Aylesbury
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Aylesbury RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB
Aylesbury RFC is a fine example of the important role that a club can play in their local community as they continue to provide people in their local area with an opportunity to enjoy the game . Rugby Club Magazine recently caught up with their Chairman , Paul Milham , to find out more about the good work they ’ ve been doing .
Involvement
He told us , “ I joined Aylesbury RFC ten years ago when my son , Max was old enough to join the Minis Section here . I ’ d previously played for a season at another local club but had heard lots of good things about Aylesbury ’ s youth set up and obviously felt that was more important in choosing a club for him .
It proved to be a great decision as we were instantly made very welcome by a very talented coach , Ed Burt . Ed was also very quick in setting me to work as the age group manager , a role which I was promised , ‘ just means taking a register ’! 10 years on - it ’ s turned out to involve a bit more than that but nowadays I ’ m fortunate enough to have the support of a very committed , hard working committee .”
The Role
“ The most challenging aspect of my role is communication . A grass roots rugby club is made up of a wide range of people , all of who have different needs and wants .
Ensuring that you get to know what these are and making sure that every section or member knows what ’ s going on and why is not straight forward . We are lucky that our Club Captain , Adam Moore has taken on the role of Director of Comms and he does a superb job of making sure that we are very active across all the usual social media outlets and our that our website is always up to date .
Building a volunteer base also seems to be more difficult nowadays as members struggle to find time to manage all the pressures modern life brings . We have lots of willing helpers at our club who will always turn up to support events and help out at functions , but it ’ s becoming increasingly difficult to get someone to commit to a role .”
One Club
“ The greatest reward for me is being part of what is one of the few communities I belong to . At Aylesbury we ’ re blessed with the make-up of membership we have and have spent the last few years focussing on creating a ‘ one club ’ culture .
There are no barriers between the various sections of our club and you will always find our seniors down coaching and supporting our minis and in return , our minis running out as mascots and water carriers for our senior teams . Sundays at our club are wonderful mixture of our Minis , Juniors , Seniors and the Old and Bold enjoying and sharing the great facility we have .”
Atmosphere
“ We are in a very good place right now . We redeveloped our club house a few years ago and it serves us and the community very well . We ’ ve also been lucky enough to be one of the first clubs to benefit from the installation of an RFU allweather artificial 3G pitch . Both the playing and social sections of the club have risen in line with this and we have a very active membership making good use of both .”
2017
“ 2017 has been about putting our focus back into what we do on the pitch , particularly around the seniors .
The clubhouse redevelopment and installation of the 3G pitch have distracted from that slightly so with a new quality line up of coaches Jon Lambden , Rob Smith and Paul Delaney , headed up by our DOR Simon Winman , we ’ ve made a good start .
54 Issue 78