Coronavirus update - 3 June
Update from Mark Hildred (chairman)
Dear Member,
I hope you and your family are safe and well. As you will of course be aware, our club is – as an indoor sports venue – currently shut in line with the government’s coronavirus regulations. While we all hope to be able to spend time on the courts again soon, we wanted to provide an update as to what has been going on at the club since we closed our doors on 20th March.
Finances
Naturally, forced closure means that our income has taken a hit, with no tokens currently being sold! However, you will be pleased to hear that the club has successfully applied for various government funding schemes, and this means that the club’s future is secure, and we will certainly be able to open again whenever we are permitted to do so. This brings us to the next topic…
Membership fees We are of course aware that the majority of members pay annual subscriptions ‘up front’, but are not currently able to enjoy the facilities. We do not want anyone to feel out of pocket as a result, and once we are able to reopen, we will look at what will be the best/most practical way of reimbursing members, as the funding we have received should allow us to do this. We just ask that you are patient with us over this, as we are of course volunteer-led, and currently have no idea what the future holds!
For those members who feel able to do so, we may ask that you consider not opting to take what reimbursement is offered, as a donation to club funds (remembering that all of course will be reinvested into our facilities). However this would of course be on a no-obligation basis.
Events
Again, it is probably fairly obvious to say that all club events – including the Club Championships – are currently suspended. Whether we restart or cancel these for the year will be looked at by the committee as we look to reopen.
Do you have any old photos or stories from the club? One of the features we would like to include in our new regular email updates, are some ‘blasts from the past’, or clippets of club history that you think others might be interested in. So if you have any old photos, stories, anecdotes etc, please do message Adam Hildred (adam.hildred@gmail.com) with these, and we will try to include them (subject to being fit for a family-friendly newsletter!).
Other bits and pieces We are grateful to John Payne, who volunteered time to help put the building into a ‘lockdown’ mode to minimise our utility bills during the closure period.
For those of you who might not have been to the club in our last week or so of opening, the bar and function room areas were in the process of being renovated. Below there are some photos of this in process. We’re also very grateful to Ady, Dave, Brett, Katie, Grahame and Andy from the racketball 'squad', who volunteered their time to strip the walls of the bar and paint the function room, saving the club a significant sum compared to having tradesmen do this. It will be great to be able to have a drink and events in the renovated spaces once safe and legal to do so!
Finally, just to note that while we do have the e-mail addresses of most members, we of course have not forgotten those members for who we do not, and will also be aiming to circulate copies of this update in the post to members who will not receive this e-mail. If you do know of a member who you think may not have received this update, please do encourage them to get in touch with Adam Hildred (adam.hildred@gmail.com) so that they can be added to our circulation list.
Best wishes,
Mark Hildred
Chairman
PS: we are e-mailing these updates to all members for whom we hold e-mail addresses. If you wish to receive these updates via e-mail, please sign up on the 'Newsletter' page.
