PGC Newsletter 2015 – 5 th Edition 18/09/15

Contents  Introduction/ Finances  Course news  Membership initiatives / Clubhouse / Competition updates  Juniors / Turbine / Other initiatives  Board News / Notice Boards  And Finally / Next updates

Introduction; Welcome to the final newsletter of the 2015 season. Hopefully as a member or visitor you find find the information of interest. It’s been great to see the engagement of members following the SGM on 20 th August where a good number of new board members came forward. With a small club like ours more are always welcome, especially to help around the clubhouse and course so if you’d still like to get involved please come forward. The main golf season is drawing to a close and its fair to see that course is looking at its best and with that in mind we’re hoping to extend the playing season as far into October as possible before starting the winter league – see the competition info section for details. Finances; This time of year is always the most challenging for the club as there are no membership fees coming in and visitor income drops off. With that in mind we will be producing the 2016 fees information as early as possible in October with some incentives for early payment and we will aim to hold the 2016 AGM (which is open to fully paid up members) as early as possible, this is dependent on our accountant’s workload however and outwith our control for a large part. Indications at the moment are that as a result of making a significant investment in machinery and increasing labour on the course we’ve been able to maintain the steady improvements. Early payment for 2016 will allow us to budget for further investment in key machinery and course expenditure.

Course News; As you’ll be aware from previous newsletters there has been a number of issues with kit this year, particularly in the earlier part of the season, all of which added to some particularly wet and cold weather in May unfortunately had a major effect on how the course can be presented. In the later part of the season however there has been a considerable improvement in the stability of the kit and this added to a lot of hard work by the Greenstaff and volunteers has seen a great improvement in the course. It’s a huge thanks to everyone who contributed to this turnaround. Obviously there is a requirement to learn lessons from the issues encountered and there are a number of actions we would anticipate taking next year. All of these however require financial input to deliver and your continued support and early payment of fees would contribute greatly to making the required changes in time for next season. With regard to course layout, we are currently developing a short and medium term plan to make some changes on the layout with bunkering, repointing tees and potentially adding some areas for juniors to play a shorter version of the course. In addition other necessary work such as levelling a number of existing tees will be looked at. This will require a great deal of help from the membership and all assistance, whether physical or technical would be greatly appreciated. Please speak to any board member if you would like to be involved. Its around now that the winter greens start to be shaped out, please avoid playing from these where possible. As usual we will keep play on full greens as often as possible over the winter.

Membership initiatives; The main offer currently is join now and get the remainder of this year free, no further payment until December We will continue to offer free junior membership with full adult memberships. Competition updates; Competitions for all sections are coming to a close. Congratulations to everyone who’s won a tournament up to now, especially the various club champions. The course is in good shape so please support the remaining events. For the gents section we are planning to run competition golf for as long as we can, hopefully up until the clocks change or just before and the winter league takes over. The fixtures for 2016 will be available on the club website in time for membership renewals. Clubhouse News; Tom continues to work through the various jobs around the clubhouse. Over the winter he is aiming to tidy up the corridor with the locker room entry etc., if you’ve any expertise to offer please get in touch.

Juniors; Robert Montieth will take over the running of the junior section from John Brown. John has done a great job in engaging the local kids through the primary schools and it is Robert’s aim to maintain this for Turbine; We are waiting for a draft from Fine Energy of their preferred entry route to the site. Once this is agreed the development can go back to planning. This will also impact on any course changes we can plan going forward. Other initiatives; Door entry system - We will move to a new local alarm system provider from the end of September which will see a significant cost saving on the previous contract. It remains a desire to move to a door entry system off the back of this. Again this depends on available budget which will be greatly assisted by early fees payment for Card Payments – We’re aiming to have a debit / credit card facility in place for fees renewal which should simplify the process for everyone. These are two things we’ve been asked for by members for a long time and it would be great to see them in place.

Notice Boards We have a large number of boards in the club, over the winter these will be rationalised. While this will not necessarily reduce the number, each board will have a defined purpose. Local rules will ONLY be on the local rule board, competition sheets will only be on the competition board etc. To advise of changes however we’re hoping to install a highly visible ‘what's up’ board detailing any changes and where to find them such as ‘new local rule posted’ ‘equipment news posted’ etc. Board News Welcome to all the new board members, it’s a great influx of fresh faces who will bring new ideas and energy going forward. A new, and important position, is that of Membership Coordinator who will take a large load off the secretary and treasurer and the increased numbers of board members will also allow a good numbers of ad hoc sub committees to be set up as necessary.

Next Update; Hopefully you find the news letters a useful way of catching up on news. It is the nature of this comms channel that things change between issues so if there’s anything you would like updates on please the club, comment on Facebook or speak to the board. The next newsletter will be out for the start of the 2016 season. And Finally; It’s a huge thanks to everyone who’s helped around the club or course this year and who has come forward to offer assistance on or off the board for the future. We wouldn’t be able to function without this input and its greatly appreciated. As we come into winter hours and there are less golfers around please refer to the notice at the entrance regarding contacting the Community Wardens regarding anti social behaviour you see on the course. As a board we welcome feedback from members, please contact any board member or contact the club if you have any issues you would like clarification on or any ideas you have for improvement.