February 2010 President's newsletter
Australia Day celebrations are over for another year. There was a good rollup of members and guests for the day with the golfers struggling around 27 holes in their championship whilst the competition was a little less fierce as the “Shirts v Skirts” annual bowls event took place. The barbecue supplied food to the assembled group and I would like to thank the volunteers (“Macca”, Phil, Tom and Peter) who helped cook and supply these delicacies.
The New Years Eve celebrations were also well attended with a most appreciative group consuming the six course meal prepared by our chef Craig.
On a more serious note we were unfortunate to have one of our regular golfers and course ranger, Ray Harris, suffer a heart attack on the golf course. The good news is that there were a number of competent people around and they commenced CPR immediately. The ambulance staff that attended shortly afterwards said that this immediate attention was the only reason Ray had survived and I would like to thank Mark Hehir and Bob Staer for their quick response. I would recommend all to attend training in CPR as it is most valuable and you never know when you are likely to have to use it.
If you have been in the club recently you will have observed a lack of televisions around the bar area. Unfortunately a virus is reported to have been sent by one of the TV stations resulting in shutdowns of certain brands of TVs. We are in talks with the suppliers to rectify this problem.
The club has previously supported Sailability TCB with a small donation towards their setup costs. This worthwhile organisation takes people with disabilities plus others on an adventure sailing around the waters of Tin Can Bay. They recently received a grant from the government to purchase their own boats, returning the borrowed ones they were using, but the grant only covered the purchase of the boats. As the boats were located in Victoria the cost of transporting them was beyond the organisations funding and our club has contributed part of the cost. Anyone who wishes to help out should contact Sailability TCB at the Yacht Club.
Trading. As is the case with most businesses in our area the clubs trading is still down on last years figures. It seems that although the large cities may have overcome the economic downturn of last year, with job numbers up, the rural areas are taking longer to recover. The Board is reviewing our spending and making cuts wherever necessary. One of the necessary reviews was the prices of our drinks. We absorbed the governments excise increase in August but another at the beginning of February plus the increase in freight costs and other costs have forced us to increase the cost of drinks. Hopefully members and guests can understand the causes of this change.
Sport. The end of January sees the start of the competitive
season for both golf and bowls.
The bowlers (men and women) will be competing on Saturday 30th January in the
“Super Challenge” with a home match against local neighbours Cooloola
Coast Bowls Club. This is only the first of a seven match series and we are
hoping for brilliant results and plenty of prize money.
The men’s golf pennant team commences their long ten week season by hosting all the opposition teams at our course on Sunday 31st January. After that they will be visiting the other teams’ courses during February, March and April. Best of luck, guys.
Developments. The eighteenth tee is coming along well according to the green keeper and should be able to be used towards the end of February. Other developments have been put on hold for the time being.
Staffing. Our apprentice, Brandon Robb, has recently completed his green keeping course and is a qualified green keeper. Brandon will be leaving us at the end of January and we wish him well in his new endeavours.
Promotions. The Sunday raffle dispersed $600 of IGA vouchers during the month to six lucky recipients ($100 of IGA vouchers each) and at the time of writing the jackpot was back up to $800 worth of IGA vouchers. So come along and see if you can be the lucky one to win all those vouchers.
For the romantics, St Valentines Day (Sunday 14th February) will see the chef conjuring up an enticing three course meal to enthral all. The cost per couple will be $69 with an enjoyable evening guaranteed for all who attend.
Thursday raffle attendees and others are about to be tempted by the chef preparing some bargain meals to be presented at the completion of the raffles at about 5.30pm. There will be three specials each Thursday night so why not attend the raffle and then take it easy by having your evening meal at the club restaurant “On the Greens”.
For those members and guests that enjoyed the trivia nights last year pencil
in Saturday 6th March for more fun and mayhem. This trivia night will follow
our usual format so get together a table of mental genius’s and book with
Leisa at reception for a great night out
See you at the T.C.B. Country Club.
Stephen Wallis.
President TCBCC.