Dear Club member

For those unsure – we are training this Thursday 5^th and next 12^th.  On 12^th some of the team are looking to do some sitting training before the game on 14^th although sadly I cannot be there personally on 12^th .

For those who missed an excellent evening of 10 pin bowling honours went to Navayan closely followed by Steve (it went to the last ball).  In third was Sue, my wife who beat me by a ‘significant margin’.  Many thanks to Claudia for arranging things.   

I have this afternoon received advice on a number of important events coming up.  I apologise for the short notice – the Competitions Officer writes - I suspect someone may find the arrangements are unsuitable - I do apologise for this but getting a suitable venue that can accommodate all that we are trying to  do means going with limited dates available.

4^th Essex Women’s tournament

The fourth in the season series is provisionally to be held at Brentwood International Centre on Sunday 13^th May between 10.00-12.00 am.  Note times may alter.  Please could you let me know as soon as practicable if you are able to play in that event.  I confess at the moment, I may well not be able to be there myself as we have made other family arrangements which we may not be able to unravel.  However the team could be self managing

Essex Finals and AGM

I have been advised that the Essex finals will provisionally take place on the afternoon of Sunday 13^th May at Brentwood International Centre between 1.30-5.00pm.   The morning 10.00-12.00am is currently marked out for the 4^th Women’s tournament with the Essex AGM between 12.00-1.30pm.  At this moment in time Chelmsford 1 are in the Rucanor Cup (semi-final on 3^rd May), and Handicap Cup (round 1 on 24^th April) and Chelmsford 2 are in the Rucanor Cup (round 2 tba)and Handicap Cup (semi tba).  If Chelmsford 2 lose in the Rucanor game they go into the Plate.  It remains to be seen if all the teams will manage to play their matches in time for the final day or there may have to be semis on the day.

At this stage can anyone playing for either team please let your coaches (Chelmsford 1 – Paul  Paul@thebohannans.freeserve.co.uk  ; Chelmsford 2 – Dave dave.gentry@ecc.uk.com ) know if you would be available for a final on 13^th May as this will help them.  Essex is hoping to have other games that day so everyone can get to play.

Although our club AGM is on 24^th May, it would be helpful if the people looking to take over were at the Essex AGM on 13^th (currently timed 12.00-1.30pm).  Please can those who have offered to help let me know of their availability for the Essex AGM.

Anyone interested in becoming a qualified coach

Active Essex have launched a coaching bursary scheme.   If you are interested let me know and I will send you details.

Interest in Women’s and Men’s NVL entry
You may recall that some weeks ago I circulated an Email about Essex potentially fielding additional teams in the men’s and women’s national leagues.  These seem to have received support and further information about this is forwarded in the form of the Email below as requested.

ken

As many of you will know I try to keep the website up to date with results and there are also often press reports connected to the Competitions page
http://www.volleyball.co.uk/chelmsford/CVC2011-12.htm As we near the end of the season, I will summarise where we are:

Division 1 – Chelmsford 1.  We have played 7 of the 8 league games and the final one is against Stowmarket, current league leaders, at home on 22^nd March.  Being realistic we are likely to finish bottom, with one win.

Division 2 – Chelmsford 2.  A very up and down season with a couple of really good results recently.  We have played 10 of our 14 matches and lie 3^rd with outstanding matches against Harlow (19^th April at home) , Exiles (date to be agreed), Tendring 2 (25^th March away) and Whackers (date of 14^th April away to be changed due to clash with Essex Pirates – see below).  Three of these teams are vying with us for the title and as results in this division have been so unpredictable, its not clear how this will play out.  Certainly the title is not decided and we are in the mix and could decide it if not win it.

Rucanor Cup

Chelmsford 1 – due to play Tendring 2 in a semi final – no date agreed.
Chelmsford 2 – due to play Brentwood 1 away in a quarter final – no date agreed.

If Chelmsford 2 lose they will go into the Tachikara Plate, Chelmsford 1 cannot I believe now do so.

Handicap Cup

Chelmsford 1 due to play Tendring 2 away in quarter final – no date agreed.
Chelmsford 2 will play Billericay Amity on 15^th March in a quarter final.  

Thursday 9^th February

As I think most of you know and the calendar shows, this Thursday 9^th February is a dedicated women’s tournament so there will be no usual club session.

Paul Bohannan, Richard Bohannan and Steve Peacock have agreed to come along to referee and score, but any help form others will be gratefully received.  Please let me know if you plan to come along.  It will be 7.30-10.30.  

Club Future

The discussions on Thursday last about the club future was well attended and those there agreed overwhelmingly that
- they wished to continue playing
- they would like at least on competitive team

- each would help as they could
- there does need to be someone managing all that help

I will shortly be circulating the job descriptions for the existing club officers together with some comments on how much time this takes up and what is actually involved.  It was agreed that everyone indicate what tasks they might be able to undertake and that we meet up on Thursday 29^th March to reach decisions on how to run the club next season.  Existing post holders will continue until the AGM probably in late May when the new arrangements will be formally voted in.  

The session on Thursday 29^th March will therefore be a meeting at a different venue (to be advised) and NOT a club session.

Future fixtures

This newsletter has been sent to all current members.

Xmas break

Our last session in 2011 will be on Thursday 15^th December.

Provisionally we plan to meet up for a Christmas drink on Thursday 22^nd December somewhere in Chelmsford.
There will be no sessions on 29^th December or 5^th January (hall closed for exams).

Training will resume on 12^th January when there is also a Chelmsford 2 home match scheduled.

End of season

The hall will be in use for exams after 21^st May for several weeks.   As many of the clubs officers are away in early June we currently plan to close down for the summer on 17^th May which would then be the last club session.   It  is possible that teams may still have later round cup matches to play at that stage.   

Volley 1, 2, 3 Accreditation

We are hopefully in the final stages of renewing our accreditation for Volley 1 Clubmark.  The panel has met but asked a few additional questions which I am now responding to  This will mean that our organisation and coaching meet certain standards particularly on how we treat and protect junior members.  We were the first volleyball club in Essex to achieve this.

Club future

As some of you will already know, in recent times the longer serving members of the club committee have been looking to pass on the management of the club to a new generation.   At last year’s AGM, Ken Edwards said that he intended to stand down as Chairman and more recently Paul has indicated he intends to step down as Secretary, Club and Chelmsford 1 team coach at the season’s end.  At the time of writing we are hoping other committee members including Steve Peacock (Treasurer) and Dave Gentry (Chelmsford 2 team coach) will be willing to continue.   If the club is to continue, it is therefore time for others to come forward so that in the remaining months of the season we can arrange for training, support and an orderly handover.  One possible area for development is that Exiles, the Essex Police team who play in Essex Division 2 , have lost their home venue.   It is possible that we may see several of them come to our training sessions and some form of merger may ensue.  However, they are very unlikely to bring any committee members with them.

Paul, Ken and indeed Steve have been running volleyball in varying forms in the town for over 30 years.  Over this time, Chelmsford have built up a long tradition of playing volleyball in the county town – we currently have a wonderful home venue, a secure Thursday evening slot, are very sound financially and we believe amongst the lowest club fees available.  People want to play volleyball in Chelmsford.  However, without a group of volunteers willing to organise and run things, the club cannot continue certainly in its current form.  

I intend to call an extraordinary meeting of all members early in 2012 to make decisions, but for now if any member might be interested in taking on at least some of the club’s management, please talk to Paul, Ken or Steve as soon as possible.   If at the meeting in January we have no one else willing to stand, the remaining committee will need to consider what to do, which is likely to be arranging for an orderly wind up of the club at the end of May 2012. 

The website should by now have up our PROVISIONAL calendar for the rest of 2011 from September.  Please note this is subject to changes and additions.  Those in red are Essex Pirates Sitting Volleyball fixtures.

I will update the site as new news comes in

We are back training and last night saw around 14 of us both existing members and some new faces  touch some ball.

Next week we will start the more usual pattern of training/playing both standing and sitting volleyball from 7.00pm – you are all welcome. It is also University Freshers Week so we may get an influx of students as well

At 8.30pm next week we have  a match Chelmsford 2 v Exiles.   We currently have a team of Claudia, Rachel, Matt B, Gary, Ian, Steve P and Richard B and are hoping Alicia will also join us.  It will be Dave Gentry’s first match in charge as coach, and we are hoping many of you will come along to support as well.   With Paul still on holiday and Richard playing, I will referee, so we ware looking for a scorer please.  Let me know if you can help.