As you will have seen, due to the Coronavirus outbreak the Club has announced a 4 week closure – it is likely that this will be the minimum closure period and a longer closure gets more likely every day.
Update 22/04/2020: The Club remains closed in line with government restrictions. We have now received a government grant and furloughed our staff – options that were not available at the time of our initial closure. Whilst we foresee significant future challenges to our revenue we are confident we can survive into the early part of 2021 if we have to remain closed and have therefore reduced our fundraising target from £25,000 to £12,500, which has now been exceeded. We are still extremely grateful for any support you can offer.
Our income, before we announced the temporary closure, had already taken a significant hit with the Big Rugby Day cancelled and a noticeable drop in income due to Six Nations matches being cancelled. This is usually a time of year that sets us up nicely for the Summer but at the present time RutsFest, our extremely popular annual summer music fayre, is on hold and of course the entire cricket season is at threat with the resultant loss of further bar revenue and memberships.
Old Ruts has been a key part of this community for many years and will remain so but right now we need your help to replace some of the income and ensure the Club can continue. Already, lots of members and local residents have asked if they can donate in any way.
We recognise that times will be tough for many of you but hope will support us if you can. Here are some of the ways you can do that:
- Donate via our GoFundMe campaign. We’re trying to raise £12,500 to protect us and our key staff over the coming months. It’s simply to donate and you can apply Gift Aid so the government will give us another 25% – watch out for the email after donating.
- Make a one-off donation to the ORA via WebCollect. Click on the Club Membership (ORA) tab and look for the Donations sub. You don’t need to be a member to donate.
- Become a Life Member – current life membership is £400 for the 1st Adult and £200 for the 2nd Adult – equivalent to 10 years membership at today’s prices! You can do this via WebCollect
- Renew your ORA Membership when the time comes. We know the Club is likely to be closed for a while but this is how we get a lot of our revenue. Membership is on a 365 day basis but most people are aligned to their primary sporting section renewals. You can do this via WebCollect.
- Become a Vice President – this is a donation scheme that allows you to donate a regular monthly amount and entitles you to 2 lunches a year to get together with fellow Old Rutlishians’. You can also do this by WebCollect
- Support Old Ruts when you shop on Amazon by making us your nominated charity
- Support Old Ruts when selling on Ebay! You can donate the proceeds from your sale to OLD RUTLISHIANS’ as your nominated charity when you list your item. Why not have a clear out of all those old toys and donate the proceeds to Old Ruts.