Another good Committee Meeting this month, where we were able to make another set of positive decisions for the club. The new tables and chairs are in and have been well received.

Our review of the current budget position was very positive and so the Committee have agreed that we should start the process for our next capital project. The Committee agreed that, given the changes in parking regulation around us, our priority needs to be improving the overspill parking area on the field. There has been some work done on this in the past and Mark Elliott has had discussions with the Borough Council about potential solutions. The committee agreed that we would like to call for volunteers for a small task and finish group to undertake the investigation work and, assuming the project proves affordable, to take that through to completion. We also agreed that it would be worth getting an up-to-date estimate for resurfacing the main car park although this was not thought as great a priority as the overspill area. If you are interested in getting involved in this project, please do let me know.

The Committee also discussed a draft Social Media Policy for the club. In many ways this links to my comments last time about people showing respect for others in all that they do and upholding the values of rugby. As well as looking at that aspect, we discussed the use of the club’s social media to promote outside activities such as sponsored walks etc. We agreed that the club should focus its efforts on JOCA and that if club members wanted to promote any of their activities, there were plenty of informal WhatsApp groups etc. that they would be able to use. The policy will be drafted to clarify this position. Having said that, there are always more specific causes for which fund raising is an essential part of the overall solution. The difficult situation that Matt Reynolds finds himself in following his injury last year is a case in point. Credit must go to JOCA and other members of the club who have continued to support Matt over the year. A group of Mini Junior parents have set up a GoFundMe page to enable people to help with the financial support that Matt and his family need. The page can be found by following the link below and if you can, it would be great if you could support this effort:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-help-matt-reynolds-and-family
The club will also be looking to support Matt through fundraising at the pre-match lunches so please make sure that you bring some cash for Heads and Tails games or the like.

On the field it has been a good month with the Men’s 1st team winning two and losing one, the Women’s team drawing their only game (with their game against Bedford postponed due to high winds) and the Men’s 2nd team winning two games and having their game against Hatfield postponed. This means that all three teams sit comfortably in mid-table.

We also had a discussion about training for Mini Junior coaches. The club has always been happy to pay for training of coaches and we think that it is important that our coaches get the opportunity to attend courses that will help them teach our young players. Unfortunately, the courses available from the RFU have reduced in frequency and so it has become more difficult to get access to the training. We will be looking at what alternatives are available. A big thank you to the coaches not only for the time that they give to coaching but also to recognize that keeping up to date with modern techniques etc. takes time outside the Sunday morning training and any other training done in the week.

As a reminder the pre-match lunches are on the following dates:
14th December 2024 – Christmas Lunch – v Old Streetonians
1st February 2025 – Sponsors Lunch – v Hackney and Welwyn 2’s v Cuffley
1st March 2025 – JOCA Lunch – v Datchworth and Welwyn 2’s v Hemel Hempstead 2’s
22nd March 2025 VPs and Volunteers Lunch – v Hitchin
If you want to attend the pre-match lunch on 14th December, please sign the list in the club or you can email me (chairman@welwynrugby.co.uk) or Mark Elliott (mark.elliott10@outlook.com).

Many thanks,
Mark

The senior team games for December are:
1st Team Men
7/12 Hitchin v Welwyn
14/12 Welwyn v Old Streetonians
21/12 Cheshunt v Welwyn

1st Team Women
15/12 Welwyn v Stamford

2nd Team Men
7/12 Old Grammarians v Welwyn