Wondering what the management committee has been doing? Updates - July & Aug 2011

Hello members, friends and potential players,

In the interests of being open and transparent, here is a run down of the key things discussed and decided at the past two Management Committee Meetings on 19th July and 9th August:

July

• Management Committee Dates set out to the end of 2012 - so that people have more notice of the meetings.  Dates generally fall on 2nd Monday of each month and will appear in the club calendar. 
• Vacant CMC positions - Secretary to be covered by Andrew Hesselden (minutes by Kev Doherty) for the time being.  Development Committee to be chaired by Club Chairman Dave Leftley in the absence of a Development Officer
• Club Captain - per new constitution, the three playing Chairs decided that Randall Powell, Men's Playing Chair would fulfil the nominative/"ceremonial" position of Club Captain for 2011/2012.
• Minibus/Car accident - long standing issue over minibus crash now resolved.
• Farm - talks ongoing to come to a formal document/agreement of tenure with the farm. This it is hoped will enable us to pursue more funding opportunities and allow us to invest in the paddock to improve the training surface.  We are hopeful we will come to an agreement that all parties are happy with and secures the club's future on the island.
• Tower Hamlets Parks - met with new Head of Parks recently and they confirmed that LBTH has no plans to take away the rugby pitch on Millwall Park.  This is excellent news for the club.
• Communications - Sophie Buckman will be producing the matchday programme this season and Andy Stephens will be assisting Matt Shorrock and Andrew Hesselden with press officer duties.
• Player Appearances - Ryan Kuleska will be maintaining the big magic spreadsheet this season.
• Venus - recruitment planned for Greenwich University Freshers' Fair. Venus Committee set up.
• Youth - Preseason has started: 45-50 kids have turned out so far. Rugby ready course 27th July - fully booked so there is the potential to have more. 4 teams running this year starting with minis 7,8,9 year olds, under 12’s, under 14’s and under 16’s who are in a league. Scott Vinnicombe will now be promoting the club in LBTH schools in his role as LBTH Rugby Development Officer. 
• Clubhouse - some operational issues continue - Kerry Attwood & Edna to convene a meeting of the clubhouse committee asap and all interested to be invited.

August

• Meetings: September CMC meeting to be rearranged as 12th September will not be quorate.  Additional meetings to be scheduled: 15th Aug for CMC to discuss and agree membership charges.  10th Aug for Clubhouse Committee.  13th August for Men's Playing Committee
• Guidelines for (sub)committees have been produced and circulated by the secretary to try and improve notice of meetings and notice of agenda points for members and those interested in attending.  CMC members have all been requested to convene their respective committees urgently before the end of August.  Club members to be invited to all committees (except management committee which remains necessarily guests by invitation only)
• Communications: reminder to all committee chairs of the need to tell members what is going on.
• Men's Chair: New Director of Rugby Appointed - committee met Warren Abrahams and discussed how the club would be developed this season.  Warren welcomed to the club.  We have a 4th team manager.  Chris Attwood will help with 2nds or 3rds.  Fixtures being handled by Men's chair in absence of a fixture secretary.  Transport to be arranged for all teams by Andy Stephens, Transport Officer.  We believe we can operate without team managers if absolutely needs be and Chris Attwood, Scott Vinnicombe, Randall and Warren can all help with these duties.  Recruitment and player retention plan in place.
• Clubhouse: Meeting will be held asap to resolve some issues with clubhouse management.  Plans to apply for funding to cover the clubhouse manager position.
• Financial Position: Clubhouse has made a loss over the summer months, May, June, July.  Need to workout what members want in terms of opening hours/events.  Budget process now in place and after running the club for a year, Edna has a good picture of what the various aspects of the club cost to run.  Plan to apply to IDCF or other bodies for revenue funding to avoid passing the costs onto our members.
• Very large bill for water has arrived which will regrettably take a lot of committee time to resolve. If we are liable for the full cost then this will cause significant financial hardship for the club.
• Next meeting Mon 15th August purely to discuss Membership Charges.

If you find this summary interesting, please do drop me a line at secretary@millwallrugby.com or comment below to let us know and we will continue doing this.