Purpose of the meeting – report back on the fire on Thursday 21 March and action being taken
Large turnout from tennis members plus runners, motorcyclists and allotment holders all represented.
Chris opened the meeting by asking Colin to speak about the history of the club. Colin spoke about when the club moved to its current site after its lease was not renewed on its old building in 1955. It started out with a Nissan hut as a clubhouse which has been extended many times over the following years.
Dave then explained what happened on Thursday. The clubhouse was locked up at 1am and then at 5am the emergency services were called by someone working on the South Circular. The fire brigade contacted the police. The small safe and till were found outside the clubhouse and the main safe tampered with so it was a crime scene.
Insurance
The buildings insurance is through Dulwich Estates (our landlord) and we organise separate contents insurance. Neither of the policies will be an issue. The contents insurance includes business interruption. Dulwich Estates have moved quickly and a claim was put in for buildings insurance on Thursday. If any club member had personal possessions in the clubhouse please let Chris or Dave know or any committee member.
The future
In the short-term we need to organise temporary accommodation and floodlighting. Temporary toilets and a shelter will be installed this week. Once the insurance has been OK’d we are allowed to spend 20% of the rebuild cost up front and we can have a better temporary ‘clubhouse’. Marlborough have said we can use their carpark but once the cricket season starts do not use it at weekends. We can use their clubhouse for free – Dave has the key. They have been very generous.
For the time being, all home matches need to be rearranged to away matches. Saturday afternoon will be club play. And the floodlights should be working again in a few weeks. Courts can be booked on Sunday mornings. We are working on an online court booking system. Until that is in place there will be laminated sheets put on the side of the courts for booking.
In the long-term, the estimate is 6-9 months for the rebuild. We have like-for-like insurance but to a modern specification. We can tweak the inside but essentially what we will get will be similar to what we had before. If we want anything more, we would have to pay for it ourselves. But that would hold up the planning process plus we need the money we do have for refurbishing the courts.
The clubhouse should be demolished by the end of this week. The insurance company want two quotes plus structural and asbestos surveys.
– The motorcyclists will relocate for the time being.
– Coaching for juniors will resume when toilets sorted
We have had a huge amount of support and goodwill plus offers of donations, but the insurance should cover everything so donations not needed at present. Also, we do not need volunteers for anything at present.
John Feaver, ex Davis Cup player, has agreed to open the new clubhouse – thanks to Jane for organising
Subs
We are asking members to renew their subs as normal. Cheques can be posted to Judy or they can be paid online. An email will go out to members in the next few days with instructions.
Tennis Circus
This is scheduled for Sunday 5 May (not Monday 6 May – error on Liz’s part, sorry). Liz will email out more information. Danny Sapsford is an ex- Davis Cup player who will come to the club from 2-5.30 and work with 3 groups of members, each group lasting 1.5 hours. Maximum capacity is 36 members and we are offering this to members at no cost. If you wish to sign up, let Chris know.
Big thanks from the floor to Chris and Dave