SYDNEY ROWING CLUB LIMITED 2017 ANNUAL REPORT 147TH ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 2016 – 2017 SYDNEY ROWING CLUB ANNUAL REPORT 2017 SYDNEY ROWING CLUB LIMITED OFFICE BEARERS 2016 – 2017 PATRON His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Ret’d) Governor of New South Wales PRESIDENT Keith Jameson OAM VICE PRESIDENTS Stephen Handley Michael Morgan OAM CAPTAIN Paul Coates (Part year) Simon Nola (Part year) VICE CAPTAIN Kendall Brodie FINANCE DIRECTOR Scott Turner DIRECTORS Kirsten Liljeqvist, David Sollom, Susanne Thiebe GENERAL MANAGER Peter Grosvenor HEAD COACH Donovan Cech 3 SYDNEY ROWING CLUB ANNUAL REPORT 2017 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE GENERAL MANAGER’S REPORT We are enjoying a very pleasing I am pleased to report that the period of success and stability in our club has experienced another rowing program. Success is not successful year both on and off the achieved overnight. It is the outcome of many years of effort on the part of water. our competitors, coaches and I congratulate the coaches and administrators. I congratulate all athletes on their excellent efforts involved in the club’s program in this year which have produced recent years and their efforts leading some outstanding results. I to the successes that are set out in encourage you to read the this report. Captain’s report for the full details The club again received the award of Champion Club of Australia, based on of this year’s successes. the results achieved at the National It has been a busy year for Championships. Our members were the Club with various projects prominent on the podium at all levels being completed. This included of competition over the course of the regatta. substantial funds invested into the ongoing repairs and maintenance The club was also successful in some key iconic events in the regatta to the boat shed including the replacement of the pontoon, an calendar, including the Champion Men’s Eights of NSW, the Riverview extension of our Lounge bar facility and the development of a new Gold Cup, the Champion Men’s Pair of Australia, and the Champion Men’s Sculls of Australia (last won for SRC by Ted Hale in 1982). Especially dining offer, The Smoking Goat. pleasing is the steady progress we are making with our women’s program, The Lounge bar extension opened in November 2016. The increased with strong performances at the NSW and National Championships. capacity has allowed us the ability to provide higher levels of service Sydney Rowing Club was again very well represented in Interstate and efficiency to our members resulting in five of the preceding six International competition. A key outcome this year was the win of the months achieving record trading and contributed to a record Lounge NSW eight in the King’s Cup, coached by our Head Coach Don Cech and bar trading result for the financial year. with four of our members in the crew. Our success was achieved during a period of change at the National level, The Smoking Goat restaurant opened in May 2016. While starting Rowing Australia having instituted organisational changes, changes in strong and achieving record results over the Christmas period it personnel, and changes in its program. We were pleased that our leading unfortunately did not deliver the expected results. The performance members were successful in gaining entry to the new National Training highlighted the downward trend of formal dining being experienced Centres, in Canberra for men and in Penrith for women. It was very within the industry and the challenges of providing a specialised pleasing, too, that under the new rowing administration at RA, the NTC dining experience and an event location within such a large space. athletes were able to compete in club crews at the National Regatta, thus Work has now commenced on transforming this space to be included giving the regatta greater relevance and meaning to the clubs and their into a “whole of club” ultimate casual dining experience which is due athletes. This was a great decision that brought the rowing community for completion in September 2017. together. In the boatshed, we have continued our program of repairs and The club’s gaming facilities continued to perform at consistent levels. maintenance to the building, adding substantially to our rowing costs this Membership subscription levels were close to 14,000. Interestingly, season. industry research shows that the average memberships for similar We continue to review the club’s fleet and equipment and again this year sized clubs as ours within the Sydney region are attracting an average made necessary purchases to give our rowing members the best chance to of 5,000 members. We should take great confidence that SRC is be successful. continuing to provide a popular destination where membership is Financially, the club had a very satisfactory year, with pleasing patronage valued. of the club’s lounge bar and restaurants. We very much appreciate the support we receive from the local community. Looking further to the future, it is expected in the next financial Our long and successful collaboration with our caterers, Con and Kerrie year to see some strong progress on the masterplan as we firm up Dedes, continues to provide lasting benefits for the club. We thank them the finer details of our next building stage. This stage is expected to and their staff for their close co-operation and strong commitment to provide an increase to clubhouse, rowing and car parking facilities quality and service. During the year, Con and Kerrie exercised their option for our members. to extend the agreement with the club for a further five years. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Con and Kerrie Dedes We are grateful to our General Manager Peter Grosvenor and his staff who and their team for delivering such a wonderful dining experience and work hard to make our club house successful. being such a professional team for the club to align with. Meeting We regularly review the operation of our licensed club. Last year we customers’ expectations within the current market is becoming replaced the front windows of the main restaurant with sliding windows, increasingly difficult and Con and Kerrie should be commended for and expanded the main bar. This year we are making further changes to the building, and these are currently under way. These changes will allow exceeding this. us to expand, streamline and improve our dining facilities. It is important to thank the exceptional SRC Board, management and Separately we are working on a long-term master plan which will involve staff who are strongly committed to the club, are passionate about expansion of the spaces and improvements in the facilities we provide to our product and consistently provide high levels of support to both members. myself and the members. Our refurbishments in the club house and in the boatshed, and our upgrades to the club’s fleet, have been carried out with funds generated Finally, I thank the members for their ongoing support of SRC and through current cash flow without the need to borrow money. look forward to an exciting year to come. The Board has appointed a subcommittee to begin planning the Peter Grosvenor celebrations for the club’s Sesquicentenary year in 2020. The celebrations will include a Sesquicentenary Regatta and a Sesquicentenary Dinner, and General Manager we plan to republish Sydney Rows, the club’s Centennial History, with an update for the 50 years 1970 to 2020. I wish to thank my Board colleagues for their efforts over the year. Our directors work hard for the club, attending two Board meetings most months, plus subcommittees, and the club’s long-term success owes much to the dedicated work of our Board. We are looking forward to the new rowing season. We know we must not rest on our laurels. Our sport is highly competitive and other clubs are keen to beat SRC at every opportunity. This can only be to the benefit of the sport. I wish all our members the best of success. Keith Jameson President 4 SYDNEY ROWING CLUB ANNUAL REPORT 2017 HONORARY LIFE MEMBERSHIP Domestically both Spencer and Alex have done very well. Spencer rowed in the winning King’s Cup Eight in 2013 and was joined The club’s Board has recommended that Honorary Life Membership by Alex in the state crew in 2017 when NSW won for the seventh be conferred upon three outstanding members who have time in a row. With two second places to Victoria in 2015 and 2016, been prominent in the sport over the past Olympiad, and great Spencer and Alex were proud to claim the King’s Cup back in 2017 ambassadors for the club. with a dominant display of rowing from a crew that included club Chris Morgan is an outstanding mates Angus Moore and Ed White. Spencer and Alex have had great oarsman. He is a world champion success in the pair with podium finishes at the NSW and National in sculling and in sweep and has Championships every year from 2013-2016. represented Australia in six World With consistently solid Championships (2005, 2006, 2007, performances at selection trials 2010, 2011, 2014) and three throughout the Olympiad, they Olympic Games (2008, 2012, were selected into the Australian 2016). Chris moved from Adelaide Men’s Four in 2013 which won to Sydney after winning a bronze silver, gold and silver medals at medal in the 2012 Olympic Games World Cups I, II and III in the Men’s Quad. The success of respectively. They finished the year our program since then owes with a Silver Medal at the World much to the high level of athletic Championships in Chungju, South ability and leadership that Chris Korea.