News

Club News, Newsletter

Newsletter #2 May 21

Survey – Club Vision – Call for Volunteers

Dear Members,
please check your email (and spam folder) for this newsletter including links to the Survey, Vision and Roadmap (as mentioned below) and/or contact [email protected] for any questions and feedback!

As promised last week, we have more updates on the club’s direction and a survey asking for your input.

Survey

With the monumental changes of the past year, and the possibility of different demands from our fencers, we would be very grateful for your input via our Survey.

After more than a year without club fencing sessions for our adult fencers, and only very limited sessions for our U18s, we are eager to ensure we make the best possible decisions and  get everyone back to enjoying club activities safely as soon as possible.

Vision & Roadmap

Hand in hand with the Survey, the EFC Committee and Coaches are happy to present their Vision for the future of the club for discussion and approval at the AGM in June. The Vision is quite broad,  but we are also hosting a live Q&A on Zoom in the coming weeks to enable a more in depth discussion ahead of the AGM.

In the interests of transparency, we are also publishing our draft Roadmap for the Club.  This is to give members a sense of what committee will be working on in the coming months.

Call for Volunteers

As EFC embarks on an exciting new chapter, and we approach an AGM, we would encourage anyone with skills and experience in the following areas to contact the committee to volunteer or to consider running for club office at the AGM:

  • Finances
  • Legal advice
  • Grant application
  • Fundraising
  • Competition organisation
  • Communications and Social Media
  • Club kit maintenance

The continued success of EFC relies entirely on the benevolence of volunteers and we are grateful for any contribution.

Looking ahead to next week, we will be annoucing the AGM Date and publishing the New Constitution & past accounts. For now though, we wish you all a great week and happy surveying!

Best Wishes,
The EFC Committee

Club News, Newsletter

Newsletter May 2021

Vision 2021 – Salle Project & Survey – AGM

Dear Members,
With lockdown restrictions beginning to lift and the weather (hopefully) improving, EFC has a few exciting announcements to make!

Same Club – New Setup

Throughout the lockdown, EFC Committee and Coaches have been working on a set of reforms to the club, including a new constitution, vision statement and developing a set of fencing skill pathways.
Through these we will improve our transparency, organisation, and be more responsive to the needs of individual fencers. More details will follow over the coming weeks.

New Salle

We have also been looking into getting a dedicated fencing hall, available to the club around the clock. A venue exclusive to the club would allow us to offer consistent and expanded classes and coaching opportunities, and provide a whole range of new facilities to members.
We will be publishing a survey to gather more information about what members would like to see in a dedicated club hall in the coming week, so keep an eye on your inbox.

AGM

Long delayed by the pandemic, we are planning to have a club Annual General Meeting via Zoom in the near future. In advance of this we will present to members:

  • the new Club Mission Statement & Vision
  • a proposed new Constitution
  • the past year’s Accounts and next year’s proposed Budget
  • a live Q&A with committee and coaches to answer questions about the above

Full details of the AGM, agenda and voting rights will follow next week, but we will naturally provide at least 2 weeks’ notice of the Meeting and present all documents and proposals in a timely fashion.

In the meantime if you have any questions at all, please email [email protected]

The EFC Committee

Club News

U18 Fencing resumes this week

Please check your emails – and the spam folder, just in case – for information about resuming U18 fencing at St. Thomas’s this week, Wednesday, 28th and Thursday, 29th April. All fencers need to pre-book their sessions to be allowed back into the hall.

Coaches Don and Naomi welcome you back on Wednesday, 28th for a cadet class with a warm-up and footwork followed by foil and sabre training and finished off with some fencing to practise. Thursday, 29th is an open session for electric fencing for those fencers with their own full kit, supervised by coach Andy.

The following sessions thereafter:

  • Tuesday 4th May U18 Open Session
    Wednesday 5th May Foil & Sabre Cadet Classes
  • Tuesday 11th May U18 Open Session
    Wednesday 12th May Foil & Sabre Cadet Classes

– Three week break from Fencing, due to the gym hall not being available –

  • Tuesday 8th June U18 Open Session
    Wednesday 9th June Foil & Sabre Cadet Classes
  • Tuesday 15th June U18 Open Session
    Wednesday 16th June Foil & Sabre Cadet Classes
  • Tuesday 22nd June U18 Open Session
    Wednesday 23rd June Foil & Sabre Cadet Classes
  • Tuesday 29th June U18 Open Session
    Wednesday 30th June Foil & Sabre Cadet Classes

Details about booking and payment were sent via email, please check your inboxes (and your spam folder, just in case), or get in touch with [email protected]

Club News, Training

Update – U18 Fencing Sessions resume 28th April 2021

UPDATE FROM EDINBURGH LEISURE REGARDING U18 RESTART

Unfortunately we have just received word from Edinburgh Leisure that Hall availability at St Thomas’ will be affected by the Formal Assessments and Exams taking place over the next few months. Therefore the start date for our return to fencing for U18’s has had to be amended.

Please be aware that our first session back will now be the Cadet Foil and Sabre Class at 18:15-19:45, on be Wednesday 28th April, and the U18 Open Session originally scheduled for Tuesday 27th, will now be happening on Thursday 29th April at 19:30-21:00.

There will also be further interruption meaning the 10 week period between 28th April and 30 June will have a three week break to accommodate Final Exams. Therefore sessions will now only run on the following dates,

  • Wednesday 28th April Foil & Sabre Cadet Classes
    Thursday 29th April U18 Open Session
  • Tuesday 4th May U18 Open Session
    Wednesday 5th May Foil & Sabre Cadet Classes
  • Tuesday 11th May U18 Open Session
    Wednesday 12th May Foil & Sabre Cadet Classes

– Three week break from Fencing –

  • Tuesday 8th June U18 Open Session
    Wednesday 9th June Foil & Sabre Cadet Classes
  • Tuesday 15th June U18 Open Session
    Wednesday 16th June Foil & Sabre Cadet Classes
  • Tuesday 22nd June U18 Open Session
    Wednesday 23rd June Foil & Sabre Cadet Classes
  • Tuesday 29th June U18 Open Session
    Wednesday 30th June Foil & Sabre Cadet Classes

Details about booking and payment were sent via email, please check your inboxes, or get in touch with [email protected]

We are hoping for the restrictions to ease further over the coming weeks. Once Edinburgh reaches Level 0 – hopefully in June – we can invite our much missed 18+ fencers back into the hall too!

Club Dates, Club News

EFC U18 Fencing resumes

Limited U18 Weekly Sessions Resuming 27th and 28 April!

Preparations are well underway for getting our U18 Fencers back at St Thomas’ from Tuesday 27th April. We are also very optimistic that Edinburgh will move to Level 0 before too long, and we will be able to welcome back our much missed 18+ fencers… so please keep a watch on your email inbox and EFC’s Facebook page for updates!

For our U18’s we will initially be reopening for just two sessions weekly Tuesday U18 Open Session for experienced electric fencers and our Wednesday Cadet Foil and Cadet Sabre Classes with Coaches Don and Naomi, for our new and developing fencers. The format of each session will be similar to those we ran in November and December last year. All fencers must hold a valid British Fencing Membership, book their place at a session in advance, ensure they have all the necessary kit (either personally owned or via the new EFC Kit Deposit Scheme) and adhere to our COVID rules including wearing a mask in communal areas.

All EFC U18 fencers and parents, please check you email inbox for more details on how to book and pay for the first ten weeks of fencing between end of April and the end of term. Or get in touch via [email protected]

Club News, Scottish Fencing News

Scottish Fencing elections: register to vote by 22 February

While fencing itself may be on hold at the moment while we’re in lockdown, the Scottish Fencing elections are being held at the start of March. This is your chance to have your say about the direction of our sport over the next four years, so we’d encourage you to make sure that you’re eligible to vote. This is especially important giving the current challenges that our sport is facing as a result of the pandemic. 

To be eligible to vote, you must be aged 16+ and a member of Scottish Fencing on Monday 22 February (excludes members on the free introduction to fencing tier). For fencers aged under 16, there is unfortunately no transferable vote that can be used by someone over 16 in your household – but parents and carers can still have their say by signing up for a Supporter membership. 

Even if you know you are a current member, please take a moment to login to Sport80 and check that your registered email address is one you currently use and that you are receiving emails from Scottish Fencing (if not, add [email protected] to your safe senders list). 

As a club, we’re endorsing Stan Stoodley in his bid to become President. Not only is Stan one of our coaches, he’s also coached with Scottish Fencing on the Pathways Squad and at the Junior and Cadet Commonwealths, delivered Scotland Fencing’s innovative coach education programme and been a part of Project Forte, a Changing Lives Through Sport initiative. Stan has recently completed a qualification from the FIE in foil coaching and gained a Certificate in Psychology for High Performance Sports from the Barca Innovation Hub.

We believe that Stan’s values-led approach, deep knowledge of effective leadership and organisational culture, commitment to diversity and understanding of the issues facing fencers and fencing in Scotland will benefit all current and future members of our sport. Read more in Stan’s statement here: https://bit.ly/3sdnMu4 (pdf). 

Don’t forget: you need to be a member of Scottish Fencing by Monday 22nd to vote! Sign up here: https://www.britishfencing.com/become-a-member/ 

Club News

Wishing You a Happy 2021!

Dear EFC Fencers

As we move ever closer to 2021 thoughts are filled with hope and optimism for better times to come.

Although 2021 will begin in Lockdown the continued roll out of the vaccine gives us all hope that there will be better times ahead. Things may not be quite what they were pre Covid, but we are ever optimistic that soon we will be able to welcome you all back to fencing with us again.

It was so great to have some of our U18 members back at the club enjoying four weeks of Tuesday Open Sessions and Wednesday Cadet Classes before the Christmas Break, and we anticipate that these sessions will resume again in early February. With all being well but of course subject to Government and Sport Governing Body regulations, we look forward to the time when we can also welcome back adults to indoor contact sport… hopefully not too long after!

To cope with the new rules and regulations a lot of very hard work has gone on behind the scenes and inevitably there have been some changes to the way we now operate. For NHS T&P purposes all sessions must be booked in advance and a Health Declaration made, due to social distancing our session numbers and room capacity has been limited, and with greater emphasis being put on the health and safety of using shared equipment the rules surrounding the need to own your own kit have tightened. To assist with this in particular we have introduced a Kit Deposit Scheme to enable those who haven’t yet acquired their own kit to still be able to participate safely. Further details including our ‘Fencer Guidance’ document can be found on the Covid-19 Info page of our new look EFC website. Links to the booking system and Kit Deposit Scheme will be emailed out when we have confirmed restart dates for next year.

Thank you for all the kind words and good wishes over the last few difficult months… You have all been missed, and our coaches and volunteers are desperate to have you all back fencing again! Sincere wishes to you all for a very Happy and Healthy 2021.

Kind regards,
The Committee
Edinburgh Fencing Club

Club Dates

Christmas Closure

We wish all EFC fencers and their families a happy Christmas and all the best for the new year. Stay well and active.

We had planned to re-start fencing for our U18 fencers in the new year on the 19th of January – once the prelims annually sit in the gym hall have finished. But with all parts of Scottish Mainland being put into tier 4 from 26th December, and therefore indoor sports being prohibited, we don’t yet know when we will be able to fence again. We will keep you updated via our website, Facebook and emails.