Chairman’s Message 2022-23

Welcome to the Season for 2022-23 and a big thank you to all clubs and members from the outset.

Our second season as the Ballarat Highlands Bowls Region we have a lot to be thankful for, thanks to our Directors on the Region Board for once again hopping on board to run the Region. We couldn’t manage the work load without them and they do it selflessly and so I urge all clubs to support the Board in its endeavours. Wayne Morgan once again will provide help and assistance to you as our Region Secretary, a big thanks to him.

To David Kelly, Liz Kierce and Tom Clarke welcome, your contributions will be valued and to Lynette Bryce for her nomination and promotion to Deputy Chairman congratulations. My thanks also to Wayne Lynch ,Vic Dunne and Gary Dickenson for their ongoing support. Many thanks to out-going director Geoff Pickering for his contribution in our inaugural year of the Region and to Helene Stenning our thanks for all her hard work especially in developing fixtures for the 2021-22 season. We were saddened to hear of the loss of husband Gary in July and pass on our thoughts to Helene and family.

We start the season full of optimism with games commencing on October 1 st , on time for the first time in three seasons.83 teams from Ballarat and 25 teams will compete for Saturday Pennant Honours whilst on Tuesday we have 53 teams from Ballarat and 19 teams from Highlands seeking Premierships. Well done and good luck for the season ahead.

A review by Bowls Victoria recently reinforced the work done by the Board and acknowledged we were heading in the right direction,however we are not stopping there and seek to improve bowls across the Region over the upcoming seasons with all our members support. It is important that all playing areas are represented on the Board and so I encourage all members to consider a board position.

We understand that not all decisions will be accepted willingly by all members and we also accept that we cannot please all the people that just happens to be a fact in this day and age, It’s not to say that we will always make the right decision at the time but we will make decisions based on what we believe is good for bowls.

Increasingly around Victoria competitions are progressively moving to 14-week competitions and to this end we have in mind a move over the next two seasons to move this way as an avenue to accommodate all our bowls programs in the time we have available to play. You must remember that Bowls is not all about Pennant, membership to a club entitles you to play bowls 12 months of
the year not merely 14 or 18 weeks of Pennant and it is up to clubs to ensure that members, guests and friends have access to bowls all through the year.

The Board proposes to have a strategic vision for the next five years and to that end Bowls Victoria have recently released their Strategic Plan that I hope your clubs will have on hand to demonstrate how they (BV) plan to bring bowls to everyone in the community. More people playing more bowls is what we are about to ensure that your club remains financially viable to compete in all competitions going forward. The plan, however will only work if your club has similar aims so I urge clubs to make themselves aware of the vision.

Clubs have the responsibility to progress their clubs, to develop membership, to run bowls programs in an effort to encourage others to play, give maximum coverage to sponsors and to provide a welcoming atmosphere for bowlers and lastly to improve its profile of their club.

Our state events will be conducted as one this season and gives an excellent opportunity for all Region bowlers to experience other clubs’ facilities across the Region, see this for what it is a
positive experience and support the Region by competing, this is an opportunity to demonstrate your skills and be measured against the best in the Region.

Our representative sides committee has seen several new members join us as we strive to select the best available team to represent the Region in Moama next year. We wish them all our best to achieve this as well as our representative teams in the various shields we play for each year. We appreciate the work and the numbers of meetings that are conducted in the aim to get the Region to the top.

Finally, thanks to all the volunteers at all the clubs who work so hard that we can all play bowls each week. Remember to support them and to give them the respect that they deserve to ensure that the club operates efficiently and effectively.

Have a great season and may you be rewarded for all your efforts. As a member set yourself some goals for the year a short-term goal may be to practice each week, make yourself available every week, a mid-term goal maybe to play in a team higher than you did last year and a long term goal will be to contribute to a premiership for your club.

It is up to you now!

Good bowling and have a great season.
Ian Guymer
Chairman BHBR