Racket Sports Update

Good afternoon [[firstname]],

Finally after 5 months we are now open for racket sports at BMSA. It has been an extremely testing time for the club and all involved. Now its over to you the members to help support the club.

Now that we are open and can take stock there are a few concerns that I would like to address.

Firstly I would like to thank those that have already started to use the facilities. Without your support we don't have a club. With no income coming in from various sections it has been a very testing time. Although financially we are in a better position this time last year, we need to get the court usage up across the board. Hopefully with the infrastructure we have put in place with current government / governing bodies guidelines it will give all members the confidence to come back to BMSA and play the sports you love. Your club needs you for sports and social.

Secondly I would like to address some rumblings and concerns that have been raised around both price increases and lack of communication and membership.

Price Increase

Due to COVID guidelines we as a club have had to implement a range of different procedures to allow us to open and keep all members safe. Unfortunately these come at an extra cost to the club. To make racket sports sustainable once again, we as a club have no other option but to pass some of the cost down to us as members. For example we have lost a 1/3rd of our court allowance due to COVID regulations (potential lost revenue), extra cleaning schedules that is mandatory (paid staff more hours) & cleaning products and hand sanitizers that we as a club are providing. These are a few examples just for the rackets section of the club. All this put together is a cost we could't have foreseen in September last year when looking at memberships. These ongoing costs that now will become the "new normal" you will see in the new court costings. Squash £4.30 Off Peak including weekends and £5.00 Peak Mon - Fri from 5pm. Badminton is now in line with squash off peak costing at £6 for an hr (£1 for 10 mins). Currently we are in a settling in period and these prices will be under constant review.

Under normal circumstances I would have called a meeting with all members from the rackets section to discuss any price increases. Unfortunately due to the Pandemic this has not been possible to get you all together. Once we were given the green light to open from the Government it was paramount that we got the rackets section of the business up and running asap. As a section we are one of the pillars of the club. Simple No rackets No Club. We have had to improve on ventilation, lighting controls and have a full on-line track and trace system (On-Line Booking) in place to meet current regulations. Everyone behind the scene have worked extremely hard to get what parts of the club we can open. All of this work has been done on a voluntary basis and has been a huge team effort. We have met many challenges and added costs along the way. Every decision that has been made has had careful consideration to give BMSA the best possible chance to come out of this pandemic. The new booking system is a great asset to club to attract both new members and encourage more court usage. To make things clear at no point is the ongoing booking system cost being passed on to you the member. The booking system is there to enable us as club to get better court usage. In doing so this system will be self supporting. In other words "use it or lose it".

Communication

Following a couple of telephone conversations from members I would like to apologise for the lack of communication from my side. Due to the new Club Control System being in transition from our old system and going into lockdown I didn't have access to everyones contact details. It wasn't until we got MyCourts on-board that I had access to contact emails. The first email that I could send out from the system in line with GDPR regulations was your invitation to join MyCourts on-line. This is where you would have seen the booking sheets and increased costs. I understand that there has been some anger and frustration towards this but I can only work with the tools I had at my disposal. Moving forward BMSA now has this facility to keep everyone up to date with any changes that will affect you the member.

Membership

Membership prices will be increasing next year. It will be a small 4% increase across the board. This is being used as a base to then work out what rebate each member will be entitled to due to lost time as a result of Covid 19 and will be used to calculate next years subscription. Bearing in mind we had existing members that have paid 12 months upfront and new members join between October and lockdown. We are in the process of sorting this out but to ensure each member is treated fairly it is going to take some time. Between now and the end of August.

I hope this draws any concerns regarding price costing to a conclusion.

Thank you again for your continued support. I hope to see you all using the new booking sheets and back on court supporting your club.

Kind regards
Shaun Watkin
Burton Manor Squash