Woolamai Newsletter - February Edition
Telephone: 0467 475 263 Postal Address: PO Box 49, San Remo, VIC, 3925 Web: www.woolamaibeach.org.au Email: secretary@woolamaibeach.asn.au
In this Edition:
President’s Report
Board Update
Training Update
Member Development Opportunities
Rainbow Zinc
Blue Zinc
Wooli-Wipeouts Season Summary
How to get a segment in next Month’s Newsletter
President’s Report
The club continues to respond well to the ongoing challenges of COVID and its impacts on everything we do. Our patrols continue to be well serviced and professionally delivered by our members (including life guard services and Smiths Beach), training camps have been planned and completed, club house renovations continue to be delivered and the broad range of other activities such as a diversity survey, planning for social events and sustainability initiatives.
Many have noticed the public toilets at the clubhouse have been closed. This has understandably caused significant problems for members of the general public. Myself and a number of directors have had a number of conversations with the council about this issue and the problems it is causing. We have made it very clear that toilet cleaning and maintenance is not a club responsibility and resides completely with the council.
Westernport Water have contacted us indicating we are blocking the septic tank at the back of the clubhouse. Life Governor, John Thomson has led a team of directors and members in a search for the grease trap that was installed when the clubhouse was built more than 20 years ago. If anyone has any information as to where the grease trap is located, it would be greatly appreciated if you could you please reach out to me personally if you have any further information as we hope to get this resolved.
In terrific news, we have booked Silverwater Resort for our presentation night on Saturday night - 28th May. We need to form an organising committee and can those who are interested please contact me. Organising the presentation night is much simpler when many members put their hands up to help out. It’ll be great to meet in person again after a few years of being online!
Ron Nicholson continues to magnificently lead the way on preparations for our Special Events (Cowes Classic and Channel Challenge). We are committed to proceeding with both events as it’s a fantastic community event and substantial revenue raiser for the club.
Over the last few years we have continued to reduce our impact on the environment. One of our next steps is to try and install a Tesla Battery to store electricity generated from our solar cells on the roof of the clubhouse.
As I announced late last year, after 3 years on the nippers committee and 5 years on the board I am stepping down at the next AGM. If you are interested in stepping forward to learn more about what is involved in a board position please reach out to myself, a current or prior board member or a patrol captain.
Stay safe, healthy and enjoy the rest of your summer
Mark Bain - President
Board Update
President - Mark Bain
See above
Vice President - Max Eldridge
No Update
Vice President - Stafford Smith
No Update
Administration and Finance - Adrian Koller
No Update
Lifesaving Services (Club Captain) - Josh Cottier
No Update
Member Development - Brendan Smart
Grants Update:
· Submitted a grant application for funding to digitise the history archives
· Paid the deposit for the installation of solar batteries at the clubhouse as part of a successful grant application
Training Update:
Refer below or stay up to date by reading the weekly updates released every Thursday.
Assets - Darrell Clark
No Update
Junior Development (Nippers) - Charles Tuchtan
No Update
Communications - Ryan Box
Make sure you keep a close eye on some of our social media platforms for some funky tiktoks and Instagram stories capturing patrol events!
Member Engagement and Retention - Hugo Richter
There is a new way to connect with the member engagement portfolio! Use the link below to check the social calendar, send questions/queries/concerns to the team, and submit your ideas to the member engagement team. We look forward to hearing from you!
Diversity - Annie Coleman
Pink Zinc Patrol weekend is coming up! On Saturday 19th Feb we have pink zinc patrol from 1-4:30pm. On Sunday 20th we have a pink breakfast at 9am which will include a panel of female leaders talking about their experiences, pathways, and hopes for our future. Following this we will have a surf development session with the Wooli-Wipeouts.
The Diversity portfolio will be looking to put out an EOI for a sub-committee in the coming months so keep an eye out if this is something you are interested in.
Any questions, or if you’d like to get involved in this space, please contact Annie Coleman.
Training Update
It’s a quiet month for the training department, as we complete all our core awards and start to plan for our end of season courses. To finish off the season, we will be conducting our annual IRB Crew/Driver course in early March, as well as run some Resuscitation qualification updates.
IRB Camp
Planning has commenced for our annual IRB Camp, held during the Labour Day Weekend. Expression of Interest closes TODAY!! For more information about the awards and to express interest, please see below:
Due to the high demand, there may be a possibility of running an additional IRB Crew Camp during the Easter long weekend. More details to follow in the coming weekly updates.
Terry Aslanidis
Chief Instructor
E: training@woolamaibeach.asn.au
Member Development Opportunities
Rescue Board Development Sessions
Woolamai Beach’s Rescue Board Development sessions are a great opportunity for members who are looking to improve on their board paddling skills in the surf. Sessions will be run by our very own experience board paddlers in the club and is open to all experience levels.
The next Rescue Board Development Session will be held on the 26th February.
For more information, Click HERE
Rainbow Zinc
Last Saturday Woolamai hosted their first Rainbow Zinc Patrol to celebrate and support the LGBTQIA+ community. Organised by the wonderful Annie Coleman, members patrolled the beach during the day before dressing up in their best Mardi Gra outfits and partaking in some fun activities!
We also had the pleasure of being visited by Kane Treloar, who is the Director of Lifesaving Services for LSV, as well as Hannah Tzimokas, one of our senior members who is now the area lifesaving manager for Eastern Victoria.
Here’s what Kane had to say about the day:
“This patrol was an initiative of member Annie Coleman, it has certainly grown legs with a number of other clubs now conducting their own Pride Patrols. I congratulate Annie and the members taking up similar initiatives on their commitment to ensuring LSV remains an inclusive organisation.”
Kane Treloar - Director Lifesaving Services
Blue Zinc Patrol
On Saturday 12th of February, Woolamai members came together to raise awareness for men’s health. Our patrol members put on their blue zinc and caps, before spending a day out in the sun patrolling our beach. The crew then partook in a group rip swim/board paddle. Later on, Michael Butler, who was the patrol captain for the day cooked up a storm on the BBQ, whipping up a delicious dinner for the patrol.
Wooli-Wipeouts Season Summary
Our Progress
The summer of 2021/22 has seen a major growth of the Woolamai Wipeouts community. We have been thrilled with this year’s following and involvement in all surf days and rescue board development sessions. The season kicked off with a rescue board skills session at Woolamai SLSC. The following weekend we had our Girls on Boards surf lessons which was a major success. Not only did these lessons help develop crucial surf skills for our female members, but it instilled the confidence in many of our members to attend more Wooli-Wipeout’s sessions which were run most weekends.
Thank you to everyone who attended a Wooli-Wipeouts session over the summer. We have loved getting to know everyone and see new faces join the crew.
Where to next?
The Wooli-Wipeouts team are excited to see our network expand into a broader age range and a community with any ability of surf knowledge as we continue to grow this initiative. Please keep an eye out for more surfing sessions and rescue development sessions for the female identifying members of Woolamai SLSC.
The leadership team of Wooli-Wipeout’s are also looking for some more assistance to continue our growth. If you are looking for a leadership position within WBSLSC, are confident on a rescue board or surfboard, or would just like to get more involved with the group, please send our leadership team a message.
Who do I get in contact with?
If you have any questions about this program or would like to enquire in joining the leadership team, please contact any of the following:
Alice Harrison
0459348947
Alanna Broderick
Isabella Clark
For more information on what Wooli Wipeouts is about, and how to keep up to date, click on the link www.woolamaibeach.org.au/wooliwipeouts
Want a segment in next Month’s newsletter?
Hi all,
If anyone would like to submit something for next month, the best way to do this is send me an email at communication@woolamaibeach.asn.au with a title for the segment, and text of what you’d like to be included as well as any pictures or images and I’ll be sure to add it in.
Deadline for March’s Newsletter - 8th of March
I hope everyone enjoys the last few weeks of Summer and has a smooth transition back to school or work life!
Cheers,
Ryan Box - Director of Communications