November 2020 Club Update

COVID-19

The point has been made on several occasions this would not be a normal season and we all continue to try and deal with the situation as it unfolds. Football should start back on 5th/6th December, but we await the local tier structure and individual venue decisions for matches and training. All we can do is make sure everything is in place to start as soon as we can and to work with our Leagues on this.

All the information on COVID-19 guidelines has been made available on the club website and I thank Greg Hall, Kate Ayers, Stuart Hart and Steve Clark for their help and support in putting this together and getting it out there.

WEBSITE & COMMUNICATION

Greg Hall has changed the look of the website to deliver key messages with more graphics. Some information has been moved on to the back pages. The website is looking more modern and the club looks to take advantage of these changes. It has been decided to look at using the SPOND app in the longer term but to communicate with parents and carers in the short term the plan is to upgrade and use mail chimp. Kate Ayers and David Gordon are looking at this and we hope to start publishing a regular Newsletter soon.

FEES

Club members have paid for the use of 3G training that has not been allowed to take place due to COVID-19 restrictions. This will be refunded to members (parents and carers), but it makes sense to wait until we can see the whole season and then look to make refunds in one payment in case we get locked down again.

SHOPPING

With more Christmas shopping online, there are opportunities to get retailers to donate to the football club which can be put towards the funding needed for the new ground.

See below.

EASY FUNDRAISING easyfundraising turns your everyday online shopping into free donations for your favourite cause. How? Just start your online shopping first at easyfundraising, then shop as normal. The retailers will then make a small donation to say “thank you”. There are 4,063 retailers to choose from and so far over £31 million for thousands of community groups, schools, sports clubs, small and large charities across the UK has been raised.

To sign up use this link https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/huttonfc

AMAZON SMILE
  • AmazonSmile is a program that donates 0.5% of your eligible purchases on Amazon to a charity of your choice.
  • All you need to do is start your shopping at smile.amazon.com. The donation will be made at no extra cost to you and you can choose from nearly one million public charitable organisations.
  • Though 0.5% is not a large donation and it is not intended to replace your regular charitable activities, AmazonSmile is still a great way to take advantage of a service you are using anyways.
  • Just sign up to smile on the Amazon site and select Hutton Football Club as your charity.
FACILITIES

Work behind the scenes to get started on the new ground continues whilst football is in lockdown. The Club will still need to look at holding fundraisers for some of the works when we get the opportunity. This season Club teams are using several other facilities for midweek training and some matches. The Girls teams are using Woodland School sites in Hutton and at Warley. All such facilities are a useful addition, and we are constantly on the look out to make improvements. If anyone knows of options that will help with that then let me know.

Hutton remains one of only a few clubs that arranges 3G pitches for mid week training for its teams.

CODE OF CONDUCT

Revision to the Club Code of Conduct.

The majority of the Club’s Managers and Coaches adhere to this Code and exhibit the core club values. However, there have been incidents of Foul and Abusive Language and disrespect shown internally between Managers and to Club Committee members.

It should be obvious this is not acceptable behaviour, but the Code of Conduct has now been updated to include this. To be clear everyone at this Football Club is a volunteer and we should all support and respect one another. There is no room for poor behaviour in this respect. If anyone cannot adhere to that they need to find another Club as soon as possible. If not, they will be asked to leave.

To repeat the majority of everyone at this club are good people all giving up their time for free so that all our players can enjoy the game. Thanks to you all.

DISCIPLINE & BEHAVIOUR

Good discipline and behaviour are a must on and around a football pitch. Any team that has discipline problems will spend a lot of time dealing with fines from the ECFA and their League and may be called up to hearings and Club meetings. This will take up a lot of your time. Time that I am sure you would all rather spend coaching and managing the team so make sure this is not you.

I get involved with a lot of Discipline issues in the Leagues I am on, so I know exactly what this is all about. As a League Officer we do not want poor behaviour as that impacts on reputation and has a negative effect on participation of other Clubs, teams, and players.

The Referee is regarded by the FA as the independent witness to any reported incidents and he is in charge of matchday. No matter what anyone thinks of the Referee on the day please bear this in mind. There are good referees and some not so good but he/she is all you have, so please work with them.

This Club will help and support any team that needs and asked for it if you are at all concerned about discipline and behaviour.

Kevin Lorkins

Club Secretary & Trustee