On Thursday evening, July 9, VCC held its ALV scheduled for March 17, which had to be postponed due to the Corona crisis. Or better, we had the GMM (General Members Meeting), because it was decided that the official language would be English, whereby anyone who was not comfortable speaking in English could also have his or her say in Dutch (by the way, at the bottom of this page a button with which this article can also be read in Dutch).
This resulted in a very mixed group of attendees and the board was pleased to see not only the “usual suspects”, but also many first-timers. And in a club that frequently uses the word inclusivity, it seems only appropriate to communicate in a way that everyone can participate, think along and listen. All in all, about 35 people (about 15% of the playing members if we count the juniors) were present: that was just about 1.5 meters away in the clubhouse.
The new face naturally also involved the board, which, with the exception of Geert, Maarten and Floris, has four new (or new old) faces: Kobus Nel (chairman), Richard de Lange (vice-chairman), Johan Polet (secretary) and Victor van Koolwijk (accommodation). They were introduced and – in addition to the necessary formalities – a number of plans were explained:
- The old board was thanked for running the club in recent years. Earlier in the week there had already been a Zoom conversation with former chairman Jos Jochemsen, in which he expressed his thanks for another three years of chairmanship (after he had already done so from 1988-2002). In person, farewell was said to Willem Ligtenstein and Karel Philipsen, the latter being appointed to Member of Merit of the association with loud applause (Willem was already that, incidentally). This thanksgiving was accompanied by the discharge of the old board granted by the meeting for the policy pursued.
- The new board is in the process of drawing up a strategy for 2020-2025 and talked about that process, the yields so far and the next steps. That plan will build on members’ input on what they think VCC stands for: inclusive, competitive, respectful / sporty, dedicated and fun.
- This of course means that everyone can become a member and that we want everyone to feel at home at VCC. At the same time, becoming a member of VCC means that you will become part of a family. A club where you not only participate, but where you also like to do something for. Being a member is not optional. The board therefore also intends to organize more operational matters in committees and to get more people involved in these committees.
- A spearhead for the new board is the realization of an indoor accommodation on our site, so that cricket can be played 365 days a year. In a presentation about this indoor accommodation, it was further discussed how such a thing might look, what is needed for it (in money, in structure), which obstacles still have to be overcome and what the expected timeline is for the realization (end of 2020).
The ALV presentation slides and the presentation about the indoor accommodation can be found on the password-protected website where all other relevant documents are located. Members have previously been sent a password for this environment.