PGC Newsletter /06/15

Contents  Introduction/ Finances  Clubhouse news / Shares / Course news  Membership initiatives / Competition updates  Juniors / Club teams  Turbine / Other initiatives / Meet the Board  Dress Code / And Finally / Thank You  Other News / Next updates

Introduction; Welcome to the third newsletter of the 2015 season. We hope you find the information of interest and it helps spread an understanding of how the club is progressing. This year has seen possibly the largest influx of members to Polmont ever. As well as thanking our new members for joining us we’d welcome any feedback directly on your experience. A new perspective is always welcome and an or direct approach to any board member will be followed up. Equally we’d welcome feedback from longer standing members. Just contact any board member or the club. At long last the weather looks to be turning, hopefully this will be reflected in numbers using the course and the bar. Finances; Everyone should have been notified now of the AGM date of Monday 22 nd June where a full update of the 2014 year and some news on the 2015 picture will be given by Dougie. A lot of work goes into keeping the club going and more so this year where a tremendous effort has gone into maintaining the turnaround. As well as an opportunity to ask questions, taking the time to come along and listen to the updates is a great way to show some appreciation for hours put in by the board and all others who help out, all on a voluntary basis often at their own expense.

Course News; Unfortunately the work done on the greens in March has taken much longer to recover than expected. The graph below shows the rainfall for the area compared to the average. This, added to lower than average temperatures has kept soil temperatures low meaning little sustained growth so far. Your continued understanding is appreciated and hopefully this puts some context on the problems faced. In addition Vodafone as per their contractual rights requested access to the mast. A local rule is in place. Clubhouse News; Tom continues to work through the various jobs around the clubhouse, if you’ve any expertise to offer please get in touch. Shares; The process of updating the shareholders register and aligning with the Articles of Association is now complete and every member who wishes to be a shareholder should now have a certificate or be in the process of getting one.

Membership initiatives; As mentioned in the introduction we've had a great influx of new members. In order to continue this progress some new mid season offers will be advertised, evolving the offers available as the season goes on. These will be on Facebook and the website as well as posted around the club. One area where numbers are disappointing is in the ladies section, if you’re aware of anyone thinking of taking up or coming back to golf or if there are some existing members looking at getting more of a family involvement then they will be more than welcome. Competition updates; Competitions for all sections are well and truly up and running. If you’ve not joined in yet, Gents have times all day Saturday, the ladies play on a Sunday morning, Juniors on a Sunday afternoon. In addition the Gents 9 hole Wednesday medals count for handicap and all money taken in gets paid out in prize money. The Invitation Greensomes has unfortunately been cancelled, hopefully to be rescheduled. Thanks to those who did enter but it simply wasn’t viable with the numbers which is a great disappointment after the time and effort put in up to this point.

Juniors; John Brown & Darren Murray have done a great job with the with the classes for junior golfers on a Tuesday and Thursday evening. As well as potential new members this initiative has also brought income in the immediate short term via class fees. Hopefully these will be repeated on an ongoing basis. With some numbers now in place John is hoping to restart regular competitions over the summer holidays. With his work as secretary a volunteer to assist with the juniors would be great. A selection of new and existing junior members were at Gleneagles on Sunday 14 th June playing the PGA Academy course and a great time was had by all. We’ve also been contacted by Clubgolf and the HSBC with regard to opening up the practice green during the Open for free use. More to follow on this. Club Teams; Gents Stirlingshire golf union team matches will be against Glenbervie, Falkirk Tryst and Kilsyth this year home and away. Team sheets are posted on the wall at the back door, if you’d like to play just add your name. The ladies section play in the Bronze league. Details of fixtures for this can be found on the ladies notice board.

Turbine; Some of you may have seen the application change to a withdrawn state on the council website. This was simply to pause the process and allow a new access route to be configured as the original proposal was in the area of an old mine shaft. Taking this action means the Turbine provider are able to restart the process faster than submitting a completely new application. As and when updates are available we will give these in a newsletter depending on the timing or via the web and Facebook pages. Other initiatives; The door entry system we have been looking at is dependent on changing alarm suppliers. The current contract requires a significant notice period which is holding everything up. We hope to trial A coffee machine in the clubhouse for a period of 3 months. Numbers generally speak for themselves in a trial like this but as usual feedback would be welcomed. Meet the Board evening; Following the AGM we’ll be looking to hold a meet the board evening. If you’re not comfortable asking questions or would rather meet then this is your chance. The date & time will be advised on Facebook and around the club following the AGM.

Dress Code, a standard reminder; We think we have one of the most relaxed dress codes of private courses in the area. All that we ask of Members and Visitors is that it’s respected. As a reminder – Competitions: As per most clubs we ask that you wear trousers or tailored shorts. No sports or trunk style shorts should be worn. Shirts should be polo or collarless as long as they are designed for golf. 'Trainer' socks are allowed and golf shoes or flat soled trainers must be worn. Casual Golf: As above, however jeans may be worn as long as they are not ripped. Other News; As per the previous newsletters, the Club treasurer, Dougie Airbright has notified the board of his intention to step down this year due to family relocation. Dougie will leave his post towards the end of July. Ideally a new treasurer will be in place for a handover. The role could be split between two members to reduce individual requirements. If you are interested then please approach Dougie or any board member. As always further help in any way that you can give would be most welcome.

Next Update; Would you like to see anything else in these? Do they add value? Would you miss them if they stopped? Please the club, comment on Facebook or speak to the board. The next update will be dependent on holidays, hopefully it will be posted in around 4 weeks or so. And Finally; As advised we’ve a number of new junior members, hopefully we’ll see a good number around the place during the summer holidays. Please be patient with them as they find their feet. Also please refer to the notice at the entrance regarding contacting the Community Wardens regarding anti social behaviour you see on the course. Thanks. Thank You’s! We’ve already had a lot of help on the course and in and around the clubhouse with various jobs from grass cutting through to plumbing and electricals as well as various important tidying up jobs. In addition all fund raising efforts, including the Mr & Mrs all help sustain the club. At the risk of missing anyone, all your efforts are greatly appreciated.