The year ended 31 August 2010 was another difficult year for the Gibraltar Squash Association in terms of finances. Despite efforts to keep expenditure as low as possible in order that 2010 could have been a recovery year after the losses of 2009, the accounts continue to reflect a loss.

Subscription income decreased substantially as a result of membership reaching low levels of around 200 members at the start of the financial year. The Committee associated this initial loss of membership to other gymnasium facilities which the Association is currently competing against. However, on a more positive note the situation started to take a turn for the better part way through the year as membership started to increase and we have now reached the 300 membership figure at the year end which has helped us almost catch up with 2009’s turnover figure. The Committee is hopeful that throughout the 2011 year we will be able to sustain the membership levels at around 300 members (at least) and with the new proposals being tabled the Association may turn its results around by increasing its turnover whilst still remaining very competitive.

It should be noted that a large portion of the loss recorded in 2010 was due to major works being completed at the back of Courts 3 and 4 where there was a large issue with water penetration. This project was successfully completed at the cost of £11,000 which is reflected under “repairs and maintenance”.

Whilst on the matter of expenses, the decision was made in 2010 to purchase a defibrillator for the Club and a group of members are now qualified to use the equipment. This came at a cost of £1,500 as is reflected under “Equipment”. It was also agreed by the Committee that we should pay the World Squash Federation our outstanding fees for three years in order to maintain our membership status. This came at the expense of £1,440 but it was felt that being a member of the organization is a privilege we should maintain as many other sports in Gibraltar are struggling to obtain recognition which we are lucky to have. Ongoing yearly fees should be around £350 per annum.

Other minor expense increases during the year relate to a slight increase in advertising for the Open Day. Also, audit fees are now at £750 which meant we had an under accrued figure in 2009 carried in this years expenses. The Committee placed a large effort in promoting the Social aspect of our Club and remains committed to this cause, therefore you will appreciate an increase in Xmas party expenses. License fees have increased due to planning application fees which will be apparent from Motion 4.

Cash flow remains an issue for the Club as you may appreciate from our Balance Sheet. The past few years has seen an increase in expenditure, particularly since the Club premises is nearly two decades old and has required maintenance over the past years. Unfortunately, this has been eating up our reserves. We believe the main issues have been tackled over the past few years and we are hopeful that no major expenditure will be required in the next twelve months which should in turn be reflected in our cash situation stabilizing as the worst of the storm should now be over. From the Balance Sheet you will be able to see that we owe very little in terms of creditors so even though our cash position has reduced and our balance sheet is not as healthy as it has been in the past we still have a reasonably healthy balance sheet which we simply need to try and build on for the future which we hope remains exciting to all.