Grafton Tennis and Squash Club
70A Thornton Road • London • SW12 0LF
Tel: 020 8673 2891
Grafton Committee Update October 2017
Dear Members,
Many apologies it’s taken me so long to get the update from the last committee meeting together, but at last here they are.
The last committee meeting was held on 31st October 2017
In attendance
Murray Sutton (Chairman)
Tim Bannerjee (Vice Chairman)
Lucas Wielgo (Club Manager)
Tony Braimbridge (Facilities Secretary)
Rodney Toop (Funding Secretary)
Melanie Gibbs (Membership Secretary)
Peter Gray (Squash Members Secretary)
Graeme Hogarth (Squash Head Coach)
John Peters (Tennis Head Coach)
Apologies
Toby Mitchell (Treasurer)
Sarah Honeyball (Social Secretary)
Louis Robjant (Squash Members Secretary)
Many topics were discussed that relate to each other I will do my best to summarise things as efficiently as possible
Membership Levels
Mel provided and update on membership levels.
We currently have a total of 513 members,
this splits-up as follows:
· Junior Membership: 84
· Adult membership 429:(91 Squash only, 252 Tennis only, and 77 Tennis & Squash, 9 Social members)
Membership levels are up (largely as a result of the open day) from 450 as of May of this year. a very positive sign we hope you agree. Whilst we are currently seeing increased pressure on court bookings, particularly Tennis courts, a membership cap at this point was not viewed as necessary.
Direct Debit Payments
The topic of direct debit payments for membership fees was also discussed. Mel is currently reviewing a system designed for Tennis / Squash clubs by ‘Club Spark’. There are additional costs and administrative requirements so Mel will continue to evaluate and we will discuss her findings at the next committee meeting in January.
Squash Courts Heating Upgrades
This much-needed work has now been completed. New heaters have been installed on all squash courts, and a new boiler for the heating system has also been put in place. This will hopefully provide much better moisture and heating control throughout the winter. Squash players please let us know how this works out.
Graeme, Peter, and Louis will review the effectiveness of these upgrades as winter progresses.
Tennis Courts Floodlight Installation
Some of you may recall that We need to perform a power supply upgrade before we can complete the installation of floodlights for courts 1 and 2.
With the funds in place Tony has instructed UK power networks to commence work on increasing the power supply to the club by laying the new cabling running up to the club’s premises.
Tony has also instructed our contractor to update the power supply board currently situated on court 5. The cost of these works sums up to approximately £12K
Unfortunately, Lambeth Council’s policy of ‘no works on public land’ in December may hamper the completion date. Once timing is confirmed we will set a floodlight installation date, with aim being for January completion, this will be at a cost of £25k with the plan to fund this through normal revenue streams.
Court Resurfacing
Highlighted by many of you in the recent questionnaire as a key improvement for the club, we’ll get more details out over the next few weeks. To keep it brief here; courts 5-8 are in fairly urgent need of resurfacing. Next winter is the critical time fence, after which the courts will become increasingly unplayable, and significant additional funds will be required to rectify the situation. We need to address this by summer 2018 if possible.
There are two options that the committee currently considers to be the most realistic in terms of cost:
· Resurfacing of the current tarmac surface at a cost of £40K
· Installation of artificial clay courts at a cost of £90K.
On top of the maintenance program currently financed or underway (see above) this represents significant and essential investment for the club.
You will have seen an announcement that gives details on the long-term membership offers put together with the aim of offering increased value to our membership and at the same time meeting this considerable investment.
Below you will see an update the LTA funding program, and other avenues we will be working on over the coming months. Once we have a better idea of the uptake of long term memberships we will canvas all members on their preferred court surface.
Given the multiple finding initiatives highlighted here we are confident we'll be able to meet this challenge head on, and continue to make Grafton a more vibrant club for us all. Of course, given the relative urgency of the courts we would need to prioritise funds in that direction if required. That would unfortunately have the effect delaying floodlight installation, but let's only cross that bridge if we need to.
Funding and Grants
Since the last committee meeting Rodney has consolidated and summarised the steps necessary to achieve LTA funding. In short this would require the development of a long-term investment plan to include partnerships with neighbouring clubs. The time frame required to achieve success would be considerable, running to approximately 2-3 years. With the funding pot also extremely limited, it was decided that other avenues should be also explored before working on detailed and time-consuming funding submissions. Over the coming months Rodney will continue to review options with Sport England and the National Lottery.
If you have any ideas or would like to discuss the finer details just drop Rodney a line.
Coaching
The strength and breadth of the Grafton coaching program continues to grow. With the expanding Grafton Academy, near full Kids Holiday Sessions and, a strong adult coaching program, things certainly seem to be moving in the right direction. The value this brings to the club cannot be under estimated.
With the project landscape highlighted above Tim, Lucas and John will review any optimisation opportunities for the club’s revenue stream linked to these coaching activities over the coming weeks.
Open day 2018
Given the success of this year’s event, the date for 2018 will be set shortly. John indicated a date in April would probably be optimal.
Income and Revenue
Unfortunately, Toby was unable to attend the meeting this time round. Given some of his extended overseas commitments the regular banking activities will now be handed over. Toby is in the process of putting arrangements for this in place.
Rodney will perform a cash flow analysis for the club, so we can set up a ‘sink-fund’ to help ring fence cash for future investment projects. More details will be shared once this work is complete.
Annual Members Meeting
Long overdue, and with Christmas almost up on us it was decided to hold a Members Meeting late Jan 2018. A date will be fixed over the coming weeks, and an agenda circulated as soon as possible.
Social Calendar 2018
Sarah and the social team now have this in place with details to be distributed after the Christmas party. Look out for those FB and newsletter updates.
I think that pretty much sums it up. It’s worth saying again that our members make Grafton. Thanks to all for the continued support, ideas, enthusiasm and advice. We’ve got a lot to look forward to, so here’s to an even better 2018.
Before then bring on the Christmas party (Entry and Raffle tickets still available)
Any thoughts / comments / questions on the above just drop me a line
Tim
E: timbannerjee@yahoo.com
29/11/2017
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