Covid-19 – 2020 Match Fishing Proposal & Poll
To all members
Recommencement of match fishing on rivers
These are very challenging times for everyone and we all have to accept that life, as we once knew it, may never be the same again. Many experts believe the Coronavirus will be with us for a long time and the consensus is that unless we find an effective vaccine, this virus and the practice of social distancing could be with us for many years.
By now, you will all have heard that fishing has been allowed to resume subject to maintaining the 2-metre distance rules. Matches have restarted on many commercial fisheries and do date, they seem to be well attended and well organised. River matches are also being arranged by several clubs in the South West and no doubt throughout the rest of the country.
Our fishing club is predominantly a river fishing club and to all intents and purposes, its very existence is reliant on membership subs and income raised from match attendances. So, in effect, we exist as a club to organise and run matches for our members. We don’t have our own waters although membership does allow you to fish the river from Swineford to Jackie Whites.
However, I’m sure that without match fishing, our club will become non-existent, obsolete and pointless. So we have to do something in order to survive and continue to maintain membership levels and interest if we are to move forward. Like many other clubs in our situation, we have to adapt and make changes so that we can carry on with our matches in complete safety.
It must be stated that the health and safety of all our members is absolutely paramount and therefore I propose the following changes, which will allow us to run matches as safely as possible.
Handling money (notes), directly received from 10-20 anglers is not considered a safe option. It was suggested the cash be put into a polythene bag, sealed and left for a couple of weeks but if just one note was contaminated then you can assume all the money would be unsafe to handle. And who really wants to take home a bag of potentially contaminated banknotes? There has been no other suggestions.
Then there is the inconvenience of having to bank the money and make the payouts for the winners etc. We simply cannot take risks and we cannot expose our secretary, match secretaries or anyone else in the club to any type of risk whatsoever.
So, welcome to 21st-century technology gentlemen. I’m aware that not all members are tech savvy but trust me, technology is nothing to be afraid of. It simply exists to make life easier and more convenient for everyone. Now all members must surely have a credit or debit card and I’m sure everyone knows how to buy something using their card… right?
Like it or not cash and cheques are going to be a thing of the past, especially if this virus continues for months and years, so we have to adapt now. Please let me know if you don’t agree with this statement and tell me why.
Proposal
This is how I see our matches being run in future:
All members who want to fish a match must pre-book their place by either going to our website to confirm their booking on a form, (which I will create) or by phoning me. In both cases, they will need to have their credit or debit card to hand because they will need to make a “purchase”. This will simply be a way of reserving or booking a place for the next, forthcoming match or to pay membership fees.
To allow us to receive card payments for match bookings and payments for membership tabs, we have to do 2 things. (Naturally, I will set this up).
1. *Open a new community bank account or treasurer’s account. This can be with our current bank (Lloyds) or a different bank. These accounts can have up to 4 “signatories” although actual signatures are not required because no cheques will be involved. It will be for online banking only.
The sole purpose of this new account is for the financial running of match affairs only. All other club transactions can be by traditional methods if preferred.
2. Open a Square virtual terminal account to link to the new bank account. https://cutt.ly/1yVWQEo – (Square also offer the option of a card reader at just £18 to buy and 1.75% per transaction fee). A card reader might be a better option later, should the virus ever be fully contained and an effective vaccine becomes widely available.
Square charges a fee for processing virtual terminal payments, which is 2.5% per transaction.
This new bank setup will also allow us to transfer payments (for peg fees) to clubs from who we book waters and matches, such as Chippenham AC, Airsprung AC etc. All we need is their bank account number and sort code. This will eliminate the need to write and send cheques.
I also looked into a card payment processor called Clubmate (https://clubmate.fish), which is a similar processing facility that specialises in providing services for fishing clubs but it has way too many features for our small club. It would, however, be ideal for a club with 100 members or more.
*Our current banking system does not allow for online banking, as such, hence the reason for a new account. Plus, I am willing to show anyone how to do all the processing so they can take over the operation if they want to, at any time.
Running matches
Paul Wyatt and Jason Pitman are the new joint match secretaries and as such, have agreed to take full responsibility for all the weighing and the recording of results. To aid them, we will purchase and adapt a cradle to support the weigh net (see it here: https://cutt.ly/YyVgIBB) We can also supply them with hand sanitiser and facemasks.
So here is a rundown of how I think it will all work:
1. Any member who wants to fish the next match will pre-book online or over the phone and pay their pools and entrance fees plus there will be a small surcharge of £1 to cover additional expenses. (Processing fees etc). We could still run the football card fund-raiser by adding a further £1 to the “purchase”. This would obviously be optional.
2. Everyone who has completed their booking and paid their fees will then meet at the venue on the date of the match, just as before, but will adhere to the 2-metre social distancing rule.
3. Paul and Jason will have 2 containers. One will contain the names of all the competitors and the other will contain all the peg numbers. One peg number will be drawn first by one of the match secretaries and then a name will be drawn from the other container by the other match secretary.
4. Each competitor will then go to their allotted peg, maintaining social distancing. Members will not be permitted to aid other members by carrying tackle or passing items over gates or fences etc.
5. The actual match will be fished as normal, commencing with and ending with a whistle. Members must remain at their pegs at all times and wait for the match secretaries to come and weigh their catch.
6. When the match secretaries arrive at the member’s peg, they will place the weigh net over the cradle and step at least 2 metres away. The contestant will then pull up their keepnet and tip their catch into the open weigh net.
7. The contestant will then step back at least 2 metres and allow one match secretary to put the weigh net onto the scales, whilst the other match secretary records the weight. This procedure will be carried out for each contestant.
8. After the match, everyone may congregate at an agreed location whilst the results are worked out, again maintaining the 2-metre distance rule. After the results have been announced everyone will disperse.
9. Any winnings will be forwarded to the recipient’s bank account or card. I will do this. I only need your bank details (account number and sort code, which is already on your bank card, cheques etc.).
10. All results will be confirmed on the club website.
If this is to work then all members will need to agree to these new match rules and procedures, which I think we can put in place for the Staverton match in July.
So, here are the summary options, which I would like everyone to vote on by using the form below.
1. We run all matches according to my proposal as outlined above.
2. We run all matches by some other means. (Please make your suggestion on the form below)
3. We do nothing.
Thank you for taking the time to read this important proposal. I welcome any comments as long as they are constructive and valuable. It’s no use just saying, “I don’t go along with that” unless you have a better idea or some other suggestion that will work. Thank you!
Remember: No matches… no club!