Secretarys Report

We are nearly half way through our year already and as you can see from the other reports it has been very successful so far. When Bob chalked up his fifth match win in a row, I told him he could break David Liston’s 7 wins. He then lost the next match against Hampshire. But as you know these matches against other Counties are not all about winning. It’s about meeting up with new and old friends having a good game on courses often not played before and a nice meal afterwards.

That’s why we are members of ABGC, but we are still not recruiting enough new members. Only 1 so far this year and with only 60 playing members we certainly need more. Doug and Colin tried last year to visit clubs we don’t have members in but in the end were unsuccessful. Certain clubs like Burnham Beeches and Gerrards Cross always get their Captain to join and that’s what we need for other clubs. We do have the Club Ambassador scheme in place, but it is not really working. One real problem is we don’t have enough clubs in Buckinghamshire compared to other Counties and we don’t get the support from their secretaries.

We are showing 99 members on the database having lost 9 members in January. That means about 40% of our members don’t actually participate. This is often due to age and injuries and there are now quite a few who need buggies in order to play. This is the result of us all aging so it is important to attract more younger members in the future.

Talking to other county secretaries most don’t have our problems, although a couple do. They have a larger number of clubs to recruit from and because some still get courtesy from their clubs can keep their fees below ours. That last point has been an issue in my time as secretary but even those counties are finding big increases in clubs fees and catering.

It’s a shame Gerry had to give up being Captain next year but I know you will agree that Rod is an excellent replacement. He is quietly getting on with the match secretary job without any hiccups. As it is my last year as secretary, I have been getting Terry to do some of the routine jobs as a learning process. There is always something to do, even in the quiet period in the winter. Most of the home fixtures are in place but we have not been notified of many of the away ones yet. A full list will be published in due course.

We have a committee meeting coming up in August and one of the most important tasks is to select a VC for next year to be Captain in 2027, and a VC for then to be Captain in 2028. The process is to be asked to be on the Committee first, so you know how it all works. In the past we have up to 3 members in line each knowing which year they will be Captain. For the past few years this has not been the case as we have been finding it difficult to recruit a Committee member. We try to spread the recruitment to different clubs rather than have Captains from the same clubs. We will draw up a shortlist for this and the captain will then approach each one. If you would like to recommend someone, please let any one of us know.

Bob and Rod have given details of the year so far but I would like to add that both the Captains Tour at St Pierre and his Captains Day were a great success. Congratulations to Peter Harborne for his win as shown in the picture. Even though the courses at St Pierre were quite tough it was good to play on lush fairways for a change and they looked after us very well considering the numbers they had there. If you haven’t been on a tour with us before it’s a great way to get to know your fellow members.

I don’t think we have enough pictures in these newsletters despite me asking for some. So if you take some suitable ones during the year please send them to me for possible inclusion.

I have added a report this time on how to use the website. I expect a lot of members, particularly recent joiners are unaware of what you can do with it, so I hope you find it useful.

Peter
Secretary