President’s Report – December 2023

How good does the club rooms/ grounds look!! A massive thank you to our ground extraordinaire Roger Esplin and our newly appointed xmas elf Liz Schroeter, the club looks amazing thanks to those who donated decorations! Our traps are behaving mostly and this wouldn’t happen without a special person named Lyndon Mckeon, Lyndon is there more than me thankyou Lyndon.

As we draw to the end of the year, I felt an update is warranted as so much is happening at the club.

As many of you know the levee bank that protects the club from floods has seen better days and for the past 24 months we have been in talks with many different authorities as the process is anything but simple. JCA land consultants and Stuart Castle Engineering are steering the task through the appropriate channels that must be adhered to. There are many different opinions and thoughts on this complicated process, we the committee have discussed and listened to opinions on the matter and agreed the best avenue is for a suitably qualified Engineer to steer the applications in conjunction with JCA Land Consultants. Formal applications have proceeded and ideally hoping for us to have a permit from Council by June 2024. We will be tendering the job for maintenance/ repair of the levee at the appropriate time.

The clubs septic works is awaiting a dry spell to proceed, concrete/ materials have been ordered and as soon as we have a rest from the rain works will proceed. Some electrical works on the grounds is nearly complete and will be by end of Jan 2024, water has been the problem here for the club yet again.

Our new Marshalls office is up and operational and working well, I feel shooters will notice the difference especially on the large shoots of which many are fast approaching and most sold out.

Memberships are streaming in with great feedback from many in relation to our new MGC membership, it has been warmly welcomed.

Talks on membership have been tabled over the past 5 months with the committee discussing how to increase membership uptake and still provide the best experience for all shooters that enter our grounds as many of you know we have reached a record for the club of over 700 members not taking into account our friends at Yarra Valley Field and Game, as a whole I would expect us to surpass 900 by the end of 2024.

Gerald and Co keep the masses fed and they do it so well, people luv shooting at Melbourne and we always hear reference to the food, a very important aspect of club, thankyou Gerald and family ,we luv having you here at Melbourne and hope you enjoy your time off over xmas.

The club will be applying for another Government Grant this month of which is a very tight deadline, we have been very fortunate to of received funding thus far in excess of $400k to date from previous grants (last 3 years), we are hoping to be successful with our new application again.

Running the club can be exhaustive but there is no point if you don’t have a clear strategy and budget to facilitate for the future. To name a few we are working on a undercover area that will be a major plus for out 5 stand ground, (Field & Game), come and try and corporate events of which we are fully booked out for December.

Craig Henwood our VP has been very busy over the past 3 years working with Overseas Shooting Organisations and we are hoping to deliver some exciting news in the future by March at our AGM with some luck.

Our team of workers behind the scene which many people don’t see is too numerous to say, you know who you are and the club would not be in the position it is today without you. A very warm and heart felt thankyou goes out to you all I am very lucky to have so many people I can call on to help our special club from gardening, cleaning windows, mowing and whipper snipping, the list is endless. We always need more helpers so if you can spare a little time please let us know, you will be welcomed with open arms.

Our Trappers are punching it out and doing a great job and our hard workers from our latest working bee was most impressive.

The Committee positions for 2024 is filling up already if you would like to have a chat about donating some time please speak with one of our committee members or myself, always a good sign with quite a few staying on to see through the plans and ideas for 2024 it will be a very exciting year.

Remember your committee is here for the club and if you have ideas please let us know, we will never let good stand in the way of better.

Our xmas shoot is next week so get ready, it will be blast.

Enjoy your xmas and be safe, we look forward to welcoming everyone back in the new year.

B Reed

President