Familiar face taking charge at Cosmopolitan Club

Long-serving staff member Jenny Barber stepped into the role of secretary-manager at the Wanganui Cosmopolitan Club this week. Photo/Rae Cliffe

There's a new hand on the tiller at the Cosmopolitan Club in Wanganui.

Jenny Barber, who has worked at the inner city chartered club for 29 years, is stepping up as secretary-manager, taking over from Dave Tilley, who is taking up a key role with Clubs NZ.

Ms Barber started in the bottle store before joining the bar staff. More recently she had been deputising as secretary-manager.

She said she is looking forward to her new role.

"There are a couple of small tweaks I want to make to how things are done but not too much too soon. But I'll be behind the bar every second Friday, because that will be a chance to keep in touch with the membership."

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Mr Tilley, who managed the club for 22 years, is leaving his hometown to become general manager for Clubs NZ based in Auckland and he takes up that position on April 22.

"My role in Auckland will bring me into contact with literally hundreds of people I've not met before, and involves looking after existing clubs, answering their queries and assisting where I can," he said.

"I'll also be visiting clubs that are not yet members of Clubs NZ and talking to them about signing up. My role will also be liaising with major partners of Clubs NZ, and that includes Sky TV and the TAB."

Mr Tilley moved to the Cossie Club after a career in banking in the city, but away from work will be remembered for his contribution to rugby and especially bowls.

He played bowls for 37 years as a member of the Gonville Bowling Club, where he is a life member. "I played a lot of representative bowls in the late 1980s and'90s, including the old Rothmans InterCentre event," Mr Tilley said.

More recently he spent six years as chairman of Bowls Wanganui, serving on the centre executive for a number of years. For the past seven years he has been on the Wanganui Rugby Union's judicial hearings panel.

He said he and his partner Joy Walden would miss the friends they had made over the years.