To Marden Bowls Club Members from Colin Smith: Secretary
Early Spring Newsletter March 25
Hello to all, welcome to my second Newsletter, I aim to produce some up-to-date information on a regular basis during the season ahead.
Hopefully you have Wintered Well and you are looking forward to getting onto the Green in the coming months?
We had quite a successful season last year overall with many successes and some excellent results, hopefully we can carry on again this season.
Our Spring meeting to get together, is on Friday 11th April at 6.30pm to pay subs, lottery bonus ball and competition entries.
Those interested in playing in the Friday Triples and the Tuesday Weald League’s, please come along and put your name forward or just come and meet with your fellow club mates.
It has been decided to offer Free membership to all new club members for this season only, to try and increase our membership. We hope we are able to attract keen new people who will want to be involved and of course play bowls!
We have had to reduce the number of games on our fixture list for the season ahead, resulting in less opportunities for all and reduced income to the club. Having low membership numbers, we struggled to fulfil our fixture commitments last year cancelling 9 or 10 games.
Hopefully if we can increase membership, we will be able to look for more fixtures in the future.
We have had some Flyers & Posters produced to be distributed within the Marden & Staplehurst Areas, hopefully to be delivered in Mid -March; we are focusing on new builds primarily. We have some volunteers ready for action! If any member would like to help deliver or can take some to give to neighbours/friends please advise Colin. The posters will need to go into areas where they are placed in prominent positions so they can be seen by many. If you know of a location/s which suit we can provide sufficient posters.
We have provided relevant club details to all three Local Parish councils who will promote our club over the next couple of months.
Please spread the word to friends and family and share the benefits of playing our wonderful game of bowls, if we can recruit new people, it will benefit all concerned and is great for all aspects of health and wellbeing.
We have organised two Open days to attract new members in May; Saturday 10th May 2 -5pm & Sunday 18th May 11am – 2pm. Can you help and lend support? Then please let Colin know.
We are due to open the Green on Saturday 26th April. Starting @ 2pm Please come 30 minutes beforehand Please come and show your support to get the club up and ready for the new season.
We will be having a competitive roll up to get your arms & legs moving, teams will be selected on the day.
The committee including the ‘Green Team’ have again been busy during the winter period getting the club ready for the season. We cannot stress enough we need all members to support the club, this incorporates putting names down for games, helping with catering and cleaning, volunteers are urgently needed to also help with green & club maintenance, Mowing, (training given) and help with green surrounds on a Wednesday morning or alternatively simply just supporting the bar!
We have had a big tidy up within the club and at the rear of the pavilion during the winter, the Gents toilet has been redecorated & new carpeting has been laid in the club pavilion recently. New padded bench cushions have been purchased to provide a more comfortable feeling for certain parts of our bodies!
We will continue towards increasing the information available on our website throughout the season.
No bowls related news items were submitted last season for the website by our members, please remember to forward any news worthy items to John Lander.
Communications
We introduced WhatsApp last season to help George, our Captain to communicate with most members on a weekly basis to ask for help raising sufficient names for our friendly games. Overall, it worked well. George is sharing his workload in regards to club friendlies this season with Norman Burgess. They will send out the selected team’s out via WhatsApp saving people travelling to the club. Team sheets will be on the noticeboards well in advance, please put your name down as soon as possible to help our Captains.
We will still post teams on the notice board as per normal.
We ask those with a smart phone to download this free App(if you have not done so already) if you want to be included in George’s/designated Captains messages and inform the captain you wish to be added to their group list. Please let us know if you need any assistance with this?
All members will need to be aware which Committee member to reply to during the season (if you need to reply for any reason). i.e if you play in the Maidstone League (John Gardener) or Millenium League (Rob Thew).
One important note to remember; when you use a group WhatsApp, everybody within that whole group can see your communication! Please could you be especially careful about private messages. We are delighted to continue to use the existing Bowls Club App for purely social purposes, as it is good to see it is supporting the club social network.
But to help the captains, we will set up 5 new individual Apps for each of their leagues/friendlies, this will restrict the number of messages they will see and help them organise their teams more easily.
Likewise, if you wish to communicate with any of the captains PRIVATELY, please set up a separate WhatsApp message to individuals concerned.
Open Triples Tournament
We are planning to hold an Open Triples Tournament on Saturday23rd August, open to 24 teams, there will be great prize money for the winners and runners up. More details to follow. We are aiming to raise the club’s profile and additional funds for the club to aid finances.
Short Mat
As the winter months draw to a close, the Finals of the Short Mat competitions are being held in the pavilion on Wednesday 16th April in the afternoon. We wish all those taking part good luck.
Socials
The club have held quite a few Socials in the past, obviously Covid had an adverse effect but they do help bring the club members together and helps with the club finances! We did put up a list to gain interest to see what members would like to be organised.
For example, Quiz Night, Card or games night, Curry night, Fish & Chips supper etc.
Sadly, no suggestions were received last season. We did hold a race night in October, which was very enjoyable but sadly it was not supported by the majority of our members.
We would welcome someone to help organise and promote socials, can you could help?
If so, please contact Colin.
Finally, we do hope you enjoy the forthcoming season and you enjoy and experience some great bowls throughout. We are a community club and an asset to the local area, please spread the word wherever you can and support the club as much as possible.
I believe that’s all for now, do let me know if you have any suggestions or queries.
Kindest regards
Colin