Club Wairarapa declines merger

MORE MEMBERS: Kerry Hannah, manager of Club Wairarapa, which has seen a rise in membership every month over the past year.PHOTOS/LYNDA FERINGA

A thriving club in Masterton has turned down the proposal to merge with another which is struggling to stay afloat.

Wairarapa Services & Citizens Club, also known as Club Wairarapa, has said no to a merger with the Masterton Cosmopolitan Club.

The Cossie Club - facing financial struggles and stagnant membership - earlier this year had approached Club Wairarapa proposing an amalgamation.

Cossie Club members agreed a merger would be the club's best chance of long-term survival.

However, with "98 per cent" of members who attended Club Wairarapa's AGM rejecting the idea, the Cossie Club has been forced back to the drawing board to find a solution to keep its head above water.

Six months after launching the idea, the Cossie Club received Club Wairarapa's answer "a week or so ago".

"The other club have decided against it," Cossie Club treasurer Alan Stewart said. "They decided not to carry ahead with any discussions."

Mr Stewart said the Cossie Club would now be looking at other alternatives.

"We have our annual meeting next Sunday and we'll report back to our members. We will then look at what else to do."

He said $100,000 had been raised from members through a debenture scheme launched in May.

"This has enabled us to catch up where we were behind and get out of debt and now we're trading at break even - paying our way as we go," he said.

Mr Stewart said there had been "cutbacks in expenditure" and there was the possibility other premises would be looked at as a new club base.

"The building is too big. The membership has gone down with the population getting older and members dying off. It's too big so we're looking at one that's more suitable but with sufficient parking space."

There would be an opportunity on Sunday for members to have some input regarding the club's future, Mr Stewart said.

Club Wairarapa president Bill Hey said 75 per cent of the club's members needed to be in support of the amalgamation for it to go ahead.

But of the members who had turned out to the AGM "there were about 98 per cent not in favour".

Mr Hey said despite the clubs not merging, he had approached the Cossie Club with the idea of sharing certain costs, such as a courtesy coach.

"Quite often we can be following the Cossie Club coach and they only have one person in theirs and we only have one person in ours. Anything we can do to save money will work for everybody."

He said Club Wairarapa was going in the opposite direction to that of the Cossie Club - and "at a phenomenal rate".

Over the past year the club had seen on average 10 new members per month.

"Our membership is hitting up well over 800."

Mr Hey said the busy pace had enabled the club to employ permanent kitchen staff instead of using contractors.

"We're now doing a Thursday roast and we have functions backed up until Christmas and beyond."

"We seem to be doing things right," he said.

Club Wairarapa had also recently introduced junior memberships.