President:

President Donald welcomed us to Keysborough Golf Club and the stableford competition for the David Vine Trophy. He asked all present to thank the club for the use of their facilities, and their generous donation of our main raffle prize. The weather outlook was anything but promising, with heavy showers and cold winds being present all around the Melbourne area today. The amazing thing is that against all the odds, we all played 18 holes with hardly a drop of rain in the Keysborough area. The course was in relatively good condition although there was water underfoot in some areas of the course.  Fairways and greens were in good order as per usual at Keysborough. The lunchtime sandwiches were excellent and the clubhouse facilities were thoroughly enjoyed by the members. Donald expressed his thanks to Stan Odachowski, Chris Tierney and Noel Valle for their excellent company.

Under the stewardship of Daryl Edwards and John Hiscock our raffle continues to be a successful source of club funds. These funds are used directly to keep our matchday costs competitive (green fees, lunch) so please continue to support our raffle.

Number of Players / Guests:

We had a good turnout today, with 59 players involved in the competition despite there being a large number of apologies. There were 2 guests today, Alan Logan as a guest of Laurie Comerford and John Hendrie who is a guest of Bruce Keenan. Both Alan and John joined the Vets today so we wish them a very warm welcome and many years of enjoyable golf at the club.  Both received complimentary golf balls as is the custom.

Apologies:

There were 22 apologies this month:
Al Abraham, Peter Bimbi, Trevor Bottomley, Rex Buckeridge, Bernie Coyle, Gary Finnis, Rod Goode, David Heraud, Mike Hoyle, Roger Huxstep, Alex Johnson, Karl Lindberg, Alan Millard, Roger Prewett, Ian Richards, George Robinson, Declan Stephenson, Christopher Thorne, Malcolm Turner, Kelvin Tyler, Ray Underwood, Neil Wilson.  There were also late withdrawals from Bill Frey and Colin Wiseman, both being crook.

Starters today:

Donald and the members thanked Roger Selwood, Philip Horsburgh, Donnie Barber and Keith Aldridge who got us all away with the shotgun start, in good order. Well done guys!   Please take pride in your club and always ensure that you "keep up with the group in front of you". That is the number one priority we have in terms of efficient golf. ('ready golf')  Special thanks were given to both Harold Hayes and Peter Ross for their hard work in making the registration of players, and the speedy efficient dispatch of playing groups such a success. President Donald recorded his thanks to both Harold and Peter.

Roger Selwood made a very valid point in stressing to members that the much improved starting process relies very heavily on members being ready to play at the alloted time, especially those on carts as any delay causes a domino effect on playing groups.  Please be ready for say 7.45am if that is the time advised by the Captain.

As previously mentioned, we cannot proceed without volunteers to run these events every month, so please consider helping out as a starter, as it is a bit of fun and you will get to know so many more members of the club. Please help your Club.

Membership News:

Our next golfing event will be a stableford competition at Southern GC, on Monday 1st July, 2019 at 8am for the Alf Jones trophy.  The booking sheet was circulated during our lunchtime. The online booking system is also available now.

President Donald also reminded us of the upcoming Winter Classic event at Eagle Ridge GC on the Mornington Peninsula. This will be held on Monday July 15th at Eagle Ridge in addition to our normal monthly event at Southern GC on Monday July 1st.  It is a 4 man Ambrose team event. The booking sheet for this event was passed around at lunch and the online booking system is also open.  The matchday fee for Eagle Ridge is $50 which covers green fees, a cart and a hot lunch. Because of the carts and catering involved each member needs to pay their $50 up front, either today at Keysborough or next month at Southern.  Please see our Treasurer, David Vine with your payment.  The arrival time at Eagle Ridge is usually at 7.30am so please allow a little more travel time than usual.

For the 2 events, June at Keysborough and July at Southern, we extended an invitation for any of the member's wives, partners, or their lady friends to come along as guests and try out the Vets monthly competitions, with a possibility of membership down the track.  Lindsay Quennell's wife Faye, was the only person to put her hand up for Keysborough.  The President thanked Faye for being willing to give it a try. Hopefully that opportunity will arise again in the months ahead.  Donald asked for feedback from the members but not much was on offer. He left it open for members to contact Harold Hayes directly by call /text or email to voice their opinions.

The President put this initiative in the context of a desire within the Committee to grow our membership from around 90 to around 120 members, regardless of gender, which is not really the issue, although the introduction of lady members will need to be worked through over time. It is to give this great club a stable platform on which to manage the real challenges that we and indeed many other golf clubs have to face, such as rising costs, membership attrition, the best possible matchday experience for our members in terms of courses accessed, commercial pricing and matchdays where the Vets have sole use of a golf course and its facilities over the 4 to 5 hours of our competition and the subsequent social gathering which sets us apart from some other social golf clubs.

CoM Business:

Every second month this report summarises the business matters being addressed by your Committee of Management.

No meeting in June. Next CoM meeting is on July 1st.

Special Achievements:

In the past month or so, we have noted the following successes (in no particular order);

• Bruce Keenan, one of our new members, was a member of the Yarraview team that won the 2019 VGL Division 1 Pennant Flag on Sunday 26th May.  That's a terrific win Bruce!
  
• Another success also involves 2 of our new members, John Hendrie and once again Bruce Keenan. They had a superb day out at a recent Rotary event at Kingston Heath, finishing as runners-up with a par-score of plus 7!!  Great golf guys!!
  
• Bill Dooley won the June Brighton Club Medal on Saturday June 1st with a score of 9 up off a h/cap of 24. Impressive scoring to say the least, congratulations go to Bill and it's good to see him back at the Vets!   This Bill is a winner unlike the other 'Bill' bloke that has been going around in recent weeks.
• We finish with a very special achievement not gained on the golf course, but very significant nonetheless. Our member, Peter Ross has just been appointed the President of the VGL.   Fantastic achievement Rossy!!
  

Congratulations to all our Vets winners.
Thanks go to all those who contributed the information.

Vets Web Site :

The May newsletter was delayed due to Laurie's computer ceasing to work. Laurie is still busy setting up the new computer. The website itself is unaffected by this. A further update should be due in July.

Question time :

A question regarding the Ambrose Rules at Eagle Ridge was resolved by our Captain to the effect that the standard Ambrose rules will apply, not the Holden Scramble rules.

President Donald then handed over to our Captain, Harold Hayes.