Raffle Prizes!

Just a quick reminder of the prizes you can win at the End of Season Dinner raffle.

Tickets will be put at each place setting at the dinner and money collected during the meal. What an opportunity to win a great prize and support your club!
The prizes are;

• 4 top price tickets to England v Barbarians, 26 May 2013 - donated by Killik & Co, Your Partner for Investment and Wealth Advice, www.killik.com.
• Barbarians signed shirt - donated by Sophie Morris. May 2010 team (Xavier Rush, Paul Warwick, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, Cedric Heymans, Paul Sackey, David Smith, Florian Fritz, Casey Laulala, Seru Rabeni, Fabrice Estebanez, Byron Kelleher, Pierre Mignoni, David Barnes, Census Johnston, Rodrigo Roncero, Julian White, Benoit August, Ken Owens, Ben Kay, Ross Skeate, Jerome Thion, Alan Quinlan, George Smith, Martyn Williams, Rodney So'oialo).
• Dallaglio's signature - Lawrence Dallaglio will sign the winner's shirt/book etc. The winner must provide the item to be posted to Lawrence to sign and return.
• 2 x 12 month subscription to Rugby World magazine
• A bottle of House of Commons Champagne
• A bottle of House of Commons Port

Don't miss out - if you are not attending the dinner on the 30th June and would like to enter the raffle, please email me at sophiemorris@millwallrugby.com

Due to the time needed to set up a charity link from our eBay account to the Friends of Millwall Rugby Club charity, unfortunately the online auction will not be launched in time to end at the dinner, but will a separate annoucement will be made when it goes live.

If you are able to donate a prize to the raffle, please let me know asap.

Many thanks

Sophie Morris

Development Officer

Problems with our email system

I'm currently experiencing problems with the club's outbound bulk email system.  This has been escalated to our hosting provider and is in the process of being resolved. Until it is resolved we are unable to send out email communications en-masse.

In the meantime, please use this website, blog and our Facebook page to stay informed with what is going on.

Inbound emails to @millwallrugby.com addresses are unaffected.

Andrew

Chairman's Update - AGM - End of Season Dinner - Awards

Hi All,

I just wanted to post a quick update on a few of the recent things that have been occurring within the Club and also to remind you about two of the most important events in the Clubs calendar.

Events

Annual General Meeting –this weekend the Club’s AGM is being held in the Clubhouse from 1pm, this your opportunity to help with the running, direction and Committee of your Club, as well as hearing a bit more about what’s been happening in the last 12 months. Remember without volunteer participation the Club won’t exist and as the saying goes “many hands make light work” so get involved and help build and grow this great Club. More details are here on the website.

End of Season Dinner at the House of Commons 

Jim Fitzpatrick is kindly hosting this memorable event on the 30 th of June and your last chance to buy tickets is fast approaching with ticket sales closing on Friday the 22 nd of June. Details are here on the website.

Other News

RFU Accreditation

On behalf of the Club at the recent Essex Country dinner Sophie Morris was presented with our RFU accreditation, this important milestone in the Clubs continuing development, it shows the commitment and dedication of our members /volunteers and will help improve our credibility within the community and with potential sponsors. Please see Sophie’s announcement here on the website.

Venus BBQ 

A big congratulations has go to Louise, Bridgette and the rest of the Venus team on a very fun and successful fund raiser, over £1000 was raised for the Club and Venus, thanks also go the Ferry House for hosting the event and to you and all your friends for attending.

Honorary Life Membership 

I’m very please to announce the Committee recently awarded Darryl Gera an Honorary Life Membership. Darryl has been a regular member of the 1 st XV for since joining the Club in 1998!!, being instrumental in two Essex President Shield winning teams as well as various league winning teams, he’s gotten involved in the running of the Club in various capacities including a stint as the 1 st XV manager and he is also RFU Level 1 Coach who has helped coach all sections of the Club but has been instrumental in helping Venus get back up and running. So next time you see Darryl down at the Club or playing touch please pass on your best.

Clubhouse Rent

One of the major items that myself and Shawn Spillsbury (Trustee for our affiliated charity) have been working on for the last year are the negotiations with the Council on the rent for the Clubhouse, this key to the future viability of our Club and I’m confident that we will be able to come to fair and equitable agreement with Tower Hamlets in the coming weeks, as soon as I have more concrete information we’ll let you know.
Clubhouse Rates - I’m very pleased to announce that Edna has successfully applied for an extension of our existing 100% rates relief which saves the Club over £4000 a year, this extension is valid until 2013.

CMC Meetings

If you would like to see what else the CMC has been working on in recent months please have a look at the minutes from our recent meetings (March,April,May) if you are interested in helping out a little or a lot please get in contact with any of the current or future Committee members and find how to get involved, remember it doesn’t have to be a large time commitment but every little bit helps.

End of Season Awards 

Andrew has very kindly put together an online survey for our end of season awards so please take a couple of minutes to have a look and nominate your candidate here, it’s a great opportunity to help recognise someone’s commitment to their team or to the Club as a whole.

I hope to see you down at the Clubhouse this weekend for the AGM and for a beer or two afterwards, we are planning on showing the England game live and will be also be showing replays of the other games.

Don’t forget tickets sales for the end of season dinner close tomorrow Friday the 22nd of June.

Regards,
David Leftley
Chairman
Millwall Rugby Club

AGM & Clubhouse Opening This Saturday 23rd June

The AGM is this Saturday...


You will have all seen (hopefully) the announcements by Andrew with regards to this Saturdays Club AGM.  The AGM is being held at the Clubhouse and is scheduled to start from 13:00 (please arrive early to allow us to get going on time).


There will be NO alcohol on sale prior or during the AGM.  The bar will open at the AGM's conclusion (hopefully for the England Game to be shown live).  Soft drinks however can be purchased throughout.  Please do not ask Bar Staff to serve alcohol as everybody has been instructed not to do so.


3rd Tests Replays & England V South Africa LIVE...


Due to the AGM we will not be showing the replays of the third tests until later on Saturday.  Hopefully the AGM will be completed prior to the England game and we can show that live.  However, fear not as all games will be recorded and will be shown throughout the evening!


Have a great weekend and see you all on Saturday with those pencils sharpened.


The Clubhouse Team.

Nominate someone for a Club Award!

It's that time of year.... it's time to make your nominations for the Millwall Rugby Club Annual Awards 2012 that will be presented at the Club Annual Dinner on 30th June!

See the list of awards and nomination criteria here.

You can make your nomination online by clicking here.

The deadline for receiving nominations is Sunday 24th June at 11pm.

Regards
Andrew Hesselden
Secretary & Communications Officer

Important Information about Annual General Meeting this Saturday

Hello all...

Here is a quick reminder about this Saturday's Club Annual General Meeting.

1. It's very important, because it is when you an elect a committee to run the club for next season.
2. Here are the official details including information about how to nominate yourself for an elected position, and how to submit proxy votes before the deadline for doing so.
3. Here are the nominations I have received so far.  We really do need more of you to step up... and it would be good to have some contested positions this year. I've extended the deadline to TUESDAY 19th June 6pm.
4. I need to know how many trees to kill printing papers and voting slips, so PLEASE PLEASE accept this Facebook event if you are going to be there to make my job easier.  I will be doing all the printing on THURSDAY, so if you've accepted by then, I will make sure you have papers.

Being on committee doesn't need to be hard or take a long time, but you do need to be committed to the role and to looking after the club - it's in your hands!

I've written a short summary of what's involved in each of the positions.

Regards
Andrew
Club Secretary

New Clubhouse Officer Role

At the May meeting of the Clubhouse Management Committee (CMC) it was decided to create a new "role" within the CMC to be known as "Clubhouse Officer".  The role has been ratified and financial authority given at the June CMC yesterday.

Concept

The role of Clubhouse Officer is about empowering one CMC member to take decisions quickly, as opposed to burdening a single CMC member with the responsibility of providing an array of services to members.  For that we will still rely upon the good nature and dedication of all of our members to step-up and volunteer together with a clubhouse subcommittee.

This is not a case of adding a further person to CMC (which would require a constitutional change) but is simply defining a role that a named person who would already be sitting on CMC would take on. This new unpaid role is distinct from the concept of a Clubhouse Manager (paid or otherwise) if appointed in future.

The role of Clubhouse Officer will always be unpaid to avoid any potential conflict of interest that might arise if a paid Clubhouse Manager were to sit directly on CMC.

It is expected that when the 2 x General Committee Members are being elected at the Annual General Meeting, that the need to have a Clubhouse Officer among the elected CMC members will be considered by the members.

What if no-one of CMC wants the role?

In the event of a future CMC being elected where no single member is willing to take on this role, most financial decisions will revert to full CMC meetings... as has been the case to date this season.

Why?

• This is as a result of a year of experience of running the clubhouse in "unpaid volunteer" mode, and the difficulties we've had from time to time in coordinating rotas, opening hours, bookings and maintenance.
• There is a need to have one nominated individual that is empowered to make operational decisons (such as maintenance, opening hours, volunteer coordination, stock levels and cleaning etc) without needing to take matters to a full CMC meeting.
• The clubhouse subcommittee (which should meet monthly) is responsible for management and good running of all aspects that relate to our clubhouse premises, private hire and bar operations. This is currently chaired by the Treasurer, but it was felt that this is too much to manage alongside other treasury duties.
• To enable the treasurer to focus on financial reporting, planning, budgeting and banking.
• If the club should ever decide to employ a paid (or unpaid) Clubhouse Manager, past experience has shown that it is necessary to have a single point of contact on the CMC to liaise between CMC and to manage them.  If the club were to outsource Clubhouse Management to a 3rd party, then again, a liaison point would be necessary.

What the role can do

Among other things, the clubhouse Officer will be empowered to:

• Coordinate bar volunteers and agree duty managers
• Manage a clubhouse manager in future if required (but CMC would need to approve the appointment of any paid manager)
• Manage the cleaner
• Chair the clubhouse subcommittee
• Decide on opening hours (guided by the subcommittee)
• Purchase and maintain stock levels to agreed stockholding limits agreed from month to month by the Treasurer and CMC (bar stock and cleaning materials)
• Agree private hires and other such bookings
• Agree spend up to £150 per item on maintenance/replacement subject to a £500 maximum in a rolling 90 day period, and declaration of all expenditure immediately to the Treasurer and monthly to CMC.

Appointment

Ryan Kuleszka, one of our current General Committee Members, has kindly agreed to take on this role until the end of his current term on CMC.  This has been agreed by CMC and takes immediate effect.

At the time of writing, it is Ryan's intention to stand again at the AGM for one of the General Committee Member vacancies and to carry out this new role next season if elected.

Andrew Hesselden

Secretary

14th June 2012

Super Saturday #2 @ The Clubhouse 16th June

Time For A Home Nations Fightback?

Well, maybe not but we can live in hope.  This Saturday sees another action packed day of International Rugby LIVE (or as near as possible) at your Clubhouse.  The timings are as follows;

10:00     Clubhouse Open             (Duty Managers RK, PF)

10:30     Australia v Wales           (Live)

13:00     New Zealand v Ireland    (Recorded As Live)

15:30     South Africa v England    (Live)

Return of the original Greek?

We are hearing unconfirmed rumors that the Original Greek (JTG) is returning to his spiritual homeland of E14 this weekend... Details to be confirmed but if these whisperings are true we certainly expect to see him at the clubhouse at some point.





Fizzy Apple-tastic....

It is summer (apparently) so now is the time to take advantage of our Gaymers Apple Cider promotion.  Gaymers over ice is only £2 a pint and what better on a luke warm rainy day than a crisp ice cold Cider.  But seriously taker advantage of this offer this weekend (and hopefully the Sun will appear)

Some Football Thing.. Euro 2012 (we think)

As well as the rugby, Andrea will be showing the Polish take on the Czech Republic in the Euro 2012 competition.  Kick off is @ 19:45 and depending on how busy we are, we may remain open all day.

Note : There is no late license and we will be closing at 23:00 (earlier if quiet).  All members and their signed in guests are expected to leave the club premises no later than 23:30

Have a great weekend and we hope to see lots of you this coming Saturday.

The Clubhouse Team.                              

Are you Drink Aware?....

Additional Opening Of The Clubhouse - Tuesday 12th June Euro 2012

Just a quick blog to say......

Our very own Polish import Andrea, will be opening the clubhouse tomorrow evening from 5:30PM to show the Polish Euro 2012 fixture. Oh and as an added bonus we are selling off the remaining stock of Becks Vier at only £1 a pint! 

So what excuse do you have, see you there.

The Clubhouse Team.

End of Season Dinner Raffle Prizes and Auction!

The list of raffle prizes for the End of Season Dinner at the House of Commons on the 30th June, is already looking very good.

So far I have;

• 4 top price tickets to England v Barbarians, 26 May 2013 - donated by Killik & Co, Your Partner for Investment and Wealth Advice, www.killik.com.
• Barbarians signed shirt - donated by Sophie Morris. May 2010 team (Xavier Rush, Paul Warwick, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, Cedric Heymans, Paul Sackey, David Smith, Florian Fritz, Casey Laulala, Seru Rabeni, Fabrice Estebanez, Byron Kelleher, Pierre Mignoni, David Barnes, Census Johnston, Rodrigo Roncero, Julian White, Benoit August, Ken Owens, Ben Kay, Ross Skeate, Jerome Thion, Alan Quinlan, George Smith, Martyn Williams, Rodney So'oialo).
• Dallaglio's signature - Lawrence Dallaglio will sign the winner's shirt/book etc. The winner must provide the item to be posted to Lawrence to sign and return.
• 2 x 12 month subscription to Rugby World magazine
• A bottle of House of Commons Champagne
• A bottle of House of Commons Port

Tickets for these fantastic prizes will be available to buy on the night. If you are not attending the dinner on the 30th June and would like to enter the raffle, please email me at sophiemorris@millwallrugby.com


The following will also be available through an eBay auction, which will go live 10 days before the dinner;

• Tim Visser (Edinburgh, Scotland) signed 1872 Cup winning shirt, as shown in picture below left.
• Anton Van Zyl (Stade Francais) Puma King 8 studs, size 13 forward's boots and two sponsors training t-shirts.
• John Kirwan signed magic trick card, as shown in picture below right.

More prizes will be added as and when they are confirmed. If you'd like to donate a prize, please let me know.

Good luck!

Sophie Morris

Development Officer

Millwall RC has been awarded RFU accreditation

I'm delighted to announce that Millwall Rugby Club is now an RFU Accredited Club.

David Leftley and I have been working with our RFU Rugby Development Officer to achieve this status that demonstrates our commitment to;

• retaining and developing players
• recruiting new players
• recruiting and retaining high quality coaches, volunteers and referees
• the effective and efficient management and governance of the Club
• integration with the local community
• and rugby's core values of teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship.

The award was presented at the Essex County RFU Annual Dinner and Presentation Evening on Friday 8th June.

Left to right; Neil Sweeney, Chris Dyer, Sophie Morris, Gareth Chilcott

This is an ongoing process but the award acknowledges the effort and commitment of the members of the club. It gives the club credibility with local authorities and educational establishments and confers the status of the RFU brand to attract potential sponsors.

The certificates and banner will soon be displayed in the clubhouse and the logos on our website.

Thank you to everyone for helping the club achieve this status.


Sophie Morris
Development Officer
sophiemorris@millwallrugby.com

Super Saturday @ The Clubhouse 9th June 2012

Just when you thought it was safe to watch football!

Not to be outdone by the start of some minor football tournament, our Southern Hemisphere Cousins have decided to invite some challengers to a good old game of ruggers.

After a remarkable victory by the Scot's last weekend, it is the turn of the remaining Lions nations to entertain us down under.

Wiggy will be opening the clubhouse at 11AM for you thirsty types and showing the recorded early kick offs as live from 1130, with the SA v ENG game being shown live at 330PM.

But wait... What offers i hear you say!  Well we don't like to disappoint thus we are running a special promotion on Saturday and pints of Becks Vier will be £1.50 all day (whilst stocks last)

So join us for a day of rugby and there will not be a football in sight :-)

Clubhouse Team

ryan@millwallrugby.com                             www.drinkaware.co.uk - for the facts...

Summary of May Club Management Committtee Meeting

Here is a summary of the business discussed and decisions made at the May CMC Meeting held 9th May 2012.

Summary Minutes May Meeting (PDF)

Notice of Annual General Meeting - Saturday 23rd June

Notice of Annual General Meeting
to be held on Saturday 23rd June
at 1pm at the Clubhouse
75 Manchester Road
London E14 3DN

Business will include:

1. Chairman's Report
2. Secretary's Report
3. Treasurer's Report including approval of accounts and presentation of provisional 2012/2013 budget

4. Possible Constitutional Amendements tbc (but expected to be relatively minor in nature)

5. Resignation of Officers

6. Election of Elected Officers:

• Chairman
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• Men's Chair*
• Ladies' Chair*
• Youth Chair*
• Communications Officer
• Development Officer
• General Committee Member 1
• General Committee Member 2
• Social Secretary
• Fixture Secretary
• 1st XV Manager
• 2nd XV Manager
• 3rd XV Manager
• 4th XV Manager
• Venus Manager

*after election, the three chairs will come to a mutual agreement to decide which of them will take on the externally-representative role of "Club Captain" for the season.

NB: It is the recommendation of the current committee that one of the bold positions above elected also takes on the new role of "Clubhouse Officer" who will chair the Clubhouse Subcommittee and be empowered to make operational day-to-day decisions around the running of the bar and clubhouse facilities, to avoid lengthy meetings throughout the year. This unpaid supervisory CMC position is distinct from the concept of Bar Steward (paid or otherwise)

7. Volunteer vacancies (if time allows)

• New member welcome officer
• Registration Secretary
• Membership Secretary
• First Aid Officer
• Transport Officer
• Coaching Coordinator
• Statistics & Caps Secretary
• ROW Day project manger
   
• Bar staff
• Events helpers
• House of Commons Dinner Project Manager (usually done by Social Secretary)
• Christmas Party Organiser
   
• Press Officer
• Programme Producer
• Noticeboards Clerk (to keep our notices tidy and current)
• Electronic Communications Producer
   
• Accountant/Book-keeper (if the treasurer elect would like assistance)
• Minutes Secretary (if the Secretary elect would like assistance)
• Merchandise Officer
   
• Cleaning Supervisor (to liaise with and manage our paid cleaner)
• Clubhouse Maintenance People
   
• AICVC Representative
• Charity Liaison
• Alumni Relations Officer (keeping in touch with members who've moved away)
• Abtech Liaison
• Farm Liaison
• Youth Safeguarding Officer
• Sponsor Relationship Managers

• Men's Playing Subcommittee additional volunteers
• Ladies' Playing Subcommittee additional volunteers
• Youth Playing Subcommittee additional volunteers
• Clubhouse Subcommittee additional volunteers
• Development Subcommittee additional volunteers

8. Voting for End of Season Awards

• Most Improved
• Best Newcomer
• Player’s Player of the Year
• Young Player of the Year
• Clubman of the Year

(If you've played this season, your team manager or section chair will be contacting you to ask you to vote for: Venus Player of the Year, 1st XV Player of the Year, 3rd XV Player of the Year)

The management committee will select someone to receive the "Unsung Hero Award". The Youth Chair will select "Youth Volunteer of the Year" and the Chairman will choose a recipient for the "Chairman's Award"

9. Any Other Business

 

Membership 

You must be a currently paid up member of the Club to vote (for elections or for awards) or to stand for an elected position. Now our memberships run for a full 12-months, we will be enforcing this more strictly than in the past. We have about 210 paid up members in the club this year. If you're not a member yet, please see our website to pay online in advance of the meeting.

Nominations for Elected Roles

If you would like to stand for one of the ELECTED positions listed in item 6, you should submit a nomination in writing (by email preferred) to Andrew Hesselden (secretary@millwallrugby.com or andrew@millwallrugby.com) by 1pm on Saturday 16th June. Potential candidates are strongly encouraged to find out what is involved in the role by referring to the role descriptions on the club website committee page or by asking a current or past post-holder.
Article 4.2 of the constitution allows candidates to be considered for election to more than one position if the electing members believe it is in the best interests of the club.

Volunteer Vacancies

The list of volunteer vacancies is a guide, based upon my experience of some of the ways you could still help out if you don't want the responsibility of an elected position.  However the club cannot run if we are left with too many of the elected roles left vacant, so the priority for the meeting must be to fill the Elected Roles.

Voting at the meeting

Voting will be carried out by secret ballot (on paper) and voters will be able to choose between each of the candidates plus an option "none of the above/re-open nominations".  Per article 5f of the constitution, where there is only one candidate for a particular position they must gain at least 50% of the votes cast to be elected.
The constitution explains what will happen if any of the elected roles remain unfilled.

Voting in absentia by proxy

• Members are not obliged to vote if they do not wish to do so.
• If you are not able to attend the AGM in person, you may nominate a proxy to vote on your behalf by giving them and the club secretary notice of this in writing (email preferred) by 1pm on Wednesday 20th June. Where this is not done, the proxy vote will not be accepted.
• Your proxy must be a current club member and no club member may carry more than 5 proxy votes. You should instruct your proxy how to vote on your behalf.
• If you are unable to find a willing proxy, current club officers will act as proxy for you and will accept written instructions on how to vote on your behalf.
• We want members to attend the meeting and take part in the discussions so please do make every effort to attend in person. It's your club and it's run by the members for the members.

Want to understand more about how the club committees work?

We recommend all members aquaint themselves with the constitution as well as the Operating Guide to the Management Committee and Subcommittees  which can both be found on the website in the "Club" section.

Regards
Andrew Hesselden
Club Secretary
secretary@millwallrugby.com