2015 Annual General Meeting AGM Minutes

Bilo Bar Club’s 2015 Annual General Meeting Minutes at Shangri-la’s Fijian Resort & Spa

Date: 05 November 2015

Venue: Davui Hall

Attendance:

Imperial Bilo : Ray Louis
Grand Bilo : Craig Powell
Trustee : Barry Hancock
Trustee : Sean McEvoy
Treasurer : Sue Brett

Members Present

Mario Vidal
Robin Vidal
Kimberly Windsor
Larry Searle
Laurel Louis
Judy Steel
Allan Steel
Ken Curnow
Betty Curnow
Christine Maddison
Edna Whiting
Trish Snell
Clive Snell
Linda Hogg
John Hogg
Ken Helmore
Danny Damcevski
Sharon Damcevski
Matthew Harvey
Glenn Nugent
Jen Lonnevik
Kaylene Storey
Peter Lonnevik
Gloria McEvoy
Sarah Thomas
Jan McCarthy
Mike Gildea
Yvonne Gildea
David Neaves
Michael Neaves
Wayne Northey
Mike Slater
Debbie Slater
Ron Wilton
Vivien Wilton
Allan McCuddon
Graeme Harvey
Lance Meehan
Greg Needham
Lyn Bendle
Robert Bendle
Kevin Brett
Pamela Lidster
Max Lehmann
June Lehmann
Terry Large
Erin Dillimore-Muir
Val Large
Patricia Walter
Lurlene Graham
Lance Graham
Nola Nelson
Geoff Ross
Michael Neaves
Meg Reid
Gary Reid
Rocco Perii
Janine Perri
Gai Hodgson –Budd
Vicky Mulcahy
Mike Mulcahy
Allana Hancock
Kim Shoesmith
Frances Bromage
Cindy Neaves
Andrew Neaves

Apologies:

Neil & Claire Robinson
Barbara Helmore
Mr & Mrs Roger Dunn
Lindy Meehan
Luke & Belinda Vidal
Christine Johnson
Daniel McCarthy
Rex & Judith Johnston
Noelene Hogan

Welcome

GM, Mr Craig Powell delivered a welcome speech for those that were present.

Went through the agenda for the meeting and putting more emphasis on the important issue of changing the Bilo Bar Club Constitution to suit modern day.

1) Welcome by Imperial Bilo (Ray Louis)

2) Apologies (if any)

3) Reading of previous minutes and acceptance

4) Matters arising from previous meeting minutes

5) Grand Bilo Report

a) The Bilo Bar Club Constitution
b) Update on Renovations for Resort.
c) Future reunions – Calendar of Events for 2016 and 50^th Resort Birthday on 22 Oct 2017
d) Status of Sigatoka Sand Dunes and report on other CSR projects
e) Membership

6) Treasurers Report – any questions relating to report?

7) Trustees Report – any questions regarding this report?

8) a) A brief from the Imperial Bilo on Nadromai District School.

b) An overview of the inaugural Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort & Spa Scholarship by Michael.

9) General Business

Subscription fees
Patron of the Club – The Kalevu.

10) Any other business

Part of the speech was the reason we need to change the constitution”.

Importantly to safeguard the future of the club
Protect the club against fraud
Maintaining the reputation of the club
Properly represent what the club is all about; – purpose on why the club was founded. It should be a clear representation of who we are
Clear indication of who we are in these complex communities and provide pragmatic actions about the future of the club

Before moving on the members were asked if all were in favour of putting the new draft constitution on the floor.

With a total number of 71 members present 57 members voted for YES. GM concludes welcome speech by inviting the Imperial Bilo, Mr Ray Louis to the podium to take over.

Apologies and Meeting Start

Imperial Bilo, Mr Ray Louis, extended a warm welcome to everyone and thanked everyone for making it to the re-union.

Few apologies from members that could not make it to the re-union name mention above.

Minutes from the last AGM (2014) was put to the floor to be passed before going on the next topic on the Agenda:

Names mis-spelt should have been Sue Drought
Ministry of Education taking over all the Kindergarten; this is yet to come, still in the process but will soon be effective.

On Mr Hancock presentation, the total cost of the extension was F$24,000 and not F$27,000 as mention in the minutes.

Motion to pass the minutes was announced, Mr Graham Harvey was the first to raise hand up to pass and was seconded by Mr Michael Mulcahy.

Proposed Bilo Bar Club Constitution

Next on the Agenda was the Proposed Bilo Bar Club Constitution

Mr Neaves was invited to talk more about the new constitution including the major changes before it was put on the floor by GM, Mr Powell for voting :-

Introduction of 2 more Trustees – Mr. David Neaves and Mr. Michael Mulcahy;
Main focus was to protect the future of the club i.e protecting what we have
Purely exercising on doing what is right
Inclusion of a clause for “Distribution”in case of a winding down
Current constitution that is on the web page and the face book page is vague therefore there is a need to have it change.
If not accepted than it can be looked again into for the next 12 months.
Because one of the clause says that it has to be put to the floor for members to vote on that is why we have brought to the AGM
Trustees are all in-favour of the change and there wasn’t any need for any amendments.

Member, Mr Allan McCudden raised a question on clause 40.0:-

as this is a registered NGO we also need to have an Independent Auditor to come in and look at the books.
Trustees have to sign a Code of Ethics to keep the integrity of the Club.

Member, Mr Michael Slater also agreed to have an independent auditor look into the books of the Club and have this included in the constitution just to ensure that the Club’s future is protected.

Grand Bilo, Mr Powell mention that can be arrange. However it was decided that it was unnecessary since the Resort has control of the funds.

Member, Mrs Hogg raised her hands as she wasn’t aware or given any prior notice about this new constitution, therefore she will abstain from voting therefore their vote becomes null and void.

GM announced for those accepting the motion to accept the new constitution to raise their hands:-

Out of the 72 present 52 were in favour.

Therefore resolution was passed to accept New Constitution without any amendments.

Grand Bilo’s Report – Mr Craig Powell

Renovation

We all have been waiting on this for a very long time. As the GM he has been at the mercy of the owner’s decision. We have Mr Francis Chua, PIC Chairman coming in, there has been a few changes done to the original plan and have been voted on but yet nothing has started.

Glad to say we now have a mock-up room; anyone that wishes to see it is more than welcome to let us know.

Interrupted by Mr Harvey suggesting if the members could be given a time to come and see it. Mr Powell confirmed his available at 8.30am the next day and at 12.30mid-day should anyone be interested in seeing it they are more than welcome to meet him there (Room 212).

Continued if all goes according to plan renovation work will start with Lagoon Block 1 and move outwards. It will be block after block basis.

The Bilo Bar renovation is starting by Mid November; it will take at least a month to complete it and should be ready for Christmas.

Contractors are currently working on the staff quarters this is due to the run down condition they are in

Renovation will also be done to the back of the house (Staff area) and the front of the house. With the back of the house we looking at improving the staff Dining Area, Locker Room and to include a very modern internet cafe to cater for the staff needs.

CCTV Installation is currently underway the Resort is spending around F$1/2 million on this 5 circuit 5 panel installation as we cannot compromise on the safety and wellbeing of our guest, our first priority, with this there will be 200 cameras installed around the resort.

With In-room entertainment we have more TV Channels available now to choose from, we have received a lot of positive feedback has been received on this.

There is now improvement on our Wi-Fi services, we are proud to boast that we have the fastest Wi-Fi internet in Fiji and is available at no cost, no strings attached.

We are the only resort that is HACCP internationally accredited.

Member, Allana Hancock raised her hands to question ‘Why are there no hand sanitizer in the restaurants’? Confirmed by Mr Powell there are hands sanitizer in all dinning outlets around the resorts.

The reason the HACCP certification was brought was that a lot of guest were going out to dine, this open up windows to a lot of diseases especially food borne disease. It takes a good 6 hours to see evidence of any illness. Most of the restaurants and dinning outlet outside the resorts do not follow the standards or the measure that we have for our guests.

While on safety, if you go around the resort we have Assembly points for all guests and staff during a fire or Tsunami, another area of safety that we would like create awareness on.

We need to improve our Lagoon View Wing; this will be done when we start the renovation, hopefully soon.

Dining Outlets

New Yanuca Island Cafe which most of you has seen and has been to and our Resort Information Centre.
With renovation we are also going to have a new Beach Bar & Grill. BBG was suppose to be a temporary outlet but has become very popular and we want to turn it to be very professional for comfort food. It will have a totally new look with a bar to cater for Lagoon Pool. Construction will happen the same time we do Block 1 & Block 2 of Lagoon.
Golden Cowrie will have a face lift and has been proposed to be a Sea Food Restaurant serving seafood in different cooking style i.e. Japanese, Chinese etc. Like tapa ni yaki. Looking at also including an aquarium and a live cooking station.
Lagoon Restaurant will have a face lift and will be the main stream restaurant
Black Marlin will become and evening cocktail bar for adults
Kalevu is too big for a restaurant; we are going to reduce its seating capacity to maintain the standard of quality. This is still on a proposal state and has to be approved before things start rolling. We cannot be everything to everyone in one location.
Takali will remain our Asian Restaurant.
With Kalevu we would like to change the concept to 1^st & truly authentic Fijian Restaurant.
Marau Village will still have the Polynesian and the Asian night shows. With this improvement our guests will have a wide variety to choose from.
Bilo Bar will also have a face lift; the plan is to include a clearing station, proper toilet facilities and 5 new food carts to help with the transportation and serving of food whenever there is a function there. Cupboard area will be removed, will need to have more bar stools, improve lighting and bring in new furniture. There will be more dining options once we have the clearing station built there. There has been a collective request to re-do the roof which will also be looked into.

We will have a new lobby we will have island counters this is to ensure efficient services with quick check-in and check-out.
We have plans to have a new Laundry this will be done together with the staff facilities.
Kid’s activities in Black Marlin will now move to the Kids activities room. Kids Club will be moved to a new location to make it easy for all the parents. As part of the Kidz Zone it will also include a water park, all the areas around the pool will change.

Golden Cowrie Accommodation Wing will become an Adult Only wing, this has become a very popular spot and I believe this will go well with the Bilo Bar Members and for those who have been coming here over the years.

Future Reunion

Calender Events 2016

Last week of October to 1^st week November ie 23^rd Oct to 5^th Nov, 2016.
50^th Birthday Celebration: Celebration will run from the evening of 21^st till the 22^nd Nov, 2016.
Coral Coast Seven dates has been moved to January 2016.
Fiji International Golf Tournament will run from 15 Oct to 18 Oct, 2016.
If you enquiring about booking you can go ahead make a tentative booking now.

For 2017 it will not be the usual Bilo Bar Reunion Programme because we would like to merge it with the 50^th Birthday.

Sands of Time Charity Dinner

Yesterday we witness the opening of the Sigatoka Sand Dunes Fence this is evidence as to where the money is going.
Sands of Time Charity Dinner was a success during the dinner while having a conversation with the Chief guest The Kalevu he mention he had a discussion with the former PM to protect the Sand Dunes as it has a lot of history on the first settlers on this land. I should commend the Team at Shangri-la for doing a tremendous and terrific job on the night. For the 1^st time the Museum staff brought out some of the Lapita pottery found on the sand dunes, which never has happened before. There were images of the past Kalevu hanging from the walls. 32 different Shangri-la properties send in accommodation vouchers to be auction to raise funds for the night.
Included in the auction item were signed Fiji Rugby Jersey and an All Black ball signed by the All Blacks players.
There was a lot of Press coverage/tribute and acknowledgement to the Bilo Bar Club. We can’t thank you enough for the donation you have made.
We will also need to improve the Library, the local children can use as a study area. Now that the fencing is done the place is safer for our children.

A local Director has started a Bula Books programme, in conjunction with Husqarvna a company from Australia. They will be collecting books and setting up satellite library in Cuvu, as it is quite a distance from Sand Dunes to Cuvu. We are really touched by this generosity.

During the Sand Dunes Charity Dinner a total of F$45,934.65 was collected

Other CSR Projects

Nadroumai School – Ray will talk on it
Sigatoka School for Special Needs: – We’ve had the 1^st River Side Fair which was a success and the 2^nd one is schedule for 28^th There are plans to have 3 of these Fairs every year to fundraise for the Sigatoka Special School to assist with their self-fund projects and as part of our HR Policy we need to recruit at least 2 children from this background into our work stream. With Shangri-la worldwide every property has to have 2% of permanent head count should be those with disability.
Assistance is also going to the Sigatoka Hospital & Cuvu Medical Health Centre. Another ambitious project that we plan to assist is constructing a new stadium for the Kalevu Ground. This will make this corridor (from town to Shangri-la’s Fijian Resort & Spa junction) a hub of activity.Many of you may be asking “What happen to the Bilibili race? I don’t want to talk more about the past or it will sound like sour grape. All I can say is that all other teams have 8 members’ peddlers except for the winning team which had 6. But we live to fight another day.

Membership

We need to have paid members, because after this prominent project every business house will know about the Bilo Bar Club. Current fees is at F$40, if no paid fees there will also be no benefits.

With members wanting online payment, please do also keep in mind that it does comes with a cost.

Treasures Report

2015 Bilo Bar Reunion Total Collection

Bears F$710.00
Max & June Wood turning F$810.00
Beer Wraps F$605.00
3 Coconuts F$2606.00
Melbourne Cup F$8270.00
Total F$13001.00

Thank you Kevin, Peter & Jen Lonnevik, Sean & Gloria, Sarah, Emily & Mulcahy for assisting with the Melbource Cup & Calcutta Draw tickets.

Many thanks to the GM, Mr Craig as we raised F$420 from our local sprint race. It should be bigger and better next year.

Treasures reported moved by Mario and second by Allan Steel.

Trustees Report – Ray Louis

Kindergartens

Condition of the kindergartens

Naevuevu:– 24 in the student roll and an average of 19 students a day attend class

Yadua: – 30 number enrolled averages of 23 students a day attend class. Majority are 5 yrs old and this number will likely to drop next year when they all leave for Year 1.

Parents have assisted with repairing the fence of the school and it’s been brought to my attention that they will need some new tables and chairs in the New Year.

Sigatoka: – 45 students enrolled from Term 1. The school has Ana & Losena as teachers and have mention that for next year they have students that are already on wait list.

Cuvu: – a total of 30 student enrolled however none of the teachers are certified, government has insisted that all teachers are to be qualified. If this is the case we will have no choice but to go to the ministry of Education for assistance in finding us qualified teachers for the school. Cuvu kindergarten does need a shelter at the back of the building where the slings and slides are. Because there a no trees around the areas it becomes too hot for the kids on a hot summer day.

I have been told that for our teachers they receive a grant of F$800/term on grant and F$50/term for each 5 year old student; this is assist with nutrition in school socialising and outdoor activities.

With the above I would like to ask the trustee to approve 20 chairs & 2 tables to be bought for Yadua Kindergarten. And for Cuvu a cover or a shade for the back yard of the school where the play ground is. Just an estimation it might cost around $7000 for a 6x5mtr quote, for the committee to decide.

Nadromai Primary School

Video presentation was shown to members with this came 2 very important requests.

The school has a total of 105 students, a total of 48 borders and included in this borders are 3 and 4 years old children.

The school have a gas stove in their kitchen but they cannot buy gas therefore firewood is used to cook food in. Government gives F$700/ month to assist with borders food.

The bathroom for the girls does not have proper covers. Most of the buildings are not cyclone proof.

Most of the children cannot afford mosquito nets.

With this presentation we would like to propose to the committee if we could build proper showers for both the girls & the boy’s dormitory with proper cover to provide some sort of privacy and if possible for us to supply the school with Mosquito nets.

Thank you Judy for putting the presentation together.

Full supports for Ray’s proposal as children are the main focus of the Bilo Bar Club.

How do we allocate the money for these requests?

Can we have a motion to put your faith on the trustees to work on a proposal? There was overwhelming response from the members.

From the members, trustees are to keep in mind that for every proposal put forward there needs to be a quotations presented with it, for members to have an idea on how much are likely to spend.

Bilo Bar Trust Fund Scholarship Proposal – Michael Mulcahy

This was presented at the AGM 2014, I was glad to be given the opportunity to explore more about the Bilo Bar Trust Fund Scholarship. We went out to the 5 high schools that comes under the Nadroga District and am so glad that this was received favourably by all including the teachers as well.

It will be motivating and rewarding for those highest performers in these high schools. A highest scoring male student and a female student from each school will be awarded the scholarship.

I wish to thank Ross Ron of Snap Printing Parramatta for their generosity in printing 100 certificates without any cost to our Bilo Bar Club.

It is anticipated that we will receive the names of the students from the principal in early January then only we will prepare the certificate and have the cheques drawn to be presented to the students.

One thing we should remember is that the scheme is fully funded with the increase in membership fee firstly from F$30.00 to F$40.00 and then as suggested by GM Mr Powell at the last AGM an increase to F$50.00 in 2017 to coincide with the 50^th Birthday Celebration. The scholarship will cost the club nearly F$18750 and for example with 1500 members @ F$40.00 it will generate about F$45,000.00. The balance can be used for other projects.

I hope this Bilo Bar Trust Fund Scholarship will continue for many more years to come.

Sand Dunes – Barry Hancock

You have all witness the gate opening ceremony at the Sigatoka Sand Dunes. While at the Sand dunes you may have seen 2 distinct bures. One has the set up from the Fiji Museum and the other by the National trust of Fiji. There is another room there which we would like to setup as a satellite library for the children, during our conversation with Mr Robin Yarrow I did mention that we will assist with the display items and this will be called the Kalevu room mostly the history of the Kalevu and those from this province. The room needs renovating and is estimated to cost around F$15,000.00.

I would like to move a motion for the club to donate a further F$15,000.00 for this work, this was second by Mr Danny Damcevski and was in favour by the majority.

The committee will seat and decide on how this will be done.

General Business

Patron of the Club

The Kalevu has always been the patron of the club, now that Ratu Kinijoji Nanovo Vosailagi has been officially installed as the Kalevu he has been officially inducted as the Patron.

Mr Ray Louis met a Managing director of Opportunity a company in Australia the last few days; he mentioned that he is happy to send in a container of 2^nd hand clothing to Tore village for them to sell it for their village funds.

Semo village

Semo village is requesting for assistance with their Kindergarten. They have 18 students in their roll and would like to know if there is anything that we could assist with.

That was all we have on General Business.

GM, Mr Powell on his closing speech thanked everyone that was there and special thank you goes out to Kevin & Sue Brett for printing the Sweep Stake tickets. Their time is more valuable than money and the rest of the trustees Sean, Barry, David & Michael for all the assistance during the 2 weeks programme and not forgetting Mr Ray Louis for keeping us updated on things happening in the club and Mrs Laurel Louis for all her support.