REPORT FOR SEASON 2007/08
Membership: We had 20 Full Members, our lowest for years, compared to 30 the previous season. However, we had more Casual Members – 9 – compared to only 3 the previous season. We had 11 Honorary Members, 2 more than the previous season. That gave the Club a total of 40 members, which was 1 down on the previous season. Income from membership was reduced from £1,765 to £1,430. There was 1 membership refund – Martin Seifert – which was the same number as the previous season. The reduction in Full Members is a concern but will be remedied by the additional team. That said, we need to sign more Full Members and fewer Casuals. The average is normally 15 Full Members per team, although this has been reduced by having more Honorary Members. We should expect to aim for around the 40 mark between the 3 teams for the 2008/09 season.
Registrations: We had 26 registered MSFL players, one more than the previous season. The Masters team had 22 registered players, the same as the previous season.
Pitches: We hired Hatch End Playing Fields from Harrow Council and used it 9 times out of 15, although we hired it twice to other teams, bringing in £78 income. The overall usage matched the previous season (73%). In the Masters League, we hired 22 pitches, of which 7 were on grass and the rest on G3 astrograss pitches, which was in complete contrast to the previous season – 19 on grass, 7 on G3’s. We have emailed both Barnet Council and the City of London Corporation in the hope of getting another pitch, rather than hiring through Harrow Council, but it is likely that we will have to stay with Harrow.
Discipline: We had 18 cautions (15 MSFL, 3 Masters), compared to 12 cautions collectively the previous season. There was 1 sending off compared to 2 dismissals the previous season. We had a problem with collecting payments and we are owed by Richard Cooper (£10), James Simpson (£32), Ollie Squires (£12) and James Warwick (£21). Cooper and Simpson have promised to refund the Club. Squires is now back from a season-long vacation and should pay. Warwick has ignored several requests and will be reported to the MSFL so that any future registration is frozen until he settles this debt.
League fines: The MSFL team collected 2 fines of £42, compared to only £6 the previous season. We postponed our first MSFL match for 13 years due to being unable to raise a team in our last fixture. We received our first ever Masters fines (amounting to £30) for postponing 2 matches at short notice, although they were subsequently played.
Subs collection: The First Team collected an average of £55.69 per match, whilst the Old Boys Team bettered that with £64.36. With the pre-printed envelopes concept dropped, subs collections were recorded using spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel, which proved to be an accuate method. The Treasurer will be expanding this system for all income and expenditure next season.
Award Presentations: After the success of the Gala Morning event at Hillingdon Borough FC in September 2006, we repeated a similar event last September which again was very well attended. The mixture of pre-season football, food and drink, and handing out awards has been extremely successful. Infact, the attendance of players at the awards presentations has been substantially more than at any Club Dinner we have held in the past.
In conclusion: Without stealing the Treasurer’s thunder, financially we didn’t have a good season. The Club’s major expense is pitches and we spent £2,326 last season collectively. With a new team due to enter the Masters, this will increase to around £3,750 on pitches alone. Therefore, we will need a substantially larger income and I believe the Treasuer is proposing to increase some fees for next season. We also need to encourage more Full Members to join and improve First Team subs collection which comparatively was not as high as it could have been.
LYNNE KYTE, June 2008
Membership: We had 20 Full Members, our lowest for years, compared to 30 the previous season. However, we had more Casual Members – 9 – compared to only 3 the previous season. We had 11 Honorary Members, 2 more than the previous season. That gave the Club a total of 40 members, which was 1 down on the previous season. Income from membership was reduced from £1,765 to £1,430. There was 1 membership refund – Martin Seifert – which was the same number as the previous season. The reduction in Full Members is a concern but will be remedied by the additional team. That said, we need to sign more Full Members and fewer Casuals. The average is normally 15 Full Members per team, although this has been reduced by having more Honorary Members. We should expect to aim for around the 40 mark between the 3 teams for the 2008/09 season.
Registrations: We had 26 registered MSFL players, one more than the previous season. The Masters team had 22 registered players, the same as the previous season.
Pitches: We hired Hatch End Playing Fields from Harrow Council and used it 9 times out of 15, although we hired it twice to other teams, bringing in £78 income. The overall usage matched the previous season (73%). In the Masters League, we hired 22 pitches, of which 7 were on grass and the rest on G3 astrograss pitches, which was in complete contrast to the previous season – 19 on grass, 7 on G3’s. We have emailed both Barnet Council and the City of London Corporation in the hope of getting another pitch, rather than hiring through Harrow Council, but it is likely that we will have to stay with Harrow.
Discipline: We had 18 cautions (15 MSFL, 3 Masters), compared to 12 cautions collectively the previous season. There was 1 sending off compared to 2 dismissals the previous season. We had a problem with collecting payments and we are owed by Richard Cooper (£10), James Simpson (£32), Ollie Squires (£12) and James Warwick (£21). Cooper and Simpson have promised to refund the Club. Squires is now back from a season-long vacation and should pay. Warwick has ignored several requests and will be reported to the MSFL so that any future registration is frozen until he settles this debt.
League fines: The MSFL team collected 2 fines of £42, compared to only £6 the previous season. We postponed our first MSFL match for 13 years due to being unable to raise a team in our last fixture. We received our first ever Masters fines (amounting to £30) for postponing 2 matches at short notice, although they were subsequently played.
Subs collection: The First Team collected an average of £55.69 per match, whilst the Old Boys Team bettered that with £64.36. With the pre-printed envelopes concept dropped, subs collections were recorded using spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel, which proved to be an accuate method. The Treasurer will be expanding this system for all income and expenditure next season.
Award Presentations: After the success of the Gala Morning event at Hillingdon Borough FC in September 2006, we repeated a similar event last September which again was very well attended. The mixture of pre-season football, food and drink, and handing out awards has been extremely successful. Infact, the attendance of players at the awards presentations has been substantially more than at any Club Dinner we have held in the past.
In conclusion: Without stealing the Treasurer’s thunder, financially we didn’t have a good season. The Club’s major expense is pitches and we spent £2,326 last season collectively. With a new team due to enter the Masters, this will increase to around £3,750 on pitches alone. Therefore, we will need a substantially larger income and I believe the Treasuer is proposing to increase some fees for next season. We also need to encourage more Full Members to join and improve First Team subs collection which comparatively was not as high as it could have been.
LYNNE KYTE, June 2008