THE board of the 125-year-old Mildura Working Man’s Club remains a female-free zone following last week’s election.
Three women were among the 10 candidates vying for three spots on the nine-member board – but they each fell short of a call-up.
John Bloomfield (127), Lynton Shepherd (113) and Shane Smith (109) received the most votes from what appears to be a small turnout of the club’s nearly 10,000 members.
The women candidates, Rhiannon Panuccio (63), Katherine Rodger (52) and Pauline Stanbrook (29), placed fourth, fifth and eighth, respectively, in voting.
Ms Rodger is the wife of ex-chair Tim Rodger, who was embroiled in a bitter boardroom battle that saw him stood down nearly three months ago.
Sunraysia Daily approached the pair for a reaction to the election outcome, but they declined to comment.
In the lead-up to the club’s annual general meeting on November 29, Mr Rodger labelled the Workers as “just an old white man’s club”.
“I raised several times that we should be trying to encourage women to apply for a board position – and younger people too,” he said.
“I often said that I’d be happy to get the Workers into the 20th century – and if we could have got them into the 21st century, that would have been an even bigger bonus.
“The club is just so behind the times.”
The Workers still has another two positions to fill on the board.
President Anthony Fox did not rule out approaching women – who would need to have at least a year’s membership – to take up these seats.
“Under the club’s constitution, the board has the authority to make these appointments,” Mr Fox said.
“All I will say is watch this space.”
It has been a turbulent year for the Workers club with the resignation of chief executive officer Jill Fleming shortly after COVID-19 hit, followed by the sacking of her replacement, Catherine Bianchi, on September 11 and a subsequent boardroom brouhaha.
But Mr Fox said a new general manager, Steve Banks, would be starting on January 4 to help fix the “shortcomings” with how the club was being run.
“The past few months have been disappointing, but the members have now spoken and we move forward,” he said.
“To be honest, most of our members don’t care about the upstairs stuff. They just want good, affordable food, cold beer and the chance to win a raffle.”
