Chairman,s Newsletter's

Message from the Chairman 

Welcome to the start of the 2009/10 season at Sudbury Hockey Club. I hope you are all fit and well and looking forward to a new and exciting season. After last years repositioning of teams it will be very interesting to see how teams get along in the new leagues and hopefully we will see teams advancing up the leagues again this year. However that is a whole season away. 

Training has been going for some time now and I know that there has been excellent turnout for that. Friendly matches have been played and we are all looking forward with anticipation to the first league matches towards the end of September. 

Whilst you have no doubt been enjoying the BBQ summer the committee have been hard at work getting the Club ready for the new season.  The Fixture Card has been a cooperative task between Jim Carnegie who has again filled the card with a range of sponsors and Lou Palmer who has gathered all the information on players and matches and arranged with Delta Print to have the booklets prepared in time for the start of the season. 

Work has continued on the Clubs First renewal. Although a huge amount was done when we first attained the status, the renewal requires a similar amount of gathering of information and my thanks go to Jim and his team for their excellent work on this. 

We take over the Club House on the 14^th of September and Edd Burton has already organised a function for the 19^th and I hope many of you will be able to attend.  Edd has a number of other events planned throughout the season and these will be listed on the website. If however if anyone has any thoughts about events please let Edd know he is always open to new ideas. 

Those of you who went to the AGM will know that the Clubs finances are going through a bit of a sticky phase. Whilst overall membership of the Club is slightly up on the previous year we have had some fairly large increases in costs and a large repair bill for the Clubhouse. As you know we did not increase subs or match fees last year and because of the high price of fuel increased the travel allowance. All these exacerbated the problem and by the end of the year we could see that if urgent action was not taken then we would have significant problems. 

My committee put a lot of effort into finding equitable solutions for the funding shortfall. First amongst these was much greater management control over the finances. We would be looking at every pound we are spending and seeing if there were alternatives. Additionally we will be seeking additional funding from a number of sponsors, local authorities and we will be looking to arrange fund raising activities for which we will seek your active involvement. 

However we must act now if we want the Club to survive and we presented to the members at the AGM three options; to increase membership fees, to phase out the mileage allowance or to increase match fees. We suggested that a rapid turn around could be obtained with just two of the options. However the members decided that the most equitable solution was for an increase in match fees to the level of £10 for a senior and £5 for a junior. However that amounts to about the price of one pint of beer per week. We will retain the 20 pence per mile for those who drive and have agreed an increase from £5 to £10 for umpires. 

It is my intent that as we go through the season to review the finances and ensure we are on track. We need to reverse the decline in Club finances and hopefully start to put money aside to make sure that we prepare for the day when we need to replace the astro pitch surface again or perhaps can put in a second pitch as the Club continues to expand. 

I am always open to new ideas and suggestions so if you have any thoughts or views please feel free to call me, drop me an email or catch me at the Club. 

Finally I look forward to an excellent season of hockey and hope that we all have a successful year. 

Best regards 

David Hopps

Chairman 

01473 652612

dhoppsltd@btinternet.com