Newsletter - July 2011
This is our first TAFC newsletter. We will try and produce it regularly, but our success would be assured if we had a volunteer who was willing to help us with club communications. More about that later.
Last season:
TAFC had a great 2010/11 season. We provided safe and high quality facilities for organised football training and competitive matches for children of varying abilities across a wide age range, including a new girls team. Demand for membership grew and we now accommodate 17 squads, likely to be 19 next season. We also made progress with our preparations toward FA Charter Standard status.
News from the AGM:
The Club AGM was held last month. Highlights from the discussions include:
- Our current bank balance is healthy but the forecast is for a dwindling bank balance over the next year, due to reduced sponsorship and increased costs. As a result, subscriptions will increase from £160 to £175 per head. We recognise that this is above the inflation rate, but it was a decision taken in the context of a wider analysis of our costs and income and we believe that we are still good value compared with the subs charged by other clubs.
- We had lengthy discussions about whether we ought to favour recruitment of boys and girls with a Teddington address and about whether we ought to be considering streaming by ability. TAFC has always been an inclusive club and the streaming issue particularly is one that is often discussed at our meetings. We didn't resolve to do either, certainly for the time being. Your views on these topics would be welcome.
- The fact that we have a big workload in running and sustaining the club, currently spread amongst too few people. In response to this, one decision that we did take was to make it a condition of membership that parents make a wider contribution to the operation of the club. Teddington Cricket Club (TCC) already do this and a failure to assist the operation of TCC during their season risks exclusion of the boys at the end of the season. In the future, the TAFC membership form will include options for parents to identify how they would prefer to contribute.
- Rita Dexter has been catering co-ordinator for the past three years and is close to, if not past, her sell by date. She has been consulting managers and others about how things might be organised next season, but it is not an exciting topic! For the time being, it is planned to carry on next season with arrangements much as they were for last season and so those of you who play games at Bushy Park on Sunday will each be expected to take 2-3 turns at 'kitchen duty' next season. Contrary to popular opinion, there is no rule in the Club that this needs be women's work. Men are equally welcome.
Car Parking Update:
The situation with car parking and the Royal Parks Authority (RPA) is still highly precarious. They have agreed to defer implementation of the decision to withdraw parking at the club until 30 September, while they conduct 'a review'. However, they have not provided any details of who will undertake this review, nor of what it will consist. This leaves TAFC in a highly unsatisfactory position in terms of planning for the next season.
Club officers have reviewed a number of the documents relevant to the proposed alteration of car parking in Bushy Park (including some obtained as a result of making a Freedom of Information request) and it is clear that the closure of the parking at the cricket club did not receive anywhere near the level of scrutiny that, for example, the Upper Lodge Road car park did. It is also clear that the closure of the cricket club car park was not within the scope of the Heritage Lottery Fund project which at one point RPA relied upon to justify their decision and that being so it is not surprising that it was not subject to the same level of public scrutiny. Of course, part of the focus on car parks prior to the General Election was the introduction of charging. That was never an issue for the cricket club car park.
This week, TCC have managed to agree arrangements with the RPA to meet, on Wednesday 3rd August and so we should know more following that meeting.
In the meanwhile, Club officers will continue to stay in contact with TCC; will continue to make representations to the RPA and will also, if necessary, consider seeking the further involvement of Borough, Greater London Authority and national politicians.
We need more help!
At the AGM, the following people were retained, unopposed, as serving club officers for next season:
* Rita Dexter, Chair
* David Woodall, Secretary
* Phil Lee, Director of Football
* Annabel Burrows, Treasurer
* Jeanette Ackland, Child Welfare Officer
With these positions filled, we have the following 'Situations Vacant' and urgently need volunteers from our membership:
* Club Communications Officer
* Catering Co-ordinator
* Tour Organiser
* Strategic Financial Planner
* Accounts Auditor
* Membership Secretary
In addition, Charlotte Duff has been maintaining the website she created for us for the last 5 years, but her son Harry is now an U16 and so she is looking to find someone to take over from her for the 2012/2013 season. If anyone is interested, please do get in touch as soon as possible. If we can find someone with web skills that would be great, but if you haven't, please do still come forward as we can replace the website with something that doesn't require technical skills.
If you think that you might be able to help with any of these roles, please contact Rita Dexter. It really is important to the future of the Club that we have more parents able to help with the organisation of some key functions.
FA Proposal for 9v9 Football at U11 & U12:
The FA has produced a proposal for 9v9 football for ages under 11 and under 12. As a club we support this initiative and, whilst we were unsuccessful this spring in convincing TCC of the need to mark out 9v9 pitches together with our 7v7 and 11v11 pitches, this is an issue that we will keep pursuing with TCC in the expectation that we can offer this facility for season 2012/13.
Training and playing schedules for next season:
TAFC Training Plan 2011 12 Season:
|
|
|
Squad 1 |
Squad 2 |
|
TCC |
Monday |
5 till 6 |
|
|
|
TCC |
Monday |
6 till 7 |
U11 Girls |
|
|
TCC |
Tuesday |
5 till 6 |
U8 New |
U9 Stuart/Bob |
|
TCC |
Tuesday |
6 till 7 |
U11 Dai |
U 13 Tim H |
|
TCC |
Wednesday |
5 till 6 |
U11 Lester |
U11 Rupert |
|
TCC |
Wednesday |
6 till 7 |
U9 Jonny/Greg |
U9 Jonny |
|
TCC |
Thursday |
5 till 6 |
U10 Mat/Mike |
U10 Unal |
|
TCC |
Thursday |
6 till 7 |
U13 Gary |
U12 Phil/Yannick |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TSC |
Friday |
5:30 to 6:30 |
U 16 Digger |
U15 Tony K |
|
TSC |
Friday |
6:30 to 7:30 |
U14 Robin |
U14 Peter |
U15 Andy |
Playing schedule for next season
|
Bushy Park
(am games) |
Broom Road
(1pm games) |
Saturday |
U8New
U9New
U9T
U10L
U11Pa
|
|
Sunday |
U9P
U11 Girls
U10C
U11Pu
U11D
U12
U13S
U13T |
U14S
U14C
U15S
U15C
U16
U17 |