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Dear Parents, Coaches, Officials and Players Welcome to a New Year and a New Chairman! I trust you all had a wonderful festive season, and that your appetite for the second half of our season is suitably healthy. I have only been at the Club a relatively short time, but I have seen enough to know that this is a very special Club, with very special people involved at all levels. Taking over as Chairman of such an organisation, is quite a daunting experience, especially when you consider that I am following Hugh Garway-Templeman. In the six or so months I have been acting as Vice Chairman, I have been able to see first hand the amount of work, enthusiasm and expertise that Hugh has devoted to the Club. He has built up the Club, together with the other prominent Club officials, to what it is today, and every one of us owes him a huge debt of gratitude. He leaves the Chairman position with the Club in as good a shape as it could possibly be, hopefully with the satisfaction of a job well done, and certainly with our sincere thanks. Thankfully he is still around coaching the U12 side, so I will no doubt be using his knowledge in the future. Hugh: on behalf of EVERYONE at Valley Fort RFC… Thank You. You are a legend. I also want to pay tribute to the (largely unseen) work of the Club’s volunteers. The Club cannot exist without this help, and the people involved in the Club hierarchy do so in such a selfless way. However, it is necessary to get more people involved. Most of the volunteers have been responsible for the work over a long period of time, and some no longer have their children at the Fort – so do not necessarily have to be there. I will be actively seeking new volunteers to take up these positions in the course of the second half of the season, and it is imperative for the security of the Club, that we can have more and more people putting something back into the Club. This will be my first big job, and I will be issuing more details very soon. On the playing side, the talent at this Club is quite staggering. We continue to be well represented in the Hong Kong representative sides, and in December 2006, our U18s won the prestigious 7s tournament at the Hong Kong Stadium. On our recent tour in Singapore we won 2 age groups trophies. At mini festivals we continue – at all age groups – to be extremely competitive and successful, and when we see the intake for the younger age groups (almost 60 in some age groups), the future looks bright indeed. To this end, I would like to take this opportunity to state my pledge to all players, coaches and parents that I want to develop and nurture the talent at the Club as much as possible. We are a serious rugby club, and I believe firmly that it is possible – and we are duty bound – to provide the best possible playing environment for our children, develop the talent, and simultaneously instilling in the kids the importance of sportsmanship. This includes teaching them the skills on how to become better players, and to build better teams – and I will personally oversee that this is achieved. But more importantly, I believe that we must teach our children the true values inherent within rugby, and sport in general. Fostering an ethos of “Competitive but Sporting” and respect for opponents and officials, is the Valley Fort way, and I want every stakeholder in the Club to understand that this will be the mantra that I intend to uphold. Our partnership/union with Valley RFC continues to go from strength to strength, and I would like to state my commitment to enhance this partnership to get more mutual benefits for both parties. We have seen over the last few years, how beneficial this partnership has been for Valley RFC and ourselves. We are now seeing some of our talented individuals breaking into the Valley teams, and our children are benefiting from professional coaching and association with Valley. The vision of the previous incumbents is paying huge dividends. Finally, I believe that this is a Club that offers tremendous accessibility, value for money and convenience for all players and parents. This is achieved whilst still maintaining the Club on a very sound financial footing. I will continue to ensure that these aspects of the Club remain, and at the same time I will still look to move the Club forward as appropriate. I look forward to serving you all to the best of my ability. May I also take this opportunity to wish you and your families all the very best for 2007 – a rugby world cup year! Carl Redman
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