I'm thinking ahead to our AGM, where we vote in our new Committee for the next season, this might seem a long way ahead but your current committee are already making preparations for next season which all being well will see the number of senior club teams rise from 5 to 7. These new teams would be the Ladies 3s and the Men's 4s who will compete in the South Central Hockey leagues alongside our existing teams.

This really is exciting news but we approach with caution because this will mean more expenses (and potentially more income to manage).

England Hockey are making it very clear that the cost of running their organisation is increasing and fees paid by us the players and clubs need to be in line with other affiliation bodies. If this increase to their fees is approved at their AGM in a couple of weeks time they can look ahead to support clubs in terms of an enhanced service, focusing on areas such as training and bringing hockey back to state schools, amongst other exciting initiatives.

The Club are therefore looking for support both now and post AGM, specifically help with coaching, team managers, umpires and committee support roles, such as umpire liaison and development, business planning and data management both in Pitchero and on GMS.

Please approach your team manager, your coach, or a known committee member (including myself) and we can have a chat about our Club Development Plan for the short to medium term.

Take care and hope to see you during the week. Remember if you have a trophy please return to me at your earliest convenience.

Donna Sutton

Club Chair.