Chairman’s Review - July 2010

 

Dear Trust Member

 

We would like to thank you for renewing your memberships as your contribution allows us to continue supporting rugby at all levels in Bristol. If you have received this newsletter via email then your card will be ready for you to collect at the AGM on 6th September. Cards can also be collected after the first home game on 29th August in the Bristol Room adjacent to the Supporters Club table. Any uncollected cards will be posted after the AGM.

 

If you had not had the chance to renew your membership then we would urge you to do so as soon as possible so that we can decide to what extent we can support the various projects that we are being asked to undertake.

 

We would like to thank so many of you for providing your email addresses as this will allow us to save the costs of printing and postage and re-direct these funds towards our projects.

 

This membership year sees us starting as Partner Sponsors of the Bristol Rugby Academy. With so many Academy players likely to be called on to pull on the Bristol shirt over the next season there has never been a more important time for us to get behind the Club in this way.

 

This places a heavy responsibility on us to raise significant sums to cover the requirements of the Academy followed by those of Bristol Schools Rugby and Bristol Mini and Juniors amounting to an estimated £7,500 on top of our annual operating costs. Obviously, through your membership and donations you are contributing to this for which we are grateful. However, to raise these sums we need to encourage old members to re-join, new members to join and Bristol fans who do not wish to join the Trust to donate towards fund raising initiatives. So, this is where we need you to spread the word and help us to help the Club.

 

We recognize that the Clubs position both on and off the field has changed significantly since we agreed to support the Academy and so we are in the process of understanding what support the Club might need from the Trust as it continues to rebuild and will keep you informed of any potential impact on our fund raising targets.

 

If you have any thoughts or ideas for fund raising initiatives then please let us know via the usual methods.

 

With some regret we have decided to postpone the inaugural Trust Veterans 10’s tournament which was due to be played on 21st August as we felt that we were not able to apply the time necessary to make it a success. The Trust Accounts have been diligently prepared by Will Harley ahead of our AGM and I am delighted to say that once again David Page is acting as our Independent Examiner in the manner agreed at last year's AGM. Thank you to David and Will.

 

We are planning to hold a number of talks throughout the season and will outline these in the coming weeks.

 

I would also like to thank the Trustees and Co-opted Trustees for their hard work and support over the year and thank them for agreeing to serve for another year.

 

Finally, we would like to wish Bristol Rugby, Bristol Schools and Mini and Juniors success in the coming season.

 

Enjoy the season and C’Mon BRIS!

 

Andrew Humphreys – Chairman

 

Chairman’s Review - April 2010

 

Dear Trust Member,

 

At last years trust AGM I announced that this would be my final year as Chairman, however, since then I have had a change of mind and would like to stand for at least another year. After a number of years where we may have been perceived to be in conflict with the Club we are developing a very strong relationship and we have a great opportunity to become a key supporter of young playing talent in Bristol through our new Partner Sponsor status with the Academy and our continued work with Bristol Schools Rugby and Bristol Mini and Juniors.

 

I would like to lead this to a successful conclusion and hope that you as well as other former Trust members and, we hope, new Trust members will rally around to support the fund raising initiatives' that we will be actioning over the coming months to achieve our targets. The result of this will be to see a conveyor belt of home grown talent playing at the highest level for Bristol Rugby and Internationally.

 

We have an excellent team of Trustees and Co-opted Trustees in place (Including newly appointed former Bristol and Scotland Prop, Dave Hilton) but we would like to invite volunteers to step forward for election as Trustees and take the Trust through the next phase of its development. If you would like to know more then email us at enquiries@brist.org.uk. We will be sending out notice of the annual general meeting between 4 to 6 weeks before the event and need to have established that you wish to put yourself forward for election before this communication is distributed.

 

In the past year the Trust has supplied:

 

• Playing kit to Bristol Schools Rugby

• Heart Rate Monitors to the 1st Team Squad

 

This is on top of extensive financial and voluntary support, worth in excess of £150,000, to Bristol Rugby and its talent pool over the past 7 years, in the form of various donations and player sponsorship which we can all be very proud of. Looking forward, we would like to be able to extend our support of promising young Bristol Players through our Partner Sponsorship of the Academy. However, to do this we need your continued support.

 

We would like to congratulate Callum Braley who is the first recipient of the 'Young Bristol Player of 2009-10' which was presented to him at the BIG PUSH dinner. Well done Callum for your achievements and we hope to see you in a Bristol shirt one day!

 

We have attached the renewal form for your membership for 2010/11 to this newsletter. Please complete and detach the form and post it to us by 1 July 2010. If you already pay by standing order then we would be grateful if you could confirm your wish to continue by e-mailing us your name and/or membership number. Thanks for your continued support.

 

We hope that you enjoy the reports on the progress that Bristol Schools and Mini and Juniors have made throughout the season and also that you look forward to Dave Hilton's talk on 11/5 which promises to be very entertaining! We would also like to thank Liam Middleton and Matt Salter for providing us with a presentation on the Academy structure and player development approach at the same talk.

 

That’s it from me.

 

C’Mon BRIS!

 

Andrew Humphreys – Chairman