11/04/2022
Dear members,
It’s with great sadness that I have to announce my resignation as the chairman at Aldershot.
This has been a tough decision. However, I have recently started a new business, which is demanding a lot of time as well as being the main carer for our kids. This does not leave much time to dedicate to running the club. I therefore discussed it with the committee a couple of weeks ago and it has been agreed I will step down effective from 25th April. I am staying on as chair until then to ensure a smooth of a transition and handover and see the club through the upcoming King of Clubs meeting.
In my time with the club I have enjoyed building the new website, ticketing and membership system, being club treasurer throughout 2021, acting as the Aldershot rep on the King of Clubs committee, as well as helping maintain the track and grounds. This was all before I reluctantly took on chairmanship when Glenn sadly resigned last year.
Helping the club has been challenging yet enjoyable and gave me a focus whilst covid had impacted my previous business. It’s been great to be part of seeing it starting to grow again and welcome new members.
I am so happy to have seen some great achievements by the current committee in the last 6 months.
- we have seen a 5% increase in membership revenue over 2021 already.
- We ran a successful winter championship with on average 13% higher entry numbers than the 2021 summer championships, with 7% increase in revenue per meeting in comparison. Not bad to have more entries in a winter series for an outdoor circuit!
- To further improve the clubs previously dire financial situation, back in November we negotiated a significant reduction in rent charged by the Kiln for 12 months and continue contract negotiations to ensure the secure future of the club. This was helped by a positive attitude from the Kiln to the new committee’s fresh approach and we have begun fostering a much more positive relationship with our landlords.
- All this means our account balances at the end of 2021 were 40% higher than year end of 2020
- And a conservative estimate will put us 10% better off at end of 2022 than 2021!
- We have played an important part in the King of Clubs and continue to see success there, with over 100 entries for round 1 at Aldershot
- We have created documentation to bring club standards and procedures up to scratch that are now being adopted by other clubs
- We have run an open day welcoming 43 people completely new to the hobby and are now seeing some new memberships as a result
- We have grown the Facebook group by 25% since Oct 2021 with engagements up 200%.
I think you’ll agree these are some great achievements that the team have facilitated in the last few months alone!
I am so sorry to have to leave the position as I was hoping to have significant input into the continuing success of the Aldershot Club until the AGM in October. But time commitments do not allow it.
I am indebted to the help I have received from the current committee: Rob Baxter, Mark Burrell, John Widley and Andy White. None of the above would have been possible without them!
For now the committee are going to distribute a lot my responsibilities between them, but with some tasks unfortunately unable to be covered. I will remain on as treasurer to help the club out until October, when there will be a new committee voted for in the scheduled AGM.
If anyone is willing to help the club, now would be the time to put your hand up! It doesn’t matter if it’s just helping out on race days or if you want to step into the chairman role. Any help is always appreciated no matter how small and doesn’t have to be in an official capacity!! Help with the website and IT side would be very much welcomed.
I hope to see the continuing upward trend Aldershot club is currently experiencing and build on what has been started.
Thank you all for your time and hopefully see you trackside soon.
