August 6 - 12, 2017: Issue 324

108th Annual General Meeting for Newport Surf Life Saving Club

Newport SLSC new Life Members L to r: Craig Holland, Sandy Menzies and John Guthrie - photo by Julie Hegarty
The 108th Annual General Meeting for Newport Surf Life Saving Club Inc was held on Sunday, 30 July 2017 at 3pm, in the Robin Cale Clubroom at Newport Surf Club, Barrenjoey Road Newport.

The Meeting included the induction of three new life members; Sandy Menzies, John Guthrie and Craig Holland.

Craig represents some Newport Surf Club history as his father John Holland Snr. receiving his L/M in 1986, his younger brother John Jnr (Jack) receiving his in 2001 and now Craig in 2017. Another family with club three Life Members are the late Bert King OAM, June King and Michael King. 

Sandy Menzies also joins Doug as a Life Member(A family that Surf Clubs together stays together) which really shows that Newport are a family club.
 
Also in the Distinguished Service Member category this year's awardee was Leanne Budd who joins her husband Brett as a DSM of the Club. They also have adult children in the club being Lauren and Joel.
 
In the Outstanding Service Member category Newport have five new inductees; Alan Channells,Tom Kellaway, Rudi Valla as well as Jess and Kieran Menzies who are the adult children of Sandy and Doug Menzies.

Presidents Report - Newport SLSC 2016-2017
It is my pleasure to present the 2016-17 Annual Report of the Newport Surf Lifesaving Club, our one hundred and eighth year of patrolling
Newport Beach.

A season that again has ensured through our well attended and effective patrols we have achieved our primary objective of “No Lives Lost” at Newport Beach.

It has been another fantastic season for our club and as a club we have excelled across all aspects of Surf Life Saving.
Some of our season highlights include:
  • Under the guidance of our Club Captain Rob Barkley, our patrolling strength and exceptional standard of patrols remains in my opinion the bench mark for Surf Life Saving. To further support my claim that Newport is the benchmark, Newport won the Lipton Ice Tea Patrol Assessment Competition held across all the clubs within the Sydney Northern Beaches Branch. To all the Newport patrolling members, thank you for your vigilance and service. Your patrolled have been outstanding.
  • Our instructors have done a magnificent job again this season under the guidance of our Chief Instructor Guyren Smith. This season 59 people successfully completed their bronze medallions, which is a fantastic effort. Further to this, 33 young members completed their Surf Rescue certificate and have joined our patrols.
  • The continual improvement philosophy that runs deep through the whole club, was sensationally illustrated by Peter Euers whom created an Inter Patrol competition and associated training videos that were then implemented across all our patrols. Congratulations to Patrol 6, the inaugural winners of this coveted club patrol award.
As a club, we had a busy year running events and we successfully hosted the Pub2Pub Finish Line Festival, the televised Summer of Surf carnival,
the Newport Surf Boat carnival, an episode of My Kitchen Rules on Newport Beach, Newport Senior and Junior Water Carnival, the Barefoot Ball fundraiser, our Sand Castle Competition and the Pool2Peak Ocean swim, again a great success.

We also hosted the Branch Championships for the water events from Nippers through to open competition, the Strokes that Matter event where our Open Men’s Ski team paddled their skis from Victoria across the Bass Strait to Tasmania raising money and awareness to target drowning prevention and surf awareness and the Canapes for a Cause fundraising event for our young First aid and CPR instructors heading off the East Timor to assist the village of Soibada with first aid training.

Really a fantastic effort by a huge number of Newport club members and volunteers to make this all happen with such great success.

Significant congratulations this season must go to Matt Halakas and his Junior Activities Committee, age managers and volunteers. Our Nippers program continues to be a great success and this season over 400 children joined Newport, having fun and most importantly, learning about surf safety and surf life saving each Sunday.

This year we also received acknowledgement that Jill and John Kinghorn will continue to support the Surf Racing Academy for a further seven years and
we are grateful beyond words for this very generous and significant contribution to our club. The commitment to future funding will see the club continue to build on our magnificent competition success and will continue to provide our young members interested in competition the opportunity to be the best that they can be. Thank you to Jill and John Kinghorn for continuing to believe in and invest in the Academy and our club members. We sincerely appreciate your generosity.

As a club, we achieved again great success in competition and some of the highlights included:
  • Georgia Miller, Jake Lynch and Dane Farrell - selection to represent Australia and compete in the World Championships in the Netherlands and our beach coach Marty Lynch reappointed the Australian Beach Coach. Club members Isaac Smith and Charlie Brooks made the Australian Youth Team and competed very successfully in the Netherlands.
  • Fourteen Newport members were selected in the Sydney Northern Beaches Branch Competition Team.
  • Six Newport Members were selected in in the NSW Team including our own Hannah Minogue as Captain.
  • Our Under 23 girls surf boat crew, the “Pistol Shrimp” were selected to represent NSW and then Australia in the Trans-Tasman Test held in New Zealand.
  • Maddie Spencer achieved her debut selection in the Nutri Grain Ironman series and joined our superstars Georgia Miller and Max Brooks in the series.
  • Newport achieved 1st place in the club point score in the televised “Summer of Surf” series.
  • Newport achieved 1st place in the open point score at the Branch Championships.
  • Newport achieved 1st place in the open point score at State Championships, for the 4th year in a row.
  • Newport achieved 4th place in the open point score at the disrupted Australian Championships.
  • At the Junior State Championships Newport finished in 15th place on overall point score, a fabulous result for our junior program.
  • Additionally, at the Sydney Northern Beach’s Branch Awards presentation evening, Newport SLSC won many awards including:
  • 1st Place Lipton Ice Tea Patrol Assessment Competition.
  • Sydney Northern Beaches U19 male surf boat premiership.
  • Bennett Boards Overall Handicap Point score.
  • Jake Lynch was awarded the Speedo Sydney Northern Beaches Competitor of the Year.
  • Adrian Hill was awarded the Bill Buckle Auto Group – Facilitator of the Year.
  • Newport Life Member Martin Lynch’s contribution to surf lifesaving was acknowledged with Martin receiving Life Membership of Sydney Northern Beaches Branch.
Newport has become a large and successful club with many fantastic volunteers. At the beginning of this season we identified that as a club, with a big
heart and a lot to offer, we could do more beyond our surf life saving commitments. I am proud of the club’s achievements outside of our surf life saving
focus including:
  • Highlighting of local charities in our Pub2Pub Finish Line Festival.
  • Providing substantial and much needed funding to Cystic Fibrosis through the Barefoot Ball and Castles in the Sand events.
  • Assisting the Northern Beaches Interchange with the running of their fundraising paddling event.
  • Raising funds and awareness for drowning prevention education.
  • Involvement in the Suicide Prevention Australia fundraiser event held at the club.
  • Partnering with the Pittwater Friends of Soibada, Newport Surf Life Saving club introduced an annual scholarship program for two young Bronze Medallion Trainers & Assessors to travel to East Timor with the Pittwater Friends of Soibada to provide first aid training
I would also like to take the opportunity to acknowledge this year’s Newport SLSC award winners, they are all wonderful club members who have contributed significantly to our club’s success and are all well deserving of this recognition.
  • Michael Hill Memorial Trophy – Clubman of the Year – Ben Matthews
  • Paul Stevens – Junior clubman of the Year – Nathan Doyle
  • Hans Trumm OAM – Award for Patrolling Excellence – Peter Euers
  • Peter Dawson – Best New Member – Jeremy Paul
  • Tom Guthrie – Rookie of the Year – Melisse Cooper
  • John Holland Snr – Committee Member of the Year – Kate Kilpatrick
  • Competitor of the Year – Blake Drysdale/Jake Lynch
  • Tim Francis Junior Competitor of the Year – Alex Lefevre
To the hard-working members of the Management Committee, the Newport Kinghorn Surf Racing Academy Board, Junior Activities Committee, Building Committee, Bar Committee, Sponsorship Committee, Board of Surf Sports, the Life Membership and Honours Committee and the Ocean Swim Committee, thank you for your efforts in the management of our now large and successful club.

So again, for the success of the season just past, I congratulate and thank every one of our members that spent time on patrol, represented our club in competition, undertook an additional award, nurtured our Nippers, trained new members, coached our athletes, worked at a social function or just bought a beer over the bar you have all contributed to the success of our club It was a fantastic year and the future is looking very bright for our continued success.

Finally, on behalf of all the Newport SLSC members, I would like to thank the generosity of all our highly valued sponsors. Without their assistance our club would not be the successful club we are today.

Rob Emerson
President
Newport SLSC