Minister Richard Face stating the Community Chest was inspirational in the CDSE now called club ’ s grants .
At Singleton Diggers , we were able to purchase former park land from council to establish the second premises , Alroy Park Complex and the club received a category three Club ’ s grant of $ 838,000.00 .
Suggestions I had made to the industry years ago were scoffed at but now are a reality : a club ’ s fighting fund , club ’ s annual conference be held at the same venue for three years ( it was rotated between Sydney & country clubs at the time .) The suggestion was made at the conference held at Central Coast Leagues . My third suggestion was made at a meeting at NSW Leagues Club when the industry ’ s poker machine taxes were about to increase . I ’ d suggested that when we have a common enemy the industry should join forces with the AHA . Again , I was scoffed at but now it occurs .
The one piece of advice I would give an upcoming manager would be to be visionary - go with your gut feel and be true to yourself . I started in the industry as a Secretary Manager . At the time I think I was the youngest in the state . Prior to that I worked for a firm of accountants specialising amongst other things , club auditing & hotel accounting .
I ’ ve been a Rotarian for 30 years and in 2009 led a Rotary Group Study Exchange Team to Italy . I ’ ve been an assistant governor for three years and district chair of the Rotary Foundation ( Rotary ’ s charity ) for three years and achieved record levels of donations yet to be matched . The Directors of Singleton Diggers allowed me to accept the position of District Governor for 2014-2015 whilst still working . I ’ m currently the Charter President of a new Rotary Club , Singleton Sunrise , which I established .
I was a keen lawn bowler before giving it away to become a rugby union referee when my son started to play rugby . I served on Singleton Junior Rugby Club Committee and one year as Director of the licensed club . I ’ ve managed representative rugby union teams from under 12 ’ s to under 21 ’ s . My rugby refereeing highlight was not on the field but rather when a highly respected former member of the world referee ’ s appointment board requested a copy of a speech I delivered to the Newcastle Rugby Referees Association .
In the past , I ’ ve been active in my parish on the finance committee . Now I have another role within the parish . The church has a particular lay movement and I was fortunate to serve as president at diocesan and national levels .
I am currently a member of Singleton Council ’ s Australia Day Committee and Council ’ s Internal Audit Committee . I served a term as president of Singleton ’ s tourism committee and as president of the Wine and Rose Festival and have served as treasurer and acting president of Singleton Mercy Home ’ s fundraising committee . Finally , there ’ s my family , two married sons , one married daughter and three grandsons one of whom is a special needs child . My partner has two married daughters and four grandchildren .
SPOTLIGHT ON PETER REDDING General Manager , Maroubra Seals 46 years with the CMAA
When I commenced work at Maroubra Seals Club back in 1971 it was a completely different world . Man had landed on the moon only two years prior , the Vietnam War was all happening and the Seals Club had just completed the building of a new Club which had just opened .
In those days Clubs were the only ones with 24 hour trading seven days a week and Hotels closed at 10pm and had no Sunday trading and there were no Bottle Shops like today .
The grand opening of the new Seals Club turned out to be a riot , remember there was no such thing as responsible service of alcohol and the Secretary Manager was the industry legend George Wintle who quickly realised that they would require more security to protect the Club and the $ 1 million invested by members who received a return of 9 %. ( I doubt today you could raise $ 1 million from existing members of a club ).
Subsequently I was approached to provide security at the Club . At 22 it was really the first time I had been in a Club . I had never entered any Club before because at that time you had to be 21 to be a member . On commencing work I was very impressed with the Club culture which was strongly community based and the Club like other Clubs was the centre of all social activities and entertainment .
In my journey over the last 46 years some of the highlights have been seeing Johnny O ’ Keefe live in our auditorium who without doubt was someone with a very special aura together with other great Australian Rock and Roll bands of the late 70 ’ s and 80 ’ s such as the Angels , Australian Crawl , INXS , Midnight Oil to name just a few . The auditorium would be full with 1,500 fans packed in as sardines and the floor strewn with empty cans and plastic glasses together with humidity flowing down the walls , the atmosphere was electric .
Some of the highlights shared with members of the Club over the years was watching coloured TV for the first time , the guilty verdict of Lindy Chamberlain “ The dingo took my baby ”, Darwin ’ s Cyclone Tracey and the election of the Labor Party in 1973 .
The only really major disaster was in 2012 when as a result of a fire starting in a sauna that subsequently causing damage in excess of $ 8 million . However , on a positive note ,
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