Communications

Riley Fyffe, Fraser Tanner and Tommy Williams

Director of Communications | Riley Fyffe

I’m always amazed by the hard work and dedication from Woolamai’s army of volunteers. There’s so many wonderful people in this community and their efforts shouldn’t go unnoticed.

Bass Coast Series

Another successful year of Bass Coast Series events which couldn’t be done without the help of our army of volunteers. Ron Nicholson and Mick Sullivan have done a tremendous job running the series with a special mention to Macca and Max Eldridge for their continued support.

Channel Challenge Recap with Ron

542 competitors participated in the Channel Challenge without a major incident and the race itself was as smooth as any previous year has been. The tide calculations were spot on: with our retired fisherman, Ray Dickie, calling the start of the race.

A big thank you to Greg Harbour and Mick Sullivan for getting communications out which saw our relay concept grow to 39 competitors in its second year.

The Friday night registration worked with about 130 competitors being processed on the night and relieving the pressure for the next morning. Our evergreen head of timing – Geoff Nield – was again terrific to work with and the results came out promptly and without a hitch.

The race center had the usual crew with regulars Lynn, Kerri, Gail, Jan, Rochelle, Murray, Macca, Mark, Seal & Maureen working both shifts helped by welcome newbies in Fiona, Jason, Alan & Susan and then Craig, Vicki, Ronnie & Trevor were there on Sat morning.

The transition area went smoothly with Scott, Rusty & Thommo in charge and the shoes were ferried brilliantly by Doc & Ernie.

Water safety again spot on under the leadership of Max and we are always confident about this area of the day is under control. 

We also have some really strong contributions from non-members such as Graeme Burgan, Pete & Ben at the pub, the Shire workers, Geoff as mentioned, the SES led by Rod Legg and the Police. These events do a lot to link us to the local community.

Thank you Ron Nicholson for providing the recap

Cowes Classic and Little Penguin Dash

Both swim events that were organized superbly and went off without a hitch. Thank you to Susan Fawaz, Vicki Tuchtan, and the rest of the team for organizing and running the events. The annual trivia night was a great success with donations going towards purchasing and renovating a caravan for Mallacoota SLSC that we will present to them once restrictions have lifted and it is safe to do so.

Clubbie Clobber

Fiona Blackmore’s dedication and hard work to organizing merchandise played a crucial role ensuring members were able to purchase clubbie clobber throughout the season, thank you Fi!

Merchandise sales for the season were $25,000 with our most popular items being hoodies, black long sleeve shirts, bathers, surf rescue trackies, and club trackies. The goal of the season was to reduce our inventory on hand to make way for a new line of merchandise in 2020/21.

Board updates

An increased effort has been made to ensure individuals keep up to date with decisions from the board of directors. We have continued to provide board report communication via email to our members while also updating our news section on the club website as a public archive. In consultation with the Woolamai Beach SLSC Sustainability Committee, the decision has been made to go paperless for our annual report. This has been done to help reduce our environmental impact.

Social Media Platforms

Our social media platforms continue to be an effective communication strategy showing growth in total audience and reach per post. Our public Facebook account Woolamai Beach SLSC has grown to 2,663 followers with an average post reach of 950 people an increase of 30% from the previous year.

The woolamaislsc public Instagram account has continued to grow with 1,155 followers of date and saw the introduction of the Wooli Wipeouts Instagram page to encourage female surf development.

Club Website

The layout of the club website https://www.woolamaibeach.org.au/ has been modified to help loading speed and allow for a smoother transition between pages. New tabs have been created to help members navigate through club related activities such as upcoming courses, patrols, competition, news, and donations. An upgrade to the club’s Squarespace account provided an opportunity to create a new payment processing system with a reduction in online processing fees. This has allowed us to improve the checkout process and upgrade our payment security system. This also increased our website flexibility to add products and services such as bronze medallion camp and nippers! program where there can be a set limit for applicants.

See you all soon,

Riley Fyffe
Director of Communications