This is the minutes from the latest meeting (not Trustees meetings).

Meeting with Colin Love to discuss Stage 2 of the CAT process

12 June 2024

Apologies: Paul Wright and Sarah Smillie

Overview

The courts need to be refurbished/rebuilt since they are over 30 years old now. The problems are:

• According to Colin, South Ayrshire Council (SAC) has no money for the estimated £250,000 it needs to do the work.
• SAC do have access to a fund that could be up to £100,000 if the organisation completes a CAT. Being able to tell funders we have access to almost half of what we need would be of enormous value in a plea for funding.
• If the club doesn’t complete a CAT, SAC would instead generate a 25 year lease for us, which we could use to approach funders for money for the work. SAC still wouldn’t have any money for the work and we would still need to fundraise.

Either way round, the club will need to fundraise to get the necessary money for the work to be done. If we go down the CAT route, the club would at least own the land. If we go for a lease, we wouldn’t own the land, and we would still need to get the money.

Fundraising

Colin told us that Melissa produced a fortnightly funding newsletter and he would get her to put the club on the mailing list. It could then be forwarded to the fundraisers to look into. We also discussed Jo Lloyd’s thoughts that it is better to approach potential funders with a letter of intent to sound out their willingness to help. Proposals could then be created which included Jo’s business plan. It is also worth checking on potential fundraisers to find out why a proposal failed, as well as why a proposal succeeded, and this information would help design future proposals. Colin stressed that we need to start approaching potential funders as soon as possible so we need volunteers to follow this through.

Funding and CAT

There is an advancing community assets fund (I may have got the term slightly wrong here) that is available to organisations who enter and are successful in a CAT application. This fund could be up to £100,000 and it is only available to CAT applicants. It is obvious that more fundraising will be needed to raise the money for a full refurbishment of the courts.

We now need to make a Stage 2 proposal and send it to SAC and Colin said he would email me the form. He also said it could take a few months to complete the form as it needs a lot of information. He also said it would be best to start now to advise the community and organisations of our plans and to get feedback as well. A letter of agreement from the Head Teacher at the primary school as well as from the Community Council would also be helpful in the application. We need some volunteers to take this last point forward.

SAC will hire an independent valuator to survey the site and give a report to SAC and the club which will form the basis of the purchase price – we are jointly responsible for the fee for this and it will cost several thousands.

Colin has said he will help us with external funding.

Booking the Activity Centre for indoor junior tennis coaching over the autumn and winter

With the Citadel due to close its main hall for refurbishment, we have been told by the staff in the activity centre that we need to make a corporate block booking of the hall for junior coaching. We should note in the application that the club has been a consistent user for the past 23 years.

I (Fraser) was given a form to complete by Linda at the activity centre, but it doesn’t mention the hire of the hall. I tried to book the hall online, but you can only book a week in advance which is no use and there was no option for corporate bookings. I contacted leisure services and sent them the form Linda game me and they said that form was for football and swimming, and they sent me the correct form.

Colin said he would find out about block booking the hall and get back to us on how to do it.

Follow-up

An email (shown below) has been sent on this date to Colin listing the commitments from the meeting. As of the writing of this document, Colin hasn’t been back in touch.

Fraser Drummond

18 June 2024

Email to Colin Love

Cc: Paul |Wright, Sarah Smillie

Hi Colin,

I would like to highlight some action points from our meeting on the 12th June.

• Colin is to ask Melissa to include the club in her fortnightly funding newsletter emails. The address is coyltontennis@gmail.com.
• The club is to seek volunteer fundraisers to start approaching potential funders as soon as possible.
• Colin is to send the club the Stage 2 proposal form for the club to complete and return.
• SAC (with Colin as mediator) will hire an independent valuator to survey the site and give a report to SAC and the club.
• Colin has offered to help us gain external funding.
• Colin is to find out about block booking the hall for junior tennis over the autumn and winter periods and get back to us on how to do it.

Many thanks for meeting up with Lynn and I and for your help and assistance in taking the next steps forward.

Regards

Fraser