Good evening,
As you are aware, the Ruislip Cricket Club EGM is taking place this Friday (1st March). Please make efforts to attend from 7:30pm. Further information is outlined below and in the attached document.
As was initially discussed at the 2018 AGM, we have been in discussions with Ruislip Rangers FC and considering our options with respect to increasing the size of the clubhouse and improving the facilities. This would involve more formally merging with the football club and incorporating a running/athletics club.
Over the last few years, Ruislip Cricket Club has had an informal arrangement with RRFC which enables them to make use of our facilities, as an associate member, and share in the social profit made behind the bar. This has worked well and benefitted the cricket club. The proposals for the new arrangement have been discussed since October and our initial plans are:
- A new organisation ("top-co") which will sit above both the cricket (RCC), football (RRFC) and running clubs (RRC) which will be responsible for managing the facilities, the leases and licences will sit in that organisations name.
- All clubs will keep their existing constitutions and committees and will be responsible for running and promoting their respective sports;
- All clubs will have equal representation on the committee of the over-arching organisation and majority vote will be required to pass any decisions;
- All clubs will contribute a social membership fee to the top structure to help resource the running of the clubhouse based on the number of members of each club;
The reasons the new structure will be setup is as follows:
- It gives equal responsibility of all clubs in the running of the facility, currently this sits only with RCC;
- A larger club offering multiple sports, especially the size of RRFC, would find it easier to obtain funding for major project investments;
- It gives RRFC a more formal "home" which we hope will mean they make more use of it.
As part of the project, a business plan has been drafted which will be sent to the council in order to request funding to do the following, the business plan is attached for review. This includes £1.7m of funding to:
- Rebuild the clubhouse to increase the footprint and make a 2 storey building, to increase the number and size of the changing rooms;
- Install an electronic scoreboard;
- Purchase a new heavier roller for the cricket square;
- Funding for a new outside storage facility;
- Further drainage work on the football pitches on the hockey field;
- New running track and long jump area for athletics
We have already met with the council to discuss the initial plans and they are very supportive of the idea and believe that we should be able to have the funding request approved, if not for all, for at least a good chunk of the funding request.
We hope you like the idea of the proposals above, which we hope will create a fantastic facility and attract more players which will improve the cricket section further.
The EGM on Friday is your opportunity to raise any issues or questions you may have and to vote on whether we should continue to take these discussions further and look to create the "top-co" organisation.
Kind regards,
Neil Smith
(on behalf of the club committee)