BOX HILL ATHLETIC CLUB INCORPORATED ANNUAL REPORT 2005 / 2006 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Committee wishes to acknowledge the support and assistance given to the Box Hill Athletic Club, both on and off the field, during 2005/2006 Thanks to our sponsors Stadium Sports, Benson’s EPS, Firm Solutions and Ethertech. Thank you to all the coaches and team managers for their ongoing support and to all who made donations to the Barlow Fund. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to all of the above and the many others who have assisted in a variety of ways. BOX HILL ATHLETIC CLUB INCORPORATED 2005-2006 ANNUAL REPORT OFFICE BEARERS PRESIDENT : Graeme Olden VICE PRESIDENT : Adam Pepper SECRETARY : Julie Milner TREASURER : Angela Robbie COMMITTEE MEMBERS : Joan Hines : Colin Organ : Simon Bromley : Fiona Buchanan : Leana Tilley : Cameron Joyce : Cameron Sherry * * * * * * * * * * * * COORDINATOR OF LIFE MEMBERS : Allan Barlow OAM AUDITOR : G K Ritchie & Associates Pty Ltd REGISTRAR : Angela Robbie VENUE DELEGATE : Joan Hines AV DELEGATES : Graeme Olden : Julie Milner : Joan Hines : Simon Bromley CLUB NEWS EDITOR : Cameron Baker * * * * * * * * * * * * TRACK CAPTAINS : Cameron Baker : Leana Tilley TEAM MANAGERS : Cathy Tilley : Chris O'Connor : Rob Falkenberg : Colin Goodwin : Elissa Ward * * * * * * * * * * * * Presented at the Annual General Meeting of the Box Hill Athletic Club Incorporated, conducted at Hagenauer’s Reserve, Barwon Street Box Hill on 11 July, 2006 LIFE MEMBERS 1960 : M Fraser + 1983 : P Mann + 1963 : G B Stringer + : A O Gusbeth 1964 : R Barlow + : A B Stewart : H Logan + 1984 : H J Summers : B Thorpe : S F Tutchener 1965 : A E Barlow : D Mann : J D Leach + : I Mann 1966 : R P Lees 1987 : J Hamilton + : W M Leach + : D Filling : J Grigg 1988 : K Armstrong : P Monahan : V Armstrong 1967 : M Carroll : F T Cron + 1968 : T C Kelly : G Crouch : R J Hansen : S Livingston : N R Twitt : M Wall : G Dell 1989 : I Jones 1969 : J Pekin 1990 : M Fielding 1971 : W Collins : J Towers : A J Fraser 1991 : L Armstrong 1972 : R E Beal : T Collie : R W Ramadge + : B Lewry 1973 : D A Barlow : C O'Connor : G J Duthie : I Sloane : R W Haywood 1992 : R Harrison : J D Ramadge : T Lucas : K T Routley : S Miller 1975 : N H Gardner : M Stewart 1977 : A G Chambers 1993 : D Cross : S J Fraser + : R Falkenberg : B J Layh : G Ford : W J Leach 1994 : J Collyer 1979 : J Hines : A Cross : D Cook : R Fraser 1982 : M A Blundy 1997 : G Olden : D J Bourne 2003 : J Milner : F E Fell 2005 : A Robbie : V J Fox : P T Grant + Deceased PRESIDENT’S REPORT The Box Hill Athletic Club has once again enjoyed a most successful year both on and off the track. Both the men’s and women’s teams won the Victorian Club Championships, with the men continuing on to finish second at the Australian Club Championships, Steven Hooker won a gold medal in the pole vault at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games with Andrew Letherby finishing fifth in the marathon and Matthew Coloe finished 12th in the 1500 m at the World Youth Championships in Marrakesh. The Club was successful in obtaining a State Government Grant to assist with funding of construction of a disabled access ramp to the club rooms which means that we should finally gain access to use our club rooms in the coming year. With State League competition abandoned for the year, and possibly for ever, Shield competition became the premier athletic competition in the State for the year so it was wonderful to convincingly win the men’s competition and finish a close second in the women’s competition. After struggling somewhat for female members in recent years, it was great to increase our numbers in junior girls competition this year and to win the Under 16 Association Final. However, it was disappointing that our junior boys teams were not so strong, which is something the Club needs to address in the coming year. After several years in the position, Colin Goodwin has announced that he is retiring from the position of junior boys team manager. It is most important that the Club find a suitable replacement in the coming months. The Australian Club Championships were held very late this year, after the Commonwealth Games, however we managed to get a strong men’s team to Adelaide but we were not quite able to match the depth of Sydney University of Technology and finished second. It was most disappointing that we only had 8 girls available to compete for us in Adelaide and as a result, the women’s team finished in 8th position. After victories in both the men’s and women’s competition at the Victorian Club Championships, it was hoped that we could repeat our success of last year in Canberra, but this was not to be the case. Undoubtedly, one of the highlights from the past year was the Commonwealth Games, and in particular the win by Steve Hooker in the pole vault. Steve became our first Commonwealth Champion since Warwick Selvey in the discus at the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth. This was a wonderful reward to Steve his coach, Mark Stewart and the rest of the pole vault squad for the support and encouragement that they have provided over the past 9 years. Steve also improved his own State pole vault record during the year, jumping 5.91 m at Box Hill to lift himself to equal 25th on the world all-time rankings list. He also competed at last year’s World Championships in Helsinki where he unfortunately failed to make the final, due largely to a sudden change in weather conditions in the middle of the qualifying session for his group. Andrew Letherby also performed creditably in the men’s marathon to finish in fifth place, although he was slightly disappointed with this effort after breaking the club marathon record in the Berlin marathon last year. The saga of access to our new club rooms has continued for yet another year. The Club was fortunate to gain a grant during the year from the State government for one-third of the cost of a disabled access ramp to the upstairs rooms, with the City of Whitehorse also agreeing to contribute one-third of the cost. However, the design by the architect ended up with twice as much structural steel as our original proposal and the resulting blow-out in cost stopped the project for several months until an agreement was reached with Council limit the Club’s exposure to any potential cost over-runs and construction finally commenced in February. Unfortunately there were several delays during construction which meant that work did not finish until the end of June. We are looking forward to finally gaining full access to the rooms in the next month few months. After the success of Ronnie Buckley and Hayley Tomlinson at the 2003 World Youth Championships, the Club continued on this fine tradition with a great performance by Matthew Coloe in the 1500 m at the 2005 Marrakesh World Youth Championships where he just missed out on making the final and was officially placed 12th overall. Matthew continued to run well during the past season and we hope that he can continue to improve over the coming years. Our Club captains, Leana Tilley and Cameron Baker again set a wonderful example throughout the year by competing regularly and encouraging others to support the Club. They were a great assistance to the team managers and have played an important role in the success of the Club during the year. Leana Tilley and Cameron Joyce again organised a most successful Trivia Night during the year with about 230 people attending and helping to raise around $8000. Chris O’Connor again provided a set of challenging questions as quiz master for the night. Registration numbers increased over the past year to over 240, from a low of about 200 the previous year. While this was most pleasing, a significant number of these members were probably attracted by the Commonwealth Games and the opportunity to run on the MCG, so we must do whatever we can to retain these members and continue to increase our membership numbers. The Club was again most fortunate to receive a number of generous donations to the building fund from members and friends. The buy-a-brick campaign has been most successful in making a substantial contribution towards the building works. Colin Organ continues to administer this scheme in a most efficient manner. I have been most fortunate to have had great support from the committee over the past year. It was great to have Cameron Sherry join the committee during the year to bring some fresh ideas and enthusiasm to the committee. Simon Bromley has moved away from Melbourne and has resigned from the committee after several years of enthusiastic involvement and Fiona Buchanan has had to reduce her involvement due to study commitments. Angela Robbie continues to manage the huge task of Treasurer, Registrar and Canteen Manager with remarkable efficiency. It is largely thanks to the efforts of Angela over the last 10 years that the Club has been able to commit funds to construct the access ramp to the club rooms, despite having spent over $400,000 on capital works over the past four years. The Club has once again achieved an outstanding financial result over the past year with a net profit of $48,000, despite paying out over $5000 in interest payments on our loan. Julie Milner has again been a most efficient and dependable Secretary, as well as helping in the canteen each week, folding and posting the hardcopy newsletters and assisting with officiating duties at both State League and winter competition.