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July Update from our Chairman

July Update from our Chairman

MATTHEW STEPHEN2 Jul 2020 - 09:16
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The Board of Directors are meeting on 7th July to review reopening plans and following that meeting I will write to you again with further details.

Dear Member,

Chippenham RFC-membership renewals now open for 2020/21 season

Firstly, I hope that you and your family remain safe and well.

In my recent update, I outlined the steps the club is taking to reopen our facilities in a manner that will allow our staff and members to remain safe and which complies fully with Government and RFU guidance. Based on the latest guidance the section Chairmen, General Manager and Rick McCabe have prepared section plans and the appropriate risk assessments and I am extremely grateful for the hard work and support from representatives across all sections of the club who are helping with this process. The club’s Board of Directors is meeting on the 7th July to review these plans and following that meeting I will write to you again with further details of how and when we plan to reopen the clubhouse and facilities

As you would expect, there are many aspects of next season which remain uncertain at this point including key issues such as the nature of how the game will be played, competition formats and more general issues such as availability for club members of international tickets. The club is liaising closely with the RFU to ensure that we are following their latest guidance and advice and we will keep members updated when significant decisions are made. The RFU is currently planning for the rugby season to resume in some format from September and so the club is also planning for rugby to resume at that time.

One thing we can be certain of is the desire of our members to return to Allington Fields to play or watch rugby, meet up with friends and to enjoy the simple pleasure of being outdoors. At the recent EGM, club members voted to freeze the majority of membership fees for the 2020/1 season which is the fourth successive year that membership fees will have been frozen. We hope that this decision will help as many members as possible to continue to enjoy the numerous benefits of belonging to our club.

As I have outlined previously, the pandemic has had a serious impact on the club’s finances and whilst we are extremely grateful for the support we have received from our staff, members, sponsors and Wiltshire Council we need the ongoing support of our members to help the club through this crisis. Although our membership year runs from September to September, several members have kindly offered to renew their membership early for next season to help support the club and so if you pay for membership annually, rather than by monthly Direct Debit, memberships for the 2020/21 season can now be renewed.

I would like to thank Emily Schrader for the hard work and dedication she has demonstrated in her role as the club’s Membership Secretary over the past two years. Emily has chosen to step down from this role and so our new Membership Secretary, Debbie Malony, will be writing to all members separately to provide details of how you can renew your membership for next season and please do consider helping your club by renewing early if you are able to do so.

We fully understand the financial pressure which many individuals and businesses are facing during this crisis and so if you do have a genuine case of financial hardship please contact our Treasurer, James Harding, and he will discuss membership options that may be available to you. James can be contacted, in confidence, at treasurer@chippenhamrfc.co.uk

For so many reasons, the forthcoming season is likely to be the most eagerly awaited season in our long history and our loyal volunteers have been working hard behind the scenes to make sure that the club is ready to welcome our members back when we reopen. We are extremely grateful to all our volunteers for their commitment and effort. I will write to you with full details of our plans for reopening in the near future but, until then, may I remind members that the clubhouse and grounds remain closed at this time.

I would like to thank all our staff, members and sponsors for your continued support at this challenging time.

Kind regards,

Ian

Ian Banister
Chairman
Chippenham RFC

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