Chief Executive’s Message 

Dear Members,

F&B Survey Report

The Board is pleased to share with Members the results of the recent Food and Beverage and Covid-19 Survey. Please click here to see the summary report which is largely self-explanatory. It is useful and helpful in showing what the House Committee and management team have to work on to raise the Member satisfaction levels for food and beverage and it will be one of our main operational priorities over the next six months.

We are aware that the results are slightly skewed by Members not using the Club to its full extent over the last 18 months due to the impact of Covid-19. Therefore, another food and beverage survey as part of a larger more comprehensive Club survey next spring will inevitably give us more informed feedback on our performance over the winter months.

We are pleased that Members feel the Club has performed well steering itself through the choppy waters caused by the pandemic.

With the UK currently having the highest Covid-19 infection rate in Europe we need to be just as vigilant going into this winter as staff especially seem susceptible to catching the virus from children and younger Members. We are also ensuring staff receive their flu vaccinations and asking them to continue to wear face coverings when dealing with Members and guests face-to-face indoors. It would be comforting if Members could take extra precautions this winter by doing the same.

Employing Members

As many Members may know recruitment of good staff is proving very difficult across many sectors but especially in the hospitality sector. Therefore, the Board has approved that we can ask Members to refer either members of their family or friends to apply for positions to work in the Food and Beverage and Health Club Departments.

We are naturally looking ideally for people who have qualifications in the respective fields (kitchen, lifeguarding etc) but we really value any previous experience, and we will train up people to work in these areas.

Serving Members can be challenging but having a pleasant manner, the ability to communicate well and above all a good deal of common sense will go a long way. If you know of any friends or family that fit the bill and would like to start a full-time career here, work as a stop gap for a year or two or work part time we will be pleased to meet them.

Please contact General Manager Simon Baker in the first instance at simon.baker@roehamptonclub.co.uk

Below is his summary of how the week went:

We were eventually able to run approximately 35 projects, involving over 50 community groups in spite of the COVID lock down restrictions being extended

The key benefit is that we have shown that community led projects can get started and completed in Roehampton

The Club, and particular your and your team’s involvement has been great as an example of ‘getting stuck in and taking action’

Within the projects, the AAC and the Schools Sports Days have been regarded as huge successes and we are keen to replicate them

Schools’ day was jointly hosted by the Club and Rosslyn Park FC. We had over 160 children from six schools across six sports – tennis, squash, padel, rugby league, netball and Rugby Union

• Very good feedback from the schools and council representatives
• Paul Lindsay and the coaches are amazing as always
• Big thank you to Joy Stevens, Serena White and the Jacobs / Hill boys for being volunteers. Important as we had to run COVID bubbles and protocols

The AAC has been transformational in the way the community is looking at some of these ‘under-utilized’ spaces- both the indoor and outdoor usage has been significantly upgraded

• The redecorating has made the rooms much more attractive. The centre is now getting a series of bookings (e.g., university using for sport delivery, women’s network events etc.

• The outdoor community garden and planting has allowed for ‘education sessions’ for the children re food, a (very) small amount of income from selling the produce, and massively improved the look of the place – Thank you Peter Bradburn and team

• The cleaning, clearing out of junk, and power spraying has improved the safety of the site for young children, and made it more appealing generally – usage also significantly up

• We are now thinking about whether we can do the same thing with the Alton Hall, and potentially Focus Hall

We have spent just over £6,000 of the donation so far, and will use the rest over the next 6 to 12 months.

The bulk of the money was on using Good Guys decorating and the young offenders to refurbish the AAC.

We plan to have continued investment into the AAC, and to extend the general activity programmes

The other big benefit from the Club’s grant was that it proved to be catalyst for other institutions to follow in your footsteps – Council (£10k), AELTC (£4k), University (£4k) and Parish Trust (£5k)

We have also agreed to support the restoration this December of the activity wall at Whitley Point on the Alton Estate by Estate Art as this multi-sports area needs to be made more attractive to be better utilised.

The Club is proud that it can lend the expertise of its staff to such good community use and that the grant, kindly approved by the Board, can be used as seed funding for a year for a variety of projects and programmes that otherwise may not get off the ground.

Golf Captains 2019/21

This week sees the handing over of the captain’s baton from Angela Atkins to Patricia Morgan and from Gerry Dennigan to Paul Taylor. Both Angela and Gerry have done sterling jobs leading their respective Committees through the unprecedented challenges of the last two years. The Board asked if they would serve for a second year not only for continuity purposes but so they could have a full summer of golf to enjoy while in office. I know I can speak on behalf of the Board of Directors and the staff in thanking them both for the time and commitment they have demonstrated.

Our congratulations to Patricia and Paul. Their traditional drive in takes place this Saturday 16th October at 11am after the Annual Meeting of Golfers which starts at 9:30am. Please come along to both events to support the outgoing and incoming Golf Captains.

Please click here to read the latest update from Golf Committee Chairman Niels Verbeek

Best wishes,
Marc

Marc Newey, Chief Executive – marc.newey@roehamptonclub.co.uk