Blog #3 has a financial flavour to it with reports from two people. Despite there being bigger things going on in the UK and around the globe we, as an Exec, have a duty to make sure we survive these unprecedented times, not only to keep afloat but to actually position ourselves to be capable of mounting a strong campaign in the 20/21 season whenever it starts. One such person who is central to the task of survival is Dai Powell, our Honorary Treasurer. Who knew what was just around the corner when he agreed to take this role on…and also who knew just how much he was about to step up to the mark and match the challenge COVID-19 presented….

From Dai: Firstly, I’d like to say a big thank you to all those members and supporters who have offered to help the club through these difficult times. Donations both small and not so small have been offered so I thought I’d write and let you know how the club is doing. Firstly, big shout out to the supporters committee who released nearly £3k of their cash reserves to the club, this combined with the generous donation from Gibbo’s postponed stag party of nearly £1.5k saw us over March and into April.

This pandemic has hit us hard financially. We have had to postpone, hopefully until just into the coming season, the Ale, Cider and Gin Festival with projected takings of nearly £15k and also all the remaining home matches, each one can bring in up to £7K. This is a big loss of revenue especially as we had a full cellar at the point of lock-down. We did manage to sell a small amount before lock-down but we will still end up wasting around £3-£4k of beer depending on when the lock-down is lifted. We also have a growing business during the day where the club hosts business meetings, training events, conferences etc; we will of course lose all this income. In short, we have very little coming in as our tenants have also lost their income so we have done what we can to help them by offering a short-term rent ‘holiday’. To summarise these activities it’s been bleak but people have helped us and in turn we have tried, where we can, to help others.

Now some good news! As soon as we saw what was about to happen the Exec and staff very rapidly put the club into hibernation to cut down on costs. We turned off everything we could, cleaned everything down and reduced our running costs as much as we possibly could. True to our ‘Saints Family’ ethos we have kept our small number of staff safe and secure by keeping them at home whilst continuing to pay their salaries. We have negotiated and agreed payment terms for any of our outstanding creditors. We focused on paying our small local suppliers as best we can (as they will be the hardest hit) and have negotiated sensible repayments with the larger creditors (Breweries ,utilities, HMRC etc). We have successfully applied for and received the government C19 grant and also a 12 month Business rates holiday. To summarise, these activities have ensured we have enough money to keep the club going until we can generate income again whilst we have been fair and honest with our suppliers, as long as this isn’t too long of course.

It will cost us a significant amount to ‘kickstart’ the club again so I’m committed to keeping a significant portion of our available funds for this purpose and also to support our lads as they begin the new season with promotion and to ensure our Sinners, Colts and the Youth section have what they need to get going again. This will mean that I may have to call on the goodwill and generous nature of our supporters and members again before this is all over. I am hoping that this call will simply be an invite to the club, to support us and perhaps join us in a post-lock-down get together to get some revenue flowing (and to say hello) but it may well be a call for a little help, financial or some of your time. When the call comes, please support it as best you can!

Please be aware that although the club is shut, the Exec is working hard and spending lot’s of our lock-down hours to ensure you have a club to come back to after this is over. You can do your bit by keeping your drinking arms in training, your throats well lubricated ready to cheer the lads on next year and keeping a few pennies on standby to keep the club going if it is needed.

Keep Safe and I hope to see you all at our club soon
Dha weles skon
Dai Powell

Ian G - It’s taken a while for Dai to plough through the above activities and actions on top of his very demanding day job and for the various breaks from rates/grants to come through to us which is why we waited to go to print on this topic. I think we all owe Dai a pint after this is over.

Next up is Club Captain Miles Davey. The players have not wasted their time not playing and instead came up with an idea to raise funds for our local NHS Trust charity. They are also busy planning and plotting some things for us to join in and enjoy together despite being apart. I'll leave it to Miles to explain:

At St Austell RFC our main ethos is "we are a family, the Saints family". We have worked extremely hard on and off the field this season resulting in us gaining promotion. As part of our celebration we decided to Brave the Shave for our local NHS raising money for the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust Charity. ‘Brave the Shave’ is where, because your hair is gong to go un-cut in most cases for as long as this goes on for, you are ‘invited’ to shave it off for charity. The take up has been awesome and we have been so overwhelmed by the support from players, ex players, supporters and the wider community. We set ourselves an original demanding target of £2000 and to date we have raised £2476!!! I can only thank each and every one of you for your support in these testing times.

We want to have some fun so here are a couple of dates for your diaries. Friday 1st May we are going to run a quiz for everyone who wants to get involved. There is an ulterior motive aside from having a laugh…we want all our players and supporters who are not familiar with ‘Zoom’ to fix that because we want the event I’m going to tell you about next to be huge and free of log-in hassles. More detail about the quiz will be published on Wednesday 22nd April.

We obviously can’t all get together for a Senior players awards night currently but we still want to run it. So on Saturday 9th May we are going to host the 'Senior Awards Evening - via Zoom'! More information will follow, but in the meantime please Download the app 'Zoom Cloud Meetings' and give it try. I prefer to use it on my laptop but you can use on your phones or tablets. That’s two dates for your diaries…The quiz where we want to iron out any zoom issues and have some general knowledge related fun then the awards night. If you are having worries around using zoom please get in touch with me or Ian Grantham and we will talk you through it!

Stay safe, stay home and support saints!

Miles

Ian G – That’s it for Blog #3. By now many of you have got into the groove with lockdown and found your pace/niche with it. If you are struggling and want to chat we are here for you. We have perhaps, as a nation, forgotten what it’s like to depend on each other quite so much and gotten out of practice asking for help…lets fix that.

Chairman - Joel Double – 07366 397142
Vice-Chairman - Ian Grantham – 07834 525122
Honorary Treasurer - Dai Powell – 07908 208398
Honorary Secretary - Paul Hayes – 07515 881799
DOR/Director - Steve Murley – 07802 647052
Director - Rhian Roberts – 07929 327708
Director - Chris Passmore – 07791 770294
Youth Chair - Nick Bailey - 07795984132