News & EventsLatest NewsCalendar
CHAIRMANS MESSAGE

CHAIRMANS MESSAGE

Gemma Birbeck8 Nov 2018 - 20:50
Share via
FacebookTwitter
https://www.aireboroughrugby.c

Important member message

Dear Members
As we are now into the season for both junior and senior sections, there is a lot going on at our club, with fixtures and socials in full swing. I have already told you about our plans for the club, and our 2020 vision that ties in with our 50th anniversary year. If you haven’t seen this, I would be grateful if you could familiarise yourself with the details here
(http://www.aireboroughrugby.com/a/aireborough-2020-51406.html)

Most of you will be aware that we are a non-profit organisation, which means we do not make any money or financial gain as a club – instead we re-invest everything to your benefit as members. This includes;
• spending money on maintaining and improving our clubhouse facilities and pitches
• provision of rugby equipment and first aid supplies
• making available club branded kit and leisurewear to players and supporters
• encouraging player development across all ages (by accessing coaching development and safeguarding training) to ensure that the rugby field remains a positive, safe environment
• putting on a calendar of social events

To operate as a non-profit organisation, we rely heavily on volunteers donating their time and energy to run the day to day activities at the club and raise money to meet our cost streams as outlined above.
This money is raised through two sources;
1) Members: your annual subscriptions, match fees, raffle ticket purchases, support for social events and donations. We hope that you will continue to support our social calendar and if you have not already done so, please speak to your coaches and social officers in both the senior and junior sections to find out about the fun activities we have coming up for all our members.
2) Sponsors and grants: There is already a great deal of work taking place to maximise the earning potential of the club in this area to support all rugby activity.
For context, we normally require around £30k per year to run the club across junior and senior sections.
Our commercial team (Rob Rattray and Rich Lister) work throughout the year to make sure that the money we need in addition to your contributions is secured so we can continue to keep our club running and developing. They work to make sure that any money received is maximised, and work with the committees to ensure that the money is spent where it is most needed.
With this comes a call to arms for all members, so that we may pursue valuable opportunities for the club.
All members: You can help by passing on any details of potential sponsors or grant opportunities to Rich and Rob – they will work with you if you have personal connections with any potential funding bodies.
Parents/ Carers and Junior Coaches: Very shortly a confidential survey will be sent out to the membership. This survey will help shape the planning of our sponsorship/ fundraising strategy. The survey should take no more than five minutes to complete, but the results will provide a longer legacy in our approach to sourcing funds. We hope you will support us in briefly completing this process.
Additionally, if you know of any companies or individuals who might be willing to help, please contact Rob (rob@synoeducation.co.uk) or speak to him on matchdays (he can be found with the under 10s).
Players in the senior section: you can really help us by securing a player sponsor - if you want the latest information on how player sponsorship works, please contact Rich; weʼd like to see the whole squad sponsored this year.
These are exciting times for our club, we hope that by bringing this to your attention, you may be able to support us further in the weeks and months ahead.
Here’s to another great season!

Graeme Forster (Large)
Club Chair

Further reading