Vice President’s Report

214 SMITH STREET, COLLINGWOOD TEL: (03) 9417 5498 www.mariosjewellers.com.au

Financials for the financial Year 1 May 2021 – 30th April 2022

This was another difficult year for all Victorians and the Club. I trust that all members have been safe and can now enjoy their personal and family activities without the restrictions of the last two years. As you will recall, we were required to close all our operations in late May through to October 2021 due to the pandemic lockdowns. With the expiry of Job Keeper in March 2021, we were only able to keep critical staff employed during the lockdown period. The Deli has been established as a permanent facility which has produced a significant return for the club. Since late October 2021, it has been wonderful to see many of our members enjoy our food, culture and facilities on a regular basis again.

Without being able to trade until after October 2021, the club had produced a significant loss of $873,000 for the six months period to October 2021. Trading since October 2021 saw a high level of activity in all areas which was particularly pleasing, but the club operations were subjected to difficulties with cancellation of functions or reduced numbers, as well as staff shortages due to Covid 19 isolation requirements. Our operations for November 2021 through to April 2022, albeit limited at times, produced a good profit of $367,000, but with no Job Keeper and reduced assistance from the Federal and State government, it was very difficult for the club to recover the loss hence we produced an overall loss of $506,000 for the financial year.

Many of you would have seen our young soccer players running and kicking the ball on the new soccer pitch. It is a substantial improvement to our facilities enhancing the status of the Club and junior development opportunities. We now looking forward to a three-pitch facility about to start development on Templestowe Road Bulleen (where the old golf driving range was located). Our wonderful sporting facilities are all back and running at a high level with football, squash, tennis, and bocce fully operating at high participant levels. I would like to thank both Karl Hodge for the excellent development of the various Veneto Club sports and David Del Monaco for the continuing development of the FCBL Football program.

May to October 2022

Membership as at the end of April 2022 was 1,184. The Committee has been working to recover the reduced membership from the last 2 years with a membership drive targeting Veneto descendants which has been quite successful. We ask all members to continue to support the club by renewing membership and to introduce friends and family to the wonderful facilities and culture of the club.

The Club repaid its bank loan in August 2021. We have started a savings strategy, and each month contributing $40,000 to the Sala Venezia building fund – as at the end of October 2022 the fund holds a balance of $644,000. Our strong cash position allows the Committee to refocus on the Sala Venezia project subject to a review of the post pandemic operation and the NELP effect on the club. ANZ has confidence in the Veneto Club’s operations and has confirmed the availability of funding.

The Committee is focused on continuing to improve the Club’s financial position in all areas to ensure a strong growing facility that continues to support the Veneto sporting activities, heritage, and culture, well into the future. This vision cannot be achieved without the continuous support of our management team, their staff and the many volunteers that have contributed during the year to enhance and advance the Veneto Club for the benefit of all members. Thank you to Joe Morello, his team and all the volunteers for you hard work during this difficult year.

Negli ultimi anni, il mondo ha visto enormi cambiamenti e il club non fa eccezione. Stiamo per affrontare una grande transizione che cambierà per sempre la nostra entità. I lavori del Nordest link rimodelleranno in modo significativo il Veneto club. La cosa più importante è che il Comitato e il team di gestione rimangano concentrati sui nostri valori fondanti. Dobbiamo ricordare che il nostro club rimarrà sempre operativo durante questo periodo di transizione affrontando le attività come di consueto. Anche se ci saranno innumerevoli disagi che ci impatteranno, incoraggiamo i nostri soci e la comunità locale a continuare a supportare il nostro bistrot, partecipando ai nostri eventi, alle nostre attività, frequentando i nostri impianti sportivi o semplicemente acquistando prodotti dalla nostra selezione di gastronomia dal delicatessen.

La costruzione del nuovo collegamento Nordest link richiederà diversi anni e il club si prefigge di rimanere sempre attivo e a disposizione più che mai durante questo periodo così cruciale.

Quest'anno abbiamo volutamente posticipato la pubblicazione di questa nostra rivista di modo che sia allineata, anche per la prossima edizione, al 50° anniversario dell’apertura del club che festeggeremo a Dicembre 2023. Management e Comitato hanno già iniziato a pianificare le attività per celebrare a dovere questo enorme traguardo.

Mentre il mondo cerca di lasciarsi alle spalle la pandemia, stiamo affrontando molte nuove sfide, negli ultimi due anni la nostra forza lavoro è diminuita anche in considerazione, come ben percepibile, del fatto che si sta rivalutando il proprio equilibrio tra lavoro e vita privata. L’essere attrattivi per personale qualificato e disponibile a lavorare per noi è diventato una missione sempre più difficile. Non è, ovviamente, solo un nostro problema circoscritto, bensì è una criticità di sistema che interessa ogni settore in questo momento. Questo problema sta avendo un enorme effetto sulla nostra conduzione e sulle nostre attività. I tempi in cui ogni spazio o sala per gli eventi venivano riempiti per tutto il fine settimana, o talvolta anche raddoppiati dal pranzo alla cena, sono purtroppo finiti poiché la nostra carenza di personale ci impone di essere selettivi rispetto alle tipologie e alle quantità di cerimonie che possiamo accettare. Siamo tuttavia fiduciosi che, con la stessa perseveranza che i nostri soci fondatori dimostrarono cinquant'anni fa, saremo in grado di ritornare presto alla nostra consueta e prospera realtà che ci appartiene.

Guardando avanti ed impegnandoci lavorando per rimodulare alcuni aspetti operativi cruciali, rimaniamo comunque fiduciosi e determinati nel cercare nuovamente di crescere e migliorare il nostro business a livelli pre-pandemia oltre a mirare ad essere ancora più reattivi e responsivi per quanto riguarda aspettative e necessità di tutti voi, nostri soci. Ad esempio, alcune di queste soluzioni, riguarderanno l'ammodernamento della sala Rialto e della sua cucina, per renderla ancora più facile da usare, migliorandone, nel contempo, l'atmosfera e l’usabilità generale. Siamo inoltre ottimisti di poter riprendere in mano la proposta di rifacimento della Sala Venezia poiché siamo convinti che questo aspetto sarà vitale per la crescita futura del club se vogliamo essere competitivi e al passo con i nostri concorrenti del settore.

È confortante vedere il continuo supporto che stiamo ricevendo da voi per la nostra offerta enogastronomica al Deli. È incredibile sentire il feedback non solo dei nostri soci, ma anche delle persone di passaggio che tornano, settimana dopo settimana, per acquistare i deliziosi prodotti fatti a mano dal nostro team. Faremo del nostro meglio per incrementare la scelta e l’offerta disponibile con nuove specialità e peculiarità alimentari.

Pensando al 2023, rimane estremamente importante essere pazienti durante tutti questi cambiamenti e questi inconvenienti che ci impatteranno specialmente per quanto riguarda il nostro parcheggio così come per l'ingresso e per l’uscita dalla nostra struttura, dovuti ai lavori del collegamento Nordest link.

Vi assicuriamo, tuttavia, che verranno prese tutte le contromisure del caso per garantire quanti meno inconvenienti possibili per tutti voi e per l’intera nostra clientela.

Un pensiero e una preghiera, infine, per ricordare i nostri soci che ci hanno lasciato durante il 2021/22.

Grazie nuovamente per il vostro continuo supporto. In the past few years, the world has seen tremendous changes, and the Club is no exception. We are about to go through a large transition that will change the Club forever. The emergence of North East Link will re-shape the Veneto club significantly. The most important thing is for the committee and management team to remain focused on our Club values. We need to remember that our Club will always remain operational through this transitional period with business as usual. Whilst there is going to be considerable activity at our doorstep, we encourage our members, and local community to continue supporting our bistro, frequenting our various special live events, activities, sporting facilities or merely browsing from our deli selection.

Construction of the new North East Link will take several years, and our Club will endeavour to maintain its outstanding service during this crucial time.

This year we have purposely delayed the publishing of our magazine to fall in line with the Club’s 50th Anniversary, since its opening, at the end of 2023. Management and Committee have begun plans to celebrate this huge milestone.

As the world comes out of pandemic mode, we are facing many new challenges, the past 2 years has seen our workforce diminish as people are reassessing their work / life balance. Attracting skilled people to work for us has become the most difficult job. This is not just a Veneto Club problem this is an issue affecting every industry at the present time. This problem is having a huge effect on our business. The days of every function room being filled all weekend and sometimes doubled up from lunch to dinner are over as our staff shortages mean we need to be selective on how many functions we accept. We are confident that with the same perseverance our foundation members had fifty years ago we will return to our former prosperous Club.

Going forward, while we work to integrate our valuable solutions and services, we are confident that as we seek to grow our business again back to pre-pandemic times, we aim to be even more responsive to evolving the needs of you our members and guests’ expectations. Some of these solutions will be to look at updating the Rialto room and kitchen to make it more user friendly and improve the overall ambience of the room itself. We are hopeful we can get the Sala Venezia upgrade back on the table again as this will be vital for the future growth of the Club if we are to be competitive and ahead of our competitors in the functions and event space.

It is very pleasing to see the continued support we are getting for the Deli. It’s amazing to hear the feedback not only from our members but also from people off the street that come back week in week out to get the delicious products made in house by our team. We will constantly look to refresh our offerings with new product lines.

Looking towards 2023, it is extremely important to be patient during these developments especially through the changes with our car park, and entrance during the North East Link works.

Rest assured appropriate steps will be taken to ensure the transition will be as easy and as comfortable as possible for our patrons.

We should also take a moment to remember our members who have passed during 2021/22.

Thank you for your continued support.