The Barbados Golf Club’s longstanding general manager Betty-June Leacock was fittingly applauded for her more than two decades of service to club and country, by members of the local golfing fraternity during a recent retirement function in her honour, held at the Barbados Golf Course, Durants, Christ Church.
Leacock, the longest serving GM in the history of the club, began her career in golf in 2002 as the club’s financial controller, having served 19 years in a similar capacity with the former Barbados Shipping and Trading. She had envisioned a quiet life as a golfing accountant, which never quite materialized. In 2009 she was “thrown in at the deep end” as the club’s general manager with responsibility for finance, operations, HR, and sales and marketing. To top all that, she then also found herself making time to function as the parent of an avid young golfer, her elder son, Donald.
In her farewell address Leacock thanked the club and members of the Barbados Golf Association (BGA) for their support, noting she was overwhelmed and touched by their appreciation and well wishes. She said she could not have succeeded without that support, particularly in the unforeseen role of general manager.
“It was daunting, but by then I had seen golf played at the highest level, and I then was able to call on those resources; and then I had the support of wonderful staff over the years and the directors,” Leacock said.
Noting there were many names to be appreciated, Leacock particularly credited director David Allan in the early days, and Roddy Carr, in more recent times, as having been instrumental to her success. She said Carr’s support was particularly felt during the difficult last two years of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In addition to the formation of a Covid-19 management committee which was instrumental in securing the club’s survival, Leacock said she was pleased to have achieved a significant increase in club membership achieved mainly through the club’s Buddy programme.
“I actually had a private target for myself that I would like to see two hundred members at the club by today, and during last year I started chatting with quite a few golfers, a lot of young professionals, trying to feel out what would work; and I thought about the Buddy programme, which you all now know. So with your help we were able to get 45 new members through the Buddy programme, and that has taken us to just over 200. So I’m really happy about that, because that programme is members working to help the club encourage other golfers. If in a time like this we can get 45 new people to join, that says a lot for the membership, camaraderie, and atmosphere that we’ve created here.”
Barbados Golf Club board chairman, Vic Fernandes, and director Roddy Carr, also addressed the farewell ceremony with Fernandes crediting Leacock with “steering the ship in difficult circumstances”.
“…I know from the work that you put in, particularly over the last couple of years, navigating all the nuances, intricacies and opportunities of the Best (Barbados Employment and Sustainable Transformation) programme, at a time
when companies across Barbados folded, some of them never to return; in spite of the fact that golf is really an option,
you managed to steer the ship in the most difficult of
waters, and I can only say that you have done us proud, Betty-June.”
Carr in his appreciation speech said integrity was the word that best summed up Leacock’s contribution.
“You have, the word I love about golf, which is integrity. You are the personification of integrity, and you always have been; and that’s what you stand for in this club. That is the most important thing in golf, and you brought that here,” Carr said.
Leacock was presented with gifts including a lifetime family membership at the Barbados Golf Club. She is succeeded by new general manager, Jina Scheper, who she welcomed into the role. The two will have at least another year to work together as board chairman Fernandes announced that Leacock had committed to spend the first year of her retirement overseeing the club’s accounting systems.
(PR)
