• Clubmark
• Club House Extension

Clubmark

April 2010 - We have now gained 'Clubmark' accreditation for the club, which has been one of the key activities being undertaken by the committee with invaluable support from Gill Hamlett. Club Mark is important to us for  a number of reasons:

• Shows that the club is well organised and well run to attract new members.
• Provides policies that reassure parents that we will care for young members appropriately.
• Allows us to apply for grants more effectively.

From the Clubmark site:

"Clubmark is the only national cross sports quality accreditation scheme for clubs with junior sections. It is built around a set of core criteria which ensure that accredited clubs operate to a set of consistent, accepted and adopted minimum operating standards.

Sport England recognises and values the commitment made by sports clubs to develop high quality, welcoming environments for young participants. The development of clubs that encourage young people to take-up sport, improve their talents and give them the option to initiate and maintain life-long participation in sport is an essential part of our work to support the sporting infrastructure in England."

Gill has compiled and revised where necessary all the club's policies, processes  and certificates into a folder to be held in the club house. The key items included are shown in the pane to the right.

Club House Extension

With nearly a hundred members, the clubhouse's facilities are being stretched, with the social area and the changing rooms being too crowded. To allow the club to flourish and all the activities and courses to continue, the committee is currently looking at how to add an extension to the clubhouse, approximately doubling its size.

Note that this is a long-term project and maybe months or years before we can clear all the hurdles and obtain sufficient funds to complete this work.

John Martell, Phil Rowsell and Chris Cullen have started this process with a few speculative design drawings and gaining general agreement from the Yacht Club that we can have more space. However, it looks as if we will have to wait for the new lease on the land to be agreed first - which is in 2014 - before we can access any BCU funding. So in the meantime, we will keep looking and seeing if we can fund-raise to improve our current facilities.

The initial proposals are essentially to create a new changing room/shower block next to the existing clubhouse, moving the Canadian canoe store further towards the sea.  The clubhouse would become a larger social room and a clothing store (for the cags, trousers, buoyancy aids & helmets), whilst the new building would contain four separate changing rooms for male/female youths and male/female adults.

There is a long way to go in the process before anything will happen with significant hurdles being:

• Funding arrangements
• Appointing an architect
• Gaining outline planning consent.
• Applying for grants from the BCU.

Discussing the options and issues with club members is very important to us and you are encouraged to look at the speculative ideas - they will be pinned to the club notice board. Please let members of the committee have any ideas or comments on the proposals. We may also be looking for volunteers to help bring the plans to fruition in the future...