Trevor Holland

Trevor joined our Club in 1978 to play tennis and has served the Club for over 40 years since that time.

In 1980 he became Secretary of the Charlesworth Co-operative, the formal entity responsible for Tennis Club operations. He performed that role for 5 years.

For most of the 1990's,  Trevor was a member of the Vermont South Club Committee where he enthusiastically supported President Geoff Iles with his idea to build a bowling club.

In 1993 the bowls club was formalised and Trevor became  the inaugural Club President. In these early stages, Trevor led a small group of helpers who canvassed the community to obtain interest on the viability of the venture. This was an outstanding success with new members joining the club even before we had a bowling green.

Trevor organised indoor bowls and recruited experienced lawn bowlers to join the club to provide assistance in coaching, bowls protocol and general advice on how to organise and operate a bowls club.

Trevor played in the first Pennant game for Vermont South on 8 October 1994 and since then he has played over 350 games for the club,  distinguishing himself as a very committed and loyal team member.

Trevor has always been heavily involved in the working bees, leading from the front with a list of jobs to be done and delegating people to each task. In particular he has taken a lead role in property and garden maintenance. Even though he holds no official office, you can see Trevor’s hand in many areas, just working for the good of the club and its members.

Trevor has served on several sub-committees. He has a flair for getting things done, no challenge has ever been impossible. He continues to provide great back-up to our bar manager and enthusiastically supports club initiatives such as Corporate events, Barefoot Bowls and Jack Attack.

Clive Wilson

Clive has served our Club in an exceptional manner over a long period of time and has actively participated in tennis and bowls since he joined the Club in the mid 1990’s. However, his most important contribution has been in a management and administrative capacity.

Clive served on the VSC Committee of Management from 1997 to 2008 (11 years) and was President for 7 terms from 2001 – Sep 2008. During that time, Clive steered the Club from a position of severe financial vulnerability to a position of financial stability. He implemented many new policies and procedures to strengthen Club governance and operations.

Clive presided over and played a key role in the detailed planning and delivery of a major development project in 2007/08. This was a massive task involving negotiation with our local Council, selection of building contractors, construction of a brand new green and significant extensions to the lower Clubhouse.

John Mead

John joined in the late 70’s as part of a family membership and was not an active tennis player in those early years. But, being a licenced plumber and a jack-of-all-trades, he immediately jumped in and did plumbing and other maintenance jobs around the Club. A few years later he got involved as a night tennis player and later became convenor.

John was awarded  Life Membership because he served the Club tirelessly for over 30 years.  He never hesitated to step forward when needed no matter what the job.  He took on the job of maintaining our facilities and spent hours repairing broken or faulty things around our Club. He was always there for tennis court resurfacing, gardening and other special working bees.

He served for many years on the Club’s Committee of Management in several stints starting in early 90’s. Indeed he chaired the meeting that voted to start up the Bowls Club.

John has spent a lifetime working for our Club.  He was back-up Clubhouse cleaner whenever the regular cleaners were not available. He managed hiring of the Clubhouse for parties and celebrations. He ran the Club Bar (jointly with Mike Emery) for many years AND he was Maintenance Manager for over 15  years

Throughout this time, John has contributed to the fantastic culture and character of our Club through his cheeky wit, positive outlook and willingness to serve.

Jock Halley

Jock joined the Vermont South Club in 1994.  In 1996 Jock took on the role of Maintenance Manager, joined the bowls committee and became a selector all within 2 years of joining the Club.

His service to our Club only got stronger from there as he willingly and enthusiastically took on extra responsibilities such as:

• Maintenance Manager (4 years)                                 1996 – 1999
• Bowls Committee     (7 years)                                 1996 – 2002
• Chairman Selectors  (7 years)            1996 – 99  and 2003 –2005
• Social Committee    (5 years)                                 2000 – 2004
• Night Pennant Mgr   (9 years)                                 2003 – 2012
• Bar Manager        (19 years)                               1999 – now

He spends countless hours every week ensuring the Bar operates smoothly and profitably. Jock also initiated and ran the popular Saturday night raffle for many years. On top of this he ran the book library and raised money for the club through various other endeavours including recycling cans. For several years he organised the Annual end-of-season trip, a time-consuming and demanding task. He ensures our rubbish is put out and collected every week.

As the organiser of Wednesday Night bowls he provided encouragement to new bowlers and gave them the confidence to continue with the sport. Jock was the face of Vermont South Bowls to a multitude of new members for many many years.

As a player Jock also excels. He was Club Singles Champion in 1998/99. He won the Presidents Handicap in 1997/98 and at the time of his Life Membership award he had played over 240 pennant games with over 180 as team skipper.

In all areas he has been and still is the "Can-Do" man around this club

Ian Strong

Ian made a tremendous contribution to our Club and to the sport of tennis. As a Tennis Australia Qualified Club Professional Coach, Ian was our Head Tennis Coach continuously from 1980 to 2012 (32 years).

Due to his in-depth knowledge and prior tennis club experience, Ian was a key person in establishing our Club structure, policies, procedures and culture in those early development years. Ian was a member of our Club’s inaugural management committee in 1977 and served on many club committees over the years.

He coached and developed hundreds of tennis players encouraging them to play competition tennis and enter tournaments. Ian promoted our Club to local schools and the broader community and was the main source of recruitment of junior members for over 32 years. He conducted countless numbers of free tennis clinics for school pupils. He was the major influence in both the selection and advancement of our Club's junior players.

Ian volunteered and performed many additional duties over his time at our club and was awarded Life Membership in 1995.

Ian is passionate about tennis and has been a fantastic ambassador for the sport and our Club.

Mike Emery

Mike Joined the Vermont South Club in the mid 1980”s spending over 36 years with the club. Mike Played night tennis in those days and, like he has always done, he soon volunteered to run night tennis for the Club.

After becoming the Night Tennis convenor Mike ran it for over 25 years – involving over 50 consecutive seasons of tennis. Although he only started playing tennis in his forties, we estimate he racked up well over a thousand tennis matches at our Club.

Mike was enticed into Bowls and played 150 pennant games for the Club. He enjoyed the team aspect and comradeship of bowls. Because of his personality, he was often the glue that kept sides together, kept them motivated and focused on the game.

Mike attended plenty of tennis club working bees and, over time along with John Mead they became the go-to men for maintenance and repairs for all sections of the club. This lasted for well over 15 years.

In addition, Mike accepted the crucial and busy role of Bar Manager and did it for 4 years in partnership with John Mead.

Then Mike got involved at Committee level. He served on Committees for many years, and then took on the added responsibility of leadership roles. He was Club Vice President for 2 terms, Club President for 3 terms from 2011 to 2014 and then Tennis Chairperson up until health issues intervened.

Mike was the only member in the club actively involved in all three sections of the club (tennis, bowls and darts).

His magnificent contribution to the club was recognised with Life Membership awarded in 2015.

Geoff Iles

Geoff was a visionary President of our Club from 1989 until 1996. As President of the thriving Vermont South Community Tennis Club with membership approaching 700, Geoff saw a need for a Bowls club in our suburb. So in the mid 1990's, he set about establishing the Vermont South Club incorporating tennis and bowls sections and became the founding President of the overall Club.

Extra land was needed, the green had to be built and an all-new new clubhouse had to be designed and constructed. This involved much negotiation with the City Council, the Royal Victorian Bowls Association, other bowls clubs, contractors and suppliers. Geoff and the Committee eventually decided upon an artificial grass surface for the new green and presented their finding to the Council which was accepted.

The project was not with drama. The supplier of the green went bankrupt shortly after finishing the installation and then major faults were found in the surface necessitating complete replacement a few years later.

With Paul McNamee, Geoff was heavily involved in the start-up and organisation of Oz Tennis, a charity to help disadvantaged children play tennis. The first two fund-raising events were held at our club until it transferred to the Rod Laver Arena.

Kevin Donovan

Gary Simmons