At the member’s meeting on Sunday, 36 of our members joined the committee to hear about what we’ve done since taking over running the centre a year ago and what our future plans are. The committee also emphasised the importance of volunteers coming forwards to help us run the centre and announced a volunteer incentives programme to recognise the contribution our volunteers make for the benefit of all our members.
Price increases were proposed and these will be voted on at the upcoming AGM on 29th September. Our Treasurer and Club Captain explained why the increases are needed and made it clear that the prices had been set on the basis of current volunteers continuing and more volunteers coming forward to help us run the centre. Without more volunteers, the centre will almost certainly have to increase prices more steeply to allow us to survive and thrive.
If you would like to learn more about the volunteers incentive programme and talk to us about what’s required to volunteer with us, please use our contact form to send us an email or chat to one of the committee when you are next in the centre.
If you missed the the meeting, here are the highlights:
- Thanks were given by all the committee members to:
- Our members for showing their patience, support and enthusiasm for our amazing community and venue. Also for helping move closer to being cashless by paying using cards which helps reduce our administrative burden and risks associated with handling cash.
- Our amazing volunteers for their selfless support and dedication to helping keeping our centre running smoothly and making the centre a warm, inviting place for new and existing members.
- Our incredibly generous sponsors for their financial contributions to the centre, keeping us “afloat” in the early stages and staying with us and continuing to support us throughout the year.
- The Etherow Charitable Trust for their belief in us to make a success of the centre and for their support and enormous contributions throughout the year helping us and guiding us.
- Our Club captain, Steve Roberts, gave us a run-down of the amazing progress over the last 12 months, this ranged from deep cleaning, bowling mat repairs and trophy cabinet installation to new toilets being installed, major cost saving heating system modifications and significant refurbishment and redecoration works.
- Steve shared his belief that we will have at least another 100 members with us by this time next year and reported that we are already bringing in double the income of the previous organisation that ran the centre.
- A high level summary of our major planned developments were shared, including:
- Plans for the Etherow Trust property next to the centre which might provide additional car parking and maybe even holiday accommodation.
- Plans for the ground floor of the centre which might get a new lease of life for railway heritage use.
- Refurbishment of three rooms on the middle floor of the centre for hospitality and changing / locker areas.
- Cleaning and light diffusion of the sky lights to reduce the impact of glare on our bowlers from the wonderful Broadbottom sunlight.
- Our Treasurer, Gwyn Davies, shared some of financial activities he has been working hard on to try and ensure the centre is financially sound and secure, these include:
- Discussions and negotiations with Tameside Council to align both organisations around a community focussed financial agreement that allows the centre to continue to thrive and provide amazing social and wellbeing benefits to Tameside residents.
- Appointment of new insurance brokers and a undertaking a complete review and revaluation of insured assets to ensure we’re properly covered in case the worst were to happen.
- Measures to reduce our incredibly high utility bills, which have risen on average by 20% over the last year.
- Work on financial modelling and planning to build a buffer for the financial security of the centre.
- Our price increase proposal for 2024/25 was shared by our Club Captain, here’s what Steve told us about this:
- We have worked hard to keep the costs as low as we can and the proposed increases assume our current volunteers will continue to support us and that more volunteers will come forward to help run the centre.
- In addition to getting support from volunteers, we are also working on grants applications and are investigating partnering with a no-win, no-fee specialist grants application organisation.
- We recognise the need to increase our member base to help keep costs low for everyone and understand that many new members will join for social bowling before considering joining our competitive leagues. For this reason, although we are simplifying our membership offerings by removing a social only option, we are keeping the social bowling fees fixed at £6 per session.
- We are maintaining our commitment to support and encourage youngsters and families and will continue to offer a 50% discount to under 18s whilst also introducing a new family membership option that effectively provides free membership for juniors with two paying adults.
- Excluding the exceptions above, and a couple more detailed below, Fees for members will generally increase by 10% across the board, the proposed increases are:
- Social Long Mat Bowling: Held at £6 per person, per session
- Daytime Fours: £5.50 per person, per session (increased from £5)
- Daytime Triples: £6.60 (increased from £6)
- Evening Triples: £6.00 (new winter league that will run on a Monday evening)
- Evening Fours: £5.50 (increased from £5)
- Daytime Pairs: £8.50 (increased from £7.50, see note below)
- Short Mat Club Nights: £4.50 (increased from £4, see note below)
- Tea/Coffee: 60p per cup (increased from 50p, see note below)
- Full annual Membership: £24 (Increased from £20) – fee reduction applies after 1st January
- Short Mat Only Membership: £12 (increased from £10, see note below)
- Short Mat Full (with registrations): £24 (includes ESMBA and league registrations plus provides all other benefits of Full annual membership)
- Family Membership: £48 (New membership option covers two adults and their children)
- Other exceptions to the 10% increase:
- Daytime Pairs offers greater value since it allows players to deliver more bowls during the course of the session, and reduces the income the centre sees from a rink. Prices have increased a little more than other game types to try and better balance game cost to players and income for the centre.
- Short Mat was introduced to the centre for the first time last year and we’ve steadily grown our offering over the past 12 months. Many of our Club night bowlers are already members of the England Short Mat Bowling Association through other Short Mat Clubs. To cater for all our short mat bowler’s different needs, we will now offer two different short-mat membership options. We have increased our short mat club night prices a little more than the standard 10% but we still believe our club nights offer great value for money for new and experienced short mat bowlers.
- Some notes about the new “Short Mat Only” Membership:
- This membership option is for those who come to our centre for Short Mat bowling only and have already registered with the ESMBA through another “home” club.
- Any Short Mat member that chooses to register with Etherow IBC as their home club, through Greater Manchester Short Mat Bowling Association and the English Short Mat Association, will be classed as a full member and pay the appropriate £24 fee. This full fee will include their necessary association registrations and administration costs.
- Full annual membership includes both long mat and short mat bowling at Etherow IBC.
- We are increasing our tea and coffee prices by 10p per cup but we still believe this represents excellent value for money and is quite possible the cheapest tea and coffee around.
- Members will have the chance to vote on these increases at the AGM on 29th September, we hope all members will support us and understand our need to increase prices to secure the future of our centre for all.
- An update on our Long Mat leagues for winter was provided:
- Leagues are filling up fast but we still have vacancies for Friday Pairs, Monday Evening Triples and Thursday Evening Fours. Any interested members should contact the office as soon as they can.
- Fixtures will be published soon on our website and we’re working on a printable format for those members that prefer this.
- Any members interested in Social Bowling should contact the office to find out how they can get involved and for available session times.
- Our Club Captain reinforced how important and valued our volunteers are to helping the centre thrive and he announced our Volunteers Incentive Programme as a way of showing our gratitude to members who give up their own time for the benefit of all our members. Anyone interested in finding out more should speak with any member of the committee or use the contact form on our website, however here are the key points:
- Volunteers are needed for a range of activities including maintenance, gardening and more but perhaps the easiest and most frequent need is to staff the office. Full training will be given, but to give you an idea, this includes:
- Taking payments from members.
- Washing up tea/coffee cups and general tidying up.
- Helping to monitor supplies like tea/coffee/milk and reporting to the group when these become low.
- Answering the phone and responding to office enquiry emails.
- Updating league results with match scores.
- Any member completing a volunteer session will receive free bowling, free tea/coffee and a free biscuit on the day they undertake their “duty”.
- Volunteers are needed for a range of activities including maintenance, gardening and more but perhaps the easiest and most frequent need is to staff the office. Full training will be given, but to give you an idea, this includes:
- Councillor Jacqueline Owen told us that she is working hard behind the scenes to support us in any way she can and shared with us that there are a number of local community projects being worked on that she believes we might be able to support and receive support from. She told us she will work to ensure all projects are aware of each other and will coordinate between them where she can so everyone can benefit.
- The meeting closed with our committee Chairman encouraging everyone to attend our AGM on 29th September at 11am in the centre and by appealing to members for anyone who might be able to fulfil a secretary role on our committee to come forwards.