Members who visited the Club over the last 2 weeks would have read the Notice that Dato' Tahir Abdul Rahim had at 10 p.m. on 16th  June 2003 vacated his position as President after being informed by the Company Secretary that based on solicitors' advice his re-election in May 2002 was defective. Although his re-election was unopposed he had already attained 70 years of age and under Section 129(6) of the Companies Act, his re-election had to go through the formalities of the passing of a resolution with a three-fourths majority, which unfortunately was not carried out. Dato' Tahir Abdul Rahim has offered himself for election as President in our coming Annual General Meeting.

Pursuant to Article 12 of the Club's M&A, The Committee has appointed Tan Sri Abu Talib bin Othman (A0297-0) to the office of President with effect from 24th June 2003.

As this would be my last article before the Annual General Meeting, it would be pertinent for me to run through and highlight some of the issues, problems encountered, changes and reforms undertaken by The Committee over the last 12 months. As I have stated in my earlier articles, The Committee's vision is to embark on a mission that will allow Management to run the day-to-day management of the Club. This does not mean The Committee had abdicated its responsibility and authority but merely delegated unto Management the day-to-day matters. New key personnel were employed which included the Financial Controller, Ms. See Tho (in August 2002), Course Superintendent, Mr. Kenneth Vun (in December 2002), Sports Manager, Mr. Rajasingam (in February 2003) and the General Manager, Ms. Angie Gan (in March 2003). The Committee and I are happy with the programmes and progress of our new General Manager in re-organising and streamlining management towards better discipline, tighter control, responsibility, explicit job functions and accountability with emphasis on honesty.

This is the first year where Management had to work within a budget approved by Members in January. The Management had to face the challenges of reconciling the high demands and expectations of our Members with a smaller budget.

Various attempts and methods are being employed to cut down cost which included trial introduction of respecting Members' integrity and honesty with a self-service facility at the men's bar during off peak period. Unfortunately, the response from Members was not encouraging and Management decided to cancel this self-service facility.

The Committee decided to defer Phase 2 of our renovation of our Clubhouse until our financial problems are addressed and resolved. In the meantime, The Committee focused on obtaining the Certificate of Fitness for Phase 1 and the resolution of various issues with some of the consultants and contractors. I am pleased to advise that we have obtained the Certificate of Fitness last month and we have resolved issues with the contractors.

As regard our staff reduction programme, we introduced early retirement scheme and so far received acceptance from 13 Club's employees. The Voluntary Separation Scheme was deferred for various technical problems and therefore may take a slightly longer time to implement.

The golf programmes for the year were active except for our inter-club matches which were postponed because of the SARS epidemic. Our junior programme is extremely successful and there is now a demand for more facilities and activities for the children. As for the Ladies Golf Section, a study is being undertaken to organise competition over the weekends to give the working lady members an opportunity to participate.

As for the golf courses, various renovation and repair works were carried out to improve drainage and irrigation. Several greens which were contaminated by foreign grass and diseases were re-turfed. Several greens of the 1st Nine Old Course are recovering from various bouts of diseases. The Greens Sub-committee comprising various very well qualified Members and the Course Superintendent are working in consultation with various agronomists and turf experts to overcome the problems. The Course Superintendent has written a short article in this month Circular on this matter.

I believe there is a need for better communication and transparency between Members and the Management/The Committee so that Members' problems, grouses and grievances can be communicated directly to the Management. The Management has been directed to study the setting up in our Club's website an interactive forum with a facilitator to enable Members to communicate with each other and our Club. Members accessing our website will have up to date information from Management/The Committee and not be misled by incorrect rumours and gossips, as the saying goes "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing". Perhaps with this facility the micro issues particularly relating to the Members' enjoyment of the facilities of the Club can be easily attended to by Management thus freeing The Committee to focus and concentrate its time on the macro issues and problems of our Club.

It has been suggested and I believe it is a good suggestion that Management and Convenors of various Sub-committees should provide a quarterly report to Members to be published in the Circular informing Members on what problems they encounter and what they have done over the last quarter.

In protecting the harmonious and friendly environment for Members and the integrity of the Bye-laws, disciplinary actions were taken against several Members for conduct unbecoming of a Member of our Club. The guilty parties were suspended from enjoying the privileges of our Club. The Committee will not tolerate any action that would destroy the ambience of our Club to the detriment of the majority of the Members.

As for our financial problems, it has been said that our Club with assets worth hundreds of million ringgit should not face such financial woes and that The Committee is put in a position having to embark on fund raising exercises begging for funds with a golden bowl.

The Committee had concentrated and focused its efforts to study various options and finally produced the Proposals which were sent to all Members together with the notice of the Annual General Meeting. I hope Members will read carefully the Proposals and give The Committee their support.

On behalf of our Club I wish to thank all The Committee Members for their time, effort, sacrifices and hard work over the last 12 months in particular the 2 Committee Members namely, Datuk K.K. Kim and Mr. Michael Low Chee Kein who retire on rotation and decided not to seek re-election.

DATO' BOBBY J.T. ONG  Captain