Since I joined the Workers’ Club Board in 2020, one of the things I’ve enjoyed most is being the liaison director for my sub clubs.

The sub clubs are the sporting and social groups who wear our colours and represent us in activities like soccer, netball, cricket and swimming. There are also clubs centred around non-sporting pursuits like gardening.

Some of the sub clubs are older than the Workers’ Club itself – many of the 240 foundation members came from local sporting clubs like soccer, cricket and golf, and brought those clubs into the Workers’ when it was founded in 1962. In many registered clubs, the directors have little to do with their sub clubs. Relations between the club and sub club are managed by staff. The sub clubs rarely, if ever, hear from a member of the board let alone see a director at one of their meetings.

At the Workers’ each director is assigned several sub clubs. I look after the Netball, Men’s Golf, Little Athletics and Revesby
Writers sub clubs. Directors are expected to meet with the sub clubs regularly and provide a conduit between the board and the sub club members. This keeps the concerns of the sub clubs front and centre for the board.

There are so many sub clubs in the Workers’ that you can pretty much pick any sport and we have a sub club for you. But one area where we might be lacking a bit is in the arts.

We have our wonderful Revesby Writers who meet on the first Saturday of every month. Every meeting each member brings a new piece, usually on an assigned theme, to read to the group. It’s a great way for local writers to keep going and get feedback on their writing.

When I was a kid we had a Revesby Workers’ Youth Drama Club. Run by Noelene and her husband, there was a junior kids and senior kids classes on weekends. The students would learn acting and confidence skills and build towards a performance in the school holidays. Once or twice a year they put on a pantomime that was on every day for a week
during the holidays. These were extremely popular with parents struggling for holiday activities (and the kids loved them too).

I’d love to see more arts groups come to the club. Acting, music, reading, painting, film, book clubs – I’m open to any
ideas. Communities can’t live on sports alone – we need more places where members whose interests lay elsewhere can find other like-minded people.

They can start small – many of our sub clubs are just a group of people meeting once a month in a room to talk about their common interest. But if enough people join, the club
has many ways of supporting and helping groups grow. I’d love to see the Club with as many arts based sub clubs as we have wonderful sports sub clubs.

If you have any ideas, please email me at badenk@rwc.org.au.

Baden Kirgan, Director