Mako 2021-22 AGM: New Committee Announced In Election Boilover!

Mako gathered at their Club Jervis Bay headquarters to see out the management team who bought the club through its early days and through the current challenging times. Here’s the rundown from outgoing President Bear.

In my second and final year as Mako President, I am proud to say that our club continues to thrive and achieve its goals with an increasing awareness of our club in our community. This would not be possible without the hard work and perseverance of the Committee and the members who have contributed their time and skills to support the club’s on-water pursuits and off-water shenanigans. Congratulations Mako.

Club JB Sponsorship

This year saw Mako celebrate its major sponsorship with Club Jervis Bay. Our thanks to John West and the team who have welcomed us into the Club JB family. I am sure our two clubs will prosper together over the coming years.

JB locals are now greeted monthly by our Community Raffle teams, who are now duelling for the top fundraiser title. I know that when the time arrives that every member will step up to the plate, not only for the fundraising dollars but as part of our thanks to Club JB for their support.

Out with the Old…

Firstly, I thank the Committee for their dedication to this club and their contribution to a very successful season. I am most grateful for volunteering their time in amongst busy lives personally and professionally.

I’d like to officially acknowledge the outgoing Committee, some of whom are going again: Chicki, Janine, Sonja, Val, and Bear

To every Mako member, I thank you for arriving at training and racing with smiles and the absolute determination that will continue to build the story of a club that started with one boat stuck in the trees at Plantation Point.

And in with the New

Season 2021-22 will be managed under our first full Committee. The skills and commitment of the Committee will no doubt carry the club to higher highs (and in terms of somebody’s relentless barrage of Dad jokes, lower lows). When the dust settled and the motion was passed, Mako welcomes our shiny new Committee

• President – Matt Gardiner
• Secretary – Jacquie Smith
• Registrar – Janine Molyneux 
• Coach – Chicki 
• Treasurer – Sally Casey 
• General Committee Member/Equipment – Simon Katz
• General Committee Member/Assistant Coach – Fitness – Ryan Brown
• Captain – Angela Katz 

Our Racing Season

Over the season, Mako has trained and embraced the true goal of this great sport, which is to line up on a racecourse and duke it out with the best in the country. And race we did:

• We launched our DBNSW season at the Olympic course in October, with a single mixed 20’s crew then broken out into 10’s, and made our first minor finals
• In November, 22 paddlers took on the king tides and mud of Dobroyd. The highlight being 14 Mako women taking 5^th in the A final and never once doubting they weren’t always in the game.
• Mako was fortunate enough to race in three DBACT regattas and we thank the association and ACT clubs for always having the welcome mat out.
• And then there was Nowra. 8km of windy madness and Mako’s first gold medal in a DBNSW sanctioned regatta. With a couple of silvers on Sunday, happy days indeed.
• NSW State titles saw Mako field full Premier women’s, open, mixed and Senior A mixed crews. Take a moment here though, we start the season with 20 paddlers in Sydney, by season end we return with 36 and put down times that ranked us inside the top 6 across each race category.

That evolution doesn’t occur without the commitment and dedication of a club with a shared vision. A shared vision is where the magic happens for every successful club.

We Bought a New Boat

This year also saw good old Boat 5 head to retirement in Queensland and we welcomed our brand-new boat. The fundraising effort across the membership was testimony to the strength of our club (or a response to ongoing hernia and back issues related to lifting Boat 5).  We committed to Bunnings BBQ’s, Triathlon staffing, harassing family and friends on GoFundMe and in some cases, going hat in hand to local businesses, most notably Husky Sports and Aquatique. To our handyman Simon, thank you for building our boat trolley which now ensures that we can always get a boat in the water.

Hail to our Coach

At the end of the day, Mako is a racing club, and on-water success comes from members following the plans and direction of a great coach. We are blessed to have Australia’s best dragon bat coach in Chicki. While most members see the training and regatta Chicki, not many are aware of how much work occurs across the season to track numbers and configure training crews, wrangle regatta entries and then for every regatta, configure and balance multiple crews for every race category, and then change them on the fly on the day. It’s an incredible juggling act. I would like to thank Chicki for her vision, skills, dedication, patience, and commitment to ensuring that every member and our club is afforded every opportunity to become the best paddler they can be.

The season ahead will be supported by a full Committee that will see Chicki focus more on coaching and less on running the club. Chicki has some very exciting plans for the season ahead but I’ll leave that to the Coach’s Season Planning.

And in Closing

As a club, we can only grow by taking the lessons from previous seasons, carrying them forward and doing things better. Clubs aren’t run by a Committee for the benefit of members. We are fortunate enough to have members take on Committee roles because they are passionate about our club.

But what can we all do as members to support our Committee?

1. Read all communications from the Committee.
2. Be responsive – action Committee requests, arrive at places on time, read regatta packs and implement every planning recommendation (thinking food, water and clothing from State titles for example)
3. Take action – if you’re first at training uncover the boats. At the end, don’t walk past the covers, grab a mate and cover our boats. If there’s enough people to get a boat in, call it, and get on with it.
4. Think first – how can I help? An example, we are on a drive to accredit sweeps, and every member should be throwing their hand up to have a go. It’s Mako, it’s a safe place. Every sweep always has a Day 1. Mako needs to grow past having single points of failure and more accredited sweeps will achieve that. I know this will be a focus point for the President in the upcoming season.

In closing, I would like to thank every Mako member. By growing our club and creating the memories of a lifetime, we are changing our own and other peoples lives, and that my friends, is priceless. Thank you.