Snowy River Ski Club

Good morning to both old and new members and welcome to the 2010 AGM. I understand it’s not always easy to set aside time to attend these meetings when  there is no obvious immediate benefit, but I would encourage everyone to attend to keep up to date with how their lodge is begin managed.

Let me take this opportunity to thank the people who keep the club running, firstly members of the board, and secondly those members who contribute in other ways, maintaining the club’s website, running the member’s wine club and getting quotes for improvement works. Please don’t feel you have nothing to contribute, even making a few phone calls to chase up information is much appreciated.

The most visible recent change to the Lodge area is only really visible in summer. The NPWS has continued their program of road improvements in the area and over the summer has sealed the access track at the front of the Lodge, adding guttering and a retaining wall. This work caused a few problems with work party access, but it is a valuable improvement to the area.

You will have received Tony Slatyer’s report with the AGM papers and they are a good statement of what has been done over the course of the year and work still to be done. We have been working on the deck reconstruction for about 18 months now, sadly it has taken longer than we had expected, primarily because of the approval process. We hope that this work can be done during the next summer season, approvals permitting.

Also included with the AGM papers are the financial statements which David will discuss. If I can summarise his analysis of our position we are approximately ‘neutral’ with regard to income and expenditure, which generally is about where we want to be. However as David indicates, we are exposed to some risk with regard to unexpected expenses. Increasing the annual subscription to manage this risk will be discussed at the AGM today, so please consider carefully David’s analysis.

Finally, I’m pleased to be able to highlight Tony’s point about Fire safety work. Largely due to foresight some years ago, the lodge already has an effective sprinkler system, although see Tony’s note about improving it. This, coupled with some comparatively minor improvements we’ve diligently undertaken means the NPWS is satisfied with our Health and Safely Audit response. This has been a major preoccupation for the board over the last two years so it is very satisfying to see this drawing to a close. Thank you to all the board members and particularly to Tony Slatyer and work party attendees for the work they have done on this.

Peter Newton, Chairman
May 2010