Twelve Months has come and gone, and now it’s time to stop and reflect on what we have achieved, and what goals will we strive for in the future.
This year our club has been busy catering for the Big Juice festival, working at the Winery Walkabout, planting hundreds of trees at the Hydroponic Tomato farm, finalising our commitment to the Mooroopna Skate park, walking many miles at the Relay for Life, and donating thousands of dollars to many worthy causes throughout the community. But without a doubt one project has dominated 2004-05.
Hosting the 2005 State Convention was a huge undertaking and challenge for our club. In the opinion of many, we conducted one of the most successful, well organised conventions of recent times. We did a great job of highlighting our region, demonstrating what our club can achieve, and entertaining our fellow Apexian’s from across the state. However the convention has also been a huge burden on our club. It was highly draining on our member’s time, and it distracted us from other key activities, most importantly building the membership
Membership is without a doubt the biggest issue facing our club. Seven members are reaching retirement age in the next two years. Added to this Adam Moss has resigned from the club after taking on a new job challenge in South Australia. Adam has been a highly active member of the club for the last three years, and his contributions will be much missed.
To combat this Membership crisis a membership sub-committee has been formed. Kim Banfield, Andrew Huntington, Brad Fennell and Andrew Farago will be in charge of creating new ideas to revitalise our club, and build up the membership base. I trust all members will give this committee there full support.
Our newest member to the club Andrew Huntington is taking on the important role of Programs director in 2005-06. The club has committed to doing an activity for its second meeting of every month, we all agree that we need to get away from having Dinner Meetings, and start doing more activities in the community
Michael Hendrickson is the incoming Publicity Director for 2005-06. This is a role that is going to take on increasing importance in the future. Too many people in the community do not know about Apex and what it is that we do. We need to build a line of communication with the local media, and other community groups.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all of the people who have supported me through the last twelve months. The directors have managed there portfolio’s admirably. Steve Rogers has had a big workload on State Board as our Convention Chairman. Michael D’Amore provided us some much needed entertainment as Social Director, and Michael Hendrickson together with Graeme Dean performed their duties at the front table admirably.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank my wife Marlain, who has put up with me dedicating many hours to attending Apex functions, and publishing the Midlander. I could not have done it without her.
Being President for two years running is a highly unusual situation, and one I was not expecting to have to fulfil. Yet I am excited by the prospect of revitalising our club, and achieving big things in the year ahead. We need to forget about the Convention and concentrate on what our next challenges will be.
Yours in Apex
Kevin Perry
President – Mooroopna Apex Club
