Hi Bowlers, as you may or may not know we have had a changing of the guard at our fabulous club…

I, David Streefkerk, have been appointed Bowls Club President, replacing the fabulous Karina Van Weel. I want to thank Karina for her tireless work and amazing commitment to our club.

Andrea Streefkerk takes over from Steve Butler as Secretary and she hopes to be able to fill some very big boots. Thanks to Steve for everything he did last year above and beyond the “call of duty”.

Eddie Best takes over from Catherine Holden as Vice President, and Gary Bell remains Treasurer. Thanks to Catherine for all her efforts and to Gary for his ongoing commitment.

The rest of the new committee consists of:

Geoff Finnigan, Denise Fontana, Tony McCombe, JoAnn Pacholli and David Sutherland.

As you can see we have a great mix of old and new committee members and I think we are in good shape. Thanks so much to the outgoing members of last years committee, Karen Barnett and Darren Cameron,  for their efforts and support of the club, great job! Thanks must also go to the new committee for standing up and putting in. That’s, I think we all agree, what we need more of around the club!

We also have a new selection committee consisting of;

Geoff Finnigan, Andrew Heeps and David Loosmore.

I’m sure they will welcome your input to the process greatly so don’t be shy. Thanks to Rod Morgan, Nicole O’Conner and David Loosmore for their efforts as selectors last year.

Thank you to all the members who attended the Bowls Club AGM and who took the time to make a proxy vote. Your votes really did count and I urge all members to attend in the future. If you don’t attend you can’t have your say! On that note we had a few things to decide on at the meeting and they are as follows.

1. Minutes of the last meeting were confirmed.

2. No other nominations were received for Vice President, so Eddie is the man!!

3. Committee member  numbers were decided on at 9.

4. We determined that we should field 5 pennant sides for 2011/12

5. A motion for the introduction of black shorts/pants as part of our uniform was introduced and passed with the amendment of making it optional(white or black) This will obviously await the approval of Bowls Victoria.

6. In the interests of fairness a motion a was introduced for the attending members to vote as to whether Steven Mooney’s nomination for selection was to stand and was voted as “No”.

7. As such the number of selectors for 2011/12 was voted to be 3 and we held an election from the 4 nominations of Robert Briglia, David Loosmore, Andy Heeps and Geoff Finnigan. You know the outcome, but I assure you it was tight and every vote counted, so we need to have more members attend in the future.

The committee is meeting this week and as such more info on what is happening to and around the club will follow very soon. Feel free to contact me or any committee members via email if you have any issues you wish to raise. That’s what we are here for, to be your voice!

Lastly, we have the Sports Club AGM coming up next week and I urge ALL members to either attend or arrange your Proxy and Postal Votes. They count and are needed, so get onto it NOW!!! As there were two nominations for the positions of Chairperson an election is required. David Sutherland and Bill Walsh will stand for this position. The election will be held between the hours of 4.00 pm and 6.00 pm on Friday 20th May, and between 12.00 noon and 6.00 pm on Saturday 21st May, at the Club. Get down and vote or arrange your postal vote! We need our voice to be heard on the board and I cannot urge you enough to vote on what is such an important position, so get yourselves organised and make it count! YOUR CLUB NEEDS YOU!!!!

Proxy and Postal Vote forms can be obtained through Craig Fox by writing to,  secretary@stkildasportsclub.com.au

Nicole O’Conner will stand unopposed as our Representative on the board. I want to thank Nicole immensely for putting her hand up once again and we look forward to working closely with her for the betterment of the Bowls section.

I’ll leave you with this quote from Henry Ford, “DON’T FIND FAULT, FIND A REMEDY!”

Cheers,

David Streefkerk, President St.Kilda Bowls Club