After last Wednesday night’s AGM Ripon RUFC Chairman was quick to praise the efforts of members who volunteer their services for the benefit of the Club and all its members; he said: “We are very fortunate at Ripon to have so many great people that work very hard for this Rugby Club and it with their help and dedication we continue to move forward in a very positive direction. Becky Naylor’s award for Volunteer of the Year is well deserved!”

Mr Briggs had informed the AGM that the Club had progressed from last year in many areas, however, there was still a lot more work to do. These words were echo by Mr Tim Wray, the President, who chaired the meeting: “If this was a school report we might have maybe got a 6 or a 7 out of 10, but we are definitely heading in the right direction.” The meeting had been pleased to hear from the Treasurer, Mr Rutter, he explained that the income from every source had improved and the Club was financially a lot healthier. He thanked Debbie Watson for her work in the club shop and on merchandising.

The change in arrangements for the bar and catering was highlighted and the work performed by Mike Allen and his team was appreciated.

It was not all good news as Mr Briggs explained to the meeting how the Club had been subjected to a cyber-fraud, which is still under investigation and the Chairman told the meeting “It was gut wrenching when I was informed about the issue.” He explained the emergency measures that were put in place when the matter was discovered, the efforts made to attempt to address the loss and what was in place to prevent it happening again.

In the Committee report members heard from Director of Rugby Ian Hassall and Director of Age Grade Rugby James Severn. Mr Hassall gave an honest reflection on the previous season, along with an optimistic view of the next season, having made some good signings in his coaching and playing staff. Mr Severn reported another excellent year of Age Grade Rugby, with the Section going from strength to strength. He was particularly pleased to report 31 girls were playing rugby and that would likely to grow further.

In delivering the Committee report Mr Briggs thanked his fellow Directors for their hard work; he highlighted that membership under the stewardship of Andy Binks was its highest at 886, the Governance portfolio under Alison Herbert had vetted 105 volunteers and had moved first aid and safeguarding on tremendously. He went on to talk about the major change achieved by Becky Naylor with transformational work on social media, the website, the Clubs brand and the production of the programme and new members handbook. So far as the Clubs facilities were concerned Tony Chapman was praised for his continued efforts, supported by Jim Buckley and the remarkable Friday Gang. Tim Wray and Andy Proud were ‘mentioned in despatches’ for the great work on the Social Space Project that was hugely improving the facilities of the Club. Dave Naylor, who had been advising the Committee was appointed Director of Sponsorship and had achieved 13 new hoarding sponsors and a new three year deal with one of our principal sponsor of the Mini/Midis, Charles Stanley.

So the three year strategy to achieve promotion remains, the Club is in a much more stable financial position, the change in Committee structure was helping to manage the Club more effectively and the process of improving the way we do business was continuing.

Member’s subscriptions would be frozen for this season, there would be a 50% discount for members of the Armed Services and players that were part of a family membership would not be asked for additional fees.

We do, however, need more players, a new Director of Fundraising and more sponsors; so if you can help us in any way please let us know.