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Welcome to Aberdeenshire Cricket Club 3 of 6

3. The Future - 2030 Vision


Society is changing and with that, how sports clubs react to those changes will be critical to their future success. The advent of huge competition for leisure time, the internet, new social habits, travel and a greater expectation on the part of people with regard to products and services all have an impact on traditional sports clubs.

And that is the problem, the word 'traditional'. The Victorian model of member and player member in a membership club is nowadays considered outdated by leading sports governing bodies such as SportScotland. Clubs must orient towards a much more community based model where it will be expected that 'members' will become 'users' who use the club for different purposes depending on their needs. Some may wish to play serious First XI cricket whist other may wish to take a more relaxed approach, and indeed some may wish only to socialise and so on.

We must offer a range of options to suit a range of requirements if we are to grow our Club and become financially self sufficient. And financials are key. Those who follow this closely will realise that for the last few years the Club has only just broken even or made a small profit. That profit is entirely down to rental income from our office building. The main Club makes a significant loss.

It is with this background in mind that the committee set up a working party during the winter of 2018/19 to establish the way forward. At the 2019 AGM the working party reported to the members the result of their deliberations. The proposal is entitled;

'A Journey To Excellence - 2030 Vision'

The proposal was unanimously accepted by members and the committee and volunteers are working hard to implement its findings. They fell into 5 main categories:

1. Finance - achieving financial stability is a key priority
2. Governance - the Club must be structured to meet the requirements of the 21st century
3. Marketing - the cost side of the P&L is one thing, but income must be grown as a priority
4. Membership management - complete database upgrade in line with modern regulation
5. Cricket - regain our position as Scotland's premier cricket club

We planned to report on progress at the 2020 AGM, but it has been postponed due to the corona virus pandemic. How and when we hold the 2020 AGM has still to be decided and will depend on how the exit from lock down progresses.

In summary, we are working on major changes to how the Club is governed and how it operates. We are ambitious and wish to be recognised as the beacon of cricketing success, not only in the North East, but all over Scotland.