AGM - Outgoing Club Captain s Address 2017 Peter, Tony, members of the committee, ladies and gentlemen, good evening. Well where do I start. When I stood up here a year ago to make my incoming Club Captain s address, I said it was an honour and a privilege to be asked to represent you the members, and it truly has been. But what a year! For those that can remember, in laying out my objectives for this past year, I stated the focus would be on communication and participation. If I d known then what I know now, I would ve said the focus will be on change. In post a little over a week, I had a call from Tony to inform me he had some important news to share and that we should meet up. This news was of course, our General Manager was moving on. Add to this we had not long lost Jo from the pro shop and Alastair as head green keeper and I thought to myself, what could possibly go wrong? However, with change comes opportunity, and the personnel that have come into Windlesham Golf Club as replacements, have helped make this a remarkable year for me. Unlike previous years the winter was kind to me. In consultation with Neil and Leigh Powell and through the hard work of the green keeping team, both through regular maintenance work and general attention to detail, the course was setup for us for the season with four new sets of tee markers, a separate blue course for the ladies, a reassessed red course, new score card, new pins and a return to the former, and I should say popular red, yellow and white flag system.
From the pro shop too, I couldn t have asked for more. Unfamiliar with our custom and practise, I think it fair to say the new guys, Michael and Jack were thrown in at the deep end. However, with our help they were quickly brought up to speed with the nuances of our competition procedures, tee time management, our many events and the expectations of our members, and they have indeed risen to the challenge. I would go so far as to say we are now in a better position in terms of support from the Golf Operations team than we have been for sometime. With the help of my committee we have also built on the sound relationship we have with WGML. Neil has input greatly to our committee meetings this year, as has Tony. Both have given us their full support. This relationship even managed to withstand the test of a heavy defeat on WGML, when our committee team gave them a sound beating in the inaugural committee versus staff match. I trust they do not bare a grudge, and will continue to support our new Club Captain this coming year and this relationship will only grow stronger. So, a year of change, but I have also stayed true to my stated objectives of communications and participation. In terms of communications we setup a committee email address for you to use, and you have. We have written countless articles for the club website keeping you informed of major events and important items of news, and we have added some small touches to a new look weekly newsletter, with regular tips on pace of play (snails corner) and a rules quiz. One major piece of communications which I am particularly pleased with, is the New Member Integration Pack. With the help of the Integration Pack we now have a process in place to provide every new member with the opportunity to become quickly and effectively integrated into our club.
In terms of participation, we have had your full support. 27 teams in the Captains Drive-In last year (that s 108 people), the same again in the Turkey Trot and remarkably at one point just under 190 entrants for the Club Championship. We ve had your support too for our Captain/Pro challenges, our inter-club matches, our leagues and external competitions, the latter I should say with some great success through adults and junior alike going on to represent Windlesham Golf Club in both regional and national finals. So to our winners and runners up, congratulations. To our club professionals in particular Lee and Richard, our various team captains, organisers, players and participants alike, a huge thank you. Even our social events were popular with approx 120 people for the Race Night and an enthusiastic 50 or so moseying on down to our Hoedown. There have been so many highlights for me, but of particular delight was our Captains Charity Day in support of the Children With Special Needs Foundation. Again a tremendous turnout, fantastic weather and a really good fun day. Helped by a cameo role from our resident magician Jamie Raven and some fantastic and perhaps unique auction lots we raised nearly 14,000 on the day. This was helped in no small part by John Burton who secured himself and Kate a 5 star luxury 10 day cruise to any where in the world. Thank you to both Kate and John and all who have contributed so generously this year. In a few moments, Victoria will give you further detail on our fund raising exploits. So, add to the above leading my England team of 19 pairs to victory in the Calcutta Cup back in March, my trip to St Pierre with the seniors in May and more recently managing to get my name on the Anniversary Bowl, I ve had a fantastic year. But, I may not be retiring from committee life just yet!
Tonight we will be asking you to vote on some important changes to the committee structure which affect how the committee manage and organise your golf going forward. These changes will in no way affect your golfing activity, but are intended to address the succession planning difficulties we have at committee and subcommittee level within some sections of the Club. The proposed changes have been presented to many of you within this room. Experienced and long serving members, past captains and former committee members and the wider membership. For those that have been unable to attend the presentations, we have posted a full explanation of the changes to our club website, carried out mail shots and included a number of articles within the weekly newsletter. The overriding response from the membership has been one of full support. We have received numerous offers of support, many offers of help, and some very constructive and useful feedback. We have even been asked to consider postal and proxy votes in favour of the changes this evening, but unfortunately and for good reason, our constitution does not allow us to do so. I, our Ladies' Captain Victoria, and the Committee, together with WGML have worked tirelessly on putting together this proposal, a robust and future proof committee structure which we believe will ensure member golf at Windlesham Golf Club is preserved and managed in the years ahead. However, implementation of these changes will require a favourable vote from 75% of you sitting in this room tonight. Your support is essential. As I said, my committee involvement may not be over just yet. If the vote goes through, I will be staying on for a further year, albeit as a past captain and in a subordinate role, to assist our incoming Club Captain in the transition to the new structure.
So a remarkable year and a truly fulfilling one, but I could not have done it on my own. They say you are only as good as the people you have around you and that is definitely true in my case. I have had the support of a truly dedicated committee with an enormous work ethic. From Victoria our Ladies Captain, through Graham my vice to every single one of my committee team I say thank you. It has been my privilege to work with you. Evelyn, after seven years of service, one of which as Ladies Captain, we are sad to see you step down, but I m sure I speak for all when I say thank you, best wishes and I hope after a short time out you ll consider coming back to take up a key position in our new structure. A final thank you to one person in my life who has given me the ultimate support during this past year. For someone who doesn t play golf, this person knows as much about Windlesham Golf Club as I do; the course, the internal workings the politics and the people. Gentlemen, we all know if you want to do something and do it well, it s so much easier if you have the support of your good lady. So my biggest thank you has to go to my good lady whom many of you will know as Lorraine. Lorraine a sincere and very public thank you, I couldn t have done it without you.
Ladies and gents, if you give the incoming Club Captain and his team half the support you have given me, they too are in for a great year. So, I always finish these things by saying Windlesham is not just a place where I play my golf, it is my golf club. This is something I truly believe as I think do many of you in this room, and all that I have experienced this year has only helped further support my belief in this. It has been a truly rewarding and satisfying experience and one that I will never forget. Windlesham Golf Club Captain, would I do it again, absolutely! Thank you Mick Archbold Windlesham Club Captain 2016-2017