Welcome to Bowls Bay of Plenty

‍From Centre president Bill Murphy (August 31, 2021)                    

Notwithstanding the uncertain times we find ourselves in, we look forward to Club opening days and programmes continuing, hopefully without too much disruption or undue delay. The 2021 Annual General Meeting of our Centre, held in mid-July, was a watershed gathering for bowls in the Bay of Plenty and heralded in a ‘New Emerging Future.’

Governance of our game (possibly unique in New Zealand Bowls) is now in the hands of a Board involving two representatives from each of the three Divisions within the Centre, the President, an independent elected Board member and, where required, a further co-opted member.

Importantly, the Annual Meeting approved the establishment of an Operations Committee comprising one representative from each Division with additional Board member representation. This Committee, responsible to the Board, will be in charge of overseeing all Centre events and establishing the Centre’s calendar of events each year.

Overall we have a very experienced and talented group comprising:

Centre Board: Bill Murphy (Chairman), Rod Warrender (Vice Chairman) and Eddie Ashcroft (Western Division and Interim Centre Manager); Margaret O’Regan and Kathy Dempster-Rivett(Eastern Division); Dave Jones and Morgan Solomon (Rotorua/Taupo Division); Co-opted Member Graham Skellern.

Operations Committee: Morgan Solomon (Convener) and Kathy Dempster-Rivett (Board Members); John Chelley (Eastern Division); Lillie McGregor (Rotorua/Taupo Division); Ken Boyle (Western Division); Eddie Ashcroft (Interim Centre Manager).  

We are fortunate that we continue to have in place very well organised and strong representative programme with highly qualified coaches, quality selectors and managers, and above all squads of very talented players - some of who are in contention for national selection.              

Although we are a diverse geographical Centre, spread from Turangi in the south to Opotiki in the east through to Katikati westward, our new structure now allows us to create a meaningful interface with each other right through to the most important people in the entire system -our club members.

Your new Board and Operations Committee are fully engaged at the moment in re-evaluating the Centre’s various activities including reviewing the financial structure. At the same time, they are looking forward to enhancing Youth Bowls activity, working closely with the Umpires Association, furthering Coaching accreditation, and liaising with the all-important Greenkeepers’ network in the Bay.

As we all know, keeping membership levels up is critical and there are some excellent examples amongst us where clubs have been successful in introducing new member incentives, which we look to expand on in time.                            

Thank you for all the expressions of support that have been coming in regarding our new set-up.