Falcon Boat Club Facilities Commitee

As of Jan23, the Trustees have approved the creation of a Facilties Commitee with the goal of managing the site as a whole, including maintaining the site development plan, ensuring site (and especially building) maintenance and establishing policies and guidelines for use of the site.

The Facilities Commitee willl meet every 2 months, and issue minutes etc., posted on this this page.

Members Include (as of 10April23)

Nicholas Van Heer, Nick Kay, Dennis Stormont, John Hill, Jon Crooks, Collette Rhatigan, Lucy Ballard and David Salveson as Trustee Representative.

Feel free to approach a commitee member in case of need or complete this google form to submit a query/request. This email address should reach all commitee members.

Site Policies and Guidelines :

Facilities Commitee ToDo's

Site Maintenance - what do members need to do to "keep the place up" ?

Adornment of the Clubhouse - ideas for filling the empty spaces with beautiful things.

Clubhouse operating manual - how do we turn the external lights on ?

Minutes of Meetings

Jan23 : Introductory session, no minutes

25Apr23 : Draft minutes attached to this page.

29Sept : Draft minutes attached to this page.

Useful Information

Waste Removal Service

Waste collection is done by ODS as a commercial service - normally they collect the 4 wheelie bins every other week (odd week numbers in the calendar) on Tuesday (General Waste - Green wheelies) and Thursday mornings (Mixed recycing - Black wheelies) from Meadow Lane - the bins should be placed on the verge on the road side of the car park fence. Note that ODS charge a lot more per bin of general waste than they do per bin of recycling and do police the bin contents of the recycling wheelies, sometimes refusing to empty them if they have the wrong contents. 

The schedule for collection is presented in the clubhouse google calendar - its best to put the wheelies out on Monday evening of the correct week as the collections can be very early in the morning. If there is a need for a special collection you can email ODS on [tradewaste@odsgroup.co.uk] or better still, call them on 01865 335400 - please copy the club treasurer (Jeff Bethray) to ensure he is aware of the extra charges we will incur. Currently (2023-2024) the Rowing Womens Dev Squad are putting the wheelies out for the scheduled days (but NOT the special collections mentioned above), but its the expectation that all members keep this in mind when about the club and help out (ideally without being asked).

If you need to use the large blue&yellow M&M bin to hold the overflow bags please note that ODS WILL NOT empty the 4wheel bin - you need to move the bags into the normal wheelie bins when there is space in them . The key for the bins, if they are locked, is in the cupboard under the indoor stairs, on a hook just behind the door - big silver key with a triangular shaped keyhole. Please leave the 4wheel bin locked at all times otherwise people will drop waste in there unbagged and it's not easy to clear out, and leave it out of the way against the fence on the grass meadow out of reach of the gravel path.

Events Waste Plan

Due to the abnormal volume of waste generated on large events like the Asian Community Day, Falcon Hasler, Open Day etc, these events need to have someone assigned to manage waste proactivity (and not pass it over to the Facilities Commitee, that is not their role). This means making sure that all the wheelie bins are properly used, making sure that there are enough bins and bags distributed around the site so people don't drop waste on the ground, and that these are emptied regularly during the event. Post event responsibility is to make sure that ODS collect the waste promptly to avoid a hygiene hazard issue, which may require an special collection being booked (as noted above) and someone (not the Rowing WDS!) putting the wheelies out at the right time for that collection.

Currently FBC has about five 80L black plastic waste bins, usually stored out by the trailers on the grass meadow, that can be lined with waste bags and distributed around the site during events - if there are spare liner bags they are typically stored in the cupboard under the stairs but this stock is not maintained so worth checking ahead of time. If there are none or insufficient then order some from Amazon or similar, recommending 80L clear bags with draw strings, and ask Jeff Bethray to reimburse you on provision of the receipt - or ask Jeff to order some in. 

Suggestions on how to further optimise this are very welcome. One idea is to improve the labels of the wheelies (in progress as of 7may2024) and another is to put out coloured waste bins with transparent waste bags in them, similar to how the Cafe manages its waste from the Breakfast sessions.