Hi All

I am writing to all the parents whose children are in some way connected to Dean Cricket Academy (DCA)

As we approach the end of our 5th year I hope as many of you as possible will come to our end of season BBQ on Friday

As with many cricket clubs DCA is effectively owned by its members which in our case are the parents of children who train or play with the club and as such you all have a say (and a vote) in the direction the club takes in future

One challenge a junior only club has is that its membership naturally disappears after a number of years as their children hopefully move onto senior cricket. As the club can only exist through the volunteers we need to address how we pass it on to the next generation of parents who may have different ideas about its future direction

To bring everyone up to date I have been talking to cricket east exploring ways they could take on the running of the ground allowing DCA to simply turn up and play (making running the club less onerous) however this has proved not to be possible and given the significant effort of preparing and hosting some 30 county age group matches I have informed them that we will not be hosting any matches from the end of this season

From my own perspective I informed the committee at last years AGM of my intention to step down from most of the roles I fulfil by the end of this year and hence we have been trying to recruit for additional volunteers.

Whilst DCA has been a labour of love to bring a delipidated ground up to the standard it is now and give many local children an introduction to cricket it has also dominated my available time and I have been unsuccessful in recruiting volunteers to take on substantial roles within the club. As such I have decided to step away completely from the running of the club.

At this stage if others are able to sustain the club I am willing to provide some help in the maintenance of the pitches but it may be that the new Committee will have alternative plans. In many respects we are a healthy club with good facilities, equipment and finances together with a good reputation for developing young cricketers of all standards and it will be a great shame if this does not continue in some form but it cannot run without substantially more volunteers than we have now

As we end this season we need a team of people to step up and take on a number of roles. To assist I have created a list of roles (attached) which describes how duties are currently split and who does them. It is possible to combine and alter roles to suit however we first of all need a management committee to take up the running of the club in general so that appointments can be made

In order to make the transition we will be calling an EGM for early September and Andrew Moore our Secretary will be providing dates and times however to make this meeting effective we really need to have found a number of people to step up to the positions highlighted including a new Chair and to that end I would urge anyone interested to contact myself or any of the current organisers either on Friday in person or by mobile or email in the next 10 days

Best Regards

Andy