If there are any lessons from this season, it’s when it snows– you’ve gotta go! The best snow happened in late July when powder turns could be had out the door of our lodges, but like 2023, August failed to deliver its usual storms. Although the mountains worked hard to hold it all together with snow-making, a slow decline in the base and a 70mm rain event brought the season to a somewhat bedraggled close.
The chart below of accumulated snow falls at Hotham shows the “August gap” of 2023 and 2024 compared with the long-term average and a good year like 2022. Let’s hope this isn’t a patten and the mountains will be calling us back in 2025 with a season like no other!
Racing
Club Race Weekend at Buller was successfully held on the second weekend in August. All events were run on Saturday which helped increase participation, particularly in the bumps and jumps events in the afternoon. There was a spectacular Paris Olympics theme dinner on Saturday night with the preliminary results announced and medals awarded. It was great to see a number of new families with younger kids and all ages racing. You don’t need any racing experience and the littlest kids through to some of our octogenarians are regular participants.
The Hoppet at Falls Creek, which doubles as the Club’s cross country race event, was unfortunately cancelled again this year. We may need to stage a Club event in 2025 so the cross-country trophies can be awarded.
Finances
Bookings were down compared with previous years and there were a number of cancellations for lack of snow which impacted the Club’s revenue as shown below. The Committee continues to take a conservative approach to managing the Club’s cash resources but there are also continuing capex requirements to maintain our lodges.
The Club’s financial year ends on 31 December and full financials will be prepared and audited for the Annual Report which will be available in March before the AGM.
Membership
The Club has 728 members. The Committee aims to keep the total number of members relatively stable between 700-750 with the number of new offers each year being based on how many members have left the Club and the Committee’s view of demand for bookings. There was a larger than usual offer of new memberships in 2024 as around 50 members had become unfinancial and therefore left the Club and booking demand was light although it was also a poor season. Not all offers are accepted so we won’t know the total number of new members until next year.
| Category | Count |
|---|---|
| Member | 514 |
| Associate Member | 50 |
| Junior Member (Under 26) | 27 |
| Provisional Member | 96 |
| Provisional Member (Under 26) | 17 |
| Life Member | 13 |
| Organisation / School | 11 |
Committees
The Committee met monthly through the year using a hybrid format which allowed people to ‘dial in’ or attend in person. Monthly meetings deal with the day to day of running of the Club and the annual strategy planning day in October considers new memberships and other initiatives.
Dennis Regoni resigned from the Committee in the middle of the year and Pep Effeney was appointed to fill the casual vacancy. Dennis served on the Committee for 4 years but also helped out with the Buller lodge for many years and we thank him for his contribution to the Club. Fiona Hellier has also flagged that she will be leaving the Committee next year at the AGM, including her role running the Falls Creek lodge and I’m going to finish up as President after 5 years.
The Strategic Sub Committee was also formed during the year under Andrew Adams’ guidance and had a number of meetings with their work continuing via three separate sub-committees (Green Season, Lodge Optimisation and Japan). They will report back to the Committee and membership separately.
We are always looking for new and enthusiastic volunteers, particularly if you have an interest in marketing, IT, Falls Creek or a strategic sub-committee, just reach out to Mim and we will get in touch.
Lodges
The lodges ran beautifully over the season with the help of party leaders and our dedicated resident lodge managers who I’d particularly like to thank being Liz at Falls Creek and Sally (and Cha) at Buller.
The three lodges are the foundation of our Club and we continue to need to maintain and update them. To this end over summer 2024-25 there will be some minor work to improve the liveability of Flat 2 at Falls Creek as well as recladding the remaining three sides of the Hotham Lodge. This work includes adding new membranes and foil-board insulation and will dramatically reduce maintenance requirements as well as improve the thermal efficiency of the lodge and its fire rating.
Social
The was a great turn out to the Sunday Session at RSYLTC and we returned to the terrace with some lovely weather. The casual format allowed everyone to mingle and catch up and the racing silverware was handed out to the fast and furious winners.
On the social front next year we will again be running the President’s Lunch, Season Opener Cocktail Party, Young Members Event, Club Race Weekend(s) and Sunday Session. Please let us know if you have any suggestions for these events or for something new!
Subscriptions
Hopefully everyone received the annual subscription email on 11 December with a link to an invoice in Clubman. Apologies for the shock of receiving this in December and the Christmas Day due date (Clubman’s default period is 14 days) but this brings our subscriptions in line with the 1 January due date under the Club’s Constitution. It also fits with the first booking round (Racing) opening in February which in turn gives more time for the other priority rounds and opening full bookings earlier to let you lock in your dates and plan your ski holiday before the start of the ski season.
There is a fair bit of work in the back office to automate this process and bring together a number of different systems so particular thanks to Mim and Mike for their hard work.
If you have any issues with the invoice or the timing of payment, please contact Mim at the booking office who can assist.
Summer
The lodges are a great escape in summer with each mountain running a variety of activities. Rates are set out on the website including the option to book the whole of lodge. Our website also includes links to all the resorts in the news item ‘What’s happening over Summer’ which was posted on 21 November. Clubman has live availability so you can see if a weekend is free or if there are already minimum numbers for the lodge to be open.
Bookings 2025
We’re aiming to have the first booking round open in February. Look out for a separate communication and the updated Calendar on the Club website with all the times and dates for the season.
Thankyou!
I’d like to thank all those who’ve contributed to the Club over the year. In particularly, our booking officer Mim for her tireless management of all things booking and clubman, Mike for quietly managing the back end of all our IT systems, all the lodge managers who keep our lodges open and functioning, Mel who is still with us after so many years and continues to pay the bills, Rob the esteemed race director who has to chase down all the silverware as well as run a damn fine race weekend, all our party leaders who kept everyone on their toes for the season, the Committee and their partners who do the lion’s share of voluntary work for the Club and many more individual efforts from everyone who makes USC the great club that it is today.
All the best for a safe and festive holiday over Christmas and NY.
David Cleland
President