Notes from Marilyn Smith, Chair of Membership Committee (Memcom)
MemCom has been set up as a committee of the Middlesex Board to focus on issues with and for the membership of Middlesex. This is a committee of members of the Board and officers, and supplemented with focus groups of members of the club to discuss specific issues. The committee meet regularly over the year, and hope to be able to meet members in focus group all year round, depending on the Covid Roadmap.
This is the second of a series of regular updates on the activities of MemCom.
The February 2021 meeting of MemCom discussed all the feedback from the last focus group, and the membership team are going to take on board as many of the ideas as is practicable.
At this meeting a membership survey was discussed. Middlesex want to provide the best experience that we can for the membership, but we are doing this without detail of the background and diversity of members. It was decided to send out a survey to members to find out more information of who our membership is. Then in future we will have a base of information to target events to. This survey is very much an initial fact finding mission, and then will be followed up with future surveys with much more of a question why and what? For instance, why don’t you attend more out-ground matches? What would make your match day experience more enjoyable etc?
In response to members' feedback in the last focus group, the Club launched a new channel of email communications for its Junior and Teen members, TEAMTALK, a more player focussed, fun and engaging email communications channel for the Club's younger cricket lovers. Early feedback from the new emails was extremely encouraging, and the new emails were well received by the Club's young members. The launch email offered an invitation to an exclusive online Q&A event launched with the players, with over 100 Junior and Teen members joining the call to have their questions answered by Steven Finn, Naomi Dattani, Tom Helm and Max Holden. Further work will be done over the summer on what additional benefits can be introduced for junior and young adult members, so that all members of Middlesex can be involved in the club.
In our March 2021 meeting we discussed potential scenarios for attendance over the summer. We are waiting for the latest Government guidance, and this uncertainty will continue as each step out of Covid is released. The membership team are working hard to maximise opportunities for members to attend outground and Lords matches, so everyone gets maximum possible benefit from membership. It has been announced that loyalty benefits/refunds will be given as a result of another disrupted season, with the specifics of what this entails being unveiled as the season unfolds and we understand more how members are affected in 2021.
The AGM has been scheduled for 24 May, and information on this will go out in the next mailing. The good news is that we may be able to allow a number of members to attend in person. It is difficult to plan for summer events at the moment, as there is so much uncertainty about when we can get out of the house, and how we will be able to mix. The Membership team continue to work hard towards involving more members as the roadmap out of Covid unwinds.
Over the summer there will be more focus groups with members, to get feedback on how we are doing, and what we can do in the future
If you want to be involved in any focus groups, please contact the membership team. If you have an ideas on what you would like discussed, or events that you would like to see, MemCom is a vehicle for you to do that. There will be regular feedback of MemCom meetings on Middlesex Matters, and there will also be regular requests for people to take part in focus groups
It's your club, and your chance to be involved. We're here for you, our members, so please get in contact if there is anything you wish to discuss.