The year under review has been a difficult one, with the economy giving us frequent cause for concern. The impact of these troubled conditions has had an impact on the Club. This has taken the form of more troubled trading conditions, and these have shown themselves to some degree in the life of the Club. Signs of this have ranged from slightly more erratic patterns of usage of the Club by a proportion of its members, to amarked shrinkage in functions trade. The latter was especially noticeable in the course of the year. Despite this economic environment, in which a number of university clubs nationally have found themselves in dire financial straits and in some cases have closed (or are on the verge of doing so), the University of Adelaide Club has managed to turn in a solid result in the period under review. More importantly, we have maintained a high quality of services to our members and their guests. It is most reassuring to note how hard and loyally the Club staff, under the careful and astute management of Mr Thomas O'Gorman, have worked in order to allow us to record another positive year of operation, and to do so under such challenging conditions.
And in difficult times such as these, it is also especially important to acknowledge the loyalty and patronage of the members themselves. Our Club continues to provide the University, its present and former staff and postgraduate students with an enviable environment within which so many important conversations, contacts and work-related functions take place. And, as you will doubtless recognise, it remains the nicest of places in the city to relax and spread some good cheer.
It had been my hope to report positively on our venture into serving the broader University community with coffee and snacks via the new entrance to our Terrace Garden. Unfortunately, this has not developed in the way we would have hoped, and in part this has been the result of the Terrace being very hard to spot from Hughes Plaza. Planning for the transformation of the latter into a key hub at the University has recently been pursued in a more sustained fashion, and we hope to be able to lock into this in a solid way in due course. In the meantime, we will, of course, continue to provide the coffe eservice in its current modest form. Given the financial conditions that persist in making our lives, as well as the Club's, uneasy ones, it would not be prudent to do more at this stage. However, your Committee and the Management of the Club are very much alive to the potential that a redevelopment of Hughes Plaza represents for us, and we are determined to be fully engaged in delivering additional services to the University when this becomes possible. But be assured that members' interests will remain paramount in any development that emerges in this regard.
In my annual report I have from time-to-time made an observation of how pleasantly surprised visitors are when they come in to observe us socialising and dining nestled comfortably between shelves and cases of excellent wine. The novelty that these visitors observe, and remark on so positively, is also very much a symbol and attraction of the Club as an institution. May this long be the case! It remains for me, therefore, to thank members for their continued support in perpetuating this attractive feature, and my colleagues on Committee, who have helped steer the Club through some decidedly choppy waters in the past year.
Felix Patrikeeff
(Chair)
21 May 2009
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