Chair's Report 2010
It might be said from the outset that the year 2009-2010 was one of the more eventful in many years, and certainly in my term as chair. Your Committee began the reporting year in the fear that the global economic downturn might continue to have some serious financial implications for the Club. These turned out to be only marginal ones, and we ended the year in a very solid financial state, indeed with a welcome profit. Thanks are very much due to our General Manager, Tom O'Gorman, and, as importantly, the outstanding support of our members and friends. However, a different crisis soon overtook the Club, which members present today will be well aware of. I think that it would be fair to say that your Committee, much reinforced by the vigorous, and largely spontaneous lobbying and petitioning of many Club members and the associations that use its facilities (for which our heartfelt thanks are extended to you all), have turned a very difficult situation into an opportunity. We took over the catering contract for North Terrace Campus in February, and this has been functioning well. Again, our sincere thanks are owed to Mr O'Gorman who skilfully and determinedly established operations with very little lead time in hand. Ms Rita Keig is owed a great vote of thanks for not only managing day-to-day work at the Club, but also for her major contribution to maintaining control of the very large quantity of invoices stemming from our expanded operations. While Tom was engaged in steering the new operations, your Committee was involved in the negotiations leading to an outcome for the future of the Club. Those of you who have seen the physical results of these negotiations will recognise that we have had a more than acceptable outcome in that area too. The new Club premises are sparkling, and provide us with the opportunity to build up our functions trade in ways which were all but impossible just a year ago. 2010-2012 will be watershed years for us, and we should be, and are, ready to make the most of these to shore up the long-term future of our Club. We should thank the Vice-Chancellor, Professor James McWha, for his expressed support of the Club and its important role in University life and community. His contributions to steering the negotiations to a conclusion have been important ones, and they are gratefully acknowledged. Equally, the Vice-President (Services & Resources) Mr Paul Duldig's early suggestion that we might contemplate applying for the catering contract on North Terrace Campus was a most valuable one, and we should acknowledge that too.
Universities are as much about students as they are about its staff, research and related activities. The Club has long recognised this, and has worked hard to encourage postgraduate students to treat the Club as their own. This has resulted in successive generations of postgraduates completing their studies, and going on to maintain their membership and links with the Club. Many have related to me how important the Club was to their years of solitary research. We have built on these, developing further important links with the AUU, which has been most generous of spirit and support in our finding our legs in the new operating environment. Special thanks are due to Mr Fletcher O'Leary, its current President, and Mr David Coluccio, its General Manager. We are now neighbours more than just in the physical sense!
The University of Adelaide has expressed the view that it wishes to develop partnerships in its further development. The University of Adelaide Club is, in my view, a valuable model in how such partnerships are developed and maintained. The idea of a 'deal on a handshake' and all that this implies is one that is based on trust and generosity of spirit. No amount of detailed clauses and sub-clauses can substitute for this in forging a partnership that lasts and is fully productive. In working with members and associates on the matter of the Club's future, I have been struck by how important the human side of business is. Equally, in terms of the relationships that the Club has forged with its existing staff and those who have supplemented their ranks for the purposes of the Operating Agreement with the University. Our own long-serving staff members have stood by us, made sacrifices and bore the uncertainties that we ourselves experienced in the past eight months. All, I daresay, have finally been supported by nothing more than the assurance of the metaphorical handshake between the Club and them. Rita, Rod, Kat, Berny, Jose and Ben deserve our thanks for having borne the turbulence of past months, and, even with the eleventh-hour hiccough occurring last week, managed against considerable odds to set us up for the recommencement of business last Tuesday, as scheduled. A very special thank-you to them all!
Felix Patrikeeff
(Chair)
27 May 2010
