Grafton Tennis and Squash Club
70A Thornton Road • London • SW12 0LF
Tel: 020 8673 2891
Greetings Graftonites:
The most recent committee meeting was held on the 17th May 2018.
Our committee members are listed below, with those present at the meeting indicated.
Murray Sutton: Chairman (Present)
Tim Bannerjee: Vice Chairman (Present)
Lucas Wielgo: Club Manager (Present)
Tony Braimbridge: Facilities Manager (Present)
Rodney Toop: Funding Secretary (Present)
Gary Couzens: Treasurer (Present)
Peter Gray: Squash Secretary (Present)
John Peters: Head Tennis Coach (Apologies)
Toby Mitchell: Share Holders and Contracts Secretary (Apologies)
Melanie Gibbs: Membership Secretary (Apologies)
Graeme Hogarth: Squash Coach (Apologies)
Louis Robjant: Secretary (Apologies)
Sarah Honeyball: Social Secretary (Apologies)
Given the voluntary nature of the committee we often need to prioritise and focus on the most pressing action areas. We hope you’ll agree that the agenda points that follow for the most part reflect this.
GDPR UPDATE
The club, by necessity holds contact records for all our members. It is essential that these records are kept in accordance to General Data Protection regulations (GDPR). Over the past few weeks we've been reviewing the implications of data protection law changes that come in to force 25 May 2018. The committee will now sign off on a new master audit document to ensure compliance.
Members should review recent newsletters for information and instructions on how to state your preference on the visibility of your contact information to other club members.
FINANCES AND SINK FUND
This month we welcome Gary Couzens on to the club’s committee. He will take over as our treasurer, to allow Toby more time to focus on long term issues such as the club structure, and some of the contracts we have in place that need review.
Over the next few months Gary will perform a cash flow analysis on the club’s finances. This will enable us to put some more structure around the way we plan for major investments in our club. This month we put a ‘sink fund’ in place to start to process of ‘ring fencing’ funds for club improvement and maintenance projects.
An upgrade to the till system for improved revenue stream itemisation was discussed. Tim will look at potential options for review at the end of June.
MEMBERSHIP LEVELS
Our membership continues to grow. This is in part thanks to the open days over the last few years, and some of the work our coaching teams and members do in promoting the club. The record membership levels are as follows:
1 Junior Squash
54 Junior Tennis
28 Junior Tennis & Squash
83 Total juniors
8 Social
99 Adult Squash
265 Adult Tennis
76 Adult Tennis & Squash
448 Adult Total
531 Total All
MEMBERSHIP FEES
The club typically reviews membership fees every 18 months. With this now due, Mel will perform a review of our tennis based fees, Graeme and Peter will look into our squash based fees. The aim will be to announce and implement any changes in July.
The need to look at more flexible payment options of membership fees was discussed, and Mel will continue to review direct debit options for us.
LONG TERM PLANNING
As some of you know we are on the verge of some exciting upgrades, namely the resurfarcing of tennis courts 5-8 and floodlighting courts 1-2.
Peter / Graeme / Louis will now start work on a proposed squash long term plan and, Murray / Gary / Tony / Tim / Rodney will start work on a tennis long term plan.
***Feedback and ideas from the club's members will be essential. (see notes on the 2018 members' meeting below)***
SQUASH COURT HEATING UPGRADES
As previously reported, the squash heating upgrade trail has proven to be successful. This means we will now continue with works to complete the installation of 2 new heaters for each of our squash courts. The intention is to have these upgrades completed for the end of August.
ARTIFICIAL CLAY COURTS INSTALLATION
Following confirmation of payment terms and guarantee, Tony and Murray have now instructed Chiltern Sports to proceed with the conversion of Courts 5-8 to artificial clay at a cost of £67K+ VAT. This represents a major and exciting investment for the club. This cost has been covered through a mixture of the revenue generated by recent long-term membership offers, and very generous interest-free loans offered up by a few members. The thoroughness of research into every detail by Tony and Murray has been massive, and truly reflective of the investment in question.
The next steps will be a routine test of the drainage of the current surface, followed by what we hope will be confirmation of installation in mid-September following the Fox Trophy.
FLOODLIGHTS FOR COURTS 1&2:
You may recall that that there are 2 general steps to this upgrade project. Firstly, the upgrade of the current power supply to the club, the second step being installation of the new floodlights.
UK Power Networks are the company responsible for maintaining and upgrading all power supply’s in the area. The work Tony has done to literally every step of the upgrade with UKPN has been painstaking and hugely frustrating at times. Poor planning, and execution on UKPN’s part has led to on-going negotiations and re-planning. Thanks to Tony’s focus and sheer persistence we’re almost there with the first stage. UKPN will now complete the upgrade in June.
The intention is to instruct Highlights Floodlighting Ltd to perform the installation of the floodlights before the work on courts 5-8 commences. This will maximise court availability throughout the upgrade process.
The second phase will cost £27k (inc. VAT) and will be covered through normal club revenue streams. Before formal instruction is offered we have decided to complete the aforementioned cash flow analysis in order to provide full transparency to our membership.
Tony / Murray / Gary /Tim will continue to move this to completion.
******2018 MEMBERS' MEETING******
This long overdue meeting will now be held 7:30pm-9:30pm on Thursday 26th July. More details will follow but this will give us all the opportunity to discuss the area’s critical for the ongoing success of our club.
Tim will put together the details and an announcement for distribution via the usual channels over the coming weeks.
SOCIAL COMMITTEE UPDATES
As we enter the summer season the Social committee will now start planning the all-important summer social scene. The next event on the horizon is our Chairman’s 70th birthday party – more details very soon but please keep 7pm Saturday 7th July free.
Many thanks for taking the time to read through this update.
If you have any questions or would like further information, please to not hesitate to contact any of the committee members.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Sat 23rd June – The Grafton Cup (from 9:30am ) + After party
Sat 7th July - Summer Birthday Party (from 7pm)
Thurs 26th July - MEMBERS' MEETING (from 730pm)
Sat 14th / Sun 15th July - Wimbledon Finals & Super Social
***SAT 21 JULY- SUMMER CHAMPS FINALS DAY***
Sat 8th Sept - Fox Trophy + After Party (from 9:30am)
Sat 6th Oct – Oktoberfest (from 7pm)
Sat 3rd Nov- Wine tasting/Pub crawl
Sat 8th Dec - Christmas Party (from 7pm)
Have a good week, everyone!
graftoncomms@gmail.com
06/06/2018
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