Fellow Members,
It’s been several months since we formally communicated with you, but now that Victoria has the pandemic under control, and the State is opening up again, we need to update you with several things that have been happening around the Club during lockdown. Importantly, we all remain very positive about our Club’s future, and that we’ll continue on well beyond our current 138 years.
Bowling
We are finally able to start using the Club for practice, with the greens open from 9:00am-5:00pm Monday to Friday. BV have recently published the COVID guidelines that we still need to follow, in order to continue playing, and I ask that you read these carefully https://www.bowlsvic.org.au/2020/10/30/revised-restrictions-metro-melbourne-regional-victoria/ The staff of Resting Toucher are our ‘COVID Marshalls’ so please see them when you sign in at the shop before you start practicing, to ensure we are complying with all of the Government’s requirements. You can start practicing now !!
On the pennant front, its great news that Aaron Wilson will be returning to Brighton to become Director of Bowls. Apart from captaining our top side, Aaron will be the Club Coach and responsible for ensuring the smooth running of any bowls related activities. He is currently wrapping us his Sydney commitments and will be with us in about the 2nd week of December. In addition we’ve recruited several other players, including ex-member and experienced Premier League skipper Todd Shannon, who’ll be returning to the Club. We have entered two teams of 16 for both Saturday (Div 1 and Div 4) and Tuesday pennant (Div 1 and Div 3), so we hope that you’re all keen to play again.
The Saturday Pennant bowls season is scheduled to commence on November 28th, and with the Sections now reduced to 8 teams, it will become a 14 week season. BV have worked hard at improving the geography of the Sections so travel distances to games are expected to be less than last year. Tuesday Pennant is scheduled to start the following week.
We hope to have at least one external practice match organised for Saturday 21st November, however in the meantime, we’d like to hold an intraclub practice match on Saturday 14th November, with two mixed sides playing each other. We also have been asked to play against Mordialloc in a practice match on Tuesday 17th November. Could you please reply to this email with your availability for all of these practice matches by this Friday.
Club Championships
With all Club Championships needing to be completed by Christmas, we have a very short amount of time to complete them this year. Information about all these events is being placed on the noticeboard outside Resting Toucher from today, aalong with the conditions of play, and the tournaments will be run strictly on the dates and times shown. (i.e. If you cant make the date, you will need to forfeit the match etc.)
Club Administration
With the departure of Phil Kelly earlier this year, our ageing membership and a growing lack of volunteers, the Club has entered into a ‘Management Services Agreement’ with Castaway Bowls Pty Ltd, owners of the Resting Toucher. From 9th November they will undertake all of the administration of the Club (i.e. bowls and premises management) on a fee for service basis. Neil Jebb, supported by his team of Andy, Kelly and Nathan, will now be responsible for all of the tasks of our previous Manager. With a team of four people, we expect much better outcomes for our members under this model. This includes opening and closing the Club, managing our communications (whether that be via email, post or website), setting up the Dendy room for organisations hiring our premises, escorting visitors around the Club, premises maintenance, plant & equipment maintenance, cleaning, garden maintenance, and day to day trouble shooting for the Café, Bridge Club and Futsal. In addition, they will be responsible for managing the bar, functions and community events, barefoot and corporate bowls, tournaments and green hire.
Neil and his team are very keen to increase patronage at our Club, and ‘liven up’ the place, so they will be recommending lots of initiatives to the Board that they believe with help the Club reinstate itself as a great place to be around. We expect the Board to endorse many of these changes. As the saying goes ‘If you keep doing the same thing, you’ll keep getting the same result’ so if we want to attract more members, we need to start doing some things differently.
Whilst our initial Agreement with Castaway is only 12 months, we are confident that this new way of operating the Club will prove to be very popular for all parties concerned, and hence we expect to negotiate a longer term arrangement with them in the latter part of 2021.
Annual Membership Fees
We are pleased to advise that the Club has reduced the membership to $200 for the coming 12 months. John Rowell has been contacting members to provide the clubs bank details or discuss alternative payment arrangements. If you have not already done so, please pay your fees as soon as possible as the cash position of the Club has been significantly reduced during lockdown. The Clubs BSB is 633108, A/C No. 123591349.
Other General Information
- The eastern wall that suffered severe water damage has now been fully repaired and the Room is looking pristine.
- Lots of gardening has already been undertaken by Andy Alexandrou, with more happening this week to get the Club looking shipshape again. If you see Andy, please thank him for all of his hard work.
- Ann has continued to maintain the front garden which looks lovely, along with other changes which we expect will drive more public patronage of the café.
- The bowling club office is likely to move within the Resting Toucher (behind their customer counter).
- The electronic scoreboards are fully operational again.
- The perimeter lighting in the Blue Room has been repaired.
- The Club is actively seeking new tenants/licensees to occupy free space within the Club, and has some good opportunities in the pipeline.
- A new sponsorship program will commence throughout the early part of 2021.
- The Club is hoping to take on many of the ex-Southern Indoor competitions throughout the Winter.
- The sale of Southern Indoor ‘has been completed, and the Club expects to receive its dividend in late March / April 21.
- The Club also expects to continue hosting our renowned Winter tournaments – Grand Master, Classic Pairs, Classic Mixed Pairs, along with Qualifying for the Australian Indoor Bowls Championships.
- The Bridge Club expects to re-commence their business soon
- Futsal have already re-commenced their business.
The Board is confident that our new operating model will (1) provide members with a better Club experience, (2) help us remain competitive on the green, and (3) ensure we’re able to attract many new members to our Club in the future. This is all about ‘Refreshing Brighton Bowling Club’.
I trust we can rely on your continued support, and look forward to seeing you at the Club as soon as you can make it back.
Kevin Pattison
On behalf of BBSCI Board
(p.s. If you know anyone who cant access this information by email, please do your best to inform them about what’s going on)
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