Dear HWSA member,

Over the last six months or so, many things have been going on behind the scenes at our club. We have been looking of ways to improve and move the club forward in both providing a better service to all of you and improving our finances so we might further improve the facilities. This has included setting up discussion groups and also listening to suggestions and requests from you as members.

One of the first things that came out from these meetings etc. is that as an Association we have to communicate things to members more. So the first thing we hope to do is to introduce a monthly newsletter to update you on things that are happening at the club and other announcements.

I would now therefore like to inform you of the changes and proposed changes that are happening at the club.

 Running HWSA has become a very large project, one that part time unpaid committee members, and part time paid staff, are finding it harder to do more and more.

The introduction of Buddies playgroup and the impending joining of Harold Wood Running Club to our Association make us even bigger and logistically harder to run.

 When we first opened the new Clubhouse it was always our intention to get to a situation where we employed a fulltime Clubhouse Manager. With the desire to improve our members experience at the club, solve some of the growing financial issues, and have someone that co-ordinate all the roles of running the Club on a day to day basis we have decided that now is the time to do this. It will also allow the committee to concentrate their time working on other projects to benefit HWSA including long term improvements to the pitches.

On behalf of the committee I am pleased to announce that having conducted several interviews Marianne Mills will be our new Clubhouse Manager. Marianne has worked in the hotel and pub trade for many years and presently manages a pub. She obviously will spend the next few weeks observing how we presently run the club and then will report back to the committee of how we can move things forward over the coming few months and into next summer.

At this time I would like to thank, personally, on behalf of the HWSA Committee and all of the Members of our club, all of our staff for their efforts.  In particular we would like to thank Cally for all her hard work that she has ( and continues to), put into running the bar. Cally, suitably aided by Grant, spend endless hours sorting things out at the club aswell as trying do their ’daytime’ jobs and bring up their daughter. Under the new changes Cally will now adopt the position of Deputy Clubhouse Manager and I know both her and Grant will give their 100% support to Marianne.

Over the coming months I am sure you will all get to know Marianne. I ask that you make her feel welcome and any feedback you give to her I am sure she will be happy to talk about.

After long discussions and consultations, I list below some of the changes we are intending to make to the club and how HWSA operates.

• Laying of a new carpet and lino in the club room
• Refurbishment of the bar area including an extension to the bar
• Refurbishment of the kitchen
• Food to be available during and after football/cricket matches on Saturdays and Sundays
• Possible monthly ‘Club’ night
• Opening of daily snack café during the summer
• Regular HWSA functions
• Joint venture with Council extension of compound area to accommodate new cricket nets, equipment and storage space
• A HWSA website with access for all members, to include monthly calendar of events, fixture’s, results of clubs matches, advertising opportunities and links to individual clubs websites.

I am sure you appreciate this will take some time and investment to implement! But, we are very committed to working to achieve these ideas.

I ask all members to be understanding if any disruption is caused to the running of the club during this period of change.

Finally I would like to ask for help. This club costs a lot of money to run. There are many jobs,,repairs.,services etc. that we have to pay out for. If anyone of you thinks that you can offer any ,help, service or sponsorship to the club however large or small, I would be grateful if you would contact me by email. geoffabridge@tiscali.co.uk

I hope you will continue to support

It’s YOUR CLUB! PLEASE HELP IT WHERE YOU CAN !

Hope to see you all soon

Regards

Geoff

Chairman of HWSA

PS HWCC AGM is at the club on Monday 23rd November 8pm