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A.G.M. 10th December 2007 Members and Committees Year Starting 1st Oct 2006 to 30th Sept 2007. The 2006 season had finished with Cricket looking in better shape finishing in 9 th position in the league, Tennis had continue to hold their own, Social had a better year, but finances were a concern, which was reported at the AGM Jan 07. Following the successful season, Nishet Shetty had been offered terms and signed for the 2007 season at an increased cost to the club, along with some additions which he had negotiated. The newly formed ladies committee had made good progress, raising monies with various types of events and initiatives, such as Linda’s Lottery the Bonus Ball, a very successful Halloween Night, and the Valentine’s Dinner, along monthly Quiz Nights a Grand Auction, and other events throughout the winter months, and through the season. Many thanks, to all of these ladies, and our tearoom ladies. The winter months had passed and the start of the season was upon us, without enough income being raised one particular disappointment was the support for the Sportsmans Dinner which had been arranged as a big event, but had to be scaled down, because of the lack of support, and was run at a loss at the end of the day. The start of season was here, and at that time the sun was shinning, and the ground looked brilliant, our thanks to Ian McCrae, and we were all looking forward to a good season. But unfortunately the Professional Shetty was unable to obtain a visa on time to leave India, and was missing for the first three games, which were all lost. Whilst subscriptions started to arrive in, there was not a great amount of capital in the club, and with monies required for sub pros, and then air fare, accommodation a car and insurance, and of course wages for pro and groundsman. It soon became evident that finances for cricket in particular were in poor shape, and it wouldn’t be long before we would be running out of money altogether, with not enough funds in the Club to support this cash shortfall. At the May Management meeting it was decided that we should make the members and general public aware of the situation. An E.G.M. was called for the 4 th June 07 and an appeal letter was produced for the members, and the press media were informed via the web site, and appeals were made through these outlets by the President and David Lloyd who fronted the media. There was a full house at the meeting on that night with over 100 people turning out, and people pledged donations to save the club, many ideas were proposed to improve the clubs position, and several members came forward to form a development group, to investigate the clubs future. These included Peter West, Peter Westwell, trustees, David and Graham Lloyd, Steve Davis, Finance, Bill Rawstron, and Michael Hindle, supported by various members of the management. But the biggest surprise of the night came when an anonymous donation of £10,000 was pledged by a phone call on the night from a local business man. This of course would cover the immediate shortfall, and in fact save the club from the brink of a disaster. This man has now become known as Mr X, at Accrington Cricket, and we cannot thank him enough, for this very generous gift to the club. Meantime the weather continued to ruin most of the Cricket, and the gates were badly affected 5 games had to be replayed all at extra cost, and of course the Social were also affected, and needed financial assistance by the end of July. There were changes in Captains for first eleven etc, etc, more of this in the cricket report. The newly formed development team had by now identified the short term problems, this was a complete lack of budgeting, and financial control of the sections. Steve Davis took on the task of firstly going through this last years account, trying to get these making sense, then issuing a budget for the coming year. Steve has put many hours into this for which we are most thankful. The group have investigated some long term possibilities, on how we may use the assets of our very large ground. We looked at the proposals which were suggested at the E.G.M. by the members, such as the use of the ground for other sports, and using the Social Club when ever possible. We have made some progress with this, and now have a Darts and Dominos team all organised by team Manager George Clarke, thanks to George and all the players. Huncoat Junior Football are now using the facilities for the under 8s and 9s. games, without any major damage to the ground, also they are using the Clubhouse for their events and meetings. There are discussions taking place with a new Junior Rugby Club, and we are hopeful of having a similar arrangement with them. The links with Accrington Stanley FC have not yet come to fruition but Bill Rawstron is still considering the possibilities of using the Car Park. Looking more at the longer term possibilities what came out of this, was the possible selling of some land, and to that effect a colleague of Graham Lloyd a ‘ Mr Andrew Darbyshire’ is investigating for us with various investors, who maybe interested in buying some of our land, for a building project, which should sell for about 1.5 million giving long term security. This is a complicated procedure and a second E.G.M was called for the membership to approve the this venture. We have had discussions with Hyndburn B.C. and Lancs C.C. with the help of the Development Adviser, and both Authorities are looking at our investigations favourably. Peter West is overseeing all aspects of these investigations, and Bill Rawstron has been fronting the covenants on the land. This of course is long term planning and we are aware that there are difficult areas to be overcome such as covenants, planning and land ownerships, but we will keep all Members informed of our progress whenever possible. The first objective following this A.G.M will be to re- structure the committees to ensure that we can control the finances, and to this end we will need more volunteers to come forward, and help with this work, we thank everyone who is already working for the club, but we need to be more professional, and we need you to help, please come forward, You are reminded nearly every year, this is the members club, please do your best now, its only four months to the start of next season, and we must get it right this time. Thanks on behalf of the Management.
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