NEWSLETTER December 2012 Golf Club Whangaparaoa WHALEWATCH NEWSLETTER February 2013

A gift to our Club from a very extraordinary Member. Neil Harton, the day after his 96th (!) birthday presented this painting to our Club. Neil is still an active club member, regularly playing 18 holes although he has recently condescended to using a golf buggy on occasions. He is holding a painting he finished on his recent birthday, of our clubhouse and course. This painting now hangs in the golf shop, along with another original painting of the clubhouse donated by Ian Mackness. We are grateful to these 2 talented club members.

Your new Management committee was named in the December Whalewatch but here are the names of those filling all the committee positions. Finance Committee - Geoff Grimwood (Treasurer), Gerald Burnett, Dave Jordan, Rick Bardsley and Elaine Jordan. Match Committee - Dave Jordan, Barbara Lereculey, Shirley Segetin, Bill Joy, Jacqui Davrill and Craig Macdonald (Junior Convenor). House Committee - Kevin Bradford, Margaret Heath and Rick Bardsley. Grounds Committee – Blair Pearson (Convenor), Sandy Pigott, Gerald Burnett, Geoff Grimwood, Ken Bishop and Gary Mitchell. Marketing Committee – Ken Bishop (Chairman), Heather Jackson, Bill Anderson, Pearce Bresnehan, Marilyn Bresnehan and Greg Douglas. Whalewatch Editor - Bill Anderson Ph or

TREASURER’S REPORT - JANUARY 2013 Hello everyone. I am Geoff Grimwood, your new Treasurer. My financial experience has been gained over many years, handling money through a wide variety of jobs, including being self employed for a large part of my life. Elaine Jordan will remain as our “honorary” accountant as she has put a lot of time and effort into her role as treasurer /accountant, streamlining the financial records of the club. The club owes her a great debt as she has also created Excel spreadsheets which will expand in data over the next few trading months to provide us with a picture as to how the club is operating financially. One of our problems has been the big spikes in income, i.e. membership fees, as these have to be spread over the entire financial year to get a clearer picture as to where the club is heading. Elaine has also switched the club over onto the Xero accounting system which allows us to operate the program from any remote location without holding up and getting in the way of staff in the office. Membership fees for 2013 / Full paying 18 hole membership $ (prepaid.) If paying monthly a $ administrative charge on top of the $ Full paying 9 hole membership. $ (prepaid.) If paying monthly a $ administrative charge on top of the $ All other membership categories will remain the same. The admin. charge is to offset what the club pays in bank interest charges and administrative costs over the year. How are we doing at the moment Green fees. Always of interest! Dec $ , Jan $ , YTD $ 51, Carts Dec 2012 – $ , Jan 2013 – $ , YTD $ profit. The carts are showing a good return to date, but this is our busy season and hopefully the profits will cover the leasing costs for the whole year as we go through the upcoming winter period.

Financial Position cont. Shop. The shop is going well and YTD sales show $ profit. (includes the coffee machine, soft drinks and golf accessories). Buying your golf needs through the shop when possible helps to keep our subs low! Bill Joy, who looks after the shop purchases, does get asked for all sorts of bits and pieces, but is conscious that we must be careful to minimize slow moving stock sitting on shelves. The approach we are taking is, we try to please our members most of the time but cannot please everyone all the time. Thank you for your understanding. House sale. Still not through, as we are still waiting for the council to issue the land title. The owners are paying rental until that happens, which was supposed to take about 6 weeks. The proceeds from the sale of the house will wipe out our overdraft and provide us with funds to invest. The interest from these funds combined with the two rentals from the phone companies, could well be our initial affordable annual working capital for the club. Once the club knows what income is available from all sources, it will have a planned expenditure budget for each year. The club mortgage. By March 2013 we will have 5 years to run from an initial 15yr term. It reduced by $32,400 last year and as at the 31 st Aug 2012 it was $236,068. The good news is we are now starting to pay off a high percentage of principal. The management team are looking carefully at how to use our resources to strengthen our club to ensure that our subs remain competitive. Marketing Team. The Marketing team under the capable leadership of Ken Bishop, has done a great job attracting 91 new members to our ranks.. The members welcome you all and hope that you get as much enjoyment from the fellowship and golfing experience as we do. Summary The club has a lot of future expenditure to deal with. Mower replacement is urgent, the clubhouse is due for re-staining, our car park is looking not the best, and we need to decide how to use the downstairs sprigs bar for our members comfort and enjoyment. As treasurer, I will be looking at all our expenditure to see where we can cut costs. We have to become lean and mean financially to survive and progress into the future but the Club is recovering it’s position well. Apart from that, enjoy your golfing. Geoff Grimwood Treasurer

Club Shirts:- Jenny Mann is about to place an order for more Club shirts and would like expressions of interest from those members who have not yet purchased one, so she can compile an order with the appropriate sizes. The cost will be $59 and the shirts are not only well made but look good and are “guaranteed” to make golf balls go further and straight! Addresses:- Some of our members may have a problem concerning communication which needs your support and help to sort it out!!! About a year ago a change was made to one of the Club’s computer operating systems, resulting in an unspecified number of members being dropped off the list. Many members have made Paul White aware of the interruption to their communication, and it is an easy matter to relist their address – but only those who know they should have had an from the Club would be aware of the problem. There is no way of knowing who is not receiving notices, and in fact a copy of this “Whalewatch”, so I would urge all members to ask their friends if they are receiving the “Whalewatch” as a key to identifying those members who have fallen off the list. You could suggest that they send Paul an advising him of the need to be reinstated or Ph. Paul on Thank you for your support in this regard - your friends will appreciate your concern for their welfare.

Update on the Membership Marketing Initiative Management are delighted to announce that 91 new members have joined our club since the $500 campaign commenced Mid October and which finished on the 31 st Jan Please ensure that our new members are made to feel welcome and given help to appreciate the clubs facilities. For many new members the year ahead will provide an opportunity to appraise the quality of the course and friendliness within the club, and this may influence their decision to renew their membership next year, so we all have an important role to play to secure a positive future for our club. A list of new members and their phone numbers will be posted on the notice board, and we may be surprised to find people we already known have joined our ranks. Please make yourself known if this is the case. Management are organising a special night to welcome our new members and we hope there may be an incentive to encourage regular members to attend also!

The highly successful Whangaparaoa Ladies Team who won the Viponds Cup(both North Harbour Champs) and the Norcross Cup in This cup has been around for 40 years and this is the first time we have won it! Back Row left to right:- Elaine Margaret Gaye Roberta Barbara Helen Sue Heather Magill Burgess Burridge Scott Lereculey Turnbull Davies Donnelly Front Row left to right:- Elaine Shirley Marilyn Jenny Jan Bobbie Jordan Segetin Bresnehan Mann Tomlin Turnbull

LADIES GOLF – WHATS COMING UP Feb 5 th TuesdayOpening Day Feb 9 th SaturdayJack Caudle – Club Opening Day Feb 12 th TuesdayWhitcombe Cup (round 1) – Scramble Feb 16 th SaturdayLadies Scramble – Stableford Feb 17 th SundayEAGLES DAY Feb19th TuesdayWhitcombe Cup (round 2) – Scramble Feb 23 rd SaturdayHibiscus Coast 4 BBB (Partner required) Feb 26 th TuesdayLadies Scramble – Stableford Mar 2 nd SaturdayLGU Round 1 – Shootout – Scramble Nett Mar 5 th TuesdayLGU Round 1 – Shootout – Scramble Nett *** Please check your Golf Book for the Format of all Competitions***

The first round of the North Harbour Junior Pennants was played on the 3 rd of February on a very warm and humid Waitemata course in Devonport. The team got off to a great start in the competition with a very solid win over Pupuke "B" team. Scores are as follows; Rory Douglas & half points 5 up win Jay Macdonald points 6 up win Reinhardt Saunderson 94 9 & half points 1 up win Troy Bosher points 10 up win Next weekend, round 2 is being played at Pupuke Golf Course against the Peninsula Club. Another big win for our Junior Pennant team on Sunday the 10 th of Feb. Playing in very hot conditions and on a very fiery Pupuke Golf course, the team once again played great to beat the Peninsula Club convincingly. The results were:- Whangaparaoa 42 vs Peninsula 30 Rory Douglas 93 9 points - all square Jay Macdonald points - 2 up win Reinhardt Sanderson points - 4 up win Troy Bosher points - 6 up win On Sunday the 17 th Feb. the team will be playing at the South Head Golf Club. Cheers Aaron Macdonald Team Manager JUNIOR PENNANTS

Golf Trundler Repair and Maintenance Dave Ritchie a member for 11 years has kindly offered to provide a repair service for our members using the workshop behind the golf carts. His experience enables him to repair electric trundlers as well as manual. All that is necessary is to attach a note to your trundler explaining the nature of the problem, and leave it with the person on duty. Dave’s phone number and he is willing to provide an estimate of the cost on request. Dave has access to batteries if required.

Scottish Thrift. A Scottish woman went to the local newspaper office to publish the obituary for her recently deceased husband. The editor informed her that there is a charge of 50 cents per word. She paused, reflected, and then said, "Well then, let it read, "Angus MacPherson died." Amused at the woman's thrift, the editor told her that there is a seven word minimum for all obituaries. She thought it over and in a few seconds said, "In that case, let it read "Angus MacPherson died." Golf clubs for sale!