In this edition we wanted to provide an update to members from the whole Committee around the key successes, developments and achievements in the first 100 days of the 2020/21 Committee. We believe this shows real progress and evolution of our club.

In the first few months of the season the Committee has managed to land two sponsors with others queuing up to offer us even more. It is an exciting time for the Club with CMYK sponsoring our first ever full playing kit and Proud Beer being our ongoing award sponsor. In addition, it has been a real drive of mine to network the Club into wider opportunities such as:

Our new partnership with Mitcham and Carshalton resulting in the Clubhouse
Being a member of the LGBT Consortium providing us with further development, support and funding opportunities
Establishing ourselves as part of the IGR network within many of the working groups including the Chairs and the 20 Year IGR Anniversary groups

I went on to ask the rest of the Committee about their successes and things they were proud of and here is what they said...

Dan, Club Captain noted that he was pleased to see that “members were pleased with the reappointment of Faye Easton as the Head Coach and really appreciated hearing from members on how much they are enjoying training each Saturday”. Dan highlighted that many members told him they “felt they were growing in confidence and skill” and “benefitting from the skills rotation zones within training”.
Dan also wanted to highlight that “we continue to have a difficult task in providing training in a very restricted world as prescribed by the RFU. We still aren’t able to train in the ‘rugby way’ that we would want. However, the smaller groups and skills zones around safer contact, touch and fitness are providing great development for club members. We see on average 50 Stags each Saturday we have tried to engage everyone’s ability from absolute new starters to seasoned players. It’s incredible to see members skill sharing on the pitch, which is helping to gel both new and old members and enabling growth - thank you to all those role models out there.”
Dan is pleased to announce that “the coaching team led by Faye and supported by our coach Matt Carter will be further expanded with the exciting appointment of an Assistant Head Coach to support further growth, capacity and ‘backs skills development’.
Our Captain went on to note that “as we step up our training, whilst currently only able to complete in touch games, we will make sure we are all ready for these fixtures and for the next stage in the ‘road to rugby’ phases.”

Team Manager, Jason, writes that “coming into the new session during a pandemic was always going to be filled with excitement, complexities and anxiety not knowing when the ‘rugby season’ would actually start. We move forward with anticipation and with our fingers and toes crossed that the season will start in January (fingers crossed) and we will all get to go and celebrate IGR rugby at the Union Cup!”
Jason was elated when he said “for the first time ever we have an online Kit shop with a range of items for our members and supporters to buy and with more items being added throughout the year! We can't wait to rock up to the Union Cup looking herdalicious.”
Jason went on to say that he was super excited for “the coming months to reveal our brand new sponsored Team Kit and arrangements are being made in how we celebrate and launch this.”

Hugo, our Social and Communications Secretary started by saying that “2020 has been one hell of a year, a real rollercoaster ride. Who needs Thorpe Park! The past 100 days have certainly whizzed by and it has been a thrill and joy to see the club grow in different ways this year. I have had the joy of driving the marketing campaigns, which have seen a 15% rise across our Social Channels, all done via organic posts i.e not utilising paid ads! On average, our Social Media accounts are seeing 10,000 weekly impressions, an impressive stat I believe we can all be proud of, with increased interaction via posts and stories. Who can forget getting on Charity Shop Sue’s Instagram page, iconic! This has reflected in increased enquiries for sponsorship and new member signups.”
Hugo went on to add that “on the socials side, this has been challenging to carry out given our current situation and is something we’re continuously assessing for feasibility. Nevertheless, I think we can safely say that despite the difficulties we managed to pull off a very unique Stag event during our Costa Del Mitcham Awards Night, no one can say that we didn’t bring the Jumbo to Mitcham.”
Hugo closed with “the year is not over, and there is much to do. For one, I would like to boost our SEO presence on Google, through the facilitation of improving our Pitchero website and firing analytic tracking to better understand how we are being discovered online. I would love to see over 2,000 followers on our Social Channels and experiment with targeted paid ads. On socials, we are facing many challenges like other industries, but it would be great to develop some into the calendar.”

The Treasurer, James, shared how he was “excited that, this year, due to the fantastic work done by the Social and Communications Secretary on our social media, we have had a number of organisations approach us with offers of sponsorship and partnerships. Given the challenges businesses are facing in light of COVID, it is brilliant to have people wanting to commit to work with us. Whilst we’re still to announce most of the details to our members, I can confirm that there are some exciting developments coming.”
James is passionate about the stability of the Club and went on to share that he “had taken a number of steps to secure the financial stability of the Club, ensuring that our financial situation is sustainable even in the world of COVID. With the diversification of our income streams, and reducing our costs, we have been able to build up our reserves. We’ve also built a significant investment pot which we will look to utilise over the coming months. The Stags have always been an inclusive club and for me this should include financial inclusivity for members too. By having cash available we can give this back to our members, reducing the cost of attending matches and events and ensuring that we continue to be open and inclusive to all.”

The Club Secretary, Gerard, went on to share his highlights “recruiting and retaining members has provided a unique challenge this year with COVID restrictions. The Stags have always welcomed members at any time of the year however in 2020 this simply wasn't possible. With the move to Mitcham allowing us significantly more space and a slight relaxation of the government guidelines we were able to host a “welcome to rugby day” where we had many new potential members show up and even more expressing an interest in joining the Stags. This year we have worked to maintain interest and convert this interest into membership. We created a WhatsApp group called “Fawns” which allows us to keep potential new members updated on the training schedule and other important information. Overall our current membership stands at 76 which I feel is a true reflection on our active, supporting and playing members.”
Gerard went on to discuss that “we have completed our first membership questionnaire and this information will be circulated in the coming weeks. I am delighted to report that we had a 60% response rate and 90% of members ‘agree or strongly agree’ that ‘they feel welcome at the club’. Over 40% of responders were also keen for midweek training and I am delighted this is progressing well with our relationship with Mitcham and Carshalton enabling Tuesday evening training.”
Gerard also highlighted some next steps including a “plan to run an online ‘Ask the Committee’ session to further gather membership feedback. I also personally want to develop a database of each member's interest and skill set (e.g. website design) in order to utilise fully those members who wish to be more involved in the Club in any way.”

Finally, as the Chair, I would like to close by thanking the members for supporting us in the Committee’s first 100 days. I would also like to thank the Committee for their many hours of hard work, their collaborative and positive attitudes as well as the relentless focus on developing our club for the better. Thank you all so much! To the next 100 days!

Michael - Chair for the South London Stags