Message from Club President, Andy

Hi Everyone

I hope all is well.

Just a couple of updates

Financial Expenditure

The Board of Directors at MSLSC were pleased to approve approximately $150,000 of Capital Expenditure items this week.

From new lounge carpets, radio node upgrades, Boards, Boats, gym equipment, Trailers, storage plans etc

Thank you to all the GM’s, Managers and members for putting forward ideas and items for discussion. Just to confirm the process around such decision making.

The GM’s provide the Board with advice on items that are required and / or will enhance the members experience and / or will provide and strategic benefits. The Board considers these and approves based on our financial position.

FYI – Just to remind members. Last year I informed members that the Club finances are generated from two sources:

1. The Club and its members, through fees, retail shop, bar, fundraising, sponsorship, and grants etc,
2. Income generated from our leasehold, currently with SWELL. SWELL is a relatively new addition and of course changed the way the club was funded overall, given the previous arrangement with the City of Joondalup

The Board currently seeks to run the club’s finances using a very basic premise.

The Club needs to be able to stand alone, function within its means, and be able to operate within the funds provided by the club and its members (fees, shop, bar, fundraising, sponsorship, and grants etc). Should the commercial lease not be as successful, we still need to be able to resource the club on a day-to-day basis and carry out our basic functions. Not having a successful tenant is a risk to the club.

Fortunately, we have a great partnership and relationship with Cassie and Olivier from SWELL and we have never had to face that issue.

Income generated through the lease provides ‘ the cherry on the cake’ which allows for benefits to be returned to members and add value to what it means to be a member.

There is always conjecture about how this money should be spent, but for now it is broadly spent on capital or project items identified by the Board, GM’s and or members. Money is also kept ‘for a rainy day’.

Back to this year. So, we are pleased to continue the commitment of previous Boards over the last few years to return benefits to members through this expenditure.

Membership numbers

Thanks to Mark Sizer, our Membership Manager for doing such a great job (in what was his first year at this pointy end of the season), in establishing our membership for 2023/24. There are still a few to come, but at this stage we are predicting (based on numbers and a list of those to renew) that we will have a similar membership number as last year, around 2200 (ish)

The membership retention rate is at 90%. A snapshot of that shows a 92% retention of Junior Activity Members, 87% of Award Members and 87% of General members, Retention of the age groups 13 to 18 (two categories combined) is approx. 85%. There are multiple other categories, but none that stand out as a major discrepancy.

So not too bad, natural attrition, ‘not for me’, ‘moving on’, etc., but still, plenty of work to ensure the experience as a member is a good one.

Happy to chat.

Regards Andy