2018 AGM President's Report

Hi everyone,

I am pleased to announce that at yesterday’s Snooker and Billiards NSW AGM, the following people were officially elected onto the Board as Directors: Alex Render, Dave Waller, Jeff Farrugia, Carlie Tait and Bill Chan.

The current constitution allows for 4-7 Directors so we do have 2 casual vacancies. I would be interested to hear from anyone out there who would like to get involved. The new Board will have its first meeting later this month.

Please find below the President’s report tabled at the meeting yesterday.

Billiards & Snooker Association of NSW President’s Report – for 2018

Presented by Alex Render to AGM 04/11/2018 @Ramsgate RSL Club, Ramsgate, Sydney, NSW

Firstly, I would like to thank all members for the opportunity to perform the role of President for the Billiards and Snooker Association of NSW for the last 18 months since the last AGM. And thank you to everyone who has attended tonight’s AGM.

Our last AGM was held in February 2017. The reason for such a long-time frame in between AGM meetings was due to the Association adopting a new constitution to align with other sporting bodies across NSW. One of the features of this constitution was also to change the financial year from a calendar year to one running from 1st July to 30th June.

Whilst on the subject of the constitution, I would like to call out the incredible effort that was involved in putting this together and this would not have been achieved without the personal contributions of Gary Knight from the Central Coast. The constitution allows us to operate in current times rather than the status quo. The new governance means that we now longer have the concepts of President, Secretary and Treasurer or Committee Members. Instead, the membership votes on a number of Directors who then in turn elect their Chairman for the year. To support the governance, we have created a number of role descriptions which will assist in positioning volunteers into the right roles under some structure.

In addition to the role of President, I am currently performing the roles of Treasurer and Media Officer. I also hold the position of NSW Executive on the ABSC and the National Media Officer role.

Some of the highlights for the last 12-18 months I would like to highlight:

1.      The Association successfully managed all of it’s key State Titles for Snooker and Billiards including the staging of the second Ian Chappell Snooker Classic at Blacktown Workers in July. Special thanks to everyone involved in running these events in particular Dave Waller, Stuart Tait, Carlie Tait and Jeff Farrugia. Also to Steve Cowie from the South Coast for running various Billiards tournaments. Most of the events have also been live streamed through the year and a big thanks to Neville Moore who has managed to improve the quality after every event as well as maintain his refereeing activity.

2.      For the second year in a row NSW also hosted the NSW Hall of Fame during the Ian Chappell Snooker event. Again, this was supported by a black-tie dinner and attended by close to 130 people. Congratulations to Michael Pearson and Roger Farebrother who were inducted for 2018. Horace Lindrum was inducted as the legendary player and his Daughter Jan Lindrum was there to accept the prestigious award.

3.      Earlier this year we decided to invest and revamp the NSW website which was originally developed in 2008. This is our number one channel to promote snooker and billiards so it was well worth the investment. As part of the launch, we will now be promoting the site using the following names – www.snookernsw.com and www.billiardsnsw.com rather than the old BSA NSW name. This is to reflect the name change to Snooker and Billiards NSW Inc. Aside from adding value to our members, the website will also provide some efficiency to the way we administer our sport.

4.      We have also started to use Google G-Suite for online storage of the Associations key information. This means that as new people join the team, they will have access to the same level of information rather than it being stored on personal hard drives.

5.      We successfully applied for the standard $5,000 government grant as well as submitting grant proposals for up to $50,000 for a number of potential tournaments. We are yet to receive confirmation of the outcome.

6.      I mentioned earlier around the adoption of the new constitution which was a great achievement.

7.      We have created 6 new role descriptions that will be made available on the website. These roles are as follows:

a.      Director of Finance

b.      Director of ICT and Media

c.      Director of Operations and Governance

d.      Director of Sponsorship and Revenue

e.      Director of Sports Development

f.       Director of Tournaments and Events

8.      The Association invested in a new online Accounting system – Quickbooks which allows us to better manage our finances and generate real time reports for all our events.

I would like to thank all of the team who have each in their own way contributed their valuable time and resources to supporting Snooker and Billiards in NSW. The team includes Dave Waller, Jeff Farrugia, Carlie Tait, Stuart Tait, Todd Hayward, Neville Moore and Bill Chan. Although only for a short while, thank you to Diana Ackary for undertaking the role of Treasurer. Unfortunately, she decided to resign in June and handed over the Treasurer responsibility to me. It hasn’t been easy, but I have managed to learn the ropes and juggle the tasks along with my other duties. The NSW Billiards Sub-Committee have also played a great role in the promotion of Billiards in NSW. Well done team.

Thank you to all the clubs across NSW that continue to get behind Snooker and Billiards. The number of clubs that have supported our Sport in 2018 has been maintained although we are still seeing venues losing their tables which is a significant risk. The clubs and venues that continue to value their community have held onto their Snooker rooms and the Association needs to be committed as a whole to build and strengthen these relationships.

Without mentioning any specific names, I personally congratulate all the players who have supported events in our State, nationally and internationally. To those who have had successes, well done and I hope that you can build on these in 2019.

I look forward to working with everyone in 2019 and seeing some new faces on our team.

Alex Render

President B&SA of NSW

5th November 2018