May Newsletter

Gisborne Soccer Club Committee hope that you are all staying well and safe in these isolating times.

Following on from recent communication from Football Victoria, the committee is actively preparing for a start to the season and we appreciate your responses to the survey about the restart of the season, in particular the desire to only play on the weekend and not mid-week.

To date the only information that we have on the likely restart is contained in this media report from The Age. We are expecting an announcement very soon and if what is reported is accurate then there is not much time to prepare, so we'd appreciate any help members can offer and ask for understanding at this time as we work hard to get things organised.

There have been some exciting developments at the club since we have gone into lock down but there will be some challenges that we will need to overcome this season as a result:

1. Extension of Season beyond the original planned finish in September and into October/November or even December

2. Macedon Ranges Shire Council (MRSC) will be renovating the old pavilion which means that we will not have access to the old pavilion or the new Shed so all operations will be based around the New Pavilion.

3. MRSC have completed repairing the damaged areas of the main pitch (see images below) and we need to keep off it for as long as possible to give it the best opportunity to flourish.

4. MRSC have also removed the large gum tree that was situated to the northern end of the training & MiniRoos pitches. This tree sadly suffered extensive damage earlier in the year when it was struck by lightning leaving the remaining section unsafe. Whilst we enjoyed the shaded area the tree provided we are excited that the area has now been turfed which allow the opportunity to extend our playing & training areas.

Gisborne Soccer Club Directors would also like to advise members of some changes to the Executive as follows:

• Steve Gembarovski has resigned from the position of Treasurer with Gisborne Soccer Club, effective Monday 13th April 2020. The club thanks Steve for his contribution over the past 6 years. If any member would like more details including a copy of the resignation letter please contact the Secretary, Tim Callinan.

• In accordance with Clause 9.5 of our Club Constitution, the majority of Directors have elected to fill this vacancy immediately and appoint Mikki Maheras who is a committee member and has extensive financial management experience and meets the requirements detailed in the Position description of Treasurer and as such will deliver the required outcomes for Gisborne Soccer Club Incorporated.    

• Justin Knott has resigned from the position of Assistant Secretary and will continue to contribute as a general committee member.  The Directors have elected to fill the position of Assistant Secretary and welcome Paul Gibson to the position.

If you have any questions regarding these changes or anything else related to this season then please do not hesitate to contact Mel to discuss on 0491 737 954.

New President

After a thorough process of interviewing a number of high quality applicants, the Directors of Gisborne Soccer Club are please to announce that Mel Paradiso has been chosen to be our new President.

Mel has been a huge contributor on the committee since 2016, most notably in her recent role as Registrar and for organising the Go Sevens program.

In selecting Mel as President the Directors saw the this as an opportunity to shuffle a number of roles around, as we welcome new people to both the board of Directors & to the extended general Committee. This move will help ensure the smooth running of the club beyond the current Directors tenure.

We are also looking forward to working with the unsuccessful candidates as we seek to create roles that play to their strengths and benefit Gisborne Soccer Club as a whole.

Please congratulate Mel on her appointment, further announcements in relation to other roles will be made shortly.

#BornToBeBlue #GSC2020 #MelPresidente

Committee & Directors Changes

We wish to advise of the following changes to the Directors of Gisborne Soccer Club:

On Monday 11 November 2019, the Gisborne SC Directors accepted the resignation of Glenn Matthews from his position as Vice President. Glenn has held this role twice, the latest stint being for the past 12 months. Glenn has stood down from this role due to time constraints. We thank Glenn for his contribution as Vice President and are pleased that he will remain on the extended committee continuing in his highly successful role as Grants Coordinator.

As per the club Constitution Richard Smart was voted in as Vice President by the remaining Directors, he will fill the role as a casual vacancy. Richard has most recently been the MiniRoos Coordinator, seeing our Saturday morning program go from strength to strength. At the other end of the spectrum he has recently set the wheels in motion for an over 35’s competition that we are looking to implement in the near future.

On Friday 15 November 2019. the Gisborne SC Directors accepted the resignation of Rodney Smith from his position as President. Rodney has held this role for 5 & a half years, during this time we have seen the construction of a new pavilion, the male senior & reserves teams switch from Sunday to Saturday competitions, all of our goals & equipment replaced, new benches installed, and most important of all our participation numbers increase nearly double (based on 2013 figures).

Behind the scenes Rodney oversaw the implementation of new bookkeeping software along with new policies and procedures to ensure the financial issues experienced by the previous Directors could not be repeated. An independent analysis, from Club Builder, recently awarded us a 4-star rating for governance along with providing us guidance on how to work towards the 5-star mark.

Rodney has stepped down due to personal reasons, at this stage a replacement has not been appointed. We thank Rodney for his contribution and support to the club, we know we will see him around the club as he takes some time to enjoy games as a proud parent.

The Directors would like to invite people to nominate for the Committee, where it be a Directors role or that of an Office Bearer. The more hands on deck we have the better, small contributions make an enormous difference.