Dear All, Happy New Year!
We hope you are keeping safe and well despite missing hockey!
Unfortunately, under the latest lockdown the hockey club and A(SL)S club have once again been forced to close with immediate effect, until further notice. We are all of course very sad about this news, but we understand fighting the spread of the virus and everyone’s health must come first.
As many of you will be aware, the various leagues that AHC teams are involved in had already been working through alternative competition formats in the hope competitive action can get underway again towards the end of the regular season (late February). England Hockey’s upcoming restructure will also be a factor, as well as the ongoing situation with public health guidance. We will update members, via the usual channels, as and when we know more.
The positive news is that year-on-year overall our sound financial state has improved since last season. In part that has been due to a Sports Grant received at the start of the first Lockdown from the Government. This has contributed towards our rent to A(SL)S and has replaced lost revenues from the summer leagues and junior hockey camps that couldn’t take place last year. We have also, happily seen an increase in playing numbers this season. This has meant we have been able to transfer monies into our ‘Astro Fund’ for future relay of our pitch.
There will not be any games or formalised training for any club members at present and return to hockey may be in stages. In light of the current lockdown the committee has been looking at subscriptions and ways of adjusting payments in recognition of reduced participation.
When paying monthly, the club collects its subscriptions over a 12-month period (October 2020 through to September 2021), If members wish to continue to pay, in full, for their subscription, the club will be eternally grateful as it helps with our continuing costs (affiliation fees, website subscriptions, rent etc.) and to further finance the ‘Astro Fund’ which is a significant cost that we are preparing for in the next 5 years or so.
In the meantime, we have come up with the following options:
For those of you that wish to reduce your subscription whilst hockey activities are suspended, we are suggesting that members are to be offered a credit for 50% of the current yearly membership – i.e. pay half a season's worth of subs of £210 in total. (Based on an adult subscription of £420 paid £35 per month for 12 months.) The reduction would be similarly implemented for other subscription rates and juniors. (see below table)
Assuming members started their direct debits (DD) or standing orders (SO) in October 2020, and let it run to January 2021, then that is 4 months of payments, which should have been made. The club is therefore offering two options:
1) Pay two more months at full rate - and then pause until October 2021.
OR
2) Reduce monthly DD/SO to £8.75 for next 8 months.
For those paying by cash, the membership secretaries and treasurer will make separate arrangements.
For those of you who are yet to pay this season or who have already stopped their monthly payments we would ask you to reconsider this.
As always, we are here for our members and would ask you to contact your membership secretaries if you been affected by the pandemic and are experiencing any financial hardship.
Our Club Captains/Coaches have tried to continue to offer some form of hockey activities with club challenges via Strava. The ladies section have just finished a 600-mile challenge, with more to come and some fun club videos have been made. If you have any other on-line suggestions, please let your club captains know. We do hope to arrange a very full programme of hockey for all, once we can return to playing again.
The following links are open for all to join:
As always, please do everything you can to look after yourselves and each other during what will no doubt be a challenging time over lockdown. We would of course welcome any feedback or other suggestions to work through the current situation.
AHC Committee
Annual Subscription Fees 2020/2021 season
Please note the above suggested monthly fees are only applicable if members are currently up to date with their payments i.e have paid 4 x the full monthly rate already this season
