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After an uphill battle to just survive, with casualties and business misfires along the way, RSA boss David Moger is slowly turning things around. Scott Yeoman reports.
AT 5.40PM on this particular Wednesday evening, the Howick RSA feels forgotten. There is an elderly man sitting by himself in the restaurant area, sipping his handle of beer while he waits for the kitchen to open. Sky Sport is muted on two flat-screen TVs and, over it, Coast FM is playing quietly in the background. A few punters float around in the pokies area.
A middle-aged couple finish up a game of pool and leave with a friendly wave to a small group of men nursing drinks by the bar.
This scene is not entirely unexpected – the New Zealand Returned Serviceman’s Association (RSA) has been struggling for years.
It lost more than 11,500 members nationwide between 2010 and 2012 – a devastating drop that led to some unwise business decisions by RSAs attempting to cover their losses.
Palmerston North RSA invested in a motel business and lost tens of thousands of dollars within the first year. Johnsonville moved to bigger clubrooms in an attempt to expand but was caught at the wrong time in the financial crisis. Others such as Takapuna and Wainuiomata were simply unable to attract new customers or upgrade outdated facilities. All four were forced to close as their debt became too big – Palmerston North and Wainuiomata in 2012, and Johnsonville and Takapuna earlier this year.
Of all RSA membership lost between 2010 and 2012, veterans account for 38 percent of it. This is despite them making up only an average of 15 percent of total membership during those three years.
This ‘‘natural attrition’’, as Howick RSA president Mike Cole calls it, has meant RSAs have had to change fast in order to survive. Cole says his club, in the eastern suburbs of Auckland, has reevaluated things.
‘‘You cannot run this sort of thing as an old ‘meet and greet’ anymore,’’ he says. ‘‘It has got to be a business first. If we don’t make a profit, we can’t do our main job – which is to look after our old guys.’’
This new business-before-club philosophy has trickled down from the national office in Wellington and appears to be turning things around.
It started with a changing of the guard at the beginning of last year. The revamp of RSA national management saw many long-time employees replaced and new roles introduced. Five new people entered the national office, including David Moger as business development manager in March 2013. By December, he had replaced chief executive Dr Stephen Clarke, who had been top dog for five years.
Clarke had initiated a market research project in 2010 to find out what the public’s perception of the RSA was. The results led to a rebranding in 2011 and then a structural transformation of the national body soon after. But the process was costly and, with membership falling by the thousands and the New Zealand hospitality sector still feeling the effects of the global financial crisis, the RSA was unable to cover its costs. By June 2013 the incorporated society was sitting with a $637,777 deficit and a recruitment process was undertaken to hire people who could turn things around.
Moger brought with him an impressive business background, both in the commercial sector as well as in some big not-for-profit organisations, including Habitat for Humanity and World Vision.
The 50-year-old Englishman says the deficit he arrived to was the result of an ‘‘unfortunate’’ but ‘‘necessarily expensive’’ process.
He admits the replacing of old staff was difficult but necessary to help push forward a changed perception of the 98-year-old organisation.
‘‘It had got to a point of the RSA being regarded as a bit of a closed door, a fairly old-fashioned and outdated model – so it was about updating and changing those perceptions.’’
To do this, Moger and his team have begun introducing a number of initiatives to attract new customers.
Moger talks like an excited salesman when explaining the
You cannot run this sort of thing as an old ‘meet and greet’ anymore. It has got to be a business first.’ Howick RSA president Mike Cole