Third Team Name - And the Winner is...

Firebirds! 29 people voted on the name that they wanted for our new third team and "Firebirds" came out a close winner ahead of "Dragons" and "Heat".

We wish the Firebirds well for their inaugural season in the Windsor and Maidenhead Mixed Softball League Division 3. We are sure that they will be every bit as successful as the Phoenix and Flames.

Club Day - Sunday 17th April

In advance of the start of the new season, we will be running a Club Day on Sunday 17th April instead of a regular training session. The day will be a chance for the coaches and captains to put players through their paces with a series of drills and competitive games but it is also intended to be a social occasion in which old and new members can get to know each other a bit better. With that in mind, we will be finishing with a pub lunch at the Village Hall once all the running about is over.

The session will run from 10:30am to 12:30pm. Everyone is welcome to attend, please email Clare (chairman@chalfontsoftballclub.co.uk) to let her know if you will be there so that we can plan the day successfully.

Level 1 and Level 2 Coaches

Congratulations to Dan Lovelace, Sara Daughtrey and Louie Pereira who all recently gained their Level 1 softball coaching qualifications.

Along with Chris Yoxall, they are now working towards their Level 2 softball coaching qualifications. They join Neil Turner (Head Coach and Level 2 coach), Clare Winter (Level 2 coach), Sarah Wood (Level 1 coach) and Sally Maxted-Bayley (Level 1 coach) on the Club's coaching staff.

They are all looking forward to putting what they've learnt into practice at pre-season training on Sunday mornings.

Pre-Season Update

Home Ground - Goldhill Common

As many of you will know, we have been talking for the last 12 to 18 months about moving our home ground to Newland Park on the other side of the village. This is still in the offing, indeed the development has been granted provisional planning permission, but due to delays in the planning process, we won't be able to make the move any time soon. We will, therefore, continue to use Goldhill Common as our home ground for both matches and training this season, with the Village Hall pub serving as our "refreshment point".

Third Team

With our numbers growing in the last year and some people struggling to get a game every week last season, we have decided to launch a third team this year. The third team will be entered into the league and will have games every week, just like Phoenix and Flames. To get the third team up and running, we need your help:

1. What do you think the team should be called? The committee have come up with a few ideas, but we're not overwhelmed by them, so we'd like your suggestions. Ideally, the name should tie in loosely with Phoenix and Flames, but we're open to anything, so let us know what you think.
2. Once the team has a name, it's going to need a captain or manager to organise it - could you be that person? The role can be what you make it, if you're more of an organising person than a captaining on the day person, then that's great, you can manage the team, and we'll find someone else to captain on the day, or vice-versa. If you're put off taking on the role of captain or manager because you don't have enough knowledge or experience to do it, then don't be - we have a team of coaches that will be on hand to help out and offer advice. The role of manager or captain can be taken on by anyone in the club no matter your experience or skill level and it won't automatically mean that you have to play for the third team, so please consider it. We look forward to receiving a wealth of responses from people keen to get more involved with the successful running of the club!

Club Day

We have decided to run a Club Day in advance of the outdoor season (date to be confirmed, but probalby during the weekend of the 29th April) in order to get everyone back into the swing of things and to give the coaches and captains a chance to get an idea of playing squads for the start of the season. This will not be Phoenix vs. Flames vs. Third Team, we will be mixing everyone in together and having fun, not running competitive trials.

Fundraising

To cover the cost of developing our new grounds at Newland Park, we have estimated that we are going to need to raise around £30,000. The good news is that BSUK have told us provisionally that they will fund match every £1 we raise as a club, so in theory our target is only £15,000. We have been working hard over the Winter to kick off our fundraising campaign - setting up our Amazon link, writing funding applications, researching grants to apply for, identifying companies to contact for donations or corporate days, etc., but we're going to need more help.

• Do you have any great ideas of how we can raise the funds?
• Does your company have a fund for corporate social responsibility that we might qualify for?
• Do you have experience of writing funding applications or business plans?

If the answer to any of these question is "yes" then please, please, please get in touch. We will be writing a more detailed email soon with an update on our ideas and plans, so keep an eye out for that and in the meantime, don't forget to access Amazon through our club website (or by clicking on the link below) in order to raise us some vital funds.

Social Networking

As you may or may not have seen, we've decided to embrace the 21st Century and "get down with the kids" (or some such malarkey). Yes, that's right, Chalfont Softball Club is now on Twitter and Facebook. Please spread the word amongst your friends, family and colleagues and help us to boost our numbers. We're hoping that in embracing social networking we'll be able to generate interest in the club both amongst potential senior and junior members and amongst potential funders. With regards to funding, if we're able to tell potential funders that we have over, say 100, followers on Twitter and Facebook, it will add real weight to our cause as it will demonstrate that we are reaching out to the wider community.

You can find links to our Twitter page and Facebook page at:

• http://www.twitter.com/ChalfntSoftball
• http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chalfont-Softball-Club/138589126206215

Please note that we will be continuing to use the club website and these emails as our main way of informing you of activities and events in the Club; Twitter and Facebook are just added extras!

Pre-season Training

And finally... pre-season traininig kicks off this weekend. We will be starting at 10:30am sharp and running through to 12:30pm. Training will be on Goldhill Common. Please arrive by 10:20am ready to start at 10:30am.