AGM Chairman's report & Minutes
Our Chairmans report is below for you to read, the minutes of the meeting will be on our Facebook page shortly.
Chairman’s report 2014-2015 season
It has once again been an extremely busy and successful season for AFC R & D Community club this year.
We continue to see many changes in the club with a new initiatives continuously being put in place to ensure the club can continue to grow and secure a sustainable future.
We have once again received some great support from various volunteers throughout the season with new coaches join the team and well as parents helping with projects such as Kennedys and funday as well as fundraising activities like the wolf run.
Before I get on to matters on the field I just wanted to reflect on some of the activity that has happened off the field this year.
Once again we supported the Rushden Round Tables Christmas Collection and had a hoard of Rushden & Diamonds Community players and parents roaming the streets of Higham along with Santa in December collecting money on behalf of the club as well as bringing a lot of joy to local infants who got to see Santa up close in his sleigh before Christmas.
We had the players from various age groups taking on the mammoth task of trekking from Southend to the Dog & Duck and this was a great site to see as they marched through irchester and into Wellingborough with coaches and parents raising a great deal of money in the process.
A number of coaches and parents braved the wet and definitely muddy conditions near Lutterworth competing in the Wolf Run which was great fun and another good fundraiser.
We had various age groups visit St Georges Park and have a coaching session with some FA A Licensed coaches which is a fantastic experience for the children at any age.
We had our first mums, daughters and friends match at the dog and duck which was again a great day. Some serious training leading up to the event and a great show of what can be achieved in a short space of time with determined people.
This was in advance of the launch of our girls team, which has now become teams with 4 different age groups now looking to have girls teams for the 2015-2016 season.
Fun day was successful again with many of our teams attending and we were once again blessed by the weather.
We have our first Swimathon on Saturday as well as our first fundraising dinner at the Kettering park hotel in September.
We have also launched the gold bond scheme along with the first team which is a fantastic fundraising capability for us as a club and provides a regular flow of funds into the club.
Coaches and volunteers attended the AFC presentation evening too, which was a very enjoyable evening I am sure you would agree for those of you that attended, and moving into this season we now have a regular slot in the Nene Valley news so we can share our news with the community.
If I have missed anything then please let me know but I would like to offer my personal thanks and the thanks of the committee to all those that participated in, and helped organise all the events above.
Now on to football which is ultimately why we do all the above anyway to give us the funds to play football and to celebrate the success we have as teams and individuals, without all the above help this wouldn’t be possible.
This season we had upwards of 19 teams playing every week for AFC R&D Community from under little diamond’s through to under 18’s.
It has been great to see so many children running around on a Saturday and Sunday as well as during the week enjoying football and giving their all to improve themselves and to support their mates.
We continue to look to improve the experience for the children and now have more teams than ever training on 3G pitches especially during the winter months which can really help their development and make training a lot more enjoyable.
A couple of highlights for me were the U13s finishing 2nd in their division and gaining promotion to division 2 and the Under 16s getting to the Semi-final of the cup.
We also had numerous players across our age groups selected to attend the AFC R & D Academy and other skill schools and academies across the county and further afield.
Many of our players have enjoyed leading out the AFC first team at the Dog and Duck as well as displaying their skills during various activities at half time which has been a great experience for them too.
We have seen more coaches qualify at level 1 and those who are at that level look to take on more qualifications as they increase their knowledge.
We have seen new coaches come in at little diamonds, U7’s, U8’s and the various girls teams that have started so welcome to all of you to the team.
As well as this we have also seen some coaches hang up their boots with Brad Yates and Steve Boness taking a break after many years of coaching and supporting the boys in their age group and Adam Cockings also taking a step back with increased commitments away from football, so a big thank you to them for their years of support they have given to their teams along the way.
It just leaves me to thank the other board members for their support this year and all of you as coaches, volunteers and parents for supporting the club and your children as we look forward to another season of progression.
Matthew Culwick
Chairman
AFC Rushden & Diamonds Youth C.I.C