Monday 9th November 2009
President's Report / Secretary's Report
This past year has been a very interesting and positive period for Southern Table Tennis, there has been a significant change to our organisation with the abandonment of the club systems and we are now debt free. I believe that we have a very efficient organisation which is running well, with a minimal number of people contributing to the day to day tasks. We have been looking at our forward planning and have identified the areas on which we would next like to focus. I believe that Southern Table Tennis is currently in a great position and with the continued commitment of its fantastic volunteers and the good work of the executive committee has an exciting future.
The most important and difficult change in the past year has been the decision to abandon the club based competition for our winter season and to instead run a competition based on our spring/summer format. A new set of competition rules were written to reflect the changes with a major difference to the spring/summer format being the ability for individuals to nominate other people who whom they wish to play. This appears to have been a success with very few problems being encountered and with only positive feedback being received. This change in structure has also meant that the executive committee has had to spend a considerable amount of time in restructuring our constitution which is the subject of proposals that will be considered at today's Annual General Meeting.
The spring and summer seasons have been run with similar numbers of players as in previous years. These competitions are well run and the coordinators appear to be getting plenty of people volunteering to be reserves.
What has been great to see is that the Monday night practice sessions are well attended with players having to wait for tables to come free. It is also interesting to note that many of the people attending are not currently participating in any of our competitions. We also now have allocated Friday night for general practice with the number of people currently attending slowly building up and hopefully will continue. I believe that we also need to look at opening up the hall on either a Saturday or Sunday for practice, the difficulty being finding somebody to take on this responsibility.
This year has also seen the introduction of a new junior coaching program on Tuesday nights to replace the one which was taking place on Friday nights. The change to a Tuesday night has been well received with over 20 juniors now attending on most nights. We have also been well supported by volunteers and coaches and will normally have at least 5 adults assisting. The challenge will be to keep the promotion for this event going as there is a high turnover of children.
The only area of concern that I have had during the year is participation numbers for the winter season and the Tuesday/Friday daytime social events. The number of people taking part in these events is satisfactory but there is room to boost participation. We have had a look at how we can better promote ourselves and are currently in the process of implementing some of these ideas. We have already made up some flyers advertising the daytime social events and have had members distribute the flyers. We have also resurrected the A frame sandwich board to advertise what is taking place at different times in our centre and will be regularly placing this on the roadway leading past the stadium. Hopefully we will see some new faces participating in these events in the future.
One of the great strengths for Southern Table Tennis is our strong financial position, we are now debt free and over the last year have had a small financial surplus. This year we have also managed to win a significant grant of over $6000 dollars towards the replacement of our old tables. Through continuing to apply for grants and the prudent spending of our cash resources we will be able to keep improving our facilities we well as promote Southern Table Tennis to increase our participation.
It has been fantastic to be presiding over an organisation that really is running smoothly, has great volunteers, has a large and varied membership and is in a healthy financial position. We have to be careful not to become complacent, to keep on promoting ourselves to attract new players and to encourage our members to assist more in some of our endeavors. To everybody that has helped out in anyway over the last year I would really like to thank you for your help, Southern Table Tennis will only ever be as good as the people that make up the organisation.
Marcel Storken,
President
As I prepare this year's annual report, and thus have the ability to read the Presidents Report, I find Marcel has appropriately touched on the year's highlights, these being:
In additional to the above, I would also like to recognise the coaching work of Alvan White and Rex Rayner with the ASC Active After School program, delivering several block sessions both in the school environment and at the stadium. It would also be remiss not to acknowledge the volunteer work of Don Lugg who in 2009 spent many hours managing the canteen / facility, looking after the social sessions and some competition nights...thanks Don.
Personally I would like to say well done Marcel on the enthusiasm you have displayed in 2009, particularly in respect to the promotion of the Tuesday night junior program and work towards trying to improve attendance at social sessions.
While it was disappointing to finally see the demise of the Club based Winter Competition, unfortunately the impact of smaller membership numbers and the lack of volunteers could no longer be ignored. Thus, a further significant change to the Constitution is before you today to say goodbye to the Clubs.
Southern is fortunate to have several long standing volunteers (most already life members) who continue year after year to 'do their bit' to keep Southern an active and health organisation. Without this band of volunteers, I am not sure who would step up to the plate.....thanks gang.
While I think Southern certainly is well positioned in respect to having a great facility, a small band of dedicated volunteers, and financially travelling ok, maintaining membership and social play numbers is an ongoing work in progress.
So in summary, I saw 2009 as a year where Southern continues to deliver its range of activities to the membership and the community, but unfortunately had to finally say goodbye to its Clubs.
Maurice Quinn,
Secretary