Cobar Memorial Services Club board president Brian Sylvester said he was pleased with the turn out to last Tuesday night’s public meeting which was called to appraise members of the club’s current financial situation.
However Mr Sylvester said was not happy with a rumour circulating around town that the club would be closing at the end of the month.
“That is absolutely false,” Mr Sylvester told the group of approximately 65 members who attended last week’s meeting.
“And if you hear anyone saying that, please go to the club and speak to Linda [Carter] or the board members.
“We need people to be going to the club and if they’re hearing all that stuff, they aren’t going to go there.”
The club’s secretary/manager Linda Carter informed members at the meeting that the club had in fact made an unaudited profit of $99,000 last year.
She said they were not “broke” however they were experiencing a cash flow problem.
Mrs Carter said if patronage at the club
didn’t improve in the near future their cash flow situation would not improve.
Mr Sylvester said a lot of the talk at last week’s meeting focused on the sale of the club’s back carpark to Cobar Shire Council, which he advised was a decision that would be made by the board.
He said as per the club’s constitution it was a decision that the board would make as they had the power “to make decisions that were as in the best interests of the club” and the matter did not need to be voted on by members.
Discussions then centred around what should be done with the funds from the sale of the carpark land.
A suggestion was made by a member that the money from the sale be used to pay off the club’s loans.
“If that’s what the board thinks is the best way to spend the money, then we’ll pay off the loans,” Mr Sylvester told The Cobar Weekly.
“But right now the club needs cash flow.”
Mr Sylvester said while he might not be a businessman and that he’d reluctantly taken on the club president’s role to ensure the club would continue to be able to operate, he has made a point of speaking to a number of other respected business people in town about what are good business practices.
“We’ve got the best board that we could get back in November when we had our meeting.
“Linda and the board all have the members best interests at heart,” he said.
Mr Sylvester said while there weren’t a lot of money making ideas to come out of last week’s meeting or ideas of how to get more people to come to the club, there have been a few suggestions forthcoming from members following the meeting.
He said they would be looking into all of the ideas.
The PP Organisation held a meeting last week and club president Colby Lawrence said while their constitution wouldn’t permit them to fundraise for the club, as individuals, they were happy to help out with any events the Services Club might hold.
Mr Sylvester said the club’s board and staff would continue to keep working forward to keep the club’s doors open.
“No one wants to see the club close.
“We are going to do everything we can.
“We’ll also continue to welcome free campers who are using the club, as their patronage has been a big help over the past few months,” Mr Sylvester said.
