Dear all
Firstly, and most importantly, I hope that you are keeping well. These are very strange times the like of which Elie and Earlsferry Sailing Club haven’t seen before. The committee had planned various activities for the coming season including VHF radio training, resumption of Wednesday night training and social events to name but a few. Needless to say Covid 19 has put a stop to all that and it is difficult to envision what we can do on the water in the coming weeks whilst respecting the governments advice on social distancing and essential travel!
The RYA have also issued guidance that clubhouses should remain shut until the restrictions are lifted. Therefore the clubhouse will remain locked until further notice and I would ask members who have keys to respect this guidance.
Needless to say as soon as we are allowed to we will start our activities up again and get the clubhouse open. This does lead me to a rather difficult section of this letter. Although we are obviously not doing anything and members aren’t benefiting from the club in the near future, there are substantial costs to keeping the clubhouse running. This is normally covered by our membership fees. In these difficult circumstances I am only too aware that many of us have had pay cuts or lost employment and to ask for full payment now for those members is out of the question. The committee has discussed this at length and have come up with the following plan:
- The closing date for any club fees has been extended until 1st
- If you are willing and able to please pay the normal club fees as soon as possible
- If you are unable to do that please pay the social membership fee (£40)
The committee will obviously look to reduce our costs during this difficult period to offset a loss of income.
I look forward to seeing everyone when this situation is over.
Keep well.
Best regards
John Ellicott (Commodore)
