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AGSFP Club Centre Appeal

Let me start by extending my heartfelt thanks to all the Club and Centre members who have contributed to our Club Centre Appeal. Without your magnificent support our recent major refurbishment would not have got off the ground. The fact that we were able to produce such a significant amount of funding, from our own endeavours, was a major enabler in our ability to obtain a fresh line of credit from the Bank of Scotland to allow Stage One to progress.
The whole purpose of the refurbishment was to address the problem of falling membership which was being faced by the Club Centre, and to encourage our membership to fully utilise our facilities. For those of you who have visited the Club Centre recently, I hope, and think, that you will agree that the work carried out has significantly enhanced our facilities, and will enable our Club Management team to successfully promote our Club Centre, both within the current membership, and within the local business community.

Whilst Stage One of our refurbishment is nearly complete, Stage Two looms on the horizon. Stage Two is being undertaken with the same objectives as were pertinent when Stage One was begun, namely to upgrade our facilities (this time mostly, although not exclusively, in the basement bar area) to encourage greater use and, therefore, a substantially improved financial turnover. I would emphasise that Stage Two of the refurbishment will cost roughly 20% of the Stage One programme.

For those of you who do not know, it is not the intention of the Club Centre to repay our borrowings purely out of increased turnover, being driven by our improved facilities. We also have a couple of lucrative sources of income, not linked to the turnover of the Club Centre, namely the long-term commercial rental of the Bayview Road property (the former steward’s house), and the car park space rental scheme to local businesses. It is envisaged that these sources of income, plus our anticipated increased turnover, should be sufficient to repay our Stage One borrowings over the agreed time scale.

Bearing in mind the success we had with the initial response to our Club Centre Appeal, both in terms of the very generous donations received from a lot of our members, and the resulting reduction in the amount of ‘extra money’ which we had to borrow from the Bank of Scotland, I would actively encourage all those who did not respond when our Appeal was initially launched, to make a donation to our Appeal fund, which remains open.

The creation of the Club Centre was brought about by the forward thinking, and generosity, of a relatively small group of individuals. Its continued existence currently lies in the hands of a much larger collective. Please help us in our endeavours to secure the future of the Club Centre by making a donation, no matter how small, and returning the attached payment advice, as soon as possible.

We need your support.
Thank you!

Dallas Moir
Chairman AGSFP Club Centre

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