RYDE GOLF CLUB EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
17th April 2024 6 pm
PRESENT: JT DS RG DH GH SP ST TM DB
APOLOGIES:
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES:
RG DH
MATTERS ARISING:
Formation of Marketing Committee.
Action – JT to co-ordinate working party meeting to be arranged . Done 1st meeting
held. Email to go out on BRS. Sponsors to be approached.
Staff pay to change from weekly to monthly
Action DB to discuss with staff about moving from weekly to monthly pay Done.
Bank mandate update – final signature required JT signed
Action ST to present forms to bank
Tree Report
Action TM to co-ordinate work on tree Insurance claim is underway
Lee Cawley working hours
Action DB to discuss changes in working hours with L Cawley Done
Evening Stablefords To be run by the bar staff.
Action DB to liaise with LC/ LM to organize staffing Done. Successful start so
far to evening stablefords.
Action DH to organize fire safety training outstanding
Pedestrian hit by ball
Action DB to email Bernice Cunningham Done
Action – JT to look at the Articles of Association JT, GH and DB all done –
GH and DB to report back to next meeting with draft proposed amendments
Action – JT to turn down the £20000 offer from Mr Clewley Done
Action – DB to relocate Suggestion Box into the hallway Done
DH gave account of the meeting he had with a resident behind the 2 nd green , this led to a
further conversation about liability. Action DB/ST to check again with insurance company to
ensure that we are adequately covered for any injury to third parties
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT:
Not much to personally report because it is all covered elsewhere. I gather that progress is being made
on the Articles of Association. We can start thinking about business plan on Wednesday but that is a
task which will take a month or two to complete. I have heard nothing else from Mr Clewley at Ryde
House.
My main personal focus is on assisting Rose and the new marketing / sponsorship / fundraising group
which I think is an exciting project and has started very positively. My aim is to raise the profile of the
Club and increase membership and income.
Sponsorship/Events/Marketing Report
Strategies for increasing membership and obtaining new members
- Re-introduce an incentive for existing members to introduce a new member – money on to the
member’s bar card if they introduce someone. Agreed £25 maximum £100 off next year
subscription if the member renews - Think of ways to enable people to try golf out to see if they like it – we agreed in general that
Westridge has all of the facilities for “beginners” and juniors and that we cannot compete in that
market but should focus instead on trying to attract people who then want to move on from
Westridge and play on a more varied course. - Produce a PDF / advert and a new brochure, to attract golfers. Stress the availability of the
“token” scheme to enable people to try golf out here (20 x 9 hole rounds for £180). Brochure to
be produced - Consider some more “bring a non-member” events
- Extend offers of social memberships
- LC is already actively trying to attract more Societies to play here
- Advertise Club on Wightlink / Red Funnel screens – LM to talk to Wightlink, JT to talk to Red
Funnel, JT to contact Hovertravel Action : LM/JT
Sponsorship / Fundraising - Everyone to think about potential sponsors, particularly those associated with the Club or based
in the Ryde area. DB to email members re: sponsorship - JT & RG to start off a suggested list of prices for different levels of sponsorship (including main
Club sponsor, sponsored holes, sponsored events, adverts in the brochure etc). This to be ratified
by Directors. - Potential sponsors already identified : Purple Bricks (to have first option on extending their
support), Mackenzies, Eldridges, The Heron, Robert Thompson, Michaelangelo, Liz Earle, Ryde
Garage, Andy Foulkes, Mermaid Gin, Lakeside and all of the sponsors who appeared in our
previous 2016 club brochure. - Join / attend Ryde Business Association? Local Hotels – offer discounts to guests?
- NC to approach Biltmore Printers to see if they would still be interested in an advertising board
in our car park – subsequent to the meeting, this was done and the answer was negative. - Consider whether RGC could receive 1/3 of the money raised which goes to Captain’s charities.
Ie, 1/3 goes to RGC, 2/3 goes to the charities? This was discussed and dismissed - Consider offering tokens for casual play (ie 20 x 9 hole tokens) to certain sponsors. Hold a
sponsors day at some point with food and a 9 hole competition or something similar? Might
attract new playing members too. - The proposed new brochure (as mentioned elsewhere in these minutes) – we can get 1,000
printed for £500. 12 pages of A5, full colour. Directors will be shown an example along with the
previous 2016 brochure. It was agreed that a new brochure, which could be given to visitors /
sponsors / new members and also spread around Ryde etc, could be a very good way of attracting
golfers. Brochure to be produced
Clubhouse hire / venue - Currently £80 to hire for 3 hours. Agreed that this is competitive. We will advertise this in the
new brochure. - The only regular external hire is to the Bridge Club but we learnt that we receive around £20 per
session on average for hire, and this is probably not enough to break even. Consider whether to
increase those charges perhaps to £40 or £50? Directors to consider this. Bridge Club to
remain at current price Oct-Apr - Sunday lunches : the kitchen has limitations but LM thinks that it could work under certain
circumstances. Agreed to try this, and advertise it in advance with pre-booking, on days when
there is no Sunday competition or there is an Alliance away day. In place, 1 st Sunday fully
booked. - External hire of kitchen for themed food / music nights etc to be considered. To be carried over
to next meeting. These events might be aimed towards later in year.
Events - See above re Sunday lunches, sponsors days, music/food nights.
21 Ryde Golf Club Sponsorship / advertising options this was approved by Directors
Main Club Sponsor £1000 per year Board overlooking road
Logo on website / all social media (prominent)
3 year deal Free half page advert in brochure
Invitation to sponsors day
XX free tokens for casual golf
Social Membership
Club Sponsor
(maximum of 4)
£500 per year
3 year deal
Logo on website / all social media (secondary
position)
Free half page advert in brochure
Invitation to sponsors day
XX free tokens for casual golf
Social membership
Advert in brochure
only
£150 for half
page
£75 for quarter
page
XX free tokens for casual golf
Invitation to sponsors day
XX free tokens for casual golf
Practice net sponsor £200 per year
3 year deal
XX free tokens for casual golf
Invitation to sponsors day
Social membership
Hole 1 sponsor £250 per year
3 year deal
They also pay for banner (£100).
Banner positioned by 1 st Tee all year round
Hole 2 + 5 sponsor £200 per year
3 year deal
They also pay for banner (£100).
Banner positioned by back of 2/5 Tee all year round
Hole 3 sponsor £150 per year
3 year deal
They also pay for banner (£100).
Banner positioned by 3 rd Tee all year round
Hole 4 + 6 sponsor £200 per year They also pay for banner (£100).
Banner positioned by back of 4/6 Tee all year round
Hole 7 / 16 sponsor £150 per year They also pay for banner (£100).
Banner positioned by 7th Tee all year round
Hole 8 / 17 sponsor £150 per year They also pay for banner (£100).
Banner positioned by 8th Tee all year round
Hole 9 / 18 sponsor £200 per year They also pay for banner (£100).
Banner positioned pointing to 9 th & 18 th Tee all year
round
22 Agreed that more events of a more varied nature could be arranged across winter, but it’s
difficult to do more during months when more golf is played. Agree to share the load of
organising and planning events, aiming for September onwards.
23 Consider (when possible and if lawful) showing sporting events on the TV at Club – ie Euro
football, Olympics etc and advertising via BRS. Difficult to do this with Sky TV etc but possible
with free to air channels.
FINANCE REPORT
The Bank balance at 11th April is £65k
Full Membership numbers are currently 13 joiners, 7 leavers, 17 still to be
determined.
March Income slightly behind budget levels due to weather.
OTHER FINANCE AGENDA ITEMS
Budget in Progress – will be ready for review next meeting
Insurance
- cover re Locker sheds, claim resurrected, date for assessors to be
set up
Tree damage near locker sheds, claim started Insurers require quote & amp;
pictures of tree
DD set up with GolfClubSubs – 11 members invited not yet signed up as of
11th April.
Payroll services – Files sent / information forwarded, 1st Payroll to be run by
AH Cross for 28th April.
Bank mandate updated
Agreed to personally contact all non-payers and threaten removal of rights to BRS etc if no
renewal within a few days : Action DB
COURSE REPORT:
Fence follow up
All tee work is now complete scarify, seeded top dressed and brushed in, this is the first time this has
happened for 10 years.
We will be top dressing the greens on Monday 22nd April. We’re very pleased how they have recovered
from the winter. This will help even more to smooth all the surfaces.
I have spoken to Tom Harding and he is starting the patio at the end of the week. He will make it safe
and kiln dry sand to make it stronger. He is also relaying any loose bricks around the putting green.
Regarding the trees we are still waiting to see if we can claim for the damaged high risk tree hanging
over the locker rooms.
Doug has said to me he wants to cut even more hours so I’m currently working on a plan of how to staff
the course going forward.
Lee Cawley will be starting 6am-10am to cut tees and aprons on a Monday for 6 months. This is at no
extra cost to us just taking some hours from the bar.
Things to do are to tidy 3rd tee area and soil and turf any low areas damaged by laying water on the
fairways around the course.
man
DR has requested a cut in hours, requested 1 day a week.
Current contract changed to £5500 13 weekends -Sept
1 day a week Action DB to meet with DR to discuss his request
Action: DB and TM to write an advert for new groundsperson.
JT to buy discs for trees, yardage markers to go up. JT also offered to fund new mats for the
practice nets. Action : JT and TM to sort this out
BAR/SOCIAL REPORT:
Very successful quiz night on March 16 th
Two society visits since last meeting
Boozy Bingo planned for April 27 th.
Darts / games night in planning stages for May
Fridge replaced, Hot water tap fixed.
Electrical safety inspection completed.
HEALTH & SAFETY:
Asbestos warning sign is now fitted in the right-hand trolly room.
Visited the lady in the house at the back of the 2nd green whose daughter was hit with a golf ball after it
deflected off their shed. She was not as concerned as the lady that was previously struck walking up the
road, but her grandchildren frequently visit and play in the garden in the summer which was causing her
some concern. As an aside, her garden was full of golf balls that had landed there, and the most recent
event a ball had gone OVER her house and landed where her husband usually parks his car. Are we sure
that we are fully covered for all eventualities with potential property damage?
The Water Regulations inspection report has now been received. Unfortunately, this had been in the
Ryde Golf inbox for two months, so no action had been taken. There are two nonconformance’s, which I
believe sit with the installer, so I have asked Tom to communicate with the installer to discuss. I have
apologized to Southern Water for the slow response, and they have given us till the end of the month to
comply.
The application for an additional water meter has been placed with Southern Water. We had to pay £86
up front to apply for them to come and have a look! I will keep you all updated. once this is completed, I
will pull together a plan of the system for future us so that we can all understand the layout.
I have been monitoring the support pillar on the trolly shed and it is getting worse. The lean has
increased by about 3 to 4mm in the last month. Should this move any more we will either need to fix it
or barrier it off and stop the two vehicles from parking in front of the building. This was pointed out in
the survey report that we had previously. Best guess £2 to £3k.
Another oil spill has occurred, contained in the bund provided. It appears clearly that mice had eaten
through the plastic container. This should not happen in future as oil is now provided in tins instead of
plastic containers. I have emptied the bund into another container ready for disposal, and asked Laura to
continue to order oil in tins not plastic.
CORRESPONDENCE/ COMMENTS BOOK/ SUGGESTION BOX.
NEW MEMBERS:
15 since last meeting
A.O.B.
When are the distance markers going up on trees? Action JT to buy and TM to organize
Social Media – Instagram Action JT to ask LM
Bunker presentation dates? Action OngoingTom still to plan
Priority list of jobs needed + costings (similar to Duncan’s email) – alongside business plan
Action Directors to complete business plan pro forma
New members / course etiquette evenings? pitch marks and divots Ongoing – plan for a
Directors 9 hole evening where new members play with Director(s) and have an informal
introduction to club. DB / TM to book this in.
What happened about the free golf for employees? Decision emailed last month
Can we get a master key press, clearly annotated, and sort out the numerous key issues that
occur. Action DB to ask CMcC to collate and re-organise key
Why do we have 8000 golf balls in the pump room, when we are short of storage space?
Action DB to sort
Compressor in the trolly store kept for spare parts, strip it down and store somewhere else? ie
where the golf balls are? Action Compressor to be stored in the pump room
What has been done about the Ryde House/Greenkeepers water meter? Action DH to
investigate further
DATE OF NEXT MEETING: May 27th