Dear Members,

Welcome to season 2018-19.

I am delighted to announce that we are finally in a position to press the ‘GO’ button on our 3G pitch construction. The start date for the construction has been set for Tuesday the 28th of August and the build should take approximately 13 weeks to complete.

Firstly let me congratulate everyone who donated or worked so hard to raise the required club contribution, it really was an outstanding effort. Please accept the thanks of both the club Board and the GHA Trust.
As you may already know, SportsScotland found that they were unable to authorise our grant application with them and this has meant that the borrowing would have had to be higher than originally intended. However, special thanks are due to JWF and Kenny Fairbairn who came in as title sponsor and plugged the potential funding gap. Our borrowing to complete the total funding is however still significant and does come with certain conditions. As a Board we feel these conditions are achievable but we can only achieve two of them with the help of you the membership.

The first one of these is that we have been charged with ensuring that the makeup of the Board reflects more of a gender balance with a minimum of 1/3 being female. Therefore my first appeal is to our FEMALE MEMBERSHIP. If you feel you could spare a little time to take part in the running of the club and attend Board meetings (approx. once a month) please contact me or any Board member either in person or by e-mail to ([email protected]).

The second condition is there is an additional onus on the club to trade at a sustainable level of profitability over the repayment period in order to ensure we can meet our liabilities. This is something we always intended to do, as well as continuing to improve facilities both in and out of the clubhouse, but a bit of extra help would be most welcome. Therefore my second appeal is to ALL MEMBERS.

For us to remain profitable whilst rejuvenating facilities we need income and that comes primarily from membership fees and usage of the club. We want to continue to grow Braidholm as a vibrant community hub. With this in mind I would like to ask every member to use the club more often if possible and to try and persuade one other person (new or past member) to join us as a social or playing member. An increase in usage and an increase in membership will not only help financially but has other benefits. I hope you will agree that the atmosphere and ethos has really improved over the last two years and this is something we want to continue.

Lastly there are a number of other ways that you could support GHA .Perhaps by giving of your time and expertise by volunteering to join one of our sub Committees. Perhaps by attending Match day Lunches (There will be a lunch for every 1st xv home game this year) or perhaps you would partake of a ‘Season Ticket’, The 100 Club’ or ‘Player Sponsorship.’ All of these are available and they really do help. Rod Jenkins and Fergus Wallace would be happy to advise on these. For sponsorship enquiries please contact Fergus on ([email protected])

Once again let me offer my thanks for your contributions to our exciting new venture and let’s hope GHA continues to grow with yet another successful season.

I look forward to meeting you at Braidholm either whilst cheering on our teams or having a chat in the bar afterwards.

 

Yours in Rugby

Brian Tracey

President

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