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Volunteer of the Month
FEBRUARY 2018
MARION SILLICK, PARAPARAUMU.
Dennis Lahman speaks on behalf of the Club Committee and reflects the views of so many at the Paraparaumu Club.
"Marion arrived in Paraparaumu in 2004 from Orewa with a reputation of being fully involved in that club’s activities and assisting in any way she could. She brought those same qualities to Paraparaumu. We soon found we had in our club a person who would take up any role willingly, competently, efficiently and with minimum direction.
Immediately, she became involved in helping with the scoring program and led the movement to introduce to the club an electronic scoring system. This was well received by our members. Marion arranged for the Compass/ Bridgemate New Zealand agent, Jan Spaans, to visit Paraparaumu and demonstrate the system to the players at the club. When the program purchase was approved in 2011, Marion worked with Helen Edwards to get it set up and running. Marion’s huge depth of Bridge knowledge was invaluable to help the club get over some of the problems and develop a smooth running system.
Marion receives her certificate and flowers from Club President, Brian Pender.
Needless to say, Marion was not content to rest on her laurels. Since her arrival in Paraparaumu, she has also been involved in the following roles:
- Club Committee Member for four years
- Club Director
- Tutor for learners’ bridge lessons
- Tutor for improvers’ lessons
- Organised inter-club and in-house competitions
- Assisting with the organisation of tournaments
- Scorer, and helped to train other scorers and directors in the use of the scoring programs
- Providing material for and updating the club websites
- Keeper and maintenance of the Honours’ Book
- Master-points Secretary
- Distributing prize-winners vouchers
- Member of the Handicap Committee
- Member of the Programme Committee
- Member of the Pianola sub- committee which was recently charged with evaluating and later implementing Pianola software at the club.
Marion keeps the back-up copy of the scoring program on her home computer and always tests upgrades on that computer. Frequently, she has been the first to pick up any bugs in upgrades for which the developer, Bob Fearn, is very grateful. When Marion wanted a new movement for our inter-club competitions, Bob developed one for her and named it in her honour. We thus use the “Sillick Shuffle” each year.
Marion has a gift for finding mistakes and has saved many embarrassing moments by picking up errors which might have led to an incorrect result or to the wrong person being given a prize.
She donated the Sillick Cup for the Tuesday Afternoon Singles Ladder.
Marion’s guiding principles have always been to ensure that any work undertaken is of direct benefit to the Club and its members. No-one in our view could better exemplify the aims of this award than Marion. We have no hesitation in nominating her for this recognition. "
Thanks, Dennis. Orewa's loss was certainly your Club's gain when Marion moved to Paraparaumu. Remember a Volunteer of the Month can be a long-term servant to a club or someone who has been valuable for some specific role. There is no defined criteria.
If other Club Committees have a person they wish to nominate, please email me at Richard.Solomon@nzbridge.co.nz
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