It has come to my attention that some people are stating that the Club spent $30K on the surfboat the Club purchased 3 seasons ago (currently in its 4th season) and they believe that it is unfair that the Club spent that much of the members money on a surfboat.
The following is the history of how the Club came to purchase the white surfboat.
The Club had not purchased a new surfboat since 1999. In 2003, the boat captain at the time approached the Board and asked if a percentage of the Clubs annual profit could be put towards the purchase of a new surfboat every 6 years. The Board rejected this proposal, but agreed to establish a future fund where money was allocated, but not physically saved, to go towards the purchase of equipment, a surfboat being one piece of equipment the future fund would support. The funds allocated in the future fund were reported each year in the annual report.
In 2016, Charter Hall approached the Club wanting to sponsor it to the value of $20K. After discussions with Charter Hall, the board agreed that the $20K would go towards a new surfboat. This decision was inline with Charter Halls expectations. A new surfboat costs $27K. At the time, the future fund had $12K allocated in it. So the Club took out $7K from the future fund to purchase, along with the $20K sponsorship from Charter Hall, a new surfboat (the clubs first since 1999), which they purchased in 2018. So the Club spent $7K of Club funds, which had been saved over a 14 year period.
The Club was able to get transport of the boat from the boat builder in QLD, to the Club for free from Allied Pickfords.
The Club has always been supportive of surfsports and over the years has purchased several new boards and ski’s, IRB racing props etc. In the gear shed at the moment is well over $45K of surfsport’s equipment, excluding surfboats.
The contribution to the Club by the surfsports community in the areas of patrolling, training, assessing, abalone, special event water safety, support operations, age group managers, Directors etc is huge and it is disappointing that some people want to focus on one area of the Club, that contributes a lot back to the Club, without taking the time to understand the history behind it. This behavior is not in line with the Clubs values.
Thank you.
Brendan Privilege
Director of Surfsports.