President’s Message

The committee is very pleased with the big influx of new members the club is attracting but unfortunately with increased membership comes a heavier work load and the committee is struggling to carry out these additional duties especially in the Agility area. We desperately need volunteers to assist in setting up the agility equipment every Sunday morning. If we operated a roster system of volunteers, members may only be required to come along early for just one day a month or even less. We are also seeking a Grounds Manager who can take on the role of supervising the setting up of the agility equipment, looking after the equipment, ensuring the ground is in an acceptable condition for members to train on etc. If you would like to help please give your name to me at training or a phone call on 5674 2449.

Our next big worry is instructors. We are desperately seeking members who would like to train up as instructors. Ideally the applicants would need to have trained a dog to White class level at least and to have been involved in dog training for a minimum of 3 years. The club will train you up but you must be prepared to take it on every Sunday. At present we do not have enough instructors to allow our existing instructors to have a break and train their own dogs and this is not fair to them. So please if you believe you have the necessary motivation and experience we would be happy to discuss this very rewarding job with you.

A big welcome to all our new members; we hope you enjoy your training with us. If you have any questions about the club or about your training please don’t hesitate to ask any committee member or your instructor. Congratulations to those members that have obtained a pass up since our last newsletter. Sarah has acknowledged their success elsewhere in this issue. Whilst speaking of newsletters, our grateful thanks must go to Sarah Male for the wonderful job she is doing with the newsletter. We have had many favourable comments on the publication, well done Sarah.

Wonderful to see the Council rubbish bin we requested now in place at the club. Please ensure when you pick up after your dog you put the droppings in a separate bag and then place it in one of the plastic bags in our containers. That way we have a double layer that goes into the Council bin making it a bit more pleasant to walk past. We are still awaiting Council’s response to our request for a lease. I have been advised that Jenny Churchill (Council’s Arts and Leisure Coordinator), will contact me on her return from leave to discuss our application so hopefully things are about to happen.

Cheers for now,Ivan Hipworth
President