Hello dear Members,
I hope you are enjoying the summer!
As you know the club is closed now for refurbishment and should have been open again at the beginning of September.
But actually things have changed & instead of just a refurb we are actually going to have a new Club!!!
As you will see from the photos on the Website, the club has more or less been ‘gutted ‘. Please bear in mind these were taken in mid-June and things have moved on dramatically. We are having a complete new Kitchen; a new extended Bar; a smaller office to accommodate a wider entrance to the bar and lift exit; a lift from the foyer up to the office level and a small stair lift up to the Bar. In the Concert Hall we will have a new extended stage area and brand new AV and lighting, all of this together with other interesting changes including new floor and panelling. The whole club has been rewired and other issues such as water intakes rationalised.
We have excellent builders/electricians & consultants etc working for us and they are paying great attention to detail. The works really are complex! The builders have gone back to the brickwork to give us a new sturdy club that will last at least another 50 years. All our supporting beams have been checked and steel supports designed especially for the lift.
Yes the cost has escalated but, in the scheme of things and percentage wise to what our building is worth plus the value we will add to the building, it is worth it. All costs have been closely monitored and are within our overall target and contingency budgets.
When dear Jack Warner first found our building & Rank was our guarantor for the Mortgage, all the members contributed monies & eventually they paid off the Mortgage so that we own the freehold of the club!
Dear members, it seems history is repeating itself. As I said at our AGM in March this year we need the members to contribute to take this club into the future! As I said if our 1000 members donated £100 each wow! Obviously many cannot afford that which is absolutely understandable, but any donation however small will be gratefully received by us to help the future of our club.
It has been suggested that some club together & buy individual items. So I have asked the Architects to send us a list of prices of things that we can look at. We will put it on the website and also in the post with your individual Newsletters. It is an exciting time! We will be having ‘fundraisers’ for a few years to build up our coffers again! Some millionaire might donate the lift or the sound system! Any good suggestions are very welcome. The whole Committee are thinking about ways to raise money.
This is just an interim Newsletter to let you know how we are progressing. I will let you know how we progress in a couple of weeks again when we know the FINAL COST!!!!
Look out for your Newsletter in the post. Malcolm& Val will be addressing the envelopes as I write!!!
Love & thanks to you all for your support & patience at this momentous time in our Club’s History.
KAY CARMAN (Chairman)