Dear Member,
You are invited to renew your membership for 2024. The fees for next season were approved at the recent AGM.
The AGM was told that the club is facing some large increases in operating costs next year, including improvement work to the green. You will be familiar with just how much the costs of energy, water, maintenance, insurance etc. have increased. Unfortunately fees have to increase to meet these costs but the increase has been kept to below 8%.
The majority of members paid online this year and I am very grateful for that and hope for even more next year. However, there is still a need to complete the attached Renewal Form so that I know what you have paid for.
Please either print out the attached form or collect one from the blue folder at the club. Then indicate which category of membership and how many 100 Club entries that you would like and return the form to me by either using the clubhouse mailbox, or by posting it to me at: 8 The Mead, Ashtead, KT21 2LZ, or by scanning it and emailing it to me at guthrieianr@gmail.com. Please make sure that your form is returned and your subscription paid asap, but no later than Saturday 13th January 2024.
The three categories of membership shown on the form remain as before. They are described in full in the Club's Constitution and are briefly:
Full Playing Member - has access to all club facilities, matches and competitions, and all club social events. The fee of £210 is fully inclusive and unlike many other local clubs there are no additional fees for lockers, match fees, club competition fees or affiliation fees. The fee is discounted to £185 for full members who joined during 2023.
Associate Member – is a previous Full Playing Member (for at least three years) who now bowls less. The fee of £86 includes outdoor bowling on up to three occasions per month, access to all club facilities, short mat and social events but not to any club matches or internal competitions.
Social Member - has access to all club facilities, social events and outings, cribbage, canasta, and short mat bowling. but is not permitted to bowl on the green. Ideal for non-playing spouses/partners/friends of other members. The fee is only £38 pa.
100 Club
The Club has a draw four times a year. The prizes have been at the same level for probably more than 10 years, so this year the 100 Club is being revitalised and the prizes doubled! At each of the four draws there will be a £100, £50 and £30 prize. The cost of an entry for the whole season will be just £10. The odds of winning at each draw will be very high; even higher if you buy more than one entry!!
Volunteering
It was explained at the AGM that the club relies on members to volunteer to do certain jobs and avoid the cost of using contractors. Provided we continue to get enough help with mowing the green, maintaining the clubhouse, running events, and help with specialist tasks such as ‘Health & Safety’ then we can keep costs down. We may have to include these in our fees as our membership changes but for the moment we have kept fee increases down as much as we can by budgeting for doing the work ourselves.
I look forward to receiving your Renewal Forms and subscriptions for next year, and please remember your 100 Club entries.
Kind regards
Ian Guthrie. Membership Secretary. 18th November 2023.