Letter From The Commodore – May 2020

Dear BRSC Members,

I hope this email finds you well and adjusted to this new ‘normal’, it has been very strange and surreal. I think at times like this we begin to realise how much we enjoy spending time with our friends and family and how important BRSC is to many of us.

Many thanks to members who have already renewed their membership and enabled the club to meet its running costs that are unavoidable. As you know, we are a non-profit making organisation and we rely heavily on income generated from membership, berthing, bar profit, party hire and donations. So, as you can imagine, our income has been reduced drastically by these recent changes. We have been lucky and secured a grant that was available as well as financial help with the wages (staff have been furloughed), which should help keep us afloat for a while.

We are busy calculating a projection of costs needed to ensure that we still have a club to return to when this is all over, so as Paul has said above – an idea of who is renewing / not renewing would be very helpful for us to give a clearer picture of income / outgoings.

Behind the scenes the Committees are meeting ‘virtually’ and working hard to make the best arrangements for the Club’s return to normal. But, in the interim, I hope that you have been able to use the ‘Virtual’ Club Bar and also make use of our Facebook group for support and keeping in contact with each other.

I would also like to reiterate that the Committees are keeping track of the Governments changing guidelines and advice and of course will keep you updated with any progress and developments.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding as we have begun to implement the Phases needed during the COVID-19 times. I really appreciate your support and how well you have all adjusted to the changes and limitations that we have had to put in place. These are never easy decisions to make and it has certainly kept us on our toes. We are trying our best to keep in line with the Government and RYA guidelines (which do change frequently) and begin to allow access to the club grounds for different water activities. We will make changes and update the Framework that we published as and when we can and of course only when it is safe to do so, your safety and well-being is paramount to us and we want to ensure that this is met with changes we make.

Finally, in the meantime, please stay safe and feel free to contact us with membership / club enquiries or ideas for ‘virtual get togethers’.

Thank you, warmest wishes and see you on the other side,
Rachael