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Bellingham Bay

November Newsletter

By Craig Brown, 11/13/18, 8:30AM PST

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Important Update on our Rugby Club

Important Update on our Rugby Club- November 2018

Members, Friends and Community (have added many more emails to this newsletter this month in an effort to increase communication, if this is new- welcome and please share with your friends to ensure they have been added as well-exciting times for our club)

It has been a few months since our last update, wanted to share with you the latest on our club and property development.

Re-Cap of our 2018 club planning
January 2018 
we received the gift of the 17.2 acres The Bellingham Polo & Rugby Fields from the De Wilde Family.
February 2018 Second All Club Meeting to discuss this project, update to club Governance Started
March & April 2018 Future Club Planning
Over time to develop regional u6, u8, u10, u12, u14 rugby programs across Whatcom County to develop more local rugby focused on having fun, developing core skills and introducing our rugby club and culture to the next generation of Athletes. In addition, we will be developing Single High School Club 7s for both boys and girls, again this is a longer term focus of development. If you would like to be a coach or referee or just help out, please let me know. No Experience Necessary, we have a few club training sessions and have lots of coaches to learn from. Giving back to our game and developing the next generation is a great experience.
June 2018 Hired Johnston Architects LLC to develop a new master plan for our Facility
September 2018 All Club Meeting to provide input to the Architects on club wants/needs
October 2018 Developing Fundraising Plan, Developing our Phasing of the project to upgrade and layout the site based on our master plan and direction from members at the Sept. All Club Meeting.
November 2018 Hired PARC Resources to do some preliminary assessments on Fund Development via Grant Writing. Is there money out there for 501c3 Non-Profits like us? Stan Foster & Bob Irvine with PARC is going to look into this for us, and report back. more soon.

Q&A
Q: Who is making these decisions for the club? A: We have a Committee and Board who have been collaborating and meeting on a regular basis for our club planning and development, and have 19 members who consist of Mini's, Youth, Men, Women & Alumni.

Q: What is our primary focus on this development? A: Our focus will be on ensuring we have a level and improved entry to the facility, improved parking area, improved playing surface along with increased security and acoustics to buffer/ lesson noise for our neighborhood.

Q: What about the barn? A: We are currently assessing the viability of refurbishing and bringing up to code the barn for our use. It appears based on the Architects initial estimate and based on several conversations with Engineers that it might be cost prohibitive to bring up to code, and might make more sense to just build a new building or structure between our two main fields for better viewing. More on this as we learn more along this journey.

Q: How much will all this cost? A: It will ultimately depend on what we do with the barn or build a new structure. Best guess is close to 3 million for the whole project and at present we are positive about $650,000 of this total which includes property, commitment to leveling the fields, some engineering services and cash raised.

Q: If we decide to build a new structure, and redevelop the 3 fields where will this money come from? A: We are in the process of starting a Capital Campaign to raise the necessary funds, these gifts will need to come from Membership, Grants & Commercial Sponsorship from our greater community and will be communicating more as we move forward during this process. We will know more about Grants and funding opportunities for us when we receive our report back from PARC Resources.

Q: What are we looking to have in the barn or new structure? A: Based on member feedback, priority is given to Bathrooms, Club Room, Changing Rooms, Kitchen/ Concessions Area, Sponsorship Fence, Score Boards

*** 2019 Youth Registration will be open on our club website by December 1st 2018 ***

As always, thank you for reading and if you have any questions or if you are keen to be involved in some way please let me know or just give a call to discuss.

Respectfully, Craig Brown. 360.393.1174