SUMMER NEWSLETTER
We are now well
into the season, at last the weather has improved and the course is looking at
its best. Many members are asking what plans we have over the summer both for
the course and for the development of the club house.
The Club.
Unlike many neighbouring clubs membership has
increased over last year, with a number of new members joining this year.. The
new On-Line application form developed by Lesley Dawson has made it much easier
for prospective members to apply and also makes the administration easier. Our
total membership now stands at 197. Likewise club finances remain healthy.
Don't forget that all relevant information about the club, the competitions,
fundraising activities and current handicaps can be obtained on-line at
<www.taynuiltgolfclub.co.uk>
There has been some recent
discussion as to what constitutes
appropriate dress to wear on the course. What players wear should be clean and
tidy, however football shirts and shirts without collars should not be worn, in
line with other clubs in Argyll.
The Course.
Most of you will
agree that the course is in excellent condition due mainly to the diligence and
skills of Joe but we also have David Howie, who was the greens convener last
year, and David Thomson, this year's greens convener, to thank for giving so
much of their time. We do need extra help to augment Joe's hours and we have
been having working parties, organised by David to do some of the less skilled
tasks such as strimming and cleaning
ditches etc. These are held on Tuesday evenings and if any members could spare
the time to help could they contact David Thomson on 01866 822720. Meanwhile
there are plans to improve the bunker on the first green. The bridge across the
burn at the first is to be renewed, the
present one is unsafe and will need to be more substantial in preparation for
the new club house. Work is expected to start on this in early July and will
entail the construction of a temporary bridge, any inconvenience is regretted
but unavoidable.
The Club
House.
You may well be
wondering why there has been little
apparent progress so far this year after the flurry of activity last year in
dismantling the chalets at Ganavan. We now have all the materials on site and
have been waiting for the final drawings and planning permission. These are now
through and you will find a copy of the plans in the golf hut.. We are still
waiting, however, for building control and expect that to come through next
month. Meanwhile we shall be going ahead and clearing the site and preparing
the groundwork. The aim is to get the
building erected and wind and weather proof by the end of autumn. Once again
this will require a band of both skilled and unskilled volunteers to achieve
this objective. We hope to complete the building and have it in use for next
summer's season.
Fund Raising.
We have raised £25,000 towards our target of
£50,000. So far we have spent £14,500 on purchasing the chalets and on fees. We
currently have £10,500 in the development fund which is what is required to
achieve our objective of a sound weatherproof structure. However we do need a
further £25,000 to complete the building. This is clearly a very ambitious
project, but we feel that fundraising needs to be aggressive at this stage. The Council have decided to promote a
raffle – a £ GRAND Raffle – the
first prize is to be £1000. We
hope all members will support this
enthusiastically. Every members will be sent 10 books of tickets
shortly, with details of what to do with the tickets and the money raised from
selling them. Tickets will be valued at £1 and each book will contain 5
tickets, if every member sells and /or buys all their tickets we should raise
another £8,000 which will help considerably towards our target. The draw will
take place at the Club Prize Giving on 30th October. We will
continue to hold the “Wheel of Fortune” at the Taynuilt Games, we do need
contributions of bottles towards this which
should be left at the Robin's Nest, last year this raised £500.
Finally, we are
trying to build up our email address list so that we can keep in touch with
members on a regular basis. We would be very grateful if those of you who have
email addresses could send them to me at jeremy.church@virgin.net. All correspondence would be BCC and
therefore your address would not be exposed.
Jeremy Church
Secretary