3 minute read
From The Secretary
by Dennis Whimp This time there is a lot of thank you. Firstly it is to Chairman Dave. He rattled through the AGM in record time and after the remainder of the evenings meeting a few of the members asked me to thank Dave in this column. They didn’t get a chance after the AGM. In particular, for his enthusiasm in keeping the branch operating during the trying times of Covid shutdowns, and for continuing to produce such an excellent magazine. This view was endorsed by many others subsequently. The second thank you is to Lois Thompson who at the last minute decided not to stand for committee this time. This resulted in Dave not realising Lois wasn’t back on the committee; otherwise there would have been a special thanks. Lois had been on the committee for 14 continuous years, 7 of them as Secretary. Previous to that she had been the Secretary’s secretary when her husband Len was secretary for 12 years. Before that she had been Side Curtains editor and Assistant Club Captain. So special thanks to Lois for all your work on the committee. Her knowledge of the club both nationally and locally has been invaluable especially to me as I follow her lead. The third is to all those who turned up to the working bee on Sunday 22nd May. The work was greatly reduced as most of the leaf and vegetation removal had been completed by the local residents before we got there. An adjacent resident, Dave Fischer, 9 years ago looked at the old quarry face that is the bank behind 5 of the buildings including our club rooms. Then it was covered in blackberry, broom, wandering dew, and weeds. He had a vision of a native bushed bank to encourage native birdlife and commenced the conversion. Dave enlisted the help of a group of his friends and neighbours, got a grant from the Council for
the plants, and holds regular working bees to transform the bank to what it is now. I met Dave the day before our working bee and explained what we were going to do including cutting back the shrubs from the building and removing all the leaves that had formed a hay stack behind our building. He was obviously concerned that we were going to butcher the bushes, and called his own working bee for the Sunday morning. The shrubs were trimmed back, most of the leaves removed to compost, the regenerating wandering dew removed and the bank tidied up. And they all left before we arrived. We did shift the furniture ready for the replacement carpet tiles, and Doreen and Shona got half the kitchen cupboards and contents spotless using lots of elbow grease. The carpet tiles that replaced the old carpet are now all down and look superb. They blend in such that when you walk into the clubrooms the new tiles feel as though they have always been there. I see that former member Bob Woolston’s immaculate 1927 La Salle roadster will be in the forthcoming August Webb’s Classic Car Auction. We have set the date for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the forming of the Rotorua Branch. It is Saturday 27th August and will be held in conjunction with the Sulphur City dinner and prize giving at the Millennium Hotel. Our National President will be in attendance to present the 50 year certificates to 5 of our members who have been in the NZVCC for that length of time. We will also ask her to present the 25 and 35 year badges. If anyone wants a badge for that length of continuous membership, and hasn’t already asked me, please let me know. There are a number of our members who have been not so well lately. I won’t name them but if you do know of any of them, give them a call as our love of old cars resulted in us joining the club, and it’s the people in the club and that friendship that keeps us coming back.
