This is just a message to update you on things that have been going on at the club over the last couple of months, and information on what is needed from you, to get everyone back on the field playing rugby.

Pre season training across all age groups has now started, every Sunday from 10am at Iveshead field, the U12’s and U14’s are also training midweek.

Fixtures for the year are all organised, your age group team manager should be updating you with this information.

We have now launched our new club website, shepshedrfc.co.uk. We hope that this will be a good tool for keeping parents and player’s updated with news and information. We also have a club app that can be downloaded, it should make keeping connected even easier.

As well being able to keep everyone up to date we with news and information, the website also allows us to manage fixtures and availability. Each team should be switching across from heja to pitchero/shepshedrfc.co.uk, so please make sure you register yourself and your child.

All of our mini and junior memberships can now be purchased directly through our website. Chris will be putting out a post about membership shortly. If you have any questions or issues, please contact Chris, Ryan or myself and we will be happy to help.

Although we are predominantly moving to our new website for memberships and team management. We do still need all players and parents to be registered through the rfu’s Game management system (gms). gms.rfu.com.

For those that have previously registered, we need you to check your registration and make sure you are affiliated to Shepshed rfc. This is a requirement by the rfu, your child will need this to be able to play, and also to be covered under the club/rfu insurance.

We do try our best to keep all of or membership costs as low as possible. The downside to this is we have little room to absorb any rising costs, due to this, the club ran at a loss last season. Along with our rising hire costs we have also had to invest over £2000 in pitch maintenance this year. We’ve had to have 20 tons of soil added to pitch 2, to infill the holes and make it safe to play on.

Due to all of this, we have had no choice but to raise memberships fees slightly this year. The membership fees for this year are
Under 6’s/7’s/8’s is £50
Under 9’s/10’s/11’s/12’s is £65
Junior membership is £80.
We appreciate that its not just our cost that are on the rise, there is an option to split costs across 3 payments. We keep our costs low so we can be accessible for everyone, if you need some help please contact Eleanor and we will work with you to find a solution where we can.

We have also had to introduce a monthly match fee cost. To make it easier for everyone, so that team managers aren’t having to chase and so that people aren't having to raid piggy banks for change, this will be a flat rate across all age groups that are playing, charged at £4 per month. This will need to be purchased as well as your membership through the website, there is an option for a one off payment if you would prefer. Again, if there is any problems or if you have any questions, please drop me or your age grade co-ordinator a message.

To help with communication there will me new club email addresses. It’ll make sure any queries or problems can be sent directly to the right person.
There will be
Contact- for any general questions
Accounts- any questions about payments
Mini&junior- direct to Chris and Ryan, the mini and junior co-ordinators
Senior- direct to Craig, the senior team manager.

These new contacts detail will hopefully be live soon.

Our committee members have been putting in many hours of work in the off season and have managed to secure sponsorship from lots of local businesses. As well subsidising some of our costs is means this season each member will have a training top included with the membership.

We hope this season is enjoyable for everyone and we have lots of happy young rugby players ??

Tom Jarram
Shepshed RFC