Our monthly committee meeting was held last night in Ned's attended by all committee members with the exception of Carl.
Finance:
Glenn presented his finance reports (copies on the website by the weekend). The end of month balance is $2,840.81 and with outstanding deposits and $880 owed to Pleasant Valley for handicaps the net effect is that we are about $3,000 to the good. We will owe over $1000 in a few months for the balance of the fee to become a 501C7.
We also have a few members who have not yet renewed and their dues will be credited to the account. Photographs of the offending members will be hung in effigy in the new NGS pub on May 1st if all outstanding dues are not paid!!!
The tournament finance report for Old Hickory showed a loss of $330.19. On closer scrutiny the reality is a loss of just under $100. One $75 fee is outstanding and we paid for two more than played and the course is giving us two rain checks. The reason for the $100 loss is that we had 8 drop outs at the last minute and we had already set the prize value. With 8 less players the prizes would have been $100 less.
Membership:
We have released 5 members from the list as they have either resigned or gone AWOL. They are, of course welcome back if they reappear. So, our current active membership stands at 81.
Tax Exempt Status:
We have been accepted as a tax exempt organization (thanks Ed for all your work) and will have a bank account in the name of Ned's Golfing Society by the end of next week.
Charitable Donations:
We will, for the first time donate $100 to a charity from this month's tournament proceeds. The charity will be Kids R First, a local charity which, since 1998 has donated 620,000 units of school supplies to 59,500 students in the local area. Judy Bowns has been associated with this effort since its inception and she will be briefing the committee at next month's meeting as to the full details of the charity. In addition NGS will sponsor a four ball in the Kids R First golf tournament on June 26th. We will auction off the 4 spots after the Fidelity Mortgage Pleasant Valley Tournament.
NGS Pub:
Graham is working on plans for the new area of Ned's, over where State Farm used to be, to be designated Ned Devines Golfing Society Pub. There will be a golf theme throughout and all of the stuff we have on the wall on the Kelly's side will be moved across. We will also be able to store the handicap cards, membership cards, any envelopes left for the treasurer by a member, shirts etc over there so that they will always be accessible without having to bother a manager. Thanks Graham, we are looking forward to seeing the finished article. Johnny and Stevie are coordinating to have the trophies and small plaques engraved in black writing so we can read them.
Handicaps:
All members now have official USGA handicaps. The cards will be available over the next few weeks. The membership numbers and handicaps are now shown on the website. Per instructions I sent out earlier this week, we will use the USGA index as it stands on the first of the appropriate month for all future events, including the matchplay. Please keep your handicaps up to date by using the simple on line process. Johnny will be letting us know over the next few days what the rules are. For instance certain handicaps cannot take more than a 7 for handicap purposes so if you are a 7 handicap and shoot 80 with a 10 then you really shot a 77. Stay tuned for details.
Monthly Tournament:
This month's event is the Fidelity Mortgage Individual Strokeplay at Pleasant Valley on 4/30. I have sent out details separately. Please note that, in order to speed the pace of play, 9 is the maximum that can be taken on a hole. If you have hit 9 times PICK up. One more thing, NO CHECKS please. Please bring cash to pay for the round.
Matchplay:
The matchplay is now well under way with several matches already having been played and many more scheduled. Please note several additional rules:
1. If a country club member has the decision as to where to play, he or she CANNOT force their opponent to play at that course unless the opponent is given the opportunity to play at least once before the match.
2. To clarify if there are 3 sets of men's tees the back tees cannot be used.
Please email me the result of your matches as soon as they are complete.
Strokeplay Championship in July:
This years tournament (for our second annual trophy) will take place in Shenandoah in July. Last year we had 3 free meals, a luxury coach, 27 holes, free drinks etc. We used the proceeds from the raffle to subsidize the cost. A detailed breakdown of costs is being prepared and after the raffle is over we will announce the plans for the championship.
Website:
We will be having a complete overhaul of the website in the next few weeks to make it more user friendly, to allow us to update it ourselves and to enable sign up to be done straight to a spreadsheet that can be viewed. Archinects, owned partly by Mark McCurley, one of our members have been engaged to do this. Please contact Mark if you have any website needs.
Raffle:
The raffle for 4 round trip airfares to Ireland, accommodation and a rental car has started. Almost 300 of the 600 tickets have already been spoken for. Please let me know if you can sell some and I will get you the tickets. The draw will be after the May event.
Sponsorship:
This topic was tabled until the next meeting as our sponsor chairman was unavailable. It was decided that members can place a business card ad or an ad the size of a business card on a soon to be available page on the web site. The cost for this will be $20. We will have a list of businesses sorted by service type. The committee wants to encourage use of other members services.
Dave Lewis, Captian
