Building Committe Update August 2010

As you may know Chris Lowson has come on board and is doing a great job driving the fundraising side of the project. We have had a number of very generous donations towards our “Brick in the Wall” project where donors of both cash and labour will be recognised in the newly renovated building once complete. For those who still wish to contribute to this, the forms are available on this website, or from Chris on chrislan99@yahoo.com. Our Test match lunch also helped grow the coffers by around $10k so we are slowly growing our cash in the bank. In addition, we have a range of fund-raising activities in place including Freda’s wine sales, Steve Takiari’s and Garry’s Finals dinner on August 28th, our golf day at Seaview on Sunday November 14th, and a major raffle to be organised by Murray D’Arcy early next year.

We have recently had a short presentation down at the clubrooms where we invited the CEO from the City of Nedlands as well as all the councillors, of which five attended. It was an opportunity to show them around our facility and point out how much in need of an upgrade we are. The CEO was very impressed, and in his words “there is a great vibe around the place” particularly with all the juniors training, mums enjoying a wine, dads a lemonade and senior players drifting in to start training. Thanks to Sarah Thomas and a number of the junior mums who helped convince one of the less than supportive councillors that we actually do have a number of local Nedlands primary children playing for our juniors – as we have told them previously.

At this meeting we advised those present that we would be formally writing to the council and seeking their support in the form of $50k towards the project in the 2011 budget. To achieve this we require more lobbying of local councillors, so if you live in the City of Nedlands please contact your local councillor and convince them to support our project, and funding for it when it comes up.

Chris has submitted another application for a CSRFF government funding grant of $165k, which needs to be rated by The City of Nedlands before going to the State Government for consideration and announcement in March 2011. Unfortunately the City is putting forward a project of their own for these funds and at best we’ll be rated 2nd priority within the city by them. Last year we were rated 1st and the Nedlands Tennis Club 2nd – they got $65k and we missed out? We are confident our submission this year is much stronger than last year, especially if we get the cash from the council? Here’s hoping!!

On another front, Chris has approached Peter Bailey and the WA Old Golds for a $50,000 ‘back-up’ loan, should Council not make a grant to us. They have generously agreed to this, thus saving us the major hassles and expense of getting a bank loan.

In the worst case scenario of not getting either council or government funding support we will be using our cash reserves with limited borrowing affordable to the club and proceed with amended plans in September 2011. We will simply have to see what we can build for the cash we have. We will not put the project off any later than that, or John Walker our builder and his team of supporters may well be pensioned off by then!

See you on the sideline for a yarn

Garry Ash

Building Committee Update 9^th March 2010

Hi Members

I am extremely disappointed to tell you that we have not received our CSRFF grant from the government announced last week.

After discussion with Clayton White (coordinator of the programme) from the Dept Sport & Rec his feedback as to why we missed out was as follows.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<!--[endif]-->$17.5 million was handed out after $44 million in applications. Two very large projects from councils received over $5 million of the funding available.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<!--[endif]-->In their opinion we did not have sufficient cash in the bank (or financial support from Nedlands council) to ensure our project could be completed without further fundraising and jeopardising the clubs financial viability.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<!--[endif]-->The proposed areas of “social activity” and paved “viewing area” are seen as low priority for these funds – their emphasis is the toilets, change rooms, storage areas etc

<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<!--[endif]-->We are not a truly “multi use” facility even though our plans are aimed at being able to be used as such. A possible permanent summer tenant other than tee ball would assist our application.

WHERE TO FROM HERE

We have different options available to us which will be discussed by the building committee and put to the club management committee in coming months.

There are options to use some or all of our cash put aside for the project and do partial work such as toilets and storage area. This would most likely eliminate the chance of getting a future CSRFF grant and could incur extra costs.

We can modify and reduce our approved plans and reduce the costs – proceed without govt funding possibly with small borrowing by the club.

Find a cash benefactor or raise at least $180k specifically for the project and proceed without govt funding.

Re apply in next years round putting the project back till Sept 2011 at best if we receive a grant. This option allows more time to fund raise however building costs continue to increase.

We will keep you informed

Regards

Garry Ash

Chairperson.

Building Committee

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Update:  Clubhouse Building Committee February 2010

At last and within the limited timeframe we have finally met all the approvals required to proceed with renovating the clubhouse. We will not be able to proceed however without $180K from the government and we are now waiting to see if we have been successful in our grant application for CSRFF funding. This is announced publically by the Department of Sport & Recreation some time in March. Chris Lowson and I spent many hours on our 40 page submission and we are quietly confident we have met all the requirements to get the grant. So watch this space!!

If successful we will be moving to “working drawings” being developed by Steve Bradbury who has worked tirelessly on this project. Building plans will then be submitted to council and construction management plans to the Swan River Trust ready to start work some time after June. Some work may be able to be done that does not affect the operation of the club but major work will have to wait till the end of the season around late August.

Our project has now been formally registered with the Australian Sporting Foundation (ASF) and individuals or companies can now claim a tax deduction at your marginal rate for any donation made specifically towards our project. Please contact me if you can help out with a donation (or you have yet to pay your pledged donation at the 75th dinner) which will be recognised by the club in our new building. Information is also available on the ASF website at www.asf.org.au

Finally don’t forget to diarise Friday 11th June for this years Test Match Lunch at the Perth Convention Centre. Last year was a fantastic day so get your tables together for when we confirm the details. All proceeds will go to our building fund and companies can claim a tax deduction for the fundraising component of the cost of a table.

In the mean time watch out for the DSR announcements in March on CSRFF grants.

Garry Ash
Chairperson
Nedlands Building Committee

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Please click here to see current plans for the Clubhouse Redevelopment.

Nedlands Rugby Club Building Project Update – July 2009

I would like to bring all members up to date with the project to renovate and extend the clubrooms and the process we now have to follow.
The plans as displayed on the night of our 75th dinner and currently on display at the clubrooms have been lodged with the Swan River Trust who are responsible for development applications on all riverside land. The application has a supporting letter  which details our history, growth, need for a bigger footprint of riverside land and vision for the future use of the clubrooms including us encouraging community groups such as Pilates, Yoga etc to hire the venue midweek in conjunction with the council.

The approval process involves approvals from the SWT, WA State Planning Commission, Nedlands Council and possibly the Indigenous Affairs Dept. All parties must approve our application before we can proceed.

During the planning stages we have had four meetings with senior planning staff from Nedlands Council and have developed plans in line with their recommendations. Final approval from council is decided by the councillors based on recommendations by their staff. I met with the Deputy Mayor on the day of the 75th celebrations and “walked him through” the plans and showed him the condition of the public toilets etc. He is confident we will have the council’s support however our committee will arrange to meet with all of them in the future prior to voting.

The above process with final approval will be approximately 24 weeks assuming there are no problems. After approval a building license needs to be applied for with full working drawings taking a further 4 weeks. A best case scenario would see us granted a building license around March of 2010.

Separate to the approval process Chris Lowson and myself are  pursuing a CSRFF grant for significant funds through the state government and local council. This application will be lodged by August 3rd and must get the support of Nedlands Council before it proceeds to the Government. If successful these grants are announced in March 2010 and will mean not having to put the club into any debt to complete our renovation. We are working hard to complete this very arduous task and supply all the information they require. We then keep our fingers crossed until March next year.

With the club facilities required to be operational during the season the reality is whether we are successful with our grant application or not only limited work will be able to be done at either ends of the building during the rugby season without disruption to the club. Main construction would commence at the end of the season around September 2010.

In the mean time we need to continue to raise of a further $120k for the project to succeed should we not get any government support and the annual Nedlands Test Match luncheon on Friday 28th August at The Perth Convention Centre is the next fundraising activity and we would love to see you there if available. Please see the club website for ticket details. Should we be successful in our grant application it will mean the club will be in a position to spend extra monies on the project and not have borrowings. This is our aim.

 I would like to thank all of the people who gave generous pledges of cash or services towards the project on the night of our 75th dinner of over $40,000 – a fantastic effort by the loyal and longstanding members of Neddies. Those people will be contacted shortly to get these funds into our building account..

Finally I would like to thank the people on my sub committee who have helped get us to this stage – Trevor McIntyre, John Walker, Kevin Ball, Rex  Julian. Mark Drummond, Marty Kavanagh and particularly Steve Bradbury who has done a huge job to date.

Great support as always by Neddies loyal supporters. I will keep you informed of progress as it happens.

Thank you again

Garry Ash
Building Committee Chairperson