WELCOME BACK FROM THE CHAIRMAN
Hurray! Rugby is back! It was a real pleasure to be able to welcome players from all age groups back to the club for training in the last week. I am also really looking forward to being able to welcome you all back to the club for a beer on Saturday the 17th April. We are going to have a large tent at the club to enable us to enjoy a Covid safe drink in the great outdoors and would hope to see as many of you as possible in our White and Green Beer machine (a big military hospital tent) on that day.
On the finance side things are looking up. In the last month we have been given £1000 from Devon County Council to spend on grounds maintenance equipment so Nigel is going to be happy with his new lawnmower and cutting tools. We have to thank councillor Andrew Leadbetter for helping us win the grant. We’ve also been given £48K from the RFU Winter Survival Fund. There are restrictions on what we can spend the money on however this puts in a much stronger financial position and allows us to start thinking ahead rather than being worried about the short term. As a committee we have taken a decision to payback £20k of our Lloyds loan at the moment which leaves £22k outstanding, if we can start to generate an income in the next few months that means we are not haemorrhaging cash on utilities, then we will be keen to pay that off as well which would leave us debt free. That is an amazing achievement from where we were last year.
On the sponsorship front Rodney Spiller Wealth Management has decided to join our growing group of sponsors thank you to Chris Bentley for organising the deal and I look forward to welcoming Rodney to Bonfire field.
Other big considerations right now are the state of the grounds. Given the wear and tear they will receive we are exploring the costs of reseeding something we hope to be able to do. This may have some implications on where you can train so please be respectful if we ask you to stay off certain areas. We are also planning on renting the grounds for camping, off the pitches I hasten to add, this also has the potential to be a significant money earner.
I also want to introduce a couple of new members to the team Henry Justice has responded to our call for support on the communications front and you will be seeing an improvement as a result in terms of the quantity and quality of communications on social media and other means. Also, John Broom a junior parent has also stepped up to help sort our out dated website I would encourage all team admins to engage with John to make sure their part of the Pitchero site is up to date. Our website is a window into the club and I want to make sure it truly reflects the vibrant and thriving community rugby club that we are.
- Graham Smith, Chair