Our Club has enjoyed a truly incredible season, not because of any one person, but because of every single person here tonight, and about another 2,000 members who can’t be with us. Whilst we will celebrate incredible achievements tonight, and I do not wish to downplay this at all, really tonight is about celebrating each and every member of our Club.

We are a strong club, we are a passionate club, a very proud club but more importantly we are ONE CLUB.

So much was achieved this year again, we have demonstrated an incredible depth of talent and commitment over the year.

Every day our club and our members, deliver Surf Life Saving Australia’s mission, as we exist to save lives, we do create great Australians and we build better communities.

My initial thank you is to my fellow Directors. We are just the custodians on behalf of you as members. To Sandy Clarke, Chrissie Payne, Josh Bull, Carly Ferguson and David Rossow – an enormous and very personal thanks to each of you, for your dedication, hard work and most of all your support. You make the hard decisions, do lots of things that aren’t seen and can’t be measured but are integral to the long term success of this great club. Thank you.

I know Jeff touched on this but to our key stakeholders the City of Joondalup, our sponsors and federal and state government which give us much needed support to assist in providing our lifesaving services to the local community. Thank you

To Mullaloo’s Management Team and – you are the ones who ensure everything runs like clockwork, who really go beyond what is expected week after week, thank you for your exceptional hard work passion and commitment over the season. I am not sure where you all find the time. Our General Managers who lead our teams, Surf Sports – Cameron Rapley, Operations – Tony Greenfield, Development – Tanya Honor, Facilities – Cindy deBomford and our Marketing Manager – Simone Truter – the collective leadership that you have provided this past year has been outstanding.

I now just want to touch on a couple thank you’s around our strategic pillars.

This past season felt a little normal.

• Yes, once again we have delivered outstanding lifesaving services to the whole Perth community who want to spend time on the best beach in Perth with over 11,000 beach patrol hours completed, while continuing our commitment to supporting the Abalone Patrols, of course our contribution to many community events with essential water safety services. Thank you to Tony, Nick our Patrol Captains and patrolling members.
• Lead by Bernie Flint and her team we have continued to provide high quality, outstanding education courses for our members. We have over 400 club members holding current award qualifications. Wow! We have continued to foster the growth and development of the flourishing Alkimos and Yanchep Clubs, by delivering education and training for them to become self-sustainable. What support!
• Our growing youth programs lead by Emma Bamforth, with the support of SLSWA, continue to flourish. Our youth have grasped the opportunities available through the Youth Leaders Program and Youth Officials Course as well as our competitors in the water and on the beach.
• Our Woodside Nippers and Little Nippers are some of the largest groups of all the Clubs on our coast. We had over 700, 5 to 12 year old’s on our beach on a Sunday morning. Just think about that number for a moment… 700 children getting a surf club experience. Thank you to Tanya Honor and our dedicated AGM’s and their band of assistants. I don’t envy your task.
• Over the year, our commitment to competitions, training and representing Mullaloo across all disciplines has continued to be of the highest standard. We have continued to see incredible athletes from Mullaloo compete with outstanding results. Cameron Rapley will touch on these successes later on. A special thank you to Cameron, his management team and our coaching teams who made it happen.
• We should not forget our club officials who dedicate their time to allow our competitors to compete on any given weekend.
• And what about our own wellbeing. Have we got it right? The club has continued to ensure that the wellbeing of all our members and community remains a focus, so much so, that we now have a dedicated Accessibility and Inclusion portfolio. How good was our Couch to Beach Program? If you didn’t participate last year, look out for this years’. Thank you to everyone involved here.
• And as I look around tonight I think how lucky we are to be able to enjoy such wonderful facilities. To Cindy de Bomford and her team thank you for the outstanding work you have done on improving our club facilities and the warm feeling when you now walk in. What a balcony area we now have? We have the best view of anyone in Perth and we get to enjoy it every week. Our improvements to our member experience is not stopping as the Board in conjunction with Cindy and our Building Committee are now working on ways to continue to improve our buildings, the delivery of our public service and our overall member experience. We look forward to giving you updates in due course.
• To Simone Truter and our marketing, sponsorship and retail teams. In these extremely challenging times, Thank you for the relationships you have built. It is so great to see our sponsors here to tonight. Again, thank you to you all.
• I am proud to like to say the club is in a very sound financial position from the great support of John Hillen and our Risk and Governance committee that keeps the club financially on track. It is a nice feeling to know we are doing okay.
• To our award finalists – good luck tonight!! Sadly, of course, not everyone can be acknowledged or be a winner, but please know that you’ve all been seen and that your dedication and accomplishments are appreciated.
• And lastly to Simone, Julie, Penny, Sandy, the entire Social Commitee and Bar Staff that has put tonight together – thank you. So much hard work goes into organising an event such as this and we really do appreciate your very hard work.

I think you get the picture by now; we are a club that is continually moving, developing and delivering. We are a club that is filled to the brim of incredible members. A club that I am proud to be part of.

So, that’s just about enough from me, but before I finish up and we get on with the evening, I just have an acknowledgement and thank you to our partners Olivier and Cass from Swell Mullaloo Beach who are once again catering for us tonight and putting on an amazing feast.

To Jeff Davidson – thankyou the MC is the toughest part of any night like this. You are the one they will remember if the night is any good or not.

And, above everything else thank you everyone who has made this Club so vibrant and successful. Enjoy the rest of this amazing evening of celebration.

Craig Bull

– and did we mention Isuzu Ute!