Refurbishment of the clubhouse

Click here for photos - new pics added 18 February 2021

18 February 21. The glazing of the new entrance door at the beginning of this week marked the completion of the building work. Adrienne Hughes' team is now busy fitting out the clubhouse. The carpet tiles have been laid in the changing rooms, and the benches, beautifully restored by Mick Pierce, are back in place.

14 January 2021 All is looking good, the lights and electric heating works are finished, the plumbing is completed and we have hot and cold water to the food prep area and bar. The internal doors are nearly all fitted and being made good ready for decoration. The fire alarm system is being fitted today and tomorrow e.g. fire alarm bells and panic buttons. Next week the decorators will be giving the final coats to the walls and ceilings, the doors and windows will be rubbed down and stained as necessary.

We are well on schedule if not ahead of schedule, the only thing we are waiting on is the new entrance doors which hopefully will be in the next two to three weeks. The paving to the new doors will hopefully be laid next week subject to the weather.

8 January 2021 David Hart and Adrienne Hughes visited the club this morning (both in PPE and keeping 2 metres apart) things were looking good. The bar and food prep cupboards are fitted, see photos, the electrics are almost completed and the decorations to have their final coat. The internal doors and frames will be fitted next week with the plumbing and heating being fitted as well. All work is on schedule if not ahead of schedule in some areas

21 December 2020 Most of the 1st fix electrics has been completed and

all the down lights in the club room are in and working. All the 1st fix plumbing

is in and ready for the Bar and Food Prep units to be fitted in early January.

All the ceilings and walls have had a mist coat of emulsion. There is some

making good to be done but everything is looking very good.

The rear doors to the court yard have been fitted with a push bar. The old

existing entrance is having a new frame with the doors being reversed to

open outwards. A push bar will be fitted this week. All works are on

schedule to be completed on time if not earlier.

10 December 2020 The works are going along nicely. The floor in the extension has now been raised so that all floors are now at the same level. The ceilings are all now re-plastered and the walls will be completed today. The electrician and plumber will be on site on Monday 15th to start wiring the lights and power sockets. The plumber will start fitting the pipes where we need them ready to connect to the new sink and basins. Some of the new door frames have been fixed and the remainder will be fitted next week.

27 November 2020 all the internal blockwork walls are now complete and the new entrance has been formed, new doors will be fitted later. The first fix electrics have started and the ceilings are being repaired with plasterboard. The pathway to the new main doors has been excavated and a sub base laid, the drainage has been exposed ready for the new gully, The plasterer will be starting middle to end of next week to plaster the ceilings and the walls. The floor screed to level the floors is to be laid towards the end of next week.

20 November 2020

The new steels have now been fitted and a lot of preparation work for the block walls to be built. Looking at the program, I estimate that they are approximately a week behind, the builder was quite confident that this is not a problem and that it will be made up quite quickly. The block walls and brickwork to form the opening for the new entrance doors is starting next week. (David Hart)

12 November 2020

Week 2 and more interior walls come down. Have a look at the photos and see if you can still recognize the space!

2 November

Signing our new 25 year lease on 26 October paved the way for our refurbishment project to get underway. Our builder started on site on 2 November. There is fencing also within the

courtyard outside the rear doors, which were open and it sounds like

stripping out has begun. They have 2 vans parked and labelled 'contractor

parking' in two of the disabled bays.

The fencing in the car park is their compound for materials, skip etc. all as agreed with GBC.

Message from Geoff Sheldon, Vice President October 2020

What a brilliant bunch you are. Thanks to your generous donations we have reached our fundraising target! Given the departure of most grant giving bodies from the scene because of Covid this is a wonderful achievement and you deserve a standing ovation.

The clubhouse development

The project is moving on apace and we have now agreed a programme of work and final costs with our builder. We have signed the contract and work is set to start in early November. Led by Adrienne Hughes, I know many of you have worked hard to pack up the club house and our stuff is due to be removed to store on 26 October. So if there is anything you need to retrieve move quickly.....or look out for it on eBay! I have made a photographic record of the interior and I intend to post “before and after” photos on the website when the project is completed. Thanks go to the refurbishment sub-committee and to the expert input from David Hart and Adrienne Hughes for getting us to this point.

The lease

After nearly four (yes four!) years of negotiations we have reached agreement on the terms of the new lease. We have signed a document called a Heads of Terms which records what we have agreed and will form the basis of the new lease. I reported in my September message that we managed to secure some good terms, especially on the rent. We've now agreed the maintenance responsibilities so the negotiations are at an end and we are simply waiting for the lawyers to finish drafting the lease document. Our legal adviser will then check it over then we will be able to sign it. Not quite as soon as we had hoped but that is down to process rather than negotiating sticking points (we've been asked to take over Brexit negotiations next! Joke!!) Thanks to my fellow lease sub-committee members, (Barry Macbeth, Alan Mogg and Ian Mackrell) for their hard work, commitment, and hours of persistence.

Message from Geoff Sheldon, Vice President September 2020

Congratulations! Through your generosity we are now within touching distance of our fundraising target for the redevelopment of the clubhouse. So if you are still thinking about making a donation please do so now!

This is a brilliant demonstration of your support for the club and reassures the members who have given of their time and efforts to deliver the project. All of the project tasks are challenging and particularly so because of the added difficulties and complications of Covid19. So I would like to extend thanks, on your behalf, to those hard-working and dedicated members who have got the project this far, and will bring it to a successful conclusion. Treasurers past and present are often overlooked when plaudits are handed out so I must also thank our Treasurer Wendy who has performed a demanding supporting role to the project including; managing your donations, dealing with Gift Aid applications, researching and successfully applying for Covid related emergency grants to keep the club afloat, and supporting our grant applications. Her commitment also explains why my cooking skills have had to improve!

The build

We have confirmed the availability of our preferred contractor to start work in late November/early December. David Hart and Adrienne Hughes have been invaluable to the project here, and David will lead on this important phase. The clubhouse will be strictly off limits when work starts. David will be our sole point of contact with the builders and any communication with the builder must go through him. This is very important if we are to avoid confusing the builder with mixed messages which could ultimately add to the construction costs and the length of the project.

The lease

The change of political hue of the council has helped us significantly. We have been able to negotiate improvements in the terms of the new lease proposed by the previous council, not least a substantial reduction in the proposed rent. We have signed the Heads of Terms (a summary of the terms of the lease) and we are confident that we will be able to sign the lease well ahead of the planned start of construction.

Consultation with members

The latest plan includes a repositioned entrance which is disabled friendly. For that reason the Council has agreed to fund 50% of its costs. In normal circumstances the committee would have arranged face to face meetings to consult and update you about proposals and progress. Obviously those are not possible because of Covid restrictions. Unfortunately that also means our annual presentation dinner cannot happen this year. The AGM is due to take place in November and the committee is considering how that might be organised. Watch this space.

In the meantime if you have any questions about the project, or any other aspects of the club's management, please don't hesitate to contact me or any member of the committee.

Finally thank you once again. I said the deadline for donations was end of August but if you still want to make a donation it will be gratefully accepted.

Hope to see many of you at the finals this weekend

Geoff

Acting president

2 September 2020

Internal fundraising update March 25th 2020

Current fund situation

The fund currently stands at £24,600. This comprises £13,000 allocated by the club and £11,600 raised since then. This will be further boosted by our Gift Aid claims of course.

After the members’ donations (£6,400), the largest contributor was the Guildford Community Lottery. It's amazing to think that we haven't been participating in the lottery for 12 months yet. In that short time 40 of you have bought 76 tickets and generated £1,400 for the club. This is magnificent but please remember that tickets were purchased for one year so in May these will start to expire. In order to maintain this income stream, you will need to purchase replacements. Our target is 80 tickets so there's still plenty of headroom.

The other main contributors were the Ladies’ event (£800), the wine tasting event (£600) and the coffee mornings (£400)/sales table (£400). All magnificent efforts. Well done.

Fund raising planned for 2020

General situation

Further funds would have accrued during the summer from two main sources – sponsorship and events – which have been planned during the winter. Unfortunately these have been impacted the Coronavirus pandemic, but it may still be possible to raise some of this in 2020 and the rest in 2021.

Sponsorship

Sponsors pay us money for allowing them to advertise, mostly outside but also in the handbooks, and for events run by the club which publicise them (as well as us).

Outside advertisingWe have recently been having productive discussions with Yeoman's Honda. They wish to advertise outside, but progress has had to be out on hold because of the pandemic. We hope to pick up with then again in due course. Guildford Financial still want to display a banner. Lodge Brothers are considering. Obviously this sort of sponsorship is also along term objective which will help us with the higher running costs of our new lease (once agreed).

Planned events for summer 2020

4 Greens Charity walk

This is John Kershaw's baby and was in advanced planning stage. However it is inevitable that we will need to postpone and rearrange for later in the year, say August or September, when the virus situation improves.

Chelsea Pensioners

Keith and Barbara Sutton's initiative. The visit arrange for July to help celebrate the club's 30 Anniversary is another victim of the pandemic but hopefully will happen in 2021. Our sponsors are aware.

30th anniversary BBQ

We may still be able to run this depending on the virus situation.

So we can report that great progress has been made on the find raising front. While the Covid 19 pandemic has caused a slow down we are confident that we can get our planned events back on track once things get back to normal.

Clubhouse refurbishment fund raising update February 2020

by Alan Hughes

The refurbishment fund - how are we doing? Well, the answer is that we’re doing pretty well. The fund is expected to pass the £25,000 mark very shortly, so we have nearly doubled the amount set aside by the club for the project last May. This is due to the support of members for the various activities that have been arranged and for those who have generously donated to the fund. Of course we have a way to go to reach the £80,000 target but we’re clearly moving in the right direction. You can follow progress on the fund raising board next to the bar in the clubhouse. I will keep you posted during 2020.

Update November 2019 The refurbishment project depends on our success in obtaining grants to cover much of the cost – no grants, no project. However, it does not solely depend on this; it is also dependant on the club’s success in raising money because the providers of the grants will not pay for the total cost. They expect us to put up a substantial portion ourselves. Also they want to see that we are both active and successful in raising funds or they might not provide the grants. All this means that we need to do our best to raise as much as we can. The story so far Fund raising activity started in May with our participation in the Guildford Lottery. So far 37 members have bought tickets and the club will have raised £1900 by the time existing tickets have expired. Thank you to Geoff Sheldon for initiating this and to everyone who has taken part so far and it is hoped that each participant will renew their ticket(s) when they expire next year. However there are still 77 members who have not yet participated and I would like to encourage them to think again about doing so. Half of the cost of the tickets is donated by the lottery to the club so we all benefit from that, it’s very easy to register on our website, but if anyone would like some help, do give me a call. The more of us who participate, the quicker we will achieve our objective. Thanks also to each of the five members who, without being asked, made a personal donation to the fund this year. This is much appreciated. Well done to the ladies who raised over £600 at the cream tea and sale. These and other initiatives have raised a total of £4300 including the money we have yet to receive from the lottery. This supplements the £13,000 allocated by the club to the project, which included the £5,000 Keith Crossman legacy, and is a very encouraging start, but we have a long way to go. What’s next? John Kershaw and I are currently working with our existing sponsors – Lodge Brothers and Seymours – to extend the scope of our sponsorship arrangements. We are also seeking new sponsors. This is something which will not only improve our financial position, it is also something which external grant providers expect us to be doing. I am pleased to announce that we have found a new sponsor. Guildford Financial have agreed to sponsor the club for £700 in 2020 and we hope that this will continue in subsequent years. Guildford Financial is a small firm of financial advisers based in Burpham who specialise in advice for people in later life, which applies to most of us. I hope that we will be welcoming them to the club at some point next year. In the meantime, if anyone is seeking this sort of advice, I would be happy to put them in touch with Guildford Financial. Plans are being made for three important fund raising events next year. They are:- - a wine tasting evening/ploughman’s supper on Thursday March 12th which Bob Hughes will be running. - a charity walk, called the four greens challenge, which John Kershaw is organising to take place on May 31st. - a dinner or BBQ which Catherine and I will be running to take place in July/August. Details of all these, and a date for the latter event, will be announced during the coming months. They are additional to all the usual bowling and social events and I hope that as many of you as possible will support them, and their organisers, and help the club to reach its objective of an improved clubhouse. Their success depends on all of us. The committee have agreed that guests will be welcome at any of these fundraising events. Further updates I will keep you posted as to further developments during the coming months. In the mean time, I and the rest of the fundraising team (Glenda Mogg, Bob Hughes and John Kershaw) are always interested to hear any ideas YOU may have to fill the coffers, particularly things that you could do yourself to raise money, no matter how large or small.

Alan Hughes Internal Fund Raising Co-ordinator

14 November 2019

23 October 2019

Building Regulations approval has been granted for the changes illustrated in the plan displayed in the clubhouse. A number of remedial works need to be done to the building to bring it up to current standards. Those are the responsibility of the council and most need to be completed before our project starts. Some may be incorporated within our project.

When works start is also dependent on fundraising, in particular on securing sufficient grant aid. It is a rule of grant providers that work to be grant aided must not begin before a grant decision has been made. We have applied for a number of grants and these are still in progress but indications are positive. The outcome of all of our applications will not be known until the new year so that will have a direct bearing on when the works can start. If the works cannot be completed before the start of next season then they will be have to be delayed until the close season in 2020. Thanks are due to for efforts of the redevelopment sub-committee (Alan Mogg, Barry Macbeth and Geoff Sheldon, Ian Mackrell ); and particularly to Ian for the immense amount of time and effort he has put in on grant applications, and to David Hart and Adrienne Hughes for their considerable and essential technical input. 7 September 2019

As you know we have negotiated adding the "football" changing rooms (currently the mens and away changing rooms) to our new lease. That means we can "re-arrange" the interior of our clubhouse to give our selves a larger clubroom more suited to our needs. Especially for our social evenings and when we have large gatherings during the season.

This is no small undertaking and it is complicated by the need also to bring the buildings utility services up to modern standards. We need to do this because we are a thriving club increasing in size and our club needs more space now for our benefit and the benefit of our members in the future.

We have displayed the plan we believe will meet our needs and is affordable within our resources supplemented by grants we can obtain. This plan doesn't provide everything we would like but it addresses our needs. It has been designed to make it easier to upgrade our facilities in the future as and when we can agree the need and afford to do it.

We have already engaged professional (e.g. an architect, structural engineer and quantity surveyor) and are approaching the time where we will be seeking quotations from building contractors. Your committee and other club members with the necessary expertise have volunteered their time and put in a lot of time and effort to get us to this point.

Affordabiity has always been uppermost in the committee's considerations but there is no doubt that the costs will be substantial, undoubtedly upwards of £50,000.

Your committee is therefore focused on raising the necessary funds by whatever means we can. We hope the bulk of the costs will be provided by grants but no grant provider will put up 100% of the funds needed. So we will be looking for any way, big and small, to raise funds for the redevelopment. To date those include;

• establishing the club as a "cause" in the Community Lottery

• introducing a modest charge for tea and biscuits, and

• we have had promises of donations from some members

• the Spare Change Pig on the bar

• Wednesday morning bridge club

• Plant sale

The lottery is proving a hit. Since May it has paid us £189. We now have 32 members purchasing 65 x £1 tickets each week. Those are set to earn £1,690 a year for good causes and the club gets 50% of that.

The tea charge has caused mixed reactions as we have got used to enjoying free tea and biscuits as a perk for many years. But we need to raise funds as and where we can and the committee hopes that members will accept this as a modest but necessary measure if we are to get the facilities we need. This alone has already raised £120. And where else can you get a cup of tea or coffee for 50p!

As for members donations it is gratifying to know that some members can be so generous in their support of the club.

Altogether these few measures have raised £400 and the redevelopment fund currently stands at £13,400 (24 July 2019)!

Otherwise we will continue to consider fundraising measures, for example we could set up a fundraising page on Just Giving page to make donations that much easier.

Keep checking hear for further news.

22 August 2019

Alan Hughes, our Fund Raising co-ordinator, circulated the following email to members;

"Dear all

You will all be aware of the plans for our much-needed clubhouse improvements. You will also be aware that a lot of work is already being done to apply for grants from various external bodies which it is hoped will cover a large part of the cost. However, in order to achieve success with these applications, the club has to show that it is active and successful in raising funds itself.

The club committee has therefore decided that there is a need for someone to co-ordinate the various initiatives which will need to be taken to raise these funds. I have agreed to take on this role. I am joined by Glenda Mogg and Bob Hughes and we will work together to co-ordinate things.

The precise target amount that we are planning to achieve from the club’s own initiatives is not known yet since the total cost of the improvements is still being determined and we don’t know how much we will receive from external grants. However, from what we do know, it is likely to be at least £12,000. This is to supplement the £13,000 which the committee has already allocated to the project. We will keep you all posted.

The good news is that we have, of course, already started. So far we have raised about £2,000, mostly from the sale of the lottery tickets from which the proceeds will continue to come in during the coming months, but also from the various other activities that have been started recently (50p for tea/coffee, plant sale etc).

So a big thankyou to each of the 34 people who have already bought lottery tickets. Look what you have contributed! To anyone who may be still undecided about joining them, may I encourage you to do so – 50% of your money goes straight to the club. It’s easy to do but anyone needing help can contact me.

That leaves the small matter of finding at least another £10,000. It’s clear that it will need to come from several different initiatives and the team already has some ideas which it is working on. But we need help from each member of the club in two ways.

RIGHT NOW WE NEED YOUR IDEAS ABOUT HOW WE (THAT MEANS ALL OF US!) COULD RAISE THE MONEY. Please would you have a think and let any of the team have your ideas as soon as you can. Every suggestion will be discussed and considered by the team. We will be meeting again towards the end of September.

WE WILL NEED AS MANY MEMBERS AS POSSIBLE TO HELP WITH AND PARTICIPATE IN THE INITIATIVES WHICH ARE PLANNED FOR THE COMING MONTHS. We are fortunate to have such a thriving club. Let’s all get involved in making it even better.

Finally, a plug for the Afternoon Cream Tea event with various stalls being held in the pavilion from 2pm to 5pm on Tuesday 27th August. Several of our ladies have organised this to raise money for the fund and would love to see you there – a date for your diary.

If you have any queries , please email Alan Hughes at:-

catherineandalanhughes@gmail.com

Alan Hughes"

6 June 2019

So what's been happening since the EGM? Well the redevelopment sub committee has been investigating a lot of different plan options and considering suggestions from members. The objective is to settle on a plan that satisfies as many of the requirements we have identified as possible, is technically feasible, and can be done at a cost we can afford. Achieving that balance is no easy process and involves quite a bit of iteration.

We have engaged an architect to draw up scaled plans and we will require a structural surveyor to advise us on the technically feasibilty of what we want . We will also need to get Building Regs approval and the agreement of the Council. A professionally drawn up specification will then be needed so that we can invite cost quotations from the building trade. We have also begun to investigate the availability of grants, a process that is complex, drawn out, requires a lot of work and effort. We have also begun to look at other fund raising opportunities. Those range from becoming a supported cause in the Guildford Community Lottery, to charging a token 50p for cups of tea and coffee (and where else can you get a cuppa so cheaply!). Thanks to members participation in the lottery we are heading towards ticket sales generating new revenue of almost £2,000 a year for the club.

So the sub committee, and some members, have spent a lot of time and effort on this and hopefully will be in a position to produce a recommended and costed plan in the not too distant future. But still a lot of work to be done and a fair way to go.

24 April 2019

The EGM to approve the decision to proceed with the new lease for the extended premises went ahead on 18 April. 53 members attended and the motion to proceed was agreed but with some queries about how the extended area has been measured, because that was the basis of calculating the additional rent.

We have signed the Heads of Terms (the document that describes what he lease will be) but that doesn't legally commit the club to the new lease.

The next stage is to involve professionals to draw up plans for the extended clubhouse which will be submitted for Building Regulations approval. If we can't settle upon a satisfactory plan that meets the objectives of additional clubroom space that we need, we will have to consider the the way forward.

We will also have the plans costed so that we know what funds we need to raise and to proceed with grant applications. Grant applications will take some months so it's unlikely that any building work will start before the 2020 close season.

22 Jan 2019

As you know your committee has been negotiating our new lease with Guildford Council for some time now. Well, there is now light at the end of the tunnel. After discussions with the football club the council has now agreed that we can take over the two changing rooms and shower room on the east side of the clubhouse.

So the committee is in the process of initiating a project to develop this extra space in a way which best serves the needs of the club. That will effect the rest of the clubhouse and involve major changes to its layout. A major change will be absorbing the current ladies changing room into the main body of the club.

This will not be an inexpensive project so the committee is also starting to investigate the availability of grants and loans.

The cttee intends that every club member should have the opportunity to see and have a say about the design of the extended clubhouse before it is finalised. But there's no time to waste so to get things underway promptly the committee has invited a small group to come up with a list of requirements. Those will then be presented in the form of drawings to scale. When we get that down to a managable number of plan options, no more than 2 or 3, members will be invited to see and discuss them.

Another way to get involved is to let us have any thoughts you have on how best we should take advantage of the extra space. What should our priorities be? How should we best utilise the additional space the two changing rooms and shower room provide? What facilities do we need that we don't have now? How can we improve say the bar or the kitchen? Etc etc etc. Whatever ideas you have please pass them to our ideas group via Janet Rochester. When that group has compiled a list of requirements and ideas it will pass those to an implementation group headed up by Peter Challens. Peter and his team will work with a professional designer to produce a plan or two or three plans showing possible different arrangements. Those will be costed so that we can see how it fits with our budget.

When we have reached that point we will submit the plan for council approval.