President’s Message 8/1/2024
Message from Zone President
Happy New Year to all. Hope you had an enjoyable Festive Season and a great start to 2024.
Following the change of Zone Secretary, as a result of the election held at the last AGM, I regret to inform you that the newly elected Zone Secretary has resigned his position effective from 1 January 2024. The Zone Executive are currently working through how to cover this position, as a result of his sudden departure, and we will advise further once the matter has been resolved.
As you would be aware at the AGM we indicated that the work required as part of the Zone & District Unification will heat up in the first quarter of 2024. Bowls NSW has confirmed that this will be the case in an update issued on 7 December 2023. I would encourage all members to read this update which can be found in the news section of the zonedistrictunification.com.au website.
As mentioned at the last AGM, the new structure will comprise 16 Regions and our Region will be known as Metro North-East Bowls. The Regions will be established as Incorporated Associations and governed by the Associations Incorporation Act 2009 and under the overarching umbrella of Bowls NSW.
The Regions will be responsible for delivering Region and State events on behalf of NSW.
To progress the move to the new Association, an interim management committee will need to be formed from existing Zone and District administrations., This committee will be comprised of men and women and be equally proportionate in its composition.
Before 1 July 2024, the newly formed Regional Associations will elect its initial Management Committee comprising equal representation of men and women. The founding members will be requested by Bowls NSW to come from the existing Zone and District administrators within each Region.
It is expected that we will need to establish an initial working party between the current Zone & District Administrators in the lead up to forming the initial management committee. The Zone Executive will look to work with the District Administrators to establish is group during January.
On the Bowling front, the two key events to be completed at the Zone level are the Single Gender and Open Gender pennant competitions. Thank you to all the Clubs for submitting their teams to compete in these events. The Match Committee has worked together over December to ensure that these competitions have been established and approved by Bowls NSW. The draws for each competition are nearing completion and will be provided to members shortly.
To update members on these events, as advised in my last President’s message, a meeting of club delegates will be held on 30 January 2024 at Belrose Bowling Club commencing at 7.30 pm.
Finally, I would like you all to join with me in congratulating Avalon Bowling Club and the Northern Beaches Vision-Impaired Group on receiving the Audika Community Services Award at the Bowls Australia Awards Night held in December 2023.
The prestigious award was earned for their continued drive in engaging the community, particularly in relation to encouraging people with visual impairment to be physically active and engage in a social community (through the coaching of bowlers with this impairment).
I look forward to catching up with delegates on 30 January.
Gerard Parlevliet
8 January 2024