City RSA must find ways to avert looming demise

By JOHN COUSINS
Bold and different thinking was needed for Tauranga Returned Services Association club in Cameron Rd to survive declining membership and changing social behaviour.
The club's annual general meeting on Sunday was given the clear message that it faced a very uncertain future if things did not change.
Despite some misgivings from members, the meeting did not derail the initiative to prevent the club going down the same path to closure as other RSAs around New Zealand.
Club president John Holden said the meeting, attended by 215 members, was very constructive with few brickbats.
A report from Athol Feek, a member of the special committee investigating the future of the club, highlighted three options: The status quo, shifting or amalgamation.
Mr Feek said it was no use saying "we don't want to change" because change was the only way the club would survive. It could not carry on in the face of increasing costs and a static cash flow.
Unlike other RSAs which had been forced to close because they lacked the courage to seize the initiative, Mr Feek said the Tauranga RSA still had time to bring about change.
He said the situation was not very different from that facing other chartered clubs in Tauranga - social changes were impinging on leisure time and discretionary spending was down. The clubs that survived would be those that took bold and different moves, he said.
Tauranga RSA's club manager Graham Howard said afterwards that it should not be seen as all doom and gloom.
"It is an exciting time for the club."
However, the bottom line was that costs beyond the club's control had increased dramatically over the last four years, including council rates going from $4000 to $33,000 and insurances rising from $6000 to $17,000. Mr Howard said the club needed an influx of new members but the trouble was younger people regarded the RSA as an "old people's club".
While total membership was 2250, major events at the club were attracting only 80 to 100 people. Membership was ageing, with 1350 people aged over 65 and 70 being the average age of members.
Mr Holden said the club's futures committee had an open mind and would welcome any suggestions made from members to special forums planned to be held every Wednesday until a final decision was made about the future of the club in two or three months.
The club wanted to make changes in its own time rather than wait until it was in the red and members had decisions forced on them. If the club carried on the way it was, that position could be reached in about five years.