Hello everyone,
As I have not written to you all since July I thought it might be a good idea to update you on a few bits and pieces as we race toward the end of the year.
Perhaps the best place to start is with the more serious subject of our financial position – I have always said that my ambition, and that of the entire committee, has been to exit this year with around 15,000 euro intact in club funds and to create a budget for 2017 that reinstates some of the subsidies that we have been used to having in our social events.
I am now confident that the first of those ambitions will be met – just, most of the expenditure for this year has been spent or committed – even the Christmas puddings for the Hamper competition made it safely over here in my hand luggage, now if the Christmas cakes make it on my next trip we are all set. We have the Hamper competition and the Sagittarius trophy to look forward to in December and our year is done. As long as competition income holds up for November and December we will be ok.
We have also created a budget that Michael is happy with for next year – Geoffrey wrote to everyone to confirm that we will raise the membership fee for FPGC to 60 euro, an increase of 20 euro on previous years – there are not many things you can buy that give a years entertainment for 60 euro and I am pleased to say that the overall response to the increase has been extremely positive, thank you. We will be asking you to pay your 2017 fee before the AGM which will be on 20th January, the curtain raiser to Captains Changeover which is on 21st.
As I write we have just returned from the Captains away trip to Vila Sol where 48 hardy souls risked life, limb and wet hair as the weather forecast was shocking – however, somehow the sun shone on us almost all the way around the course on both days, we were very lucky. The party atmosphere at the Gala dinner was fantastic and I am hopeful that my voice will return to normal over the coming days. Thank you so much to everyone who went, you were fantastic and partied and golfed and sang and played as only PDF members know how.
I should also mention Captains Day as well which was way back in September – all of my comments about the away trip count for Captains Day as well – thank you so much to the 150 people who took part, you were awesome.
We are also having a great year in terms of our Charities, with special thanks to generous individual donations from Nick & Wendy Parker, Paul & Chris Brunner and my mates who flew in for Captains day I am optimistic that we will have over 3,000 euro to give to our charities, Lagos Orphans and NECI, at the end of the year – even our Charity Lake idea on the 15th has raised several hundred euro – there must be an awful lot of balls in that lake !
We have our final Charity day (Pinsplitter) on 18th December and it will be a Christmas cracker – shotgun start at 11.00 with Christmas Carols on the terrace at 4pm. Hope you can be there.
The Tri-Club competition, between Boa Vista, Palmares and PDF is coming up this week and we have 20 brave people who will fight our corner starting at 7.30am on Friday – good luck to them (7.30am onward was the only tee times that Boa Vista could get – aren’t we lucky here ?)
A small but important change to our hole-in-one rules was agreed at our committee meeting last week, from January 1st all verified holes-in-one achieved by our members on our course will be included on the Honours board, whether they were in a club competition, a Festival competition or in casual play. So, if you are planning a hole-in-one, wait till January eh.
Thats about it for now – the end of my year is coming on fast and Michael has started making arrangements for the 21st (first duty of the incoming Captain). The Christmas Hamper competition is on Sunday 4th December and start sheet is already on the board – if you can be here its a lovely day with a Christmas dinner and dancing in the evening. Also, there will be a quiz night in January – more info on the board in due course.
Thank you as always to all of you for the support I have received – its been a blast !
Rod
