Vice President - Fi Blackmore

 
 
 

It’s been another big year for Woolamai!

Here’s just a few of the activities that kept us busy.  

The season opened with the opportunities to showcase the clubhouse Block makeover, with more than 350 visitors at our Grand Final Eve Open House checking out the renovations and, along the way, meeting some of our members and discovering what our club does.  It was a great opportunity to engage with our local community and visitors.  Check out Jason & Clarky’s reports for details on the October Block fundraiser, which again spotlit our refreshed facilities.  We’re very grateful to everyone who helped out at these events and of course big thanks to the Block, the contestants, crew and commercial partners for their support. 

The dunes surrounding the clubhouse were tended with care, with two planting days led by Louise Smith and volunteers from both the club and the public.  We planted lots of tubestock, removed fencing supports and weeded out marram grass and sea spurge.  As well as stabilising the dunes, this work generates fauna habitat and aids the ecology of this sensitive coastal area.   Thank you to Phillip Island Nature Parks (particularly Mark Merryfull and Andy Dallinger) and Coastcare/Summer by the Sea for their support of these events.  We’ve been successful for another grant from Landcare/BUPA so look out for another dunes planting day that will occur before late November. 

Mel Davies has brought contagious energy to the club’s merchandise and patrol uniforms.  Stepping in to to manage all our club gear, Mel’s not only enabled clothing sales at Nippers and key club dates like bronze and SRC camps, requal day and other events, but also introduced the very popular, limited edition patrol hoodies.  She’s also sorted recycling for unwanted patrol uniforms, including the innovative exchange scheme that let requalifying members in early December swap out their old uniforms for fresh new ones.  Thank you for Mel for all your care and sheer hard work.  We can’t wait to see what you have in store for us next season! 

The club engaged three awesome staff over the season to assist our activities.  Carole Irving is our club administrator/secretary, Melina van der Weerd-Arceo assists with our clubhouse and facilities needs, and James Lester is our bookkeeper.  We are very appreciative of all their work and support of the Board and our members. 

Opportunities for our next season include: 

  • Attracting more members to volunteer with the club, particularly Nippers and patrolling members’ families 

  • Document repeatable club processes, to build on existing know-how and avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’ 

  • Devising communication paths that reach all generations of the club, navigating the looming regulation of social media such as Facebook for under 16’s 

Interested in getting involved? 

Please get in touch: fi.blackmore@woolamaibeach.asn.au 

Fi Blackmore - Vice President

 
Woolamai Beach SLSC