Large Clubs Have a Role to Play in Navigating Complex Infrastructure Projects

Workers Lifestyle Group CEO Morgan Stewart says large clubs have an obligation to not only be leaders in the development of state-significant infrastructure, but to lay a path that smaller clubs can follow.

His comments, made on the latest episode of the ClubLIFE Podcast released earlier today, come as his club group navigates challenges around its development plans near the new Western Sydney Airport and for a seniors living complex at Arndell Park. 

“We’ve got a role to play not only in making sure we’re generationally sustainable, but to try and navigate and provide a template for others to get through the metres and metres and metres of red tape processes, planning panels, consultancies… and everything else that goes along with large scale developments,” Morgan tells the ClubLIFE Podcast.

“We can work through the legislative stuff productively because we’re being challenged on our traditional revenue streams, that’s fair play. However, to genuinely diversify, not just talk a great game and have it in a strategic plan we dust off once a year, the rubber’s got to hit the road.

“I think in the large club space [we] can help the smaller clubs navigate that in reality, and that’s the exciting part for us, and certainly me, as to how can we maybe be a gateway for everybody else to follow through behind us.”

Morgan, who has clocked up almost 30 years in the NSW club industry, took on the CEO role at the Workers Lifestyle Group, previously known as Blacktown Workers, in 2020 following more than four years as CEO of Club Taree. 

In a wide-ranging chat on the ClubLIFE Podcast, he says he turns to a number of club leaders for advice but singles out Wests Illawarra CEO Danny Munk as a significant mentor who has guided him for much of his career.

“The first club manager who challenged me and challenged my behaviours in a constructive way was Danny Munk,” says Morgan.

“He’s a friend and a mentor, we’ve both had similar journeys… he was the first guy who said to me, look, you’re a great guy, but you can shut down as many conversations as you can start and that’s a problem for you, and us, moving forward, and I think you need to do something about it.

“And then he actually did something about it and then sat back and just became this sort of bumper on a bowling rink that, you know, if I’ve started to go one way or another, he would just nudge me back in and he’s the first guy that really paid attention to me in the leadership space and I dialled right into that.”

As an enormous contributor to the social and economic fabric of NSW, Morgan believes clubs, and the industry as a whole, have become much better at telling decision makers and the broader public about their good work.

He points to initiatives such as the Clubs & Community Awards and the Perfect Plate Awards as important tools for showcasing the unique role that clubs play in their communities across the state.

Click on the link below to hear the full interview with Morgan Stewart in the ninth episode of the ClubLIFE Podcast, which is also available via ClubLIFE.com.au, Apple, Spotify and wherever else you get your podcasts.

If you have a suggestion on who might make an interesting guest for a future ClubLIFE Podcast episode, get in touch with the team by emailing [email protected].