Welcome back! I hope that you’ve all had a fantastic summer and you’ve enjoyed a well-deserved break from rugby (unless you were one of the lucky ones that took yourselves off to New Zealand to follow the British & Irish Lions or over to Ireland to watch the Women’s World Cup) and are returning well-refreshed and motivated by the challenges of the new season ahead.

I need to start by thanking everyone who has been giving up their precious spare time over the summer to improve the facilities inside the clubhouse and on the pitches. I hope you will forgive us that some of the work is still to be completed but I hope you can appreciate many of the changes that have been made. And while we may not have been basking in a ‘glorious British summer’ akin to the Mediterranean, the frequent rain has been perfect for the pitches which combined with hard work by our facilities team means we can all see the significant difference since this time last year.

The quote at the top is taken from the following which I think perfectly sums up what many rugby clubs (and particularly Bracknell RFC) are all about:

“We belong to a club with lots of history and many past and present members who treasure the experiences held within THEIR club. It should therefore not be lost on anybody that we have in our hands a precious legacy which – as is so often said of the New Zealand All Blacks jersey – “isn’t ours to keep, but is something to make the most of when it is your turn and to cherish, sustain and strengthen for coming generations”

As I hope you are all aware, we spent a lot of time last year developing a 10-year Strategic Plan for the club capturing key objectives and defining how we will measure success during this time (the document is available on the club website). All of the goals identified need people to spend time helping to deliver them so that we can improve the club’s facilities, environment and overall rugby experience for our players or whatever age. I know we are all busy people with many commitments but I would ask that everyone tries to find a little time to ‘give something back’ for the benefit of every member at the club. We will be sharing details of opportunities where people can get involved around the clubhouse, on the website and via social media – being part of a team is great fun and hugely rewarding so please get involved wherever you can. Please find a reason to get involved rather than an excuse not to!

With a freshly painted clubhouse and changing rooms, wonderfully clean kitchens and bar area and with a new clubhouse staffing structure we hope that we can provide an environment where all feel welcome and everyone is happy to spend their free time enjoying some fantastic rugby and having fun. If you have any ideas about how we can make Bracknell RFC even better, then do let any member of the Executive Committee know and we will see what we can do.

The new season dawns with great excitement – I hope that the performance of the Lions in New Zealand has helped to inspire new generations of players and remind us all that hard work allied to a clear plan can help form a team to take on the world’s best. So whether you are returning to the club as a senior player (both men and women), in the Academy, Juniors or Minis or whether you are joining the club for the first time this season then I wish you all good luck and I hope we will be able to look back in 8 months’ time on a massively successful 2017/18 for everybody!

Clive Field
Chair on behalf of BRFC Executive

BRFC Executive Committee for 2017/18
Ray Brown – Vice Chair
Nick Stone – Finance
Paul Exon – Secretary
Martin Radford– Rugby
Ian Wilson – Minis & Juniors
Gill Exon – Commercial
Mark Findlay & Andy Dunks – Facilities
Carl Mauger - Communications

pdf

Chairman Notes - Summer 17

595.6KB

Download