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PRESIDENT'S REPORT
April
2009
Firstly, I must apologise for my lack of contributions to
this journal over the past few months. As so often is the case, good intentions
are swallowed up by the intervention of time constraints and I have been guilty
of not meeting recent journalistic deadlines. In any case, Claire's regular
reports have kept us well up to date with the goings on at Birrong and she
continues to perform an excellent job at a time when strong management and
direction are needed.
The Club industry as a whole has been under a variety of
threats and pressures over the past 2 to 3 years. Initially it was a
combination of the non-smoking legislation, high fuel prices, high mortgage
interest rates and all the spin offs from those measures that saw Club revenues
suffer. In more recent times, the industry has been under the pump from
zealous, agenda driven, low representative politicians, who armed with out of
date or fanciful statistics and narrow and blinkered social and moral cleansing
ideals, tainting Clubs as havens for alcohol dependant binge drinking problem
gamblers (never a mention of the Community and sport support programs).
Currently, it's the widespread effects of the Global Financial Crisis and a
recessionary economy, that is impacting on the viability of many businesses.
It is important that in times such are now challenging the
Club industry, good direction and management practices are implemented. I am
pleased to state that although this club has suffered a substantial reduction
in revenue over the first 10 months of this financial year, expenditure has been
very well contained and achieved without any diminishing of services or
facilities. Your Directors and Management pay careful attention to future strategic
planning concepts and are continually revising and updating the forward
planning programs, to help keep Birrong to the forefront of community and
sporting venues in the local area.
By now most of the members would be aware of our new
catering arrangement with the introduction of Giovanni's at Birrong. The transformation of the bistro into a
themed Italian ‘Ristorante', has been a great achievement and I urge all
members and guests to take the time to sample the wonderful food and ‘real'
coffee on offer. The wall murals are now complete and certainly add to the
experience.
It has been a busy time at the Club in recent weeks, with
the Easter weekend providing the opportunity for members, family and friends to
catch up over the extended break, culminating with a marvellous turnout of 84
mainly Birrong bowlers on Easter Monday for a mufti triples event. Anzac Day
followed soon after and once again gave us all the opportunity to reflect and
remember the sacrifices our service men and women made and are still making, in
over a century of armed conflicts, which has enabled ours and future
generations to live in the relative security and peace which we currently
enjoy. Lest we forget.
Pennants now has only four weeks or so to run and its been a
mixed year for most teams, all performing well at times but without maintaining
consistency. Good luck to the Grade 5's and 6 2's who are right in with a
chance to win their section and go on to the Zone playoffs.
To all our affiliated Codes, I hope that your respective
seasons are progressing well and hope to hear of plenty of wins over the next
few months. The Club Limited appreciates the continued support given to us by
our sporting club members and knows our association will continue and
strengthen to our mutual benefit in the future. Information and contact details
on any of the affiliated sporting codes is available at our reception desk.
Towards the end of this year Birrong will be hosting two
prestigious bowls events - the City Masters Singles and the Bowls part of the
World Masters Games. These events are both full week duration and should be a
fantastic opportunity for Birrong to once again showcase our facilities,
services and friendship in the way we have become renowned for.
In closing, I would again like to thank all of our sponsors,
large and small, for their continued support of the Club and I urge all members
to support those various businesses whenever the need arises. The list of
current sponsors is noted elsewhere in this Newsletter.
Stay well and continue to support your Club.
Steve McLaren
President
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