Dear fellow members
It's been 2 months since the Annual General Meeting. Thank you to members for your support in my re-election. I look forward to leading our Board of Management and achieving the very best for our great club.
Over the past few months, the board have been working on the Club Strategic Plan. In the coming 8-10 weeks, I will publish the updated Club Strategic Plan to members. As a prelude, we aspire to be "THE CLUB OF CHOICE".
At the conclusion of this year's AGM, we held an open forum for members to raise and discuss any issues or other general matters around the club. The board of management will continue this theme and hold this type of open forum on more occasions. These will be held after presentations and on different days to ensure as many members as possible are afforded the opportunity to participate. All board members will be in attendance.
Our chair of the Project Development sub-committee, Vice President Rob Olde, had previously updated members that a joint application with the City of Gosnells had been submitted to the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage (DPLH) to deal with our land title issues. We have not had a response. We are hopeful to hear from the DPLH early in the new year.
Our Grants & Government sub-committee chaired by non-executive board member Charlotte Hall have commenced work in garnishing support from government agencies. We have met with Golf WA to gather the statistical information to support the various grants we are seeking. We have also met again with the Mayor of the City of Gosnells, Terresa Lynes, and her executive. The city is very supportive of our vision and plans to improve our facilities. The next few months will be a very busy time for this sub-committee to compile the required resources to present to both the City of Gosnells and the Community Sporting and Recreation Facilities Fund (CSRFF). As part of this project, our Finance committee will model various scenarios based on high levels of grant funding and lower levels of grant funding. We will produce an information memorandum (IM) to present to these various agencies which spells out what we are doing and how much capital we are seeking from each department or agency.
Again, our vision is to raise capital funding across various agencies from local and state government to a very high level.
A few weeks ago, we held our inaugural Gala Night. Presentations on the night included.
- Recognising members attaining 20/25/30/35/40/45/50 and 55 years of service.
- Volunteer of the Year to Tom Arlidge, who also attained 50 years of service.
- Men's Club Champion, Andrew Woods
- Women's Club Champion, Sasha Hofman
- Senior Men's Club Champion, Craig Grant
- Senior Women's Club Champion Jaedo Jun
- Men's Foursomes Champions, Don McLean and Cian McGarvey
- Women's Foursomes Champions, Jorja Hinson-Tolchard and Sasha Hofman
- Order of Merit Winner, Don McLean and runner-up, Mark Halliday
- Life membership certificates to Allan Mackenzie, Sally Mackenzie and Lawrie Bennett
The final awards went to our inaugural inductees into the Club Hall of Fame. These were awarded to:
- Steve Richardson
- Peter Randall (posthumous)
- Greg Rowden
- Ros McIver
Our inductees made wonderful acknowledgements. The hospitality was first-class. Well done to Carlee and Gus. The food was excellent. I urge members to save the date for next year.
Finally, I would like to congratulate our General Manager, Fiza Errington for her outstanding results in her recent studies. Fiza has recently attained the global recognition of CCM (Certified Club Manager) with CMAA (Club Managers Association America). Fiza achieved the highest score in Australia, the first female in Australia and the first GM in WA. The graduation ceremony is in March 2024.
I would like to take the opportunity to wish all members and staff a safe and merry festive season. Travel safe and all the very best for the new year. See you around the club.
