• All our volunteers. It may surprise you it takes more than 60 voluntary roles that together make BHHHC hockey happen. Thanks to all our members that have done one or more of these roles this season. Please keep an eye open for the Exec’s AGM 2024 Recruitment Pathway updates to help make members aware of our many BHHHC volunteer roles and hopefully inspire you step-up and volunteer (again) to help make something positive happen for the club and its members next season.

• Umpires and Fixtures: Games can’t go ahead without umpires. So thank you to all our (c. 37) umpires who have stepped forward to umpire one or more games during the season and the pool umpires who have umpired most of the M1s games. Particular thanks to our serial umpires who have umpired many games (10 or more) Roger Macklin, Peter Karmali, Jamie Holderness, Jo Fisher, Ed Goodwyn, Liz Holderness and Stef Langdon. And games don’t happen without fixtures. So thanks too to Jo Fisher for arranging all the fixtures (and all the extra work of rearranging them when they have been postponed !).

• BHHHC Umpire development: Congratulations to Issy Thorner, Rob Hueting, Rosey Bloxham and Jamie and Miles Poulton for completing their Level 1 Umpire Training Qualification and joining our BHHHC umpire development programme – I wish you success in progressing towards your Level 1 Assessment to become a qualified Level 1 umpire. Reminder for our Youth Members – completing Level 1 umpire training and progressing to Level 1 Assessment remain great achievements to add to your CV (whether you are applying for a job or university). These skills can also be used towards the Duke of Edinburgh Awards.

• Captains – thank you for the all the work you do in coaching and selecting your team and making sure your team follow BHHHC ethos in playing competitive hockey whilst playing within the rules of hockey, respecting officials and other players and being welcoming to our visiting teams and supporters. • Coaches – thanks for your time and thought in putting together training programmes that allow our players to continuously improve their skills and fitness. The progress of adult and youth Members that embrace your training programmes is impressive. And thanks to our coaches that support our schools’ hockey youth programme – I have heard some very positive feedback from schools that participate.

• Sweepsters (Graeme Hart, Haydn Drinkwater and Paul Dubenski) – thanks for maintaining our Astro so it remains in top condition for hockey training and league games for many years to come. Many members won’t realize we have to sweep the pitch each week to keep the turf upright, remove leaves and other organic debris so pitch is not slippery and drains well, empty the bins and fix things that get bent or broken from time to time.

• Thanks to Simon, Kelly and our kitchen and bar staff for the amazing variety and quality of teas and friendly bar service making BHHHC facilities so enjoyable for our members and the envy of many of our visiting teams. Many BHHHC Members will not realize how much work goes on in the background to make this work so smoothly – well done all.

• Social Events: thanks to all those that have organised social events for the enjoyment of members and their families and their friends (quiz nights, Bonkers Bingo, pancake night, comedy night, club nights, end of season awards celebration and more …). Socializing after your games, supporting social events and having fun are very much part of the BHHHC ethos and members’ experience and is why this is such a great club to be a member of. I am delighted Andrew Whitaker has picked up the baton of re-energising and leading our Social Committee for the 2024/2025 season – please contact him if you would like to get involved. Andrew needs a diverse group of members to help him organise an exciting programme of social events that will be enjoyed by our diverse adult and youth membership, families and friends in the seasons ahead.

• Overflow Car Park Working Group (Paul Dubenski, Nick Burles, Raj Kumar, Pete Allam, Colin Izzard) – weather proofing our grass parking is a top priority to improve car parking space during the winter months. However, completion timing is not in our control since we may need approval from Historic England and/or Dacorum Borough Council.

• Padel Working Group (Nick Burles, Roger and Terri Payton, Debbie Walker, Roger Macklin, Simon Kaye, Nick Cave, Colin Izzard) who are making great progress in bringing Padel to BHHHC. This is a very exciting development adding another sport at BHHHC for the benefit of Members and the local community with the potential for becoming a significant source of income to support maintenance and development of BHHHC facilities (and helping keep the cost of hockey affordable to all members).

• BHHHC Hockey, Trading, Exec Committees and other officers – thank you for all the work I know you do behind the scenes to make this club work. Particular thanks to Charlie Michie who stepped into multiple roles as Hockey Committee Chair/Treasurer and Youth Coordinator – this has been a huge task and hope workload can be shared next season. Thanks too to Kate Hedge who has stepped down as Health and Safety officer after 5 years of valuable advice and service to the club (developing risk assessments, policies and practices to complying with regulations, ensuring each team has a well-equipped first aid kit, arranging first aid courses, maintaining the AED and no doubt more H&S things too).

• External Users and support from the local community: BHHHC now supports a wide range of sports and activities for the benefit of BHHHC members, users and the local community. BHHC supports: 6 a-side football and youth football coaching (astro), host Berkhamsted RFU and St Leonards FC, Raiders FC, Chiltern Dog School (dog training), Berkhamsted Bowmen, BMW car parking, dog walkers, occasional caravan camps, occasional hot air ballon launching and Clubhouse hire for training courses, dance academy, functions, parties and weddings. BHHHC Trading, thanks primarily to Simon Kaye, now generates c. £25,000 p.a. from external astro hires and c. £45,000 p.a. from other external hires. This external income is vital for keeping hockey affordable to members by contributing to our fixed costs of maintaining and developing the quality of our BHHHC facilities, services and hockey experience. Standards members have become accustomed to. So whilst you may get occasionally get frustrated by external usres: parking congestion, delays in getting onto the astro or spirited behaviour in the bar – these external users are supporting hockey. So by all means remind them of the rules we all observe but please continue to make them very welcome users of our club facilities. Local authorities (Northchurch Parish Council, Dacorum Borough Council and Herts Sports Partnership) recognize the value to the local community of access to sports and other activities which are so beneficial for local health, mental health and community spirit. Local authority support remains vital for our various development plans so it’s important we keep them onboard.

• 2023 Members’ Survey – thank you for participating in the survey and your feedback. As the Members’ Survey findings show there are a lot of good things that are really appreciated about our club by our members – but there is also useful feedback on some areas where we can look to improve. The Exec has launched the 2024 AGM Recruitment Pathway to increase the number and diversity of our volunteers. The Exec is also planning to respond to the other feedback from the 2023 Members’ Survey so members can see we are taking steps to continuously improve BHHHC for the benefit of our members, other users and the local community. Thank you for taking time to read this note. It’s longer than I intended. However, it should give you an insight to the complexity of our club’s activities and the importance of having a large number of diverse volunteers to help make all this happen.

I hope you have enjoyed the 2023/2024 hockey season and are looking forward to participating in our various adult and/or youth summer hockey programmes. I also look forward to seeing you at the End of Season Awards Celebration on 27th April.

Best wishes Paul Dubenski
BHHHC Chair and ULO