Life Membership presentations

Published 19:15 on 5 Mar 2024

You are invited to join us for the presentation of Life Memberships to the following deserving members:

Victor Friezer (the club's first Commodore),

Ross Barratt

Stan Bland.

These life memberships in honour of the contribution made by these members will be presented on Sunday 7 April at 10am the presentation will be followed by a morning tea in the club cafe area. Please feel free to invite friends, family and anyone connected with WSC. RSVP. Unfortunately our 91 year old guest of honour is unwell so we are rescheduling the life membership presentation from this weekend to Sunday 7 April at 10am. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Victor Friezer was instrumental in the foundation of Woollahra Sailing Club and in 1958 was elected our first Commodore. Victor Friezer grew up in Bellevue Hill sailing on Sydney harbour with his friends from Scots College. This band of friends were passionate sailors and loved the egalitarian nature and freedom of dinghy sailing. From the milk bar in Double Bay, they concocted a plan to create the Woollahra Sailing Club to sail the boats they loved - Moths, and most importantly to have a club that was open to all small boats of any class. Victor was chosen as the first commodore from this group and the family are immensely proud of him

Ross Barratt: Ross' service to the Club dates from 2010 when as a club member, he volunteered including:

• race management
• introduced the Byte Dinghy class (Feb 2015), supporting people learning to sail and was class representative
• helped launch and build the Mirrors at WSC with Stan

In 2016, Ross joined the Board and rewrote the constitution in 2021. He recruited our current Commodore Jay Harrison and General Manager Diane Vukelic to join him on the board (together with Graham Hindley and Peter Katz). In 2016, five new directors were elected to the Board. These five experienced directors had a common purpose and respect for each other. Importantly, 4 of those 5 are still involved with the club. This continuity, respect and support are critical factors in the Club's recent success and stability. Jay Harrison has been the Commodore since 2016 and continues in the role, Ross Barratt left the board in 2019 to take on the role of General Manager until March 2023, Grahm Hindley is involved in the club's sustainability taskforce and recently submitted a grant for solar power at the club, Diane Vukelic remained on the board until 2021 and has replaced Ross in March 2023 as General Manager.

In 2021, Ross led the overhauling of the constitution to encourage stability requiring elected Directors to have had a commitment to the Club by implementing the following condition "Only Ordinary Members are eligible to be Elected Directors and such Member must have been an Ordinary Member for at least the previous 36 months." He also developed a club code of conduct, ramp and yard etiquette as well as a great contribution to the ramp/ pontoon project, successfully steered the club through COVID and implementation of back office systems.

Stan Bland has been consistently involved as a volunteer at WSC for more than 10 years. In addition to his current contributions as board member, adult learn-to-sail coordinator and maintenance man, Stan has held roles over years on the Board, Club Secretary, Vice and Rear-Commodore, volunteer sailing school manager, initiating and managing Pacer Pathway programs (adults to learn-to-sail), as class representative and on the sailing committee.

Last updated 21:00 on 25 March 2024