President

The club yet again performed a stellar job working through another season dominated by the global pandemic. Looking back now it is hard to believe we were dealing with clubhouse lockdowns and patrolling restrictions only six months ago.

Based on the efforts from the prior season our COVID Safe plans were well advanced and ready for the season. We were particularly impacted during January and February with a high number of COVID cases and close contacts. Many members may not know that LSV and the club were having discussions about supplementing the paid lifeguard service with senior and well experienced volunteers given the impacts the virus was having on lifeguard numbers.

Congratulations and many thanks to all those who put on the red and yellow and patrol our beaches to keep members of the public safe. We had another successful season with no drownings recorded during our patrol hours. This is a credit to the Lifesaving Services team and all those who work tirelessly behind the scenes to prepare our equipment, run training courses and support the club and its members in a wide variety of ways. Interestingly, for the second year running Smiths Beach was busier and more dangerous than our beloved Wooli Beach. We experienced a long period of strong winds from the easterly direction which created very strong rips and deep gutters at Smiths. These conditions kept both the Lifeguards and Lifesavers busy on every patrol at Smiths during the season.

The clubhouse continued its multi-year renovation program with a vast number of projects being undertaken. The gear shed has undergone significant improvement with new wheeled gear racks, extension for ATV and gear storage, new garage doors and overall layout improvements. The residence was given a facelift with painting, new deck, extended Nippers shed and general maintenance activities. Clarky is stepping down from the Board and we pass on our thanks to Clarky for his years of leadership as Assets Director. All of our major assets are materially improved as a result of his work efforts, guidance and dedication.

We are making positive change with our impact on the climate. Both the clubhouse and Smiths tower have solar cells, we have improved our recycling and many of our light switches and air conditioners have auto switch off. We have received and commissioned a new Tesla battery at the clubhouse to store the energy we generate from our solar panels.

Nippers yet again was a season highlight. The program continues to sell out in days and is a key ingredient in teaching children water safety and creating the lifesavers of the future. Many thanks to the Nippers organising committee and especially Charles Tuchtan for all his dedication and efforts in leading Nippers through the COVID years. The launch of Nippers at Smiths Beach has been highly successful and given older Nippers a real taste of being a lifesaver in ocean conditions. Charles is stepping down from the Board and the club sincerely thanks for him for his efforts.

The clubs finances continue to remain strong; however, COVID has impacted our operating result. While the club will report a strong profit this year the result is mainly due to timing of grants for our clubhouse development works. The underlying result was impacted by COVID given our inability to host social events, function and event barbeques, reduced opportunities to sell merchandise, reduction in club memberships and reduction in donations. Adrian Koller is stepping down as Director, Finance & Administration after two years. He has done a magnificent job managing our finances through the COVID years and the club thanks him for his dedication through a difficult period. The Development Fund Board was established during the year and funds moved under management of this new board. Many thanks to all those who continue to support the club including LSV, SLSA, Federal and State Governments, Bass Coast Council and Phillip Island Nature Parks.

It was wonderful to see the Channel Challenge and Cowes Classic running again and both were very successful. These events not only help promote and provide funding to the club; they are a terrific opportunity for local businesses to increase revenue, particularly given the difficult trading conditions of the last 2 years. Special thanks to Ron Nicholson and the organising committee for all their efforts in ensuring these events went ahead.

Our training program continued to grow in its professionalism and ability to deliver an enormous number of requalifications and training courses during the season. Very successful SRC and multiple bronze courses, including local bronze in September and adult bronze, were held most of which were heavily oversubscribed. Many members passed their Training Officer Certification, First Aid, Advanced Resuscitation Technique and many other courses. We ran multiple IRB training courses with a record number of participants for both crew and drivers. Congratulations to all those who passed their certifications.

Our communications, member development and diversity programs continued to grow in strength. Ryan’s dedication has seen weekly and monthly club updates posted throughout the year with a professionalism and commitment that is a credit to him and his team. Hugo was creative in his leadership with several club functions occurring later in the season once COVID restrictions begin to lift. He continued to remain committed and focussed on improving our social functions at a time when COVID was locking us down, great effort. Annie established and led our diversity portfolio with energy and commitment, including through a review into our diversity, balance and inclusion, launch of rainbow zink patrol and leadership of pink zinc patrol.

Our Lifesaving Club is a large community of special people who make an enormous contribution to society in delivering a wide variety of services. Thank you to everyone involved: life members, club members, social members, families, Nippers and of course our active lifesavers.

After many years of dedicated service, both Max Eldridge and Stafford Smith are stepping down from the Board. Max has been both Club Captain and Vice President and led a significant change and improvement in the club’s professionalism and culture. Stafford has been Vice President for many years and over the last two years has been highly effective in his leadership of relationships with Phillip Island Nature Parks, local council and LSV. Significant sand management and environment land management works are underway around the clubhouse and Stafford has been key in ensuring these are progressing.

The last two and half years of COVID have impacted all aspects of life, and volunteer clubs of all types of been hit particularly hard. The ability to get together and share a drink and a meal, and chat to friends we might only see through the summer months is critical to the fibre of our club. Looking to the years ahead, we will need to work on re-establishing our club social functions, dinners, bbqs and drinks gatherings. I callout to all members to get involved, put your hand up: we are all the club, and the more members that get involved the better and bigger the club becomes. There is no doubt for everything you put in, you get it back 10 times over

After five years on the Board, ten years as a Nipper age manager and three years as Nipper committee member I am standing down from official roles at the club. There are too many highlights to mention and an enormous number of people to thank individually. The club is in a very solid position and has a bright future as one of the leading clubs in the country.

See you on the beach

Mark Bain

Woolamai Beach SLSC1 July 2022