Membership update for July 2020
Dear Member,
We trust you are staying safe and well.
In our May update we announced that the club would extend 2019 membership by rolling them over to 1st July 2020 at which point we would review the position of the club and guidance around COVID.
Much has changed since then and we would like to update you on progress. The hard nets were opened on 21st May and shortly after, two grass nets for practice on the square for up to 6 people at one time. This has been met with great appreciation from the membership and its fantastic to see and hear bat on ball in the middle of Church Meadow once again.
We held a very successful working party on Saturday & Sunday 13th & 14th June at which a dozen members helped out with jobs around the club including, repairing the net cages, painting the sight screens, weeding the boarders around the clubhouse, sorting out the changing rooms and kit cupboards, cleaning the fixture board & manicuring a Buddleia inside the fence on the Aylesbury road amongst other tasks. It was great to see some new faces helping and I would like to thank them again for their support and your first drink is on me when the bar re-opens.
Which brings us onto this week’s exciting news announced by HMG that bars can re-open from Saturday 4th July and the clubhouse bar and beer garden will be open from 3pm on this day to members and their guests plus sponsors, subject to dry weather. Further guidance on how we will operate the bar and serve drinks safely will follow next week but get the date in your diary!
During the last few months we have done as much as allowable to make the club available to use by members and will start to open coach led practice starting with the U15s from 30th June, followed by the other age groups in due course subject to coach availability and safety requirements.
From a financial perspective, our income this year has declined by over 50% yet many of our costs to maintain the clubhouse and the ground have still been incurred. This situation is not sustainable, and we have taken the decision that from Wednesday 1st July, the following membership fees will apply:
There is still much uncertainty around when and if matches can start but these membership fees will cover the following benefits: –
– access to the clubhouse bar and beer garden during their opening hours (initially planned to be Friday, Saturday and Sunday with a review mid-July on whether we can extend this)
– non playing parents of junior playing members are automatically made social members of the club and can make use of the bar
– discounted prices on drinks and sundries at the bar
– self-managed use of pre-booked hard net and grass net practice
– coach led net practice for U15s currently (we are reviewing coach led net practice for U13, U11 and U9s in the coming weeks in that order)
– insurance cover for all playing members
Most importantly however, this will help us to cover the cost of maintaining the club and ground to the level at which everyone is used to enjoying them. I hope that you will find these membership fees reasonable and appreciate the continued efforts that go on behind the scenes to provide you with as much enjoyment of your club as we are currently safely allowed.
Please fill out and return to Sheena your membership form which can be found on the club website here – Adult Membership form 2020 – by Friday 10th July at the latest.
Yours Sincerely
Matt Swain
Chair, TTCC