RSA members hope to stay at Vipond base

An Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) held by the Hibiscus Coast Community RSA on February 25 discussed the future of the club as it continues to struggle for financial sustainability.

Like many RSAs, the Hibiscus Coast club is losing money and having difficulty attracting younger, ex-service members.

Its facilities require considerable and costly maintenance, and fixed costs like rates and insurance are going up.

Before the 113 members who attended were a range of options for the future of the club – to stay put at its Vipond Road clubrooms and change the operating model, move to a new location, or amalgamate with one or more other clubs (either at Vipond Road or elsewhere).

Club president David Newman says the overwhelming preference (more than 90 percent of those present) was to stay at Vipond Road and change the club’s operating model.

“The other two options also received significant consideration – sufficient for the executive committee to continue investigation into those options, while we focus most of our efforts on how we are going to change what we do,” Newman says.

He says the executive committee will form a subcommittee to drive data collection and consideration of these options.

“We expect to have a directed set of options available for the members to vote on, at a follow-up EGM within the next three months,” he says.