Dear Members,
I hope everyone is well and enjoying the early games of the season. Some positive performances so far which I hope continue for the rest of the summer!
I wanted to update you on a few items. As some of you know, Dave Clout recently stood down as our Club Welfare Officer with Nancy Bridge kindly stepping in to cover on a short-term basis in addition to her other role as Equality & Diversity Officer. I am pleased to report that Andy Hill has now taken on the role of Club Welfare Officer for the season. Our thanks go to both Dave and Nancy for their contributions to this critical role and I hope you will join me in supporting Andy as he steps into this position.
Secondly, many thanks to those who responded to the pre-season survey, designed to help us improve how the committee communicates and how we can integrate better as a club across all the teams. WhatsApp was voted as the most popular channel for communication with 90% using it for Club information, however we received a number of comments about ways to improve how we use it that we are actively adopting now - such as more structured announcements on the Club Members and Players’ Noticeboards, and posts positively informing everyone about social events and celebrating achievements.
The Players’ Noticeboard is now open to all members who want to play. Selection for the Saturday League Teams takes place on a Monday with the aim to announce teams on the Tuesday/Wednesday each week. We know there will always be last minute changes due to injuries etc. but we hope that this change will improve things this season and that all members feel they can put themselves forward for selection.
Thirdly, we aim to have food provision most weekends to encourage members to the ground to continue building team and club spirit in person. Thanks to Gav and Cath Reed for getting this started.
Fourthly, and as I said in my WhatsApp post the other week, please do send me a message on +971502144962 if you have any thoughts on how to improve things or want to discuss something the Committee has decided. If you prefer email, my address is omicklemgwcc@gmail.com. I will always make time to speak with Members as I appreciate I will not be at the ground as much this year although I plan to be up there on 13th June and for Isaac's charity game on Sunday 14th.
Finally, please join me in thanking those serving on the Committee and volunteering across the club. There is a huge amount of work that goes into running this Club and all of them only want the best for Great Waltham. I would particularly welcome hearing from anyone wishing to join us on the Committee so that we can continue to improve the experience and cricket provision for all our members.
All the best, Ollie