REPORT OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF RAFFLES GOLF CLUB TO ALL ORDINARY MEMBERS
Dear Fellow Members,
This note to you is set out below as a copy of a formal report which will appear on our Website as well. It reports on the efforts made and being made by the Board to affiliate with Golf Australia and a host of other things. Please read on…
At a meeting of the Board of Directors on Friday 30th November 2018 it was resolved:
Affiliation with Golf WA (and Golf Australia)
It was unanimously resolved to formally affiliate with Golf WA (and automatically with Golf Australia). It was so resolved after a discussion on our present finances, the advantages and disadvantages and the ongoing costs. We are confident that we can achieve this by the end of December in time to be an affiliate member from January 2019. We will be fully compliant with their terms and conditions by that date.
The biggest advantage of this affiliation is that we will be recognised as a legitimate member of Golf Australia through our affiliation with Golf WA. All our ordinary members will be entitled to a Golf Link card and their handicaps arising from Raffles competitions will not only be recognized around the world but also any visitors with Golf Link cards or similar from the US and Europe will have their handicaps updated as a result of playing in our competitions.
For example, if a member of Royal Fremantle Golf Club with that Club as his principal club plays in a Raffles competition his Golf Link card will be updated as if he had played at his home club. Similarly, if a Raffles member plays at Royal Fremantle his Golf Link Card will also enable his handicap to be updated as a result of that competition. For those of our members who presently do not have Golf Link Cards they will be issued with one as part of their annual Raffles membership fee.
Our affiliation with Golf WA/Golf Australia will also mean that we will be required to comply with their rules and regulations concerning competitions and club behaviour. Our competitions will be better organised and managed in a more efficient manner. There will be more on this later in this note to members.
This brings up two further resolutions relevant to our new affiliation. One is annual membership fees and the other is our financial year end.
Financial Year end to change to 01 January through 31 December
Dealing firstly with our financial year end. It is strongly recommended by Golf WA that we align ourselves with their year-end which is the same as Golf Australia’s, which is January 1 through December 31st. Your Board has unanimously passed a resolution doing this. However, it will need Constitutional change. To effect this an extraordinary meeting is going to be called for early January/late December to enable the same. Please watch your email inbox and regularly refer to our website rafflesgolfclub.com for the notice. The change of date will have affect on other financial year end matters in our Constitution and some of those provisions will also have to be amended.
New Membership Fees
Dealing now with annual membership fees, it was resolved that our fees will for the calendar year 2019, 2020 and 2021 be Australian Dollars fifty dollar (AUD$50). Your membership is already valid until June 30th and fully paid to that date. You therefore will have a credit of $25 towards the $50 membership fee. This will mean that for the year 2019 you will only have to pay a further $25.
Whilst this increase in fees is a doubling of the fees it will mean that every single member of Raffles Club Bali will receive, if he doesn’t already have one, a Golf Link Card. For an annual membership cost of $50 this Card will be renewed every year. You will not have to pay any extra for the Card or for your affiliation with Golf WA/Golf Australia. This annual payment membership fee will be regardless of whether you already hold a Golf Link Card and intend to retain that Card as your principal Card.
The end result will be that all our ordinary members will hold this Card and every member regardless of what Club is his principal club will have his handicap updated every time he plays in a Raffles competition. He will also be insured, and have the protection and valuable help and assistance of both Golf WA and Golf Australia.
What we would like you to do is to pay the $25 at your very earliest convenience. It will help us keep our liquidity as well as help us meet our hefty financial obligation to what will be our governing body, namely, Golf WA. We have to make this payment in the first quarter of 2019. In any event we do require you to make your second payment of $25 on or before the end of June. For both the year end of 2020 and 2021 we anticipate that the $50 annual membership fee payable by all ordinary members will be maintained.
For new members, the joining fee and current years membership fee will remain at $150. I think you will all agree this is an even bigger bargain for new members.
Golf Genius
The other great improvement is that Raffles is also introducing Golf Genius for both running our competitions and general administration. We have passed the necessary resolutions to do so. This happened after months of investigations into Golf Genius and other competitive software programmes. Founded in 2009, Golf Genius is the leading global provider of affordable, fully-featured cloud-based software for organising and managing golf events, leagues and trips.
Operating in over 50 countries worldwide the Golf Genius product has saved time and eliminated hassle for PGA professionals, amateur and professional associations, event organisers, league managers and trip captains, enabling them to deliver a greatly enhanced experience to millions of golfers every year.
Golf Genius is already being used on a trial basis by the Club during our weekly competitions. It has been successful to date. It is affordable and has many features. It is easily found on the WWW. I recommend going to https://www.cmaeurope.org/golf-genius and learning about it. It does a lot more than assist us to run a tournament. You should also download the app onto your smart phone in readiness for your next visit to our club. Operationally in competitions it couldn’t be easier. It also comes with an online payment system and game registration system which we have also resolved to use. A separate instruction with respect to this will soon be available in detail to you on our website. As an additional note to this matter it is something which we are required to do as part of our Golf WA affiliation; although we did have a choice of providers – We think Golf Genius is the best!
Club Administrator
The Committee has also resolved to appoint a part time paid Club Administrator. This will be the first paid position ever offered by our Club. Your Board considers that it is now necessary to have such a position filled. Up until now, all administrative functions of our growing club has been handled by a few overworked volunteers, which has become just too onerous. Details of the already known individual appointee will be made public in next month’s report from the Board. Part of the duties of the Club Administrator will be to educate members with respect to Golf Genius.
New Website
Additionally, your Board has been looking at a total revamp of our website, which we consider to be now out of date and inadequate in a lot of respects. We have been galvanised into action to do something about it by a shortly to be parting of the ways between Raffles and the website consultant and operator. The Board has, again after considerable investigation with a number of candidates, appointed a website consultant to build our new website. It will be up and operational by the end of March 2019.
As you can see, a lot of work has been done by the outgoing committee and now by the new committee. We are blessed with some new blood which is energetic, thorough and most certainly talented. You are going to see a lot of changes in the next 6 months. It is our intention to separately send this note to all those members whose membership has entered a lapsed state through non-payment of fees in past several years. If they renew their membership quickly, they will be able to benefit from what the Board considers to be a superb deal with Golf WA.
Finally, when you receive the Notice of Extraordinary General Meeting please send in your proxy to support your Board’s recommendation which is to vote in favour of the amendment to the financial year of the Club.
I will be providing updates to you on a monthly basis with respect to progress on all of the above.
Yours in Golf
Robert Nelson
President.