Volunteers recognised by Bowls WA
Bowls WA was pleased to be able to recognise the efforts of many hard-working volunteers within our sport today.
The sundowner event was held at Crown Perth ironically the only establishment that allows in-house gambling in Perth, which is the lifeblood of many of the bowling clubs on the east coast – whereas in WA, no bowling club is complete without the money wheel, chook raffle, meat pack or the odd bottle of wine changing hands at the end of the day given the right $2 raffle ticket.
An interesting statistic to highlight our reliance on the Volunteer in WA – is that the National Bowls Census has just been released which amongst other things tells us that nationally there are 171 clubs that pay their Club Coach a Wage or Honorarium – only 5 of those 171 are in WA. In Greens preparation nationally 51% are prepared by Club Employees or Contractors – in WA it is 22% with 70% of Greens in WA prepared by Volunteers and finally 638 Clubs around the country pay their office staff – of that 638 only 56 are in WA and the numbers along those lines go on showing that WA really leads the way in volunteer help amongst clubs.
In many respects we wouldn’t change that but the point is none of this would happen without the Volunteer, whether that be at the Club, League, Zone or Association level.
As part of the function Glen Dunkerton from Regional Men’s Health Initiative was also able to give those in attendance a brief presentation on issues that affect Men in WA and how we can help. The partnership between Regional Men’s Health and Bowls WA seeks opportunities at regional clubs for the RMHI team to encourage men to talk openly about men’s health issues particularly but not limited to mental health, alcohol consumption, prostate etc.
Bowls WA CEO Ken Pride, President Larry Bandy, and attending Board members thanked those who had given their time in recent years on committees and/or in the promotion of the sport of bowls. Of note was the Badge of Merit awarded to long time and only recently former Bowls WA Umpires Chair Michael Garratt. The Badge of Merit is awarded exclusively to those who perform 10 continuous years of volunteer service at Association level.
A brief summary of Volunteers recognised was as follows:
Certificate of Appreciation
- Simon Alden – with his website Bowls 360 and his long-time and current hosting of the Bowls Show on Sport FM every Saturday morning
- Dave Rankin – for his website Perth Pennants and for some time our resident BWA photographer
- Clive Adams – for his work on a northern suburbs community radio show and his long time journalistic excellence as the Bowls writer in the Sunday Times
Certificates of Service
- Anne Lilley – a long time servant in the Inter Region Round Robin and Bowls Management Committee
- John Bridge – for many years a reliable voice of reason and worker on our Fixtures and Events Committee
- Kevin Heberle – who made his way up from Gnowangerup and a long time member of the League, Zone and Country Committee
- Derek Boardman – for his time on a number of committees but primarily in our Fixtures & Events area
- Roger Barns – in our High-Performance area as a state selector, many years as Chairman of that group and the countless hours watching others perform in order to make state teams
- Ken Perks – also in our High-Performance area, this time as our previous Under 18s Coach
Bowls WA Certificate and Badge of Merit
- Michael Goble-Garratt for his long-time work in guiding our Umpires Committee both in WA and on a national committee of Umpires as the BWA representative – notwithstanding the countless hours in passing and failing our Officials in WA.
