I would like to thank all club members who have assisted in making another very successful club year. There has been a hard-working executive committee, supported by various appointees, who have all put in a great effort to keep things on track and allowed the club to prosper and grow. I am not sure how many other car clubs have the number of new members that we achieve each year. We currently have a total of 246 members, including over 200 full members, 9 life members and 34 social members.
Vice President Richard Sellars has once again always been willing to step up in my absence. This has included recently for two meetings in a row where I have been unavailable.
Secretary Duane Kaak continues to be a tower of strength within the club and provides us with great service. It is hard to imagine the club running successfully without Duane.
Our treasurer, Lisa Macleod maintains the books very efficiently. Having had this role for the previous 10 years before Lisa took over, I know what a time consuming and at times complicated job this is, and the club owes Lisa a debt of gratitude for her hard work. We had once again budgeted for a deficit for the club year, however managed to finish in a better than budgeted position at years end.
Chris Marshall, who is a chartered accountant and club member has agreed to act as the club auditor and advisor to Lisa on accounting and taxation matters for the next club year, and I thank Chis for taking on this role.
Katherine Bradley as Fastrak Editor position three years ago and continues to produce an excellent publication each month. Again, we are very grateful for all she does in this production.
Secretary Duane Kaak also is our competition secretary in addition to his other secretarial duties. Unfortunately, we did not have a team to compete in the MSCA 6 Hour Regularity Relay this year, and we have only small number of members participating in competition events.
We have had new social secretaries, Charlie and Carol Onody, who stepped into retiring social secretary, Natalie Farrell’s shoes after the last AGM. We have had a variety of great Sunday runs over the last 12 months, with various other club members helping with organising a run, so that the role is not overly burdensome. Thanks Charlie and Carol for doing such a good job, and to all club members who have also assisted.
Lawrie and Kaye Placing continue to organise mid-week lunches each month at interesting and sometimes out of the way venues. These have a loyal bunch of regulars attending, as well as members who attend them now and again, and this lunches continue to be very popular.
Ian Rigby has, as he does every year, carried a heavy club load, and worked tirelessly as Conditional Registration Scheme Registrar and Membership Officer. Ian has a band of helpers on his committee, and I thank these members for assisting Ian in this major role. Ian is also our representative on the Federation of Historic Motoring Clubs and has been instrumental in the past in gaining grants from the Federation for our Day of Triumph.
Life Members, Bill and Margie Berlemon ran the Weekender in May, based at Nuriootpa. Bill had spent the lead up few weeks in hospital but was determined to have the event come what may. The Weekender was very successful, however must have been a huge strain on Bill. We were all very saddened by the news of Bill’s passing in June, a short time after the Weekender. I reflected on Bill’s huge legacy as one of the TSOA all-time greats in my July report. I won’t repeat them for this report, other than to say that we are all very grateful to have known such an exceptional person as Bill, and for everything he did for TSOA in the many years of him being a member. Our condolences are with TSOA members Margie, Dean and Lisa, and Kate and the whole Berlemon family.
Margie remains a life member of the club, and I know she has appreciated the support she has received from the club, and in particular Ian Rigby during this sad time. Margie and Treasurer Lisa have been stalwarts on the door, and we are very grateful to them for doing this task. We have spread the load of preparing supper, and several club members have volunteered to do one supper. Mark Griffin has also negotiated for us to have surplus pies, pasties and other goodies from Banjo’s Bakery, Glenelg, which he collects each month and brings to club meetings. Thanks, Mark, for your initiative and hard work.
Dean Berlemon was again the convenor of the day of Triumph Display Day, as well as Regalia sales. Dean assisted by wife Lisa, did a great job and team Berlemon/Macleod remains integral to club operations and success.
We had a great turnout of Triumphs at the All-British Day in March and Stephen Wade was our club representative on the ABD Committee. Thanks to Stephen for all his effort albeit as well as being a member of TSOA, Stephen is also a member of several other British car clubs, so is representing more than just us on the ABD Committee.
Our Christmas Dinner continues to be our largest and best attended annual function of the year. Natalie Farrell organised this year’s event, along with Charlie and Carol Onody, and it was once again a very successful and enjoyable event at our traditional venue, the Royal Adelaide Golf Club.
I covered the 60th Anniversary lunch in my last year’s annual report. Although this fell into the 2025/26 financial year, it was prior to the last AGM.
We have maintained membership numbers at close to 250 in total despite members leaving each year due in most cases, to having sold their vehicles. New members are joining, and our challenge is to get these new members involved with our club, which offers so much more than just the concessional registration scheme. I have encouraged new members to attend meetings and bring their vehicles for “cars on stage” which continues to be a key part of each meeting.
Storing and transporting our club equipment remains a significant task, and Ian Rigby and Dean and Lisa Berlemon/Macleod continue to do most of this work. It would be great to see another club member take on some or all of this role as Ian, Dean and Lisa are already heavily committed to working for the club in many critical areas.
Next year is the turn of South Australia to host the TSOA National Meeting. We have a small committee working on the planning of this event, which will be in October 2027. Planning is well advanced and I am sure it will be a highly successful week. Thanks to those members helping on the organising committee.
Life member, Roger Lange has been our club webmaster continuously since we first got a website, and has now decided to hand the baton over. Terry and Sue Dowden have offered to take over as webmasters and have recently commenced the role. Roger has also been our club representative on the Marque Sports Car Association (MSCA) committee and has been treasurer of MSCA again for many years. Roger has decided to retire from these roles, and the new club committee will seek to find a replacement for Roger as our MSCA representative.
Thanks, Roger, for doing a great job in both webmaster and MSCA roles over such a long time.
Our club has two awards for service made each year. The President’s Award is made to the Committee member who has made an outstanding contribution to the running of the club, and the Vice President’s Award is to a club member, other than a committee member.
The committee is a small group, and all do a fantastic job. This year, we welcomed Ian Rigby back onto the executive. An anomaly of our constitution is that the Concessional Registrar is not an executive position, however as we have not got a separate competition secretary, we had a committee position open up, and I was of the opinion that this position should logically be filled by the Concessional Registrar.
All club members know that Ian is a tireless worker in the club and maintains our Concessional Registrations in an exemplary manner. He is the go-to person for so many aspects of the club’s activities and is never too busy to help others. I am therefore very pleased to announce that Ian is the winner of the 2025/26 President’s Award.
Regards
Alex Smithson
President
12.30pm Charleston Hotel
