MALTA UNION CLUB
NOVEMBER 2020 NEWSLETTER
Dear Members,
Summer has come and gone, but Covid-19 came last January/February and is still very much with us, unfortunately.
As you are well aware the caretaker Committee was only able to call the Club’s AGM on June 25th when a new COM with some new members were duly elected. Mr Paul Pandolfino was elected Chairman and Mr Adrian E Camilleri elected Vice-Chairman. Unfortunately, after a short period Mr Pandolfino felt he had to resign from the Committee for personal reasons and Mr Adrian E Camilleri was then elected Chairman while Mr Marcus Lauri was elected Vice-Chairman.
The new COM was faced with multiple problems for the major part due to the COVID-19 Government imposed restrictions to limit the risk of spreading of this infection. Even COM meetings have been badly hit; in fact, communicating amongst COM members has been restricted to emailing, sms and phone calling and only when absolutely necessary is the physical presence at a meeting called for; we honestly hope this will change soon. It was fortunate however that Tigne Bathing Beach, despite restrictions imposed there as well, was able not only to function but was also able to delay its eventual closing of operations until the end of November instead of the customary end of September.
The second lockdown of our Club for the whole of November was again a blow especially as our appeals to keep at least certain areas, such as the garage, the tennis and squash courts open fell on deaf ears. In this respect we are still actively engaging with the Government that, as another lockdown has now been ordered, our Club could hopefully continue to keep at least the garage open for the convenience of our members. The COM will continue with its efforts in this respect and hopefully succeed soon even though the relative Legal Notice (LN 407 of 2020), that compels bars and clubs to close, will now continue in effect till at least the end of the year.
This is the time of year when we would normally be planning our winter activities and tournaments in darts, bridge, buraco, skittles, bocci (‘pentanque’), tennis, squash, snooker etc. not to mention the organizing of our Christmas parties, Club Cocktail Party for our sub-committees, our Christmas Eve Mass and New Year’s Eve Dinner Dance and New Year’s Day events. Mentioning these items highlights the things we will most likely be missing this year, or at least until the several vaccines being developed are made available to us all.
Meanwhile, it is hoped to start operating at some stage soon the restaurant/bar/cafeteria again once the relevant permits are issued, and provided certain problems with our caterer, which have taken up a major part of our time to date, are successfully concluded. It goes without saying that it is important that our members revive their interest to frequent our Club’s restaurant, as well as our bar and cafeteria, in adequate numbers to make our catering a viable proposition. Some new initiatives are also being looked into and the COM hopes that the effort will succeed and eventually give our Club a long-awaited bit of fresh air.
Our permanent staff is continuing to work at the Club normally throughout the pandemic by maintaining and looking after the premises in general in order to keep it ready once the lockdown is over.
In conclusion, we urge our members to follow the medical guidelines to keep them all healthy and safe.
We all look forward to seeing each other very soon at OUR MALTA UNION CLUB.
The Committee of Management
27th November 2020