STOCKTON RSL and Citizens’ Club is set to amalgamate with the City of Sydney RSL after a packed meeting of Stockton members voted in favour of the proposal by a ratio of two to one.
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Some 275 club members had been admitted to a Sunday morning merger meeting before the doors were closed at 11am.
After more than an hour of debate, with speeches and questions from both sides of the argument, a vote was taken by way of secret ballot.
Half a dozen members had left before the vote, and when the papers were counted, the result was 179 in favour and 90 against.
Club chief executive Michele Sutherland said after the meeting that there had been a campaign waged against the amalgamation that included anonymous letter-box drops of “vote no” leaflets. But she and club president Stephen Spruce said they were confident the tie-up would help the struggling Stockton club to a new era of success at a time when clubs like theirs around Australia had to move with the times or wither on the vine.
As the Newcastle Herald reported on Saturday, the Stockton club worked with Clubs NSW to find potential amalgamating partners and received responses from only two clubs: Stockton Bowling Club and City of Sydney RSL.
After weighing up the offers, the Stockton RSL board unanimously recommended the City of Sydney proposal, and an information meeting was held with members a week before Sunday’s vote.
Members interviewed at the club on Sunday said they believed the club could make it on its own. They said the “City of Sydney takeover” had been put to them as a fait accompli.
Terry Fitzgerald, who spoke out in Saturday’s Herald, said after the meeting that the vote meant transferring $4 million in assets to the Sydney club in exchange for a promised $500,000 investment with no guarantee the Stockton club will not be sold when the five-year deal is over.
Responding, Ms Sutherland said members were well aware of the club’s situation and had been given more notice and information than was legally required.
She was confident the club would continue to operate after the five-year mark, saying: “We have faith that it’s about making this club a profitable entity, because part of City of Sydney’s plan is to grow that family of RSLs, and we are confident that will happen.”
