The Twelfth Man 2019

Register J ust before I took on the mantle as Secretary of this illustrious Society last year I discovered an astonishing fact. I am only the third such office-holder in almost seventy years of our existence. Only the legendary Jack Sokell and Mick Pope precede me; this is a truly humbling thought. In my late sixties I sadly cannot guarantee that I will last the course to the same extent but what I can say is that, with an enthusiasm for the task and whilst I have the energy, I will do my utmost to advance the Society’s cause. I must record here my grateful thanks to Mick Pope for helping to ease my passage into the role. If, in my first year, the Society’s affairs have continued with no visible detriment it is testament to his diligent and ever-willing presence as mentor during my period ‘learning’ the job. Thank you and a happy ‘retirement’, Mick. At the same time, I must also record my thanks to the Chairman, James Greenfield who offers wise counsel and to the rest of the committee for their patience and support as I grow into the job. I must thank particularly Andy Jones who has provided valuable support as Assistant Secretary. My aim now is to repay this by making a positive contribution to the Society’s future. With regard to the future, whilst the proud history of the Society is at the forefront of mymind, I sense also the need for change if it is to survive. Coming into the job, two things struck me immediately - a need to attract new members and a need to engage better with the members we have. Our pride at having one of the largest memberships of any cricket society is diminished by the somewhat worrying attendance levels at our speaker meetings. Our Chairman has already begun a carefully measured experiment with afternoon meetings and this has had an encouraging response. Many of our members are spread throughout the country and around the world, so cannot make it to meetings. We need to bring them into the fold rather better than just an annual mail- out with this magazine. From an exercise I undertook last autumn I have managed to expand our email distribution list to include 114 members. But this is still only 38% of the members we have. Allowing that in a Society with a high age profile there will be some who simply don’t want anything to do with ‘modern’ communications (although email has been around now for over 30 years), it is still an unfeasibly low level of reach for us. I simply cannot believe that we have reached the limit of members who have an email address. That is why I am making another appeal - please make sure we have your email address. Don’t assume that we already have it; I would rather have it twice than not at all. All you have to do is send me a short email message to secwcls@outlook.com - and to do it now, before it is simply overlooked. Also last autumn I introduced the Twelfth Man Newsletter, distributed by email, to bring the Society’s news to its members on a regular basis. Feedback I have received about the newsletter has been generally positive and provides a foundation for us to build upon in terms of engaging our membership. But, of course, based on my earlier figures, it is reaching less than half of the members. Secretary’s Report A busy first year Chris Barron