Tom and Dulcie Fisher. Photo/file
Tom Fisher has devoted more than 40 years of his life to Clubs New Zealand and this month resigned as national president, a post he's held intermittently since 1999. Rosie Dawson-Hewes chatted to Tom about his journey with the organisation that runs RSAs and clubs across the country.
Tom Fisher is a blunt man - one of those salt of the earth types who calls it exactly how he sees it, in the best possible way, which is probably why he's so loved in New Zealand's clubs scene.
Tom joined the executive of the Matamata Club around 1970, having become a member the year before.
"[I] enjoyed the cut and thrust of what the club scene was about, the politics of it,the licensing side of it and also the sporting side of it."
Clubs New Zealand was then more than 330,000 members in about 320 clubs. He then became an area delegate for South Waikato and Bay of Plenty, before going on to become vice-president and president of both the Matamata Club and the national body.
"That was really the start of what I thought was going to be three or four years," Tom says. "My wife, Dulcie, said 'how many years?' and I said probably five atthe most. It wasn't. It was a helluva long journey and she was 100 per cent supportive and behind it."
Clubs New Zealand manages working Cosmopolitan clubs, other local clubs (including sports clubs) and RSAs across New Zealand, also working with Internal Affairs and Worksafe New Zealand to ensure clubs meet legal requirements.
The greatest change Tom's seen was the introduction of female members in the early 1970s. "Some clubs have had to bring women members into their scene to survive, otherwise they'd be a bloody dead duck."
He says RSAs have always had women, but for other clubs female members marked a big cultural shift. "Men being men, in that era, they came in for the beer. They might have played a game of snooker, but they were beholden to themselves ... Women changed the focus of operations in clubs, through basically being present," Tom says.
"Some ladies, when they got in, some of the men wished to Christ they'd never seen them because they'd become quite vocal about what they wanted to do. And they had every right because they were a member."
Equality of all club members is one of the things he loves most, from "lawyers being at the top ... to the joker who sweeps the streets and comes in".
Together, collectively, once they walk through that door they're only one thing - a member of that club. So the status of who you are disappears.
While many clubs and RSAs have merged as membership has dwindled, Tom's proudest of getting committees to realise that a Clubs NZ executive's role is about more than just meetings.
"It's to understand what people's needs are, be it sport, be it social, be it at home where they're lonely," he says. "The committees of yesteryear were probably a bunch of pissheads, to be honest. Today they've got to be very articulate and knowledgeable in all the rules and regulations, particularly understanding the [government] departments and ACC regulations."
Most clubs offer snooker, 8-ball, indoor and outdoor bowls, darts, petanque and croquet.
A key partis also giving back to the community through profits from both pokies and the clubs themselves, as well as free use of their facilities.
"Upper Hutt [Cossie Club], for example, gives about $65,000 a year away to the community."
Tom doesn't wash over the dangers of gambling and the pokies machines that are a key part o fthe clubs scene. "That's probably something that all our hospitality industry must be very much aware of."
All the clubs have systems in place to monitor outsiders, as well as members. Club management will often ask questions, behind the scenes, if they're concerned, Tom says.
"The monitoring of individuals, on a daily basis, on gambling is imperative, really. All the clubs allthe way through have got control points in place ... you can take a policy out against a person, but what happens if you stop that person playing in your club? They'll be cunning enough and they'll just go somewhere else. And that's sad," he says.
So I sometimes believe that if a person has got an issue with gambling, then we should be protective of them, rather than destroy them and let them go somewhere else. And that's what we do.
For Tom, his role at Clubs NZ has always been about people first and foremost. "I enjoyed people and the way they think and what they want to do and how they want to do it.
"The other thing is [I'd] never push anybody aside. I've always found that that person, regardless of who they are [or] whatt hey are, must have something to offer. So you find out what they've got," he says.
"You've got to be prepared to listen. I'm quite an arrogant bastard when it comes to that. I mean that sincerely. If people start talking about something and I say 'hang on, what have you done about it?' ...I'll say nah,this is your call mate, if you want to do something about it, this is what you've got to do ...If you don't want to do it, don't bother, but it's your baby if you do it... you'll feel better than me doing it for you."
Predictably, he'll miss the people most, but he and Dulcie now live at Copper Crest Retirement Village in Pyes Pa, so the community there is filling the gap left by Clubs NZ.
"The people there are just absolutely marvellous. Again, it's people," Tom says. He is already on the Residents' Association committee.
Tom is still a member of Tauranga Citizens' Club, an honorary member of Mount Club and a life member of both Matamata Club and the Association.
His eyes light up when he talks about Dulcie and her unwavering support over the years, but he's a realist.
"I was probably never home sometimes. And when you look back, that's the selfish part of the 40 years," he says.
Still, Tom says Dulcie has been the key for him, over all the years. "She's the guts of me and I couldn't have done it without her.