Balga celebrate club legend

Sunday 26th July saw the unveiling of the the new "Trevor Allen Bar" at the Balga Soccer & Social Clubrooms. Trevor, who has been a stalwart of the club, was present with many of the clubs life members to celebrate the occasion.

Trevor has served the club as a past President, Secretary, Treasurer, Committee Member & Registrar  over the years since he joined the club in 1973, but most visitors would recognise him for his friendliness & warmth serving behind the bar. In his time involved at Balga, Trevor has volunteered thousands of hours of his time in serving our club & helping make sure that not only have we been able to play our great game at Princess Rd Reserve, but that there is a hospitable & friendly place to socialise after the game as well.

In recognition of his many years of effort he has won awards from local government & civic bodies for his commitment to volunteering his time, & to mark these achievements & salute them on behalf of our members it was decided to name the Balga Soccer & Social Club bar "The Trevor Allen Bar".

Congratulations Trevor, & on behalf of everyone who has been served a beer by Trev, played at our club, or used our facilities, thank you. We look forward to seeing you behind your  bar, or in front enjoying a frothie, for many more years.

As can be seen on the photo's, a big crowd was in attendance at the club for the announcement, & club President Darren McNally also used the opportunity to unveil the clubs new sign, featuring our new club crest with the famous Black & Green predominant.

Thanks to Clint & Chris Brown for the production of the signs, & to Ed Harris for coordinating the project.

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2009 President's update
Letter to the Members of the Balga Soccer and Social Club.


I wanted to take this opportunity to bring the members of our club up to date with what milestones have been achieved so far this year.

These include:

50% increase in our junior players (ages ranging from 6 – 16 year olds)
An influx of new senior players (a vital ingredient to the success of the club)
Darts – approximately 100+ players per week and growing
Canteen/food – meals on Thursday nights and full canteen facilities on Sundays
New website – fantastic new website with photos and information
New logo – an important step in revitalising the club
Major sponsor for the seniors - Fircroft
New players/members forum – a chance for players and members to discuss issues
Functions – well organised and advertised; hopefully well attended
New floodlights – being installed later this year
Photos of teams – will be hung on the clubroom walls in the next couple of weeks

The committee has worked extremely hard this year to make sure that all our teams were fully prepared for the start of the 2009 season (including new strips, shorts and socks for the seniors and juniors). Because of this, some of the successes above, have only been possible through the increase in the number of people who have stepped forward this year to assist the committee. I hope each of these volunteers know the contribution they have made and that they have enabled the committee the time to get the new season off on the right foot – a big thank you. More importantly, it has allowed us to hopefully start the long and overdue process of putting long term plans in place to improve the club and the facilities even further.

Recently, the committee and some of the life members were invited to have dinner with the Mayor of The City of Stirling, David Boothman, and Balga Ward Councillor, Leonie Getty. It was a great opportunity to get a better understanding of how the council views our club and what level of assistance we can expect if and when we were to approach them for assistance in line with our goals.






Effectively, we are hoping to put in place some short, medium and long term goals:

Short term goals could include:
Updating the signage within the club
Installing new signage outside the club (building and roadside)
Purchase of some new chairs and tables
Improved storage for stock/merchandise
Establishment of guidelines for the nomination of ‘Life Members’

Medium term goals could include:
Renovation of the walls (painting or plastering) within the club
Ladies changerooms
Building a new trophy cabinet for the soccer and darts (in conjunction with the collection of club memorabilia from past players, coaches and members)

Long term goals could include:
Increasing the number of soccer pitches
Relocating the storeroom to increase size of clubroom (more space for darts teams)
Installation of viewing windows

All of the above suggestions have been discussed at one time or another over the years, but unfortunately, the committee of the day was probably caught up with the day to day running of the club. Because of the increase in help that this committee has received, we are hoping that this is an opportunity to put some plans in place beyond the current year.

With this in mind, the committee is asking for assistance from all members of the club. We are asking for your opinion of the above goals and for any other ideas that you might have, which we can include for discussion.

Just like most plans that we will make, there is usually a cost involved. Some of the less expensive ideas can be implemented and paid for from our normal account. However, some of the ideas, should they be accepted, will require us to put in place a more detailed plan to find the funds. Any plans that we put forward to the City of Stirling for changes to the clubroom or grounds for example (capital cost), require us to have at least a 33% contribution to the final estimated cost. Fortunately, our contribution doesn’t always need to be in the form of money and we can absorb some of our costs by members and friends volunteering goods and services.

Whilst we are asking for ideas and suggestions from our members on how we can improve and grow our club, we are also asking them to consider how we can start to collect the funds required to implement these improvements – one without the other simply won’t work.

Please feel free to discuss any aspect of this letter with any member of the committee. It is extremely important that each and every member of this club be they soccer players, darts players or social members, have a chance to have their say on the future of our club.

I encourage everyone to get down and support our junior and senior teams – see you on Sunday.


Kind regards

Darren McNally
President
Balga Soccer and Social Club