8 News
RSA REVIEW • SPRING 2016
PHOTOS: The Hastings RSA has merged with three other clubs to form Club Hastings. The new club, a purpose built facility, lists more than 3000 members.
MERGER BENEFITS ALL – RSA PRESIDENT Sue Russell By adopting an attitude that there is always a way forward as long as you have the right attitude to embrace change, the Hastings RSA has become part of a new conglomeration of four clubs. The RSA, founded in 1917, has joined The Hibernian Catholic Club, the Heretaunga Club and the Heretaunga Bowling Club to form Club Hastings. The new club – a purpose-built facility on the site of the former Heretaunga Club on the corner of Hastings and Victoria streets – has more than 3000 members. The transformation from standalone RSA with a solid membership and financial situation took three years. It began with a request by the Hibernian Catholic Club to merge with the RSA, as Clubs Hastings president and RSA member Trevor Hardie explains. “The Hibernian Catholic Club was struggling with falling numbers and with the upkeep of their clubrooms, and they approached the RSA about joining with us. After consultation with
our members, we accepted the Hibernian Club approach to join our club.” The merger took place in September 2013. Each club retained its culture and activities under the one roof. Hibernian’s gaming machine licence was able to be transferred to the RSA, creating a club that was one of only five in the country to have 30 gaming machines on the one site. Four months later, in January 2014, the Heretaunga Club closed its doors on Hastings’
Many RSAs have remembered those who fell in World War 1 by estabishing a field of white crosses as “a moving tribute to the fallen”. If you have established a field of remembrance, the Fields of Remembrance Trust would love to know about it. We hope to have a map of the many and varied fields on our website in time for Anzac Day 2017.
Please use the Fields of Remembrance website: www.fieldsofremembrance. org.nz. REGISTER MY FIELD is at the top of the page. - Advt
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Victoria St and merged with the RSA. This coincided with an offer by the RSA’s neighbour, Countdown, to buy the RSA site on Avenue Rd West. The RSA accepted the supermarket’s $3.3m offer. “We first planned to move into a renovated Heretaunga Club,” says Trevor Hardie. “But following an inspection of the facilities by architects, we agreed with their recommendation not to renovate but to instead demolish the old building and build a new club on the same site. After consulting with members the Hastings RSA also changed its name to Clubs Hastings to reflect the make-up of the combined club. Members and guests began using the new premises in late April, and the official opening followed June 19. Building a new 2000 square metre facility also offered opportunities and a fresh impetus to find ways to attract new and younger members through its doors. “We gave a lot of thought about incorporating features and activities that would be appealing for younger members and one example of this is the High Viz (tradies) bar,” says Trevor. The bar aims to be a happy drop-in, social place for workers to enjoy a glass or two, and has proved popular with locals. High Viz is open Tuesday to Saturday; the club’s main bar is open daily from 10am.
Some members were concerned that the RSA was losing its sense of identity through the loss of the name. However, each of the clubs involved has been able to continue to express its culture and maintain its own identity while being part of something greater. “Take me, I am still RSA, but we merge with everyone else,” says Trevor. “It is not like there are four different clubs sharing the same space; we are one club with benefits flowing to all.” Facilities for members and guests include a full TAB, four full-size snooker tables, pool tables, restaurant and café facilities. The nextdoor Heretaunga Bowling Club is, of course, a member organisation. One special feature the RSA has brought with it is the VC Room – described by Trevor Hardie is a wonderful and poignant space inside the club and is the only one of its type in New Zealand “The room is special, with photographs of every Victoria Cross recipient, including a replica of their medals and citations.” As a veteran of the Vietnam War, Trevor holds strong convictions about the role of the RSA in today’s world. When he returned from active service, he joined the Wellington RSA and has been a staunch member since. He remembers a feeling among old World War 2 ‘diggers’ that they participated in a real war, and says it is nonsense to denigrate subsequent operations in which New Zealand servicemen and women have served as anything less than real combat. “Everyone who serves overseas in any the places our Defence Force personnel have been deployed are in real war conditions. I can say that at Clubs Hastings, a warm and respectful welcome awaits all current and former servicemen and women. I invite all service personnel to step through our doors and become members, and then to get involved in leadership of the club.” That, he says, is the way forward for RSAs and he is heartened to see others welcoming new ways, including mergers, to secure their future.
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