Chairman’s Statement
I would like to start by saying thank you on behalf of the club to Gerry Callanan for his three years as Chairman. During this time, Gerry worked hard to keep Cassiobury Rangers moving forward and to continue to spread the values that remain the foundation of the ongoing success of our club. I am honoured to have been voted in as Chairman and I have been made very welcome by the other committee members, who have been very patient with my continual questions about how things work and who does what. What I have noticed in the short time that I have been Chairman is that there are many very good things going on within the club. The commitment levels of the managers and coaches of all age groups are exceptional. There is a real passion for the game and, most importantly for the sporting development of the girls, boys and men who are playing members of our club. I have also seen that there is a hardcore of people (you know who you are!) who really make this club tick. Without these people, from an administrative and functional perspective, the club would really struggle. The topic has been raised at previous meetings, but I do believe that it remains extremely relevant … we are in need of more people to ‘lend a hand’. This relates to both committee positions, where we are specifically looking for a pitch coordinator and a kit person, but it also relates to situations, where the club is looking for voluntary support on an ad hoc basis. I have discussed this topic with Howard, David and Carlton and I am sure this will be explored in more detail during the meeting. We also need to bear in mind that this is the last season that we will have Carlton as Club Secretary and Sam as Club Treasurer. Both Carlton and Sam have shown excellent commitment to the club. What we need to do is to ensure that we find suitable people as soon as we can to take over these roles from next season and that we have enough time to do a proper handover of the relevant responsibilities. At a recent committee meeting that we held here a couple of weeks ago, we decided that we would put together a short role specification, outlining the key areas of responsibility of each of the committee roles and the amount of time required in performing each of the functions. So what does Cassiobury Rangers stand for? We are a club who seeks to balance achievement with enjoyment and I acknowledge it is often a challenge to strike the right mix. However, I feel that our motto “More than just a club that plays football” gives out a strong message. What lies ahead for those of us who seek to further develop the club is to truly bring these words to life. One of the ways of doing this is to bring the different age groups closer together … to build a stronger sense of cooperation between coaches and also to bring a stronger social bond to the club as a whole. I am pleased to announce that our Social Secretary, Bev Stallard and I are looking at ways of doing this and some early initiatives have been conceivedAside from the social element of such events, there is also the need to raise money …. I would like to sit down with Sam over the next couple of weeks to review the accounts of the club to understand exactly how the club functions, but I can already see that fundraising activities will greatly help to sustain the club and help it to prosper into the future.
FA Charter
As most of you will be aware, we are in need of renewing our FA Charter status. This is an administratively time-consuming exercise, but one that is vital to ensure that we are able to attract players into the future and to promote ourselves as a well run club that has good practices and that provides a safe environment within which children and adults can play football.
I know that we had started to gather the relevant information required by the FA to submit our renewal forms (including coaches’ qualifications, CRB forms, First Aid certifcates etc …), but there is now the need to bring this to a successful conclusion.
Tim has very kindly offered his support in this process and I would like to thank him for his help … Carlton and I will ensure that we provide him with any assistance that he requires.
Specifically, with regard to CRB, I understand that Kim Boot is looking to step down from his position. I am pleased to report that Dave has been successful in finding a replacement for Kim and there will be a handover of responsibilities over the weeks ahead. In light of the recent media focus on child protection, I would like to stress how important it is that we look into exactly who needs to be checked and ensure that all the necessary documentation is completed at the earliest opportunity.
On the subject of first aid, Carlton will be making a recommendation during the meeting, which I would fully support.
Membership
I would like to say a big “well done” to Lynette for all the effort that she has put in to ensuring that the membership documentation and fees have been processed. This depends significantly upon the support of the managers to ensure that the parents send things through in a timely manner … I would like to ask that you all continue to support Lynette in this area.
Parmiters
The subject of Parmiters has become an ever-present discussion topic during our last few meetings and it is something that I believe that Gerry and Howard always handled both assertively and diplomatically. On this point, Howard and I, as well as other committee members, have spent some time discussing how best to approach this. I believe that we have come up with a sensible strategy that should be well received by the school. Howard will outline this during the course of this meeting.
Website
One area where I feel that the club could be more proactive is in the area of external communication.
We need to share our thoughts and ideas on how best to give the club coverage in the local press/media. Some of the age groups have been very successful in ensuring that match reports get into the papers … these methods should be shared within the club as a whole to ensure that we take every opportunity to publicise the club. Also, the boys (and parents) love reading about their footballing exploits!
Another way of increasing the profile of the club is to take another look at our website, which is our window to the world. This is well managed by Derek and I want to look at how we can provide more ‘standing’ information on there (ie team information, coaches’ photos/profiles) as well as match reports, details of upcoming events and other relevant information.
To this end, I would like to recommend that a Media & Comms position is added to the committee.
And finally …
There are many other topics that will be discussed tonight and during my discussions over the last few weeks with Howard, Carlton and Dave, I am sure that they know me well enough already to be able to reflect my views on the various topics that will be discussed.
Finally, I would just like to thank you all for your time and commitment to the club … let’s have a fun and successful season!!
Joe