An amateur club managed in a professional way...

Chairman’s Report2017

Page 2

At a glance

membership numbers since 2007 (from 872 to 1,258)

43%gross revenue up from £236,619 to £643,207 in 10 years

271%

PLU

S

people who volunteer across the club

130

total spent on the new clubhouse and floodlights

£1.3mqualified

coaches at GRFC

loans outstanding at December 2017 & on schedule to be repaid

7

PLU

S £326,000

£750,000money raised from sponsorship since 2007

new sponsors associated with the clubsince 2007

70 20% club revenue raised from subscriptions

hygiene rating given to our catering facilities by Waverley Borough Council

0 1 2 3 5

turnover achieved by Broadwater Pavilion events since 2012

£500,000

weekly interactions

1,500

followersover the past 2 years

3,500raised for Shooting Star Chase and other local charities over the past 18 months

£10,000additional pitch availability because of new floodlights

4 nights

active senior teams at GRFC

3 international rugby players leading our coaching team

5

Guildford Rugby Club encapsulates all that is good about a local rugby club.

With a strong ambitious 1st XV that have made significant strides over recent seasons, they have a flagship to be proud of. The club, however, offers a team and a role for everyone through the club, as young and old alike, take to the pitches at weekends.

Beyond the on-field action, the Clubhouse is a fantastically social home for the whole Club to share their stories and relax in each other’s company.

I regularly attend home fixtures in a purely social capacity and always find the mood positive, vibrant and uplifting.

John Kingston Director of Rugby, Harlequins Football Club Ltd

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only

1,258 members

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© Guildford Rugby Football Club 2017Photography: © Anthony Ainslie, Penny Burden, Keenan Butcher, DE Photo, Sue Gardner, Sarah Legge, Steve Porter

A strong team built on strong foundations has a strong future...

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Dear Members,At last year’s AGM, the club approved a 5 Year Plan (Plan 2022) taking us up to our Centenary in

2022. The aim of the Plan is to build on the club’s significant successes over the past 10 years. Whilst challenging, it is also realistic.

If you haven’t been a member of the club for 10 years and experienced how the improvements have re-shaped the club, do have a look on the page opposite which highlights some of our more noticeable successes. It is these successes that now provide the foundations for our club’s future. And, if you weren’t at last year’s AGM, the slides presented then are shown in the main body of this report.

This year’s Chairman’s Report focusses on the themes highlighted in Plan 2022 and I would like to think we have made a sound and responsible start. I would particularly like to highlight:

Governance & Welfare: The club has received renewed Accreditation from the RFU. This is no small feat as it covers a wide range of our activities and is the direct result of the energy and commitment shown by all of our 130+ volunteers.

Rugby Playing & Coaching: We have enjoyed terrific rugby playing successes across the whole club but two things particularly stand out as being quite exceptional. Firstly, our Under 18s won the National Colts Cup, and secondly, Kyle Sinckler became a British & Irish Lion. Brilliant! And our next initiative? We are launching a girls’ youth section at the start of next season.

Our Facilities: We are engaged with one of the RFU’s accredited suppliers, and a number of local clubs to assess the viability of an AGP (Artificial Grass Pitch), and we are also in advanced discussions with Broadwater School to access one of their grass pitches.

Commercial & Finance: Revenues from sponsors, external events and donations have now grown to a level where members’ subscriptions now represent less than 20% of the club’s total revenues. If this can be maintained, this will have a positive impact on membership fees. And, the repayment of the club’s debts, which were incurred to rebuild the clubhouse, are still on target to be repaid on schedule.

Our Club: For some time, we have been seeking to reinforce the board with a number of new positions. Like London buses, three have now come along at the same time! One would be responsible for club-wide communications; the second would fulfil the role of Director of Minis and Youth Liaison and the third would be responsible for promoting and overseeing the club’s Community Activities.

Centenary 2022: We have already gathered and catalogued a wide collection of archives, interviewed our elder statesmen and engaged an historian to write a book on our first hundred years. The first proof is anticipated before the end of 2018. Our challenge now is to ensure that the club is best placed for the next 100 years!

This Report addresses these initiatives and more. Yes… of course, there is more to do. What else would you expect after just one year into a five year plan? But it’s a promising start.

Please do join us at the club’s AGM on Monday, 11 December at 8pm.

Robert Houston Chairman

P.S. For the avoidance of doubt the cost of printing and circulating this document has been borne by a corporate sponsor and not from club funds.

Willie Wildash RFU President and Rob Houston

CENTENARY 2022 – FIVE YEAR PLAN

• We will be celebrating the club’s Centenary in 2022

• Current ideas for celebrations o Dinner & Events

o Archives Display o Book – History of the Club o Role of Honour

o ‘Twinning’ with other centurion clubs

• Most importantly, the club needs to be ready to take on the next 100 years!

We wish to be:

• An amateur club... professionally run

• ... with a sense of ‘family’ and ‘our’ club, where everyone feels they have ownership

• ‘A connected’ club – socially, administratively and on the pitch...

2022 – ‘OUR CLUB

We aim to:

• Be more active in promoting rugby in local schools

• Offer our facilities to a wider group of schools, clubs etc

• Other 2022 ideas o £2,022 pa each to our 2 lead

charities o Commonwealth Games 2022 o The RFU’s SOS programme o Whole club initiatives

COMMUNITY 2022

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Rugby playing and associated sports

Gazelles 2017

Q How well is the club growing its membership?We’re delighted that membership has risen by more than 40% in the past ten years.

We now have 1,258 members and we are hoping this number will continue to grow as we provide additional pitch space, introduce our Girls’ Youth Team and raise the profile and desirability of the club.

U18s pictured after winning National Colts Cup

Next steps... Aspire to play rugby at the highest level

Strengthen/broaden the professional coaching and management team through a Director of Minis and Youth Liaison who will be co-opted onto the board

Appoint, to support the club coach co-ordinator, two deputies one for Minis and one for Youth thus ensuring that we enhance our extremely high level of coaching, coach development, physio, first aid, playing and maintain the standards of respect, integrity, equality, fairness and honesty that the club and its members expect

Develop a girls’ and junior ladies’ section to ensure the sustainability of ladies rugby at Guildford

Build on the establishment of the Under 21s sides offering a controlled and safe transition of youth to senior rugby to increase the conversion rates year on year

We have agreed that all coaches should do the RFU online Headcase training in 2017–18

Preliminary discussions continue to expand the Minis and Youth sections by closer collaboration with schools – in particular state schools and sixth form colleges, and strengthen ties with the University of Surrey and Harlequins.

Dave Ward 1st XV Coach

We have established a truly first-class qualified club coaching team led by Dave Ward (England Saxons and Harlequins), Kyle Sinckler (British & Irish Lions, England and Harlequins) and Topsy Ojo (England and London Irish).

Guildford regularly fields five strong senior sides: 1st XV, 2nd XV, 3rd XV, Vets and Gazelles.

Reaching the National Intermediate Cup semi-final and winning the Surrey Cup along the way, the 1st XV has been promoted twice in the past three years and now play in National 3.

In 2016, the senior ladies side were promoted to the Championship South West and were semi-finalists in the RFU Women’s Junior Cup. The Gazelles won the Surrey Cup in 2017 and our Vets matched that achievement by also winning in 2017.

The Under 18s were crowned 2017 Colts National Champions. In 2011–12 and 2013–14 our U18s sides were Surrey Sword Winners.

The provision of outstanding physio, welfare and preventative/ first aid services across the whole club has been a priority and the club has clearly succeeded in this regard. We have also been able to fast-track medical support (e.g. scans) for more severe injuries.

The recently formed Broadwater (now Akuma) Beavers Sevens Squad, which is based at Broadwater, have already won six trophies, been semi-finalists in Stockholm and qualified to play

PLAYING 2022

• When funds permit, we will strengthen / broaden the professional coaching management team

• We aim to improve the conversion rate from junior to senior rugby

• There should be no limits to our ambitions but the club’s social aspects will always be important

in this year’s Dubai Sevens.At Minis and Youth level, the standard

of coaching, play and engagement remains exceptional and a role model for other clubs. Regular winners of the Waverley Festival and other cups, there are presently 567 players registered to play at Broadwater on Sundays.

A flourishing Touch Rugby section has been established with around 50 people turning up for Touch Tuesday each week.

The croquet section, with new clubhouse, has increased membership – including 2016 Association Croquet World Champion, Stephen Mulliner.

With four good lawns, the club is attracting more entries to its tournaments both in association and golf croquet and will host nationally significant events in the next two seasons, while not neglecting play at a social level.

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Social and Facilities

Caption

Q How does the club cope with all its different activities?Most of the people who keep the club running are volunteers. In fact, we have more than 130 volunteers, including 70 qualified coaches who turn up week in, week out to inspire and enthuse our players. All Board members are also volunteers.

In 2011, we extended our two ground leases from Waverley and Guildford Borough Councils to 50 years thereby providing us with a secure platform to press ahead with our redevelopment plans.

After a challenging planning application process, in 2011-12 the club spent £1.2 million on our new clubhouse and facilities. And then in 2016, a further £85,000 was invested in new/additional floodlights.

On top of this, the planning consent we secured in 2012 will allow for further development, if the club so wishes.

We are consistently complimented by visiting clubs and visitors on having the finest facilities in the area... changing rooms, showers, weights, players’ room, bar and hospitality facilities. Before work began, the club membership was surveyed to ensure we designed the facilities to meet their aspirations.

For instance, it was almost universally requested that the open fire should remain at the heart of the bar/hospitality area.

And in wishing to promote women’s rugby further at Guildford, the club introduced

Dear Sue Gardner,

Thank you for your nomination to the 2013

President’s XV Recognition Awards.

The Panel are delighted to announce that Guildford

RFC has been chosen as a runner up in the 10 Better

Facilities category and have therefore been awarded

a trophy and cheque for £100 to reinvest in grassroots

rugby.As a category runner up, we ask your relevant RFU

Council member (or their representative) to present you

with your trophy and cheque. Please contact them to

arrange how best to do this. We are in the process of

getting the trophies engraved and anticipate that they

will be available by the end of April.

We will formally announce the winners on the RFU

website shortly. Your outstanding project will be used

as a case study on http://rfu.com to benefit the game.

Congratulations!

President’s XV Recognition Awards – National runner up 2013

dedicated ladies’ players and referees changing/shower rooms.

The operations and ground care teams keep the pitches in outstanding condition. And, all the goal posts on the south pitches have been replaced in the past three years.

We now have an excellent weights room which is supervised by a qualified personal trainer.

Our new floodlights now allow our pitches to be used for training on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. This was not feasible before.

At the northern end of our land, the croquet lawns have been re-aligned and improved and the croquet club now has its own self-contained shelter/pavilion. The lawns also act as a valuable ‘quiet buffer’ between the rugby club and the crematorium’s lawns of remembrance.

If we ever needed confirmation of the outstanding quality of our new facilities, the fact that Team GB Women’s Sevens (Road to Rio), Barbados Men’s pre-Rio Sevens and England Women’s World Cup squads all chose to train at Broadwater, speaks volumes.

Next steps... Broadwater School have agreed to provide

us with an additional grass pitch maintained by us with a new access gate

One of the RFU’s leading suppliers of 3G AGPs (Artificial Grass Pitches) are advising us on our grounds and the board expects to receive their report in January

To improve the shop offering including new online shopping

Uphold the standard of pitches and grounds

Maintain the standard of our premises, redecorating where necessary.

FACILITIES 2022

• Our clubhouse and pitches will be kept in ‘tip-top’ condition

• We will fully investigate the case for

o Improved ‘wet’ storage facilities o Club shop o Outside food-point o Improved parking o Floor over the gym o Main pitch fencing o Access to Broadwater school

pitches o 4G Pitch

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Forty-five years ago I was approached by Alan Bird whilst standing on Woking Station. Subsequently I played for Guildford and Godalming youth and graduated to senior rugby and the 1st XV. Since then my son joined at age 7 and went through all age groups until injury stopped his playing. Throughout this time the club has been a springboard to encourage mini and youth into rugby and now as one of the club’s long term sponsors I am delighted to support their aspirations.

John Price Managing Director, Keltbray Group, Lead Club Sponsor

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CommercialThe greatest financial challenge for the club recently has been the funding of the redevelopment of the clubhouse and floodlights.

Our fundraising efforts have yielded excellent returns. On top of the funds raised from our principal sponsors and a well negotiated and tightly managed building contract, our close working relationship with the RFU allowed us to win two grants totalling £175,000 from the Rugby Football Foundation.

A 15 year interest free loan of £100,000 from the RFU was also secured. This is being repaid at £6,667 per annum. The final payment is scheduled to be made in 2026.

There have been numerous and generous donations made by members. In 2012, the club also launched a series of Members’ Loan Note Instruments raising £456,000. The original idea was to undertake the project in phases, but in the event, the club grasped the mettle and completed all the planned works at least two years ahead of schedule.

The club is on target to repay the remaining members’ loan notes, on the

agreed instalment dates, by 2022.Much of our energies have been directed

towards securing revenue from sponsorship and advertising. This has been highly successful. More than £750,000 has been raised... from more than 70 sponsors.

The introduction of two new strategic profit lines... most particularly Events & Hospitality and City Lunches have also made significant contributions to third party revenues.

Next steps... Advanced discussions are ongoing for another major (third party) fundraising event and

we expect that all the relationship building and effort put into the Team Guildford Business Club will now start to yield meaningful dividends

Specifically find a sponsor or group of sponsors who will facilitate, build and support a girls’ rugby squad

Hold open commercial workshop meetings twice a year to boost understanding of what the commercial team do and how individual club sections can benefit.

£

£1.3m

Capital C

ost

Outstanding

Debts

£326,000

Outstanding debtsNearly £1m raised since 2012

Income

80%

20%

Growth in external income keeps membership fees manageable

Third party income

Membership income

COMMERCIAL 2022

• We aim to repay all the outstanding loans (£485,000) by 2022

• We will carefully manage the costs of running the club (approx £400,000 pa)

• We wish to: o Increase further 3rd party

revenue from sponsors, City lunches, etc

o Establish a culture where every section wishes to FUNdraise

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The club's first chosen charity has been Shooting Star Chase (SSC) who are head-quartered just down the road from Broadwater. By the end of 2017, our club members will have raised for SSC and others, over £10,000 from raffles, Ladies Nights and other fundraising activities.

We also offer heavily discounted rates to charities, other sports clubs and community groups for hiring our facilities, such as the highly successful NCT Fireworks night.

Most recently, we have lent our support to the establishment of a weekly Godalming Park Run which we hope next year will loop around our playing fields.

With our new governance structures, facilities and on-site personnel in place, the club was an early adopter of the RFU’s All Schools Rugby Initiative.

In terms of nearby educational establishments, we have significantly strengthened our relationships with Broadwater School, Godalming Sixth Form College, Guildford RGS, Cranleigh School, The University of Law and the University of Surrey.

And, largely through the establishment of the Team Guildford Business Club in 2014, we have also greatly enhanced the club's standing in the Guildford business community.

Community

Hospitality & EventsWhen not being used for rugby, the clubhouse is a hospitality venue run by the club under the banner of ‘Broadwater Pavilion’.

In only five years, the venue is already highly regarded for weddings, parties and wakes, and is particularly popular for daytime corporate meetings for both public and private sector organisations.

And we do things properly. For instance, Waverley Borough Council has awarded our catering and bar facilities the highest hygiene rating of 5 stars.

From a standing start in 2012, the business has already delivered gross revenues of over £500,000 and has contributed an aggregated net profit of over £150,000.

On behalf of our Learning and Development team here at Surrey, I wanted to thank you for the wonderful service you provided at our CPD day on Monday at the Rugby Club. Everything was set up as requested, you had sorted the speakers and the microphone... you even went out to get me a carton of soya milk! Truly wonderful. We really appreciate having such a dependable, friendly and accommodating venue on our door step.

Public sector organisation

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”Next steps...

Building on the current momentum, the aim over the next couple of years is for the business to post a net contribution of circa £50,000 per annum.

Next steps... We wish to strengthen

the working group that was established in 2016 by co-opting a Director to be responsible for co-ordinating our Community activities.

Guildford Rugby Club has been supporting Shooting Star Chase since 2001. Over the years their fundraising activities have included numerous events, most notably the Annual Charity Ladies Night. Most recently the club have created a new kit for their Akuma Beavers 7s team. This helps to promote our charity not only locally, but also internationally through tournaments including the Dubai 7s, which has over 100,000 attendees over three days. Over the last 18 months, Guildford Rugby Club, aided by club captain Alex Plaistowe, has raised £10,000 in aid of Shooting Star Chase. The relationship we have with them is invaluable and we hope to continue working together for many years to come.

Ellie Bennett, Community Fundraiser, Shooting Star Chase

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PAVILION 2022

• Our Pavilion business already generates a net contribution of approx £50,000

• We will build on Pavilion’s most successful ‘lines of business’

• We aim to transfer Pavilion’s best practices across the whole club

We aim to:

• Be more active in promoting rugby in local schools

• Offer our facilities to a wider group of schools, clubs etc

• Other 2022 ideas o £2,022 p.a. each to our two lead

charities o Commonwealth Games 2022 o The RFU’s SOS programme o Whole club initiatives

COMMUNITY 2022

Guildford Rugby Club, Broadwater, Guildford Road, Surrey GU7 3DH

www.guildfordrugbyclub.co.uk 01483 416199

Design, production and printed by Ezieprint

Kyle Sinckler,1st XV Defence Coach and ‘our’ British & Irish Lion