion of around £20,000.

The Rugby World Cup in the autumn gives us a great chance to showcase our club and we’ll have some exciting events to promote as soon as the season is underway.

I’d like to thank the Exec team for their support and commitment, all of our members, coaches, AGOs, supporters, managers, staff, sponsors, players, refs, volunteers and friends for making this a wonderful club to be associated with. Here’s to next season.

Spike Stevens
Chairman, Amersham & Chiltern Rugby

Further reading