stew_hartley

Thanks Sue. We are looking at a raffle as part of a social event in early July. I pass your offer onto our social team who will no doubt be in touch. Very generous so thanks again.

In answer to the question about insurance, premiums for commercial insurance of lock ups are extortionate and do not make it viable. The grounds themselves are insured but KCL have a large estate and to keep their premiums low, their excess is beyond our loss. Unfortunately it comes down to risk analysis or quite simply...a gamble. In respect of the members, our running costs over the course of a year are high, in the tens of thousands. We have pitch fees to pay, playing kit, first aid equipment, travel, playing insurance, maintenance, etc, etc. Our members support the day to day running of the club as we get no revenue from the bar or facilities in any way. We have to budget carefully to maintain cash flow and pay the bills on time. As we are not a profit-making organisation we cannot get credit on accounts. We manage this process very well and as a club have been in existence for 141 years. Unfortunately, there is only so much you can ask your members to pay before they find another club to play for. Many of these guys live in the area because of the club so having a health club is good for the businesses in the community. I do appreciate that this may seem like we?re after the easy option. The truth is quite the opposite. What we do have is a group of people from our local community who regularly use the services of many businesses in the area. Channelling this business towards those who support us is a win-win situation for all. We're not suggesting for a moment that we want the local businesses to donate ?3k. We're just letting people know our situation and whether their support can help us all. If we do organise a fundraiser, we'll be sure to post it here. We understand the flip side of organising event and think we can do much with support from others in kind, rather than a substantial outlay for little return.

Not sure if any of you spotted it, but someone set fire to a lock up just off Dulwich Village on Friday late afternoon. The resulting damage was that KCH Rugby lost all of their rugby playing and training equipment. A real problem for a self funded organisation. For those that don't know us, we are guests at the Griffin Sports Club, which is operated by King's College London, of which we are not a part of. All our costs for equipment, pitch fees, etc, come from fundraising and membership fees. If anyone has any ideas or leads with regard to helping us raise around ?3k to replace our equipment, we'd really appreciate the help. We have sponsorship opportunities and also fundraising ideas but we need help from the local community. We've around 80 members based in the local area. Most are in full time employment. Some have growing families and some are single. All are home owners or renting in the area so we have an ideal network of individuals that could help promote local businesses. Please contact us via our website at www.kchrfc.co.uk or by email to chairman @ kchrfc.co.uk Thanks. Stewart Club Chairman

Declan...are you fiddlesticks in disguise?

Not sure if it's been noted already as I got bored with everyone bickering. Has anyone considered that as this probably happened quickly, all the staff may not have been aware of exactly what was happening. I have worked in a Supermarket and do know that there are procedures for certain events such as armed robbery and maybe their initial reaction was to initiate their procedure for such an event, as they may of thought they were about to be done over. This may have been part of the reason why the staff were moved to the rear of the store and (I think someone mentioned) the tills froze. Security guards aren't trained for this kind of event. They are trained to man the door of a supermarket and on what do to when someone tries to run out with a bottle of single malt (or Bombay Sapphire in Dulwich!). This event is a major incident. There would be a major incident plan for senior staff to implement in this situation. Sainsburys first priority is to protect it's staff, then it's customers, then it's property. You may not be happy at being 2nd on the last, but you are. Just because you live in Dulwich, doesn't make you no.1 priority! Well done to those who stepped in and helped. IMO if you didn't, self preservation is your own decision and you're no less a person for looking after yourself first. Obivously, it's nice if we can stomach helping other people but it's not always that simple.