14.00 -16.00 11th May 2021
CCWFC committee meeting – a flavour
Footie chums,
I hope you are all well and that those who have been poorly (or had injury niggles) are well on the way to recovery!
We had our regular CCWFC committee meeting yesterday and as usual I thought it would be helpful to share a flavour of what was discussed /agreed.
The key messages from our committee meeting are :-
1. Financials
Terry provided an update.
It is early in the new financial year so we are showing a net income of £1153.90 , but there is a lag in charging from the Council for our pitch hire, which will reduce this to c£300.
Our current net assets (allowing for the pitch hire and other accruals ) are £3583.20.
We also reviewed our 21/22 budget, which is conservatively forecast at a net surplus of £348.90 for the current financial year.
As we have said many times, our operating principle is to run the club on a breakeven basis , with a small reserve for rainy days.
With this in mind, the committee has agreed that players will not be charged when representing the club in league & cup competitions in the coming season.
2. Social activities
I provided an update on social activities.
I shared that I have booked Gunrunner for the Friday 29th October 2021 at CCFC for our return to a face to face social event.
There are currently 60 tickets reserved (35 club members + 25 band following). I anticipate selling 80- -90 tickets , if you haven’t booked yours , please do so.
We are still on track to returning to a monthly ‘bite to eat’ after Tues training post 21st June (subject to prevailing government guidance).
3. COVID Officer report
Peter provided an update on the COVID position, this reflected the changing government guidance on further relaxation of ‘lockdown’ rules.
We agreed that whilst the public guidance is slowly relaxing the rules, we cannot afford to be complacent.
We will maintain the app check -in facility at the ground. Of course, it is club members responsibility to choose to use this.
We have agreed that touching training equipment is now acceptable, but we strongly recommend that members maintain the practice of sanitising their hands afterwards.
We will continue to make anti-bacterial gel available at all training sessions. We also agreed to review the club’ COVID risk assessment document.
On an associated note, Gerry Howard (our club Welfare Officer) is also undertaking a full review of our Medical Emergency Action Plan, this will be re issued shortly.
We also noted that the return to normal EWFL rules play at our 11th May training session (dropping the 3 touch / 6 second / waist height rules) had gone very well, with players remaining very respectful of each other’ space.
4. Essex Walking Football League
Peter has already written to you outlining the general arrangements for the approaching EWFL season (including the dates for tournament ‘rounds’).
You can now view the provisional EWFL fixture schedule by going to https://fulltime.thefa.com/ff/LeagueDetails?leagueid=933765718&tab=divisions , selecting the age Division and clicking on one of the Chelmsford teams.
You will note that there are also some ‘friendlies’ for the o65’ (labelled ‘other’) embedded in tournament days . This is because there are only 14 o65’ teams in the league. There are no embedded ‘friendlies’ for the o60’.
I will be sending out a simple, easy reference guide that just shows the Chelmsford fixtures.
We also discussed preparation for the coming league season and agreed that from the 18th May training session (for 3 Tuesdays), the core o60’ Chelmsford Clarets and Blues teams will be assigned to
training groups and match play in order to give them every chance of preparing for the first league games on the 7th & 8th June.
These groups may change over the 3 weeks based on player availability and trialling players for league games.
We will adopt a similar approach for the Chelmsford o65’ teams as we head towards the first o65’ league games on the 21st June.
We also discussed organisation on the day of the EWFL ‘rounds’ (all of which will be held at Chelmsford).
We are offering to ‘host’ a small number of the rounds, but a number of the other Essex clubs have also offered to ‘host’ rounds.
The ‘host’ club will have full responsibility on the day for the provision of equipment; setting up and clearing away pitches ; keeping & reporting scores etc.
We agreed that we were happy with these arrangements as a fair balance of responsibility (avoiding the full burden falling on us as a club).
We also agreed to replace our lightweight training cones with new disc markers. Gary will fix this.
Finally, we discussed the position on club goalkeepers for the coming league season. Smudge is unlikely to be available until Sept (earliest).
This means me and David Gench (who has kindly stepped up). However, we could really do with 2 more goalkeepers.
As a reminder, we are allowed to play under aged goalkeepers , so a o50’ can play in the o60’ ; a 55 -64 could play in the o65’.
If you have an interest in playing in goal / are prepared to help please let one of our team managers, Peter O , Gary or Bill H know.
5. ‘Stepping into the future’ action plan – update
I gave a further update on club development.
5.1 Marketing – growing the membership
We launched the club ads (and the interview with Spence and me ) on Chelmer Radio at 15.00 on Sunday 11th April. The ads having been playing every hour.
David Baker will now shift the time that these are playing to diversify the audience pattern. We thanked David again for his efforts at Chelmer Radio on behalf of the club.
We have also had 5 players ( David G ; Tony E ; Bill H; Kevin B and David T) provide 2-3minute soundbites sharing the players perspective on why people should join CCWFC.
These were aired, one a day, w/c 3/5. We will add to our storytelling soon with Peter O doing an interview with Chelmer Radio , providing the Club Secretary’ view of life.
John Green will recommence his valiant leaflet drop campaign from the 17/5. David Gregory has also offered help. This will refresh our leaflet / poster presence
at places like the sports centre / swimming baths / library / , in fact anywhere in and around Chelmsford where we can attract interest in CCWFC.
Our goal is to grow our membership to 100 by Sept 2022, this means adding c34 new members over 18 months. To date we have added 4 new members
and have a further 3 enquires to follow up. A healthy start.
5.2 Reaching into the community
Being at the centre of the community is at the heart of our club development. We are here to bring walking football to as many people as possible.
To support this, I have re-established our links with Provide, an organisation that supports referrals via the NHS for those people who may benefit physically or mentally from participating in walking football.
I am also working with representatives from CCFC to see how we might be involved / help with / benefit from their plans to establish a charitable CCFC Foundation. More on this in due course.
5.3 Over 70’ invitation tournament
We have agreed that the inaugural tournament will take place on the 12thAugust. Tony Escott and Ray Rouse have kindly volunteered to help organise / run things.
Work is in hand to invite other clubs.
We discussed the position on the age for o70’ team goalkeepers, Bill H had quite rightly raised this as an issue. We agreed that we would allow o60’ goalkeepers for the tournament.
5.6 Coaching programme
Spence & Bob have continued to work together on developing the CCWFC coaching programme.
By way of a reminder –
The programme will have a number of facets including a coaching manual (so that we standardise our routines at training), multi-media material that is accessible to everyone online,
together with specific ‘hints and tips’ videos from Spence. To give you a sense of what will be in toolkit -:
- Requirements before starting a session
- Club announcements
- Health & Safety reminders
- Warm up options (we are also involving Sam , our physio) in creating some short video clips that members can access at any time
- Basic skills activity
- Advanced skills activity
- Spencer’ 60 seconds walking football tips
- A short video on ‘what makes a good coach’
Much of this is taking shape , you will have already seen the introductory ‘warm up’ videos featuring Sam.
Bob is busy documenting the skills routines.
We had planned a video day on the 4th May (including drone footage) to facilitate production of more material. Sadly, it was the windiest day for months!
Steve Shore was kind enough to sanction our use of the CCFC pitch.
Thank you to David G; Peter Or, Kevin B; Peter Os; Les G; Jim P; Andy W; Tony E for committing to this. We have rescheduled this for the 25/5.
We anticipate completing the coaching manual in June.
Bob has also updated the photo /video material on ‘how to play walking football’. This will be issued shortly.
5.7 Sponsorship
We have presented our case to Emma Rushen at CCFC , we are awaiting progress.
6. General
I hope that this summary keeps you connected to what is going on in the club and gives you a sense of the ambition that is now taking shape.
If you have any questions or ideas , please feel free to talk to Terry, Peter, Bob , Gary or myself.
The agreed minutes of the last Committee meeting (6/4) will be uploaded onto our website shortly.
Our next meeting is on the 1st June 2021.
Best wishes and it is great that we are getting back in the swing of things.
Chris
Chairman
On behalf of the CCWFC Committee
