Committee Agenda 2024

The following message is an extract from the President’s Opening Day address on Saturday 10th February outlining the Committee agenda for 2024. You are welcome to listen to the entire address by clicking here.

Members,

Your Committee and Management Team are endeavoring to design a cohesive approach to improvement based on your feedback and expert advice, given the whole of Club context at the time.

We may not always agree on what that looks like, but every piece of feedback is valuable and prompts better plans and projects.

Looking forward we are working towards the Club having a consistently high standard of facilities and services across the whole Club. That comes the challenge of getting the balance right allocating resources across course, golf operations and hospitality projects. There are a few additional considerations.

1. We have been a truly private members Club since the West Course was closed in 1999 and the 11th, 12th & 13th holes were built.  That status is our choice, and it comes with challenges in what we can afford to do and choose not to do because we, as you well now, are the primary source of revenue.

Be in no doubt that the Club is in the best financial position it has been for many years, but we must ensure that every dollar spent is on worthy projects and not simply nice things to do.

2. Upgrading the golf shop was always on the horizon but not 2024. It’s obviously a must do now although it means bringing forward the expense.  Most of that upgrade cost will be funded through insurance, but we still have a 15% excess to pay under the total insurance claim. We weren’t planning on allocating that money just now.

3. The relocation of the Machinery Shed is an important part of our flood mitigation approach and impacts on potential solutions for hole 3 flooding. The cost of the new shed is not finalised yet, but regardless, it is a significant investment in our current budget on top of the golf shop.

4. The greens are a critical part of the golfing landscape. Dave Mason alerted us last year to the fact that amongst the Champion grass we have a lot of foreign grass contamination.  The short-term plan of oversowing all putting surfaces with creeping bent grass has gone well.  The longer-term issue remains – which grass is best for our course and Dave is working on that investigation right now. It will take time, resources and patience and eventual resurfacing all greens.

5. Any work on the long-held dream for a heritage style renovation of the Clubhouse is an expensive endeavor but we do need to develop a plan on moving forward and refresh the locker rooms sooner rather than later.

Next steps

1. Over the life of the current Committee, we want to create a cohesive Infrastructure Blueprint including masterplans for the Course enhancement, surrounding vegetation areas and Clubhouse renovation.  We will start the groundwork that will eventually create a consistently high standard of facilities across the Club.  All for future Committees to take forward as they see fit. We already have a Course Enhancement Plan completed by Crafter & Mogford last year. We will be sharing that plan with you shortly as well as our Landscape Master Plan that is being updated by our talented Committee member Richard Garnham. Treasurer Andrew Mullis is looking at how we fund our project priorities and working on a range of funding models for us to consider.

2. We are commencing a Membership Benefits Review where we will benchmark fees, playing rights and governance issues to consider the state of our main source of revenue.

3. The Foundation is to be launched on the 1st March.  While the actual function is not a fund-raising event, we will hear how we can contribute to firm up the Club’s future for us and the next generation of members – some of whom will be your relatives. Hope to see you there!

4. Other key work for this year is an update the Club Rules to provide a contemporary base for the Club into the future.  Your initial considerations will be minor administrative updates, but we will be asking you to consider converting the Committee to a Board to better complement the professional Management Team approach we now have in the Club.

We have lots to talk about and how we do that is something the Committee & Management Team are working on together.

We commit to keeping you informed, involved, and inspired to play more, enjoy more & contribute where it makes sense.

We hope you have a great golfing year at BGC.

Regards

Deb Kember
President
The Brisbane Golf Club