3. A lawn bowls club’s revenue typically comes from three main sources: members’ fees, sponsorship and ‘money spent over the bar’. This last category includes revenue from private functions held at the club’s premises. Clubs often come to an arrangement with a caterer to run the bar and functions, with the revenue shared in some way to the mutual benefit of the caterer and the club.

One club found that its ‘bar’ revenue had been declining for a couple of years and planned to renegotiate its arrangement with the caterer, who had been working at the club for a number of years. The club’s treasurer prepared two budgets: one showing the minimum amount of revenue to survive each year, and a second showing a higher level of desired revenue that would enable the club to offer some free services to members.