Noosa Heads Surf Club has a new president Donald McKill and vice-president Steve Mawby with a mandate aimed at ridding the club of its recently reported toxic environment and replacing it with one of goodwill.
A huge turnout of more than 100 members attended the club’s AGM on Sunday 13 July to cast their votes for several board positions up for nomination.
Having not previously served on the board, Donald McKill was required under Noosa surf club’s constitution to gain at least 75 per cent of the vote for his nomination to be successful.
“We did that,” Mr McKill said. “It’s never been done in the the history of Surf Life Saving, I believe. That gave me a platform and the confidence to move forward with the club.”
Also voted on to the board at the AGM was director of life saving director Trevor King. The three elected board members will join the director of finance and junior active committee (JAC) nippers whose positions were not up for renewal, leaving two positions, director of admin and director of surf sports still vacant.
Mr McKill said he was confident of soon filling those roles with people having put their names forward since the AGM and the final decision to be voted on by members.
“We’ve had some really good feedback. I think people were holding back on the election to see what happened, to see who got the role as president. I think people were a bit anxious there,” he said.
Mr McKill’s first priority on taking on the top job is to ensure the club’s core business, looking after the beach, is ready for the season start in August.
“We’ll make sure our people are trained and ready, the patrols ready from an operational point of view, the equipment is ready,” he said. “We’ll throw our resources on the new nipper sign on which has started in earnest. The JAC will be making sure nippers are signed up and ready for season. Last year we had 550-600 nippers, from age 6-14, then they transfer to cadets and train to be junior lifesavers.”
Also on the agenda is the future of the clubhouse.
Having been chairman of the building working group committee Mr McKill is well aware building investigations of Noosa surf club have shown the ageing clubhouse has reached its end of life and the club has a mandate from members for a new build.
“There’s lot of stakeholders, a lot of people involved and what the building would even look like, if it does go ahead it will be one of most iconic buildings in Australia, commanding the position it does on our fantastic beach,” he said.
“We will be building that club for future generations – 30-40-50 year plan. We only have one shot at it. If we don’t we’ll be kicking the can down road for future generations to deal with.”
Mr McKill said there were processes and procedures to bring it about and money in the bank that had been set aside to help with that project.
“That puts us in a great position going forward. It paves the way, the fact we’ve got that financial security,” he said.
Improving the environment within the club and the outward perspective of it is also top of the agenda, with the goal to have all departments on the same page and working together to create a bit of goodwill and harmony.
“Our record in the press of late isn’t favourable, we need to change that perspective,” Mr McKill said. “There’s a lot of very good people in this surf club who do amazing things in the community. It hasn’t had the positive outcomes that we should have.
“There’s so much goodwill in the club and the community. We’ve got to make sure it’s at the forefront at this beach and this position that we hold.
“I think we’ve just got to sit down with all the stakeholders of the club. It’ll be my job to bring this club together. Obviously there’s new people on the committee, that’s indicated the club is ready to change, the members are ready for a new spell, I’ve just got to drive that.
“I’m pretty adamant I can change that toxic culture and people who are passionate about surf life saving and passionate about the club have got to come to the forefront and we’ll drive that together.
“The key word is transparency. Myself and the new committee are committed to that word. With transparency you have to be open and listen to members. Possibly there is a feeling members didn’t feel they had a voice, probably they weren’t that well supported in the past, probably they didn’t understand procedures.
“We think we can listen to the members going forward, look to build those meetings into a forum where members can voice their opinion.”
To drive that change in the club the Scottish-born Mr McKill brings to the role a wide range of experience which includes 18 years a Noosa life saver, six years presidency at Noosa Dolphins rugby union club, 25 years running his family-owned timber and hardware business in Edinburgh and a military career in the Royal Marine Commandos that included operations during the Cold War and deployment to Northern Ireland during The Troubles.
“I’ve been a lifesaver over 18 years on this beach, patrol captain for 15 years, been on the sponsorship committee and chairman of the building committee,” he said. “I’ve been involved in every section. All my kids came through nippers, my wife was patrolling member for 10 years, my whole family has been involved.”
Prior to the family’s move to Australia about 20 years ago, taking charge of the family’s timber and hardware business taught him the importance of customers and the community.
“It was a fantastic business. Customers and community were the key, like most businesses,” he said. “Our business was recognised as the best local shop in the whole of the UK, that was an honour I picked up on behalf of the business.”
Before running the family business Mr McKill was a Royal Marine Commando, a role where he learnt the value of camaraderie and training.
When he first joined after school back in the late 1970s, he was involved in arctic warfare training spent in Norway in winters inside the arctic circle, dug into the snow in temperatures reaching minus 40 Celsius. He worked with Canadian, Dutch, US, Norwegian and other stakeholders, training in that theatre of war during the Cold War environment, was deployed to The Troubles in Northern Ireland and exercises in Europe. After his time in the defence force he returned as a reservist as a physical training instructor training marines coming through courses in Edinburgh.
An accomplished rugby player Mr McKill first discovered Noosa while visiting with the British and Irish Lions tour in 2001. Since moving to Noosa he had been instrumental in bringing back the team 12 years ago to train in Noosa while on tour and last week the team and supporters visited Noosa again while on tour in Australia.
Taking on the new role, Mr McKill paid tribute to his predecessors saying the club needed to recognise the 20 years joint service of the former president Ross Fisher and Director of Admin Barry Leek, who had both moved on from those positions and thank them for their efforts.
