For many bowling clubs around Australia their futures are somewhat bleak, and with the Blayney Bowling Club's demise still fresh in resident's minds, a special community meeting held at Club Millthorpe on Sunday was expected to reveal the same fate for the club.
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It was a surprisingly small group of only 25 people that took the time to hear from the committee that was happy to announce that the club's financial outlook was on the improve.
"I just want to confirm to everyone that the club is not in the red," said Treasurer Brad Manuel. "We don't owe anyone any money at all and we're well and truly in the black."
An audible sigh of relief was heard across the dining room before Mr Manuel went on to explain the ever evolving financial situation of the club.
"We're in a much better financial situation now than we were 12 months ago," he said. "We're not in debt, we're not insolvent. We've had a number of large events lately that have boosted our bottom line."
A live music event held on Saturday night featuring local band K'Noath was a big success with nearly 150 people crowding into the club, but there was just one aspect of the crowd that perplexed the committee.
IN OTHER NEWS:
"We had big support from Blayney and Orange, but only about 10-15 here from Millthorpe," said club President Darrel Ryan. "We're just not getting the 2798 community supporting us here at the club."
The club has been working with Blayney Shire Council and Central NSW Business HQ in Bathurst to develop ideas that will help keep the momentum going, and to avoid what could be if the club was to falter.
"One option that we don't want to have to consider is simply closing the club," Mr Ryan said.
One other option, if it's ever needed, is to sell off either the top green or the car park to invest into the club, a strategy that would need to be carefully managed said Treasurer Brad Manuel.
"If we decided to take that action it would need to be used to improve the club's facilities, not to fritter away on paying the club's operating costs," he said.
To help form a cohesive strategy a sub-committee has been formed to generate new ideas for functions and events at the club, and they're looking for ideas from the community to help formalise the direction in which to take it.
Ideas thrown around at the meeting included film nights for kids, foreign film nights with corresponding cuisines, giving the club a retro 1950's feel to suit its heritage, bowls games for wedding guests between service and reception, dancing lessons, cards and games nights and serving food that is different to what's already on offer in the village.
"The club has huge potential as a place for locals to hold events and as a destination for visitors," Mr Manuel said. "We need volunteers to help out here as well either behind the bar or with the general operation of the club."
HAVE YOUR SAY:
Mark Logan
Started working in newspapers in the 1990's in the darkroom of the Pastoral Times in Deniliquin before moving to Millthorpe in 2003. Soon after arriving I started as a photographer at the CWD. Now a journalist at the Blayney Chronicle.
Started working in newspapers in the 1990's in the darkroom of the Pastoral Times in Deniliquin before moving to Millthorpe in 2003. Soon after arriving I started as a photographer at the CWD. Now a journalist at the Blayney Chronicle.
