ORGANISATION , GOVERNANCE & FINANCE
Goal: Regain Clubmark Status
Status: ON TRACK
The ECB's Safehands Management Portal is in use and two members of the Club are booked on ECB Safehands Course in March. Once this is achieved, we will be in compliance with all Clubmark requirements and should be successful in our 2022 application.
Goal: Adjust 2022 Season Membership Tiers
Status: COMPLETE
More complicated membership membership tiers were proposed and agreed at the 2021 AGM with details available to players and parents in the relevant parts of this website. The goals of this are to cut costs for regular players & families and encourage more volunteers to get involved in volunteering to coach or work on the ground.
Goal: Increase Focus on Batting Coaching across all sections of the Club
Status: ON TRACK
The 2021 player and parent surveys revealed a desire in the club to increase our batting coaching offering. Several new level 2 coaches are either qualifying or joining the coaching team for the 2022 season and this is already underway in nets and will conitnue through the summer.
Goal: Negotiate a lease at Ampney Crucis & Modified lease at Englands
Status: IN PROGRESS
In order to capitalise from new funding streams and secure financial piosition with respect to investments made at both facilities, Discussions with our Ladlords at both Ampney Crucis at Englands are underway and we hope to be in a position to apply for the ECB county grants funding streams in 2023 if not before.
Goal: Remove Pitchero from the Club organisation (both New website and availability)
Status: COMPLETE
We took the decision to leave Pitchero due to several of our members falling victim to credit card fraud in 2021 as a result of fishing third party advertising on the Pitchero website and App. We have replaced these with Spond and a new website which carry no such third party advertising into the 2022 season.
Goal: Improve Club Presence with Neighbours & Village
Status: ON TRACK
The club has responded to the excellent village initiative of launching a newsletter by writing an article each month. These newsletters are also carried elsewhere on this Club Website. We are also involved in the village Facebook page and websites and wil leverage these to improve the communication with our neighbours and hopefully get more local people involved in the club. In addition to this, the club is getting fully involved with the village's celebrations for the Queen's jubilee, laying on a cricket and beer festival and welcoming the village's residents to this.
PEOPLE
Goal: Youth Section Management Structure Changes
Status: COMPLETE
The club has lost the services of player coach Liam Smith and Youth Section Manager Neil Cheesewright (although he remains as coach) for the 2022 season. With both representing huge shoes to fill in the Winter months. That said, three club members - James Newman, Gaby Reeves & Will Bathurst are taking the new ECB Core coach qualification (it replaces the level 2) this winter while Fred Bayliss so far signed up for the Foundation course. In addition, one of our parents, Oakridge CC legend Mark Robbins - also a level 2 coach is going to take on the Under 15s. The club will not have had so many qualified coaches to call on in its history. In addition to this, Will will assume admin duties and run the Safehands Management Portal with Club Safeguarding officer Claire Kilby doing verifications.
Goal: Club President & Chairman Succession Planning
Status: UNDERWAY
We are exposed as a club to the hard work that Rosemarie and Dave have put in over the years so we need to be mindful that should they wish to step down in future years we have others ready to step into their shoes and carry on their work, ensuring club continuity. The committee has new members for the 2022 season and we are positioining to fill this requirement.
SENIOR CRICKET
Goal: Recruit First XI Squad Members & Overseas Player for 2022 Season
Status: ON TRACK
Jody Lawrence is leading the project to secure an overseas player COVID Travel Depedent. One has been identified for the season and an offer letter has been extended. In addition to this, the club has been fortunate enough to welcome several new faces to well attended Winter Nets, growing our senior playing numbers as hoped.
Goal: First XI Top four finish in GCCL Div 1, Second & Third XIs to consolidate and aim for Top 50% of tables.
Status: NOT YET STARTED
The Season starts on May 7th.
WOMEN & GIRLS CRICKET
Goal: Target Ladies Tour for the 2022 Season.
Status: ON TRACK
The 2021 Club Survey revealed a desire to hold a Ladies Tour in 2022 and planning for this has already begun following a Pre-Season ladies planning meeting in January which also addressed Ladies and Girls leagues selection for 2022. There are longer term goals for the club of a Ladies 2nd XI by 2025 and offering longer format games at the weekend in the 2023 season so all development is being done with this in mind.
Goal: Adjust Ladies Coaching in line with 2021 Survey Feedback
Status: ON TRACK
Range of abilities and player targets in the Ladies team means that a one size fits all coaching strategy needs to be rethought with perhaps multiple coaching sessions within the same practice night being held. Perhaps a group fielding practice followed by more specific one to one sessions or tailored groups would suit more player needs. At nets we have had four qualified coaches lending a hand to our new ladies coaching team, whether actively involved in coaching when asked or just providing additional net bowling in support of the new ladies lead coaches, Philippa Dunn & Gaby Reeves.
Goal: Start Creating Pathway to retain more girls in the club to turn into Ladies players/members
Status: NOT YET STARTED
To achieve all goals in the Ladies game we need more girls to grow into the senior side. We need to establish a better pathway and potentially create a Ladies development officer to oversee this in line with advice from the county girls development officer.
Goal: Appraise and where Possible Improve Ladies' Changing/Washroom Facilities for 2022
Status: NOT YET STARTED
To continue making the Senior league sides a welcoming place for our excellent ladies players, we do as club need to ensure that we are providing the best possible changing facilities and washrooms for the 2022 season. We have identified several things to work on for the 2022 season to improve both Ampney and Poulton and the Committee has plans in place to enact these once preparations for the season start. We hope in the future to make structural changes to both grounds but these are rather longer projects requiring financial planning, planning permission and funding.
JUNIOR/YOUTH CRICKET
Goal: Increase Focus on Parents/Guardians
Status: ON TRACK
As part of the new Website, we are building a new Parents section containing all the relevant information they need to steer their child through coaching & playing as well as play-cricket registration, membership payment and communication. We hope to have pre-season social gatherings at Englands and have already incorporated several parental suggestions into our development plan and restructured membership costs. We have also brought in Social Memberships so that our parents can feel an equal part of the club and be welcome at events and when using the facilities.
Goal: Foster greater squad cohesion with wider club
Status: ON TRACK
For 2022 we need to bring the youth & senior sections of the club together. The committee has agreed that the end of the 2022 season should see a sole awards day but we are also planning if COVID permits, pre-season get togethers, socials and matches. This planning now includes squad organised and delivered social events through the season as well as the Queen's Jubilee centred around a beer festival. It's shaping up to be a good balance of social events and what is practical to deliver.
Goal: Reduce Costs for Larger Families
Status: COMPLETE
Having a greater number of playing members in the family should always be encouraged and our old structure of memberships meant a heavy cost structure for families who have both senior and junior players. This has now been addressed in our new membership fee structure. Additional Child costs have been capped at two and family memberships put in place.
Goal: In response to Parents Surveys, improve batting coaching offering.
Status: ON TRACK
As mentioned elsewhere, we are increasing the number of Level 2 coaches for the 2022 season and this will free up time commitments enabling greater offering of one-to-one coaching where appropriate and in line with ECB guidance. We will also focus on this as a coaching unit in 2022 particularly when more than one coach is available at a session. So far at net sessions we have had coach to child ratios of 1:4, with many sessions seeing more than four coaches. It will be hard to maintain this in the summer with more children returning to cricket from other sports but equally it will be easier to maintain safety without the constraints of a small space.
SOCIAL /FUNDRAISING
Goal: Professionalising Advertising/Sponsorship Offering.
Status: ON TRACK
For the 2022 season, the club will focus on ground, website and social media advertising offerings priced accordingly given the aggregated benefit to both sponsors and club is high. We are targeting income of £1,000 for this for the 2022 Season. A new sub committee has been created and dedicated sponsor pages and links are on the club website. We have targeted local businesses to get involved with and switched our shirt sponsorship to carrying the logo of a charity.
Goal: Squad organised club social events through the 2022 Season.
Status: ON TRACK
As we get the social side of the club back on track in what we hope will be a Post-Covid season, Each Squad will organise and lay on a social event for the rest of the club to enjoy at Englands. 76% of the club felt this was a priority for us as a club in the 2022 Season in their 2021 surveys. These squad days are now agreed and in th club diary for the 2022 season.
Goal: Secure new Shirt Sponsor and Kit for 2022 Season
Status: COMPLETE
The club has put in place a new club shop with Gray-Nicolls for the 2022 Season and our new shirt "sponsor" will is a Goucestershire charity called Frank Water who we are partnering up with for the 2022 Season.
Goal: Introduce Social Memberships
Status: COMPLETE
These were approved at the first year rate of £10 at the AGM so that non-playing members can still feel part of the club and welcome to use the facilities. We hope these appeal to local villagers, parents, former players and relatives.
MARKETING/PROMOTION
Goal: Increase use of Social Media as tol for marketing the club
Status: ON TRACK
The clubs Twitter & Instrgram accounts are embedded in the new Club Website and logins will be shared with more officials to post content in line with the club's social media policy.
Goal: Simplify Communcation with Club Members & Stakeholders
Status: ON TRACK
Several official specific email accounts created which will stay in place when the people in those positions change creating continuity for County & League contacts as well as all other stakeholders. We will reduce the use of WhatsApp for Club information, restricting these groups to team conversation or matchday issues depending on individual squads but team communication will chiefly be done through spond while teams will be published on Social media once selected.
