Chairman’s Annual Report 2016
Our 2016 Annual General Meeting is to be held on Thursday 10 November 2016, starting at 7:30pm. The venue is the XP School (this is the new school next to the car park as viewed from our stand at the running track. Buffet served at 7pm. Agenda here. Please make every effort to attend.
Chairman’s Annual Report 2016
At the time of writing I note that next year marks our 10 year anniversary at the Keepmoat Site and the start of our 4th year as having Leasehold of the property. Much has changed over the past year and I would like to thank our Club Directors for their forthright, common sense approach to the many decisions we have had to make, including:
- Financial overview
- Site maintenance
- Organisation of events
- Club house/ new office unit.
- Partnership development
- Member related matters
in every case, seeking to move our Club forward.
I would also like to thank our dedicated coaching team, who give up their time for the benefit of our members, in all weather and not forgetting our volunteers, Pam in the cabin, Paul in the Tuck Shop, Yvonne our Membership Secretary and Gill our Club treasurer, to mention just a few.
There have been two major challenges this Year 1. The proposed club house project 2. Track and general site maintenance, both projects have been achieved, perhaps not completely in the way we would have wanted but as Chairman I have taken a lot from the experience, as have our other Directors, as follows:
- The Club House.
Our intention was to have a two storey building with changing rooms, bar area and administration office, the project was costed at £1.2 million. The main challenge was securing a funded grant and finding a business partner to provide match funding. Our CASC status brings a conditional business model, where exemption from corporation tax and business rates means limited turnover ruling from HMRC. In addition a £500,000 contribution from a business partner gave us limited control of the overall asset, which could have brought more damage than benefit to the club.
In the end we have sourced a new office and meeting room, entirely from Club finds to meet our medium term needs.
- Track Repairs/ site maintenance.
Leasehold brings with it many advantages but our main challenge is meeting the daily and longer term maintenance costs. Through careful budgeting the Directors have managed to achieve that providing a full upgrade to our finishing straight, giving us the best athletics facility in the region.
A small volunteer team has worked extremely hard in planning and delivering successful road races, track and field events, refreshments at rugby and high profile football matches and of course our open all hours tuck shop. Every penny has been poured into our reserves to meet our costs and benefit members.
One disappointment is the few members who pay into our Club Lottery, for just £5 per month our funds could be dramatically increased, which in turn removes pressure to increase membership fees, I hope everyone reading this report will give this some thought.
This year was also our first attempt at competing in the Mens British League, we are indebted to Terry Winmill, our Director for Track and Field and the Club Team Manager, for leading on this competition. This experience has given us the opportunity to examine our strengths and development areas and review our competition police/ coaching across the board. We should look forward to 2017 to improve our performance in the British League next year and move towards Ladies involvement in the medium term.
One pleasing development has been the growth in numbers in attending our Saturday Academy, under the stewardship of Dan Winmill and his young coaching team who have given up their Saturday mornings voluntarily. The Academy is now starting to bring through new young talented members to our main membership and already making their mark in Club competitions.
In closing, our Directors have already completed detailed planning for next year and agreed strategic priorities to help move us forward, as follows:
- Implement a new competing policy and review our coaching provision for new members and non competing members to train on Wednesdays, freeing up much needed coaching spaces for serious competing members.
- Expanding partnership working with local organisations.
- Explore additional funding provisions and event planning.
- Continue to survey track and site maintenance costs for 2018 and beyond.
- To expand our club volunteer team.
I commend this report to everyone as a snapshot of this year, which will be discussed in more detail at The Annual general Meeting on the 10th November.
Kev Lincoln
Club Chairman.