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One of the biggest dilemna that the Club has to  monitor is the role that alcohol has to play within Sport & Recreation especially under the auspices of Ratana Maramatanga Sports Club. The Club acknowledges it has  a responsibility to look at ways of minimising the negative impact that alcohol can have on a community whlist further balancing  host responsibilities.

Gone are the days where you would see after match functions go into the early hours of the morning.  In today's environment that simply does not happen and in Ratana's case our host responsibilities have seen all our home games after match functions finish and packed up before 7-30PM, earlier enough for players to be with their Whanau. The most important thing we can do is give the other team a hiding on the paddock and a good feed afterwards - Manaaki Tangata. Hey if they give us a hiding...they still get a good feed.

We are fortunate that we have a few of our Kaumatua that attend the after match and there is a degree of self monitoring especially from the teams and patrons that regulates what is deemed acceptable behaviour. "Being an egg will not endear you too much", and is soon discouraged. In this sense the boys have conducted themselves well and are to be commended.

The Sports Club is endeavouring to embrace wider into our community to support our kids and an emphasis is on how the club actively supports recreational activities.

The reality is that it costs to play sports and that falls back on players and one of the ways where money is raised is over the bar. To place this in perspective there has not been too much of a reliance over alcohol sales specifically but we do apply to the established Pub Charities that has successfully to date heavily subsidised costs for teams. For some this may seem hypocritical but when it costs up to $10,000-00 to field sport teams having a sausage sizzle just doesnt cut it. Furthermore it would be an unreasonable expectation to place on the sport committee  that such an amount be exacted on our small rural community that has high rating regarding social and economic deprivation. If we do this we further compete with other worthy fund raising community initiatives that is also reliant on our Community support. Ratana currently only comprises of 115 homes and a population of under 400 and therein lies a dilemna.

The Club will endeavour to
1. Keep a reduced serving hours for Liquor
  License 4pm -8pm.
2. Ensure good host responsibility is provided,
  responsible bar staff, and provision for meals.
3. Seek alternative funding resources to reduce
  reliance upon alcohol bar sales.
4. Pursue support for wider recreation events in the Community