President's Blog
11/01/2011
It is my pleasure to announce that the Committee have filled 2 of the 3 vacant positions.
Pamela Reeves has joined as as Secretary. This is a huge task, and Pamela's wide experience will be a wonderful asset for us.
Carl Smith has also agreed to come on board. Carl has SSAA in his blood as the son of the late Roy Smith MLA who was the founder of the Sydney Branch. He works in the legal profession and we appreciate the offer of his time.
I went to Silverdale today to show Ian Dixon around. He is the captain of the UK benchrest team, and our first international visitor. He came to check out the range a full 21 months before our own World Championship event!
22/12/2011
Thank you to the members who attended the Special General Meeting on monday night. There were more than 400 members who came to have their say.
As a result of the meeting there were some changes to the committee, and I hope the new committee will be much more functional than we have been for the last 6 months.
Please use the forums to tell the Committee your views, and let us know what we can (hopefully!) do to help.
14/12/2011
Members will be aware that there is a Special General Meeting to be held at Souths Juniors at Kingsford on 19th December at 7.30pm.
This is a watershed for our Association. I urge all members to come along, listen to the issues and make decisions to help us move forward.
Your Committee is hoplessly deadlocked at present. There are 7 Anzac members on the Committee, and it had become almost completely one sided and unworkable.
To summarise, there is a group of people that are prepared to risk everything we have built over the years in an attempt to save Anzac Range at all costs. And there is another faction that is prepared to look at other alternatives and not put our club or its finances at risk, it is that simple.
30/09/2011
I have been getting an almost continual stream of telephone calls in relation to Anzac Range, so I thought I should explain the current situation, and some history. I am not a lawyer, and this is quite technical, but here is my best explanation.
The licence from the Commonwealth Givernment to shoot at Anzac, is held by SSAA NSW. This is because it goes back a long time, well before the current branch structure.
We have tried to have this licence transferred to Sydney Branch, but the Commonwealth refused any changes to the licence, as it had expired anyway.
A couple of months ago, SSAA NSW were given a notice to vacate the range by 31st October. The noticed stated that the Government could no longer guarantee the safety of range users because of unspecified dangers. They were verbally told that these dangers included chemicals and asbestos.
SSAA NSW were advised to speak with their insurers and lawyers.
The insurers advised that it was not possible to secure cover for asbestos, and that there had never been cover for this.
Their lawyer advised SSAA NSW to immediately cease all activities at Anzac. The reason for this is that it is possible that SSAA NSW, and even their committee members could now become personally liable to asbestos injuries. Their belief is that the Commonwealth would have been liable previously as they have a duty of care to ensure safety of tenants. But now that the letter had been received, that the liability could now shift to SSAA, who would in turn, have a duty of care for their shooters.
We then sourced another legal opinion. This confirmed some of what the other lawyer had said, but gave a differing legal opinion.
We forwarded this opinion to SSAA NSW, and asked them to reconsider their position. Their lawyer took a look at our lawyers opinion, but advised SSAA NSW that it is their duty to take the conservative view and not allow use of the range.
In the meantime, the range was closed by NSW Police due to some safety concerns. They have been attended to, and some groups are now using the range again.
Unless something radically changes we will be unable to shoot again before the range closure deadline of 31st October.
We are working to try to get another suitable site, and I will report more when I can.
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