We have nearly finished our review of the responses to our members’ opinion survey and we aim to report out to you in the next couple of weeks.

Breaking news is that DBC has dropped its proposal to remove free car parking at Canal Fields.  The final version of their proposed changes to car parking, which have now been issued for public consultation, are broadly to do with standardising and increasing prices and contain no changes to Canal Fields.

Which is how it should be.  The origin of that car park was to provide parking for the sports grounds located in Broadwater, and hence why Broadwater is a private, unadopted road, as it was originally an access track to the grounds and to farmland beyond.

On the subject of local sports grounds, the Berkhamsted Sports Ground Association (which owns the cricket field, the football ground, and a strip of our site) is advertising for an Independent Trustee.  Currently, the charity board largely comprises the chairs of a number of local sports clubs, including ours, and it would like to widen its pool of volunteer support and skill-set.  Attached is a role description.

Turning to the playing sections, we’re going to to start with squash and recakeetball this time, as we have some disturbing news for you.

Squash and Racketball

4 of the 6 fob/key units in the squash corridor behind the courts have been badly damaged and will have to be replaced at a cost of c£150 each.  1 of them is falling to bits.  It could have been wear and tear over time but, for them all to fail at the same time is highly circumstantial and leads us to believe that it was vandalism.

If so, it is a complete disgrace.  We have checked the entrance CCTV cameras for the time window it happened and there is nothing suspicious.  We do not have CCTV inside the clubhouse, other than a camera on squash court 1, and we do not want to go down that route.

We’re going to contain this month’s squash news to this single item.

Tennis

Thank you to those of you who came along to our consultation meetings and SGM regarding the proposed refurbishment of courts 10, 11 and 12.  We are pleased to confirm that it was unanimously approved.

Preparation is already underway.  DBC’s decision on the planning application to upgrade to LED floodlights is expected next month.  A contract has been signed with Chiltern Sports, who did the refurbishment of courts 7, 8 and 9.  Their longest lead time for raw materials is 3 to 4 months for the Tiger Turf playing surface.  We expect, therefore, to be able to commence the work around February/March next year.

This coming Sunday is Finals Day for our first ever Tennis Handicap tournament!  Congratulations and good luck to all our finalists.

Look out for news coming soon about our opening match in the National League winter season.  We have our first match on Sunday 12th November.

Social

Rock and Roll Bingo is back!  Wednesday 8th November, raising money for the Hospice of St Francis.  Tickets are available from the bar or email claire@isalie.co.uk

Spotlight on...

In last month’s newsletter, we shed some light on the club’s governance structure and how we run the club:  the club constitution, the club council, the playing section committees, the office managers and groundsman.

We’re going to continue that theme this month and provide a brief background on how we set your annual subscriptions.

Our membership year runs from 1st April to 31st March.  We propose the subs at the AGM in the first week of February and, subject to agreement, we then issue the renewal invoices, with a slight discount for prompt payment.  If you ever wish to hear more, or challenge things, come along to the AGM.

Hence the club receives 70% of its annual income in February and March, which pays the bills for the next 12 months.  The remaining 30% is largely fee income from court bookings and floodlights over the course of the year.

Our approach to membership subscriptions is threefold:

1. To do no more than align with inflation.  With a minor exception from 2006 until 2009, we have never increased membership subscriptions above the prevailing Consumer Price Index.  We track the index for the preceding 12 months and we target a price increase slightly below that level:  a close-to-inflation policy.  By doing that, we maintain club income broadly in line with the increase in our overheads, but we never impose a cost increase in real terms to our members.  (From 2006 until 2009 we phased in a £40 per adult tennis member contribution to a sinking fund for tennis court maintenance, by adding £10pa to adult tennis subscriptions in addition to an inflationary increase.)
2. To benchmark ourselves against the other tennis and squash clubs in the region, to ensure we are not out of line.  We use a ‘basket’ of about 20 clubs in the surrounding area encompassing, among others, Halton, Tring, Aylesbury, Chesham, Beaconsfield, Leverstock Green, Radlett, Harpenden and St Albans.  We do not aspire to be the cheapest, but we do not want to be the most expensive, whether it is for subscriptions, court fees or floodlight fees.  We aim for a middle of the road level, notwithstanding that the standard of our court and clubhouse facilities is far above many of those clubs.
3. To provide a small surplus of income over all overheads, depreciation and provisions for court maintenance in our profit and loss forecast for the financial year - and, as a members’ club, any profit that we make is reinvested over time in the club’s facilities.

Bottom line is we recognise that your membership subscription is a material amount of money, but we will always try to ensure that it is fairly priced and that you get value for that commitment and you consider it money well spent.

That’s all for now, until next time.

Club Council

(John Shaw, Phil Trimmer, Michael Beavis, Matt Markwort, Tracey Mackey, Mark Shattock)