Presidents Annual Report

The past year has been one of great changes for me personally,
I am most grateful for the help and friendship of the members of our club.
I believe we have achieved a great deal during the past year, not all of it so easily noticed by those attending club meetings and events. There have been some committee meetings during the past year, but the absolute need for such meetings has been greatly reduced by larger involvement of committee members and our general membership in deciding what was needed at our club. There needs have mostly been met due to the hard work of mainly a central core of membership.
The field activities of the club have been handled extremely well by Vice President Mal, and I feel that we owe him a great deal of thanks for his
enthusiasm and work effort. It would be remiss of me if I do not mention the assistance given to Mal by both Dan and Max. I believe that we are all most fortunate to have these three men as members of our club for without them we would not enjoy all the facilities that we do.
The I.F.A.A. Course has proven to be popular and will prove to be of great benefit to all those who wish to improve their shooting skills wether for target or hunting activities.
We can as members enjoy all the games played by the A.B.A., and the club has proved the benefit of being able to practise all these forms of archery by the success of our members at events attended around the country. The manning club has always had a great reputation for results at Association events, and I for one am pleased to see that the tradition continues to this day.
A very special thanks must go to Karl Peck for his tireless efforts in providing the members with an ever improving 3D game. Karl’s efforts
over the years have been phenomenal and one only has to see the faces of those who come off the 3D ranges to know that his efforts are greatly appreciated by all.
The club ranges continue to evolve; the small but constant changes stop us all from becoming to complacent with things and help to keep us on our toes. The ranges that the club now has are enough to suit the needs of our members. And can accommodate a Branch shoot with little trouble. If the club was looking to host an I.F.A.A. Shoot, we would need to , at a minimum, put in another 14 targets.
Wes has been our range captain and has kept the ranges in good condition. While the targets have been Wes’s responsibility, it is not necessary for him to do all the work.
It is the Responsibility of every club member to assist Wes with this work, unfortunately this past year the range work has fallen mainly on the shoulders of some of our more chronologically advanced members. I would ask ALL members take a much more physical approach to the range work in the next twelve months.
I have often been asked if our club would ever host another national championship event. I have always said, “No”, this is not because our club is not capable of putting on such an event, because we are, but because it always rain here at Easter.
The club coach has been very active, and Rob and his assistants continue to provide help and good advice to all who ask. We are continually getting people coming to try our sport, and while our numbers do not show a great increase, the coaches have given many opportunities to at least experience the sport that we all do and enjoy. The club many years ago put into place a rule that only qualified persons may coach on the club grounds. This was done, not to say that the coaches were the end all of knowledge about archery, but to prevent members from being sued for giving out incorrect information.
I would also like to take this time to thank Dave and Rob for their assistance to members with their equipment problems.
Not all work done by committee is visible to all, people like Irene, Gail and Wendy do many hours of work that few get to see. Without the tireless efforts of these ladies we would not be functioning as a club. We also, all appreciate the clean amenities when we come out here, and we appreciate the fact that we always have targets ready and butts to but them on, this is not done by LITTE Elves, but by a couple of OGRES, they have been mentioned before, but what would we do without them.
Thanks must also go to the rest of the committee for their efforts, Mark, Stuart, Lyn and Garry who fill important rolls within our club. I suppose that I have the easiest job of all in that I, and the club, have a committee that has pulled and worked together this last year.
We as a club are now under more observation from State Forest then in previous times, and I feel that we as one of the largest clubs they have as tenants are their proving ground. I must admit that all the discussions have been friendly and informative. We do now however have to apply in writing and in advance for anything we wish to do.
To this end a plan of management is now being prepared in detail for State Forests of what the club wants to achieve within the next three years in relation to additional ranges or road works and to clearing out the stacks of rubbish in close proximity to the club buildings.
The work programme for the next twelve months is to be limited to what we as a club need for our members usage. This is to allow all of us to do what we came into the sport for, and that is to shoot our bows and arrows and to improve our own skills. I believe that we have most things we currently need to operate as an archery club, and anything additional would be to allow us to host additional levels of events.
I thank all those who have worked so hard during the past year. And also thank my wife and family for allowing me to continue doing what I love and enjoy. To the committee, my sincere thanks for all your efforts.

Yours in Archery

Robert T Wilson
Club President