Presidents Report - February 2022

The next few months are again going to present challenges to our day to day lives as Omicron takes hold. I wish our WISC Family and the wider community good health outcomes and look forward to a time when we do not have Omicron influencing our everyday lives.

The current Covid requirements impacted the first planned social event of the year. Sadly, Kiran and his social committee had to cancel the very enjoyable Super Saturday tournament due to number restrictions. Thanks for the planning that had already gone into it Kiran.

Cricket Wellington is already dealing with Covid cases among its teams and have strategies in place to try and complete the season playing as much cricket as possible. Wellington Hockey has implemented Covid polices that have been communicated to players and will impact spectators’ attendance early on. We need to be prepared to have a start to the season that may be disruptive at times, but hopeful will settle and allow us to enjoy the remainder of the season.

There are a number of good events I’d like to acknowledge:

It was great to have a Mens and a Womens hockey team go away to the NZISA U23s tournament (thanks Auckland for hosting) and have the boys come away as champions – Congratulations!! The icing on the cake was receiving the following message from the NZISA President, Suresh Wallabh: “It was great to have your ladies and men up last weekend. The girls were such a great team to have, and the vibe was great. Your boys were awesome and played well and deserved the win. For you as president be proud as both teams were awesome on and off the field.” Definitely proud of both teams and their management for representing WISC so well.

I would like to give a big thank you to Air Rescue Services for providing a grant to cover accommodation and vehicle hire to the U23 team reducing the financial impact on these young players. We are very fortunate to have received this support.

The Memorial Cup Golf Tournament held on 7th February in honour of Dahyabhai Kanji, Ashvin Patel and Pravin Kesry, although impacted by the gathering number restrictions, was a success event enjoyed by all those who attended. Suresh Dayal and his team were superb hosts and we thank them, the sponsors Strathmore Local and The Office Bars and the individuals who donated to the event. Junior Hockey received a $2,000 donation from the tournament organisers which has been added to the Junior Hockey Equipment Fund we set up last year after receiving $3,500 from the same tournament. These donations are greatly appreciated and will be used to fund equipment purchases over the next few years benefiting the junior players and ultimately keeping fees down as well.

The Seismic Strengthening work in the gym commenced as planned late last year and will be completed in the coming week. WISC will be completing its agreed payment to the Wellington Indian Association at the same time and will receive its share of grant funds from the Lotteries Commission later this year when the entire project is complete. At the AGM we will share full details of the negotiated agreement to give context around the cost sharing.

The Property Committee reviewed and decided now would be a good time to replace our 14 year old gym floor (laid in 2008) and hope to have this completed in the next few months.

6.Work has been happening on our new online portal Friendly Manager and this will be rolled out for the start of the hockey season to players and then the general membership.

We are planning to hold our AGM in early April but please be aware that Omicron may impact our ability to achieve this date and we may have to re-schedule. In the meantime if you are interested in any positions on the Executive please contact an Executive member to discuss as the club is always in need of members willing to contribute to its operations.

That’s all from me. Take care out there.