Another
excellent meeting at the club last night, 29 February.
Glen
Remnant and Danny Hunter spoke very positively about our 1st XV,
their ambitions for the remainder of this season and the seasons to come. It
was clear from both of them that the spirit in the camp is high and the trajectory
is upwards. There is still work to do in keeping our players on board and the
members can help a lot here in providing sufficient funding to cover travelling
expenses for players who have to come a distance to training and matches for
the remainder of this season. If you’d like to help with a bit of support for a
player or two, please contact Glen or Danny (details below). Also, if there is
employment you could offer to a player, this could be key in giving one of our
players the wherewithal to stay in the area and continue to play their rugby at
Cambridge.
The
treasurer once again kept the members up to date in some detail as to where we
were financially and what the provisional budget is for next season. This was
well received by the members as they are not used to being privy to such
detailed data on what is, after all, your club. Disclosing this detail in an
open meeting may be risky if it were to leak out into the wider community, and
to do so would only damage our club.
Though
the budget for next season will be tight , we will be aiming for the platform
of long term stability that Glen clearly articulated was key element of our
future.
We
also had a discussion about the long term place of Cambridge Rugby Club in the
light of the local plans for a large Community Stadium embedded in one of the
main development sites in and around the city. Though this is on a 5+ year
timescale, we need to be aware of the development and our potential place in
it. We will be keeping an eye on the plan and making sure members are well
informed.
First
though we need to get through to the end of this season. The take up of
debenture seats is a key plank of our revenue to the end of the season and the
response has been poor. The treasurer asked the membership for their views on
this and it has been agreed that the debentures should be for a term of 5 years
at the same price as was being asked for 3 years. This makes them consistent
with the first time they were issued and is a far more attractive offer. Alternatively a reduced offer for 3
years is now available.
So,
those who renewed last summer will have their debenture tenure extended to 5
years and anyone renewing now, at £750 will be doing so for a period of 5 years or for 3 years the
cost will be £ 500. Our hope is that by
responding to the members concerns this will unlock the barrier to a prompt
renewal.
Don’t delay, your club needs you now.
