2020 AGM Club Development Report
2020 AGM Club Development Report
Well, where to start? As you can imagine, this year has been a funny one in terms of trying to plan ahead and develop, and it has turned more into an exercise of treading water. However, all things considered, I think we've weathered the storm pretty well and by the end of the year we look like we're shaping up to be no worse off than the end of last year, in terms of the club's health and financial position. I accept that members have had more limited use of the club than normal, whilst we continue to be considerate to the health and wellbeing of our members and staff, by not scheduling duties which then means there is more limited safety cover, as an example. Thank you everyone for being so understanding of the situation.
I talk more about the club's longer-term future and direction separately, here I'll talk about some specific items about this year.
Membership continues to grow, and we're currently ahead of where we were this time last year. However, we're still behind our target of 300 memberships. Last year Ian Holden and I worked on a model to estimate that the club would breakeven in the region of 285 memberships, however this year we have lost out on the additional incomes that members bring to the club, eg socials, kit hire etc which are relative to total member numbers (this figure to breakeven assumes the same relative split of membership categories, and doesn't allow much in terms of project work). We currently have 278 memberships, made up of 472 people. An 8-15% 'turnover' is fairly common, so to maintain 300 members we need to recruit upto 45 new ones each year just to stay where we are. New members who don't already sail etc need supporting with training courses, and our capacity to provide enough training can be a limiting factor to the clubs ability to grow (eg having enough instructors giving enough time to supply the demand).
Family sailing memberships are slightly up, whilst single sailing memberships have fallen. I'm working on plans to allow me to do more teaching next year, so that a larger volume of courses can be supported to address this decline, and so we can better support the development of new instructors.
This year saw the introduction of the clubs' new paddleboard fleet. This has been well received by members to offer an alternative activity and a light wind option, and it has also been a great success in supporting membership growth. Paddlesports membership has already trebled since the end of last year (February), without which our membership numbers would have taken a significant dive (mainly due to the lack of swim memberships since the sessions haven't been going ahead). Many thanks to Deb and Nicky who have really been leading the paddleboarding and running the introductory sessions. The club boards will be sold off at the end of the year in order to replace them with fresh ones for next season this allows members to get a good deal on a fairly new board, and the club avoids incurring the total replacement cost at a later stage.
Considering the circumstances, it's not surprising that we have not met all of the aims in the development plan for this year. We bought a committee boat in the winter, and thank you to Norman and Ian for spending so much time preparing it for use. This will give us more options when we're back to a more normal race format, allowing proper boat-based start & finish lines at least for the trophy days and other events. This also means the course doesn't have to come to the beach every lap, which will help to manage the use of the water (eg to avoid beginner training courses and racers coming together). We now have 5 club lasers, with a range of rig sizes for them. They are getting used more frequently and supporting members who are progressing on from their beginner training. Thanks to Matt for running a series of Laser clinics and the recent Start Racing course.
The other introduction this year is around the use of club kit. Previously, club equipment has only been available during the clubs scheduled opening times. This year, dinghies and kayaks have been available throughout the week, to allow buddy use; the paddleboards have been a bit more restricted to being available when a few keyholders are present, as we can't realistically lock them up with a cable like we do with the kayaks. We're thinking about what to do next year, there has to be a realistic balance between managing the security of the club equipment with it's availability for use.
To summarise this year: It feels like we've put a years' worth of activity into about 3 months, especially considering the new members welcomed in and the courses delivered. It seems like people are staying closer to home, and have been making good use of the club. The club is not being left in a bad position at the end of this year, but we would have expected an underlying financial loss without the grant money we received from the government. We must stay focussed on our aims to grow membership and other income streams, and make sure we are planning properly for the future. See my '2020 Vision A clear view of the club's future'.