President’s Report – February 2025
We are back to our regular club program in 2025, with a well-attended February club meeting. There were three cars on stage, and thanks to members Charlie Onody, John Golding and Ron Corso, for bringing along a Mark 3 Spitfire, Herald coupe and TR3B respectively. Each of these cars are somewhat of a rarity in our club and it was great to hear their respective histories and be able to look at such well-presented cars close up.
As advised at the meeting, the new life membership criteria policy document has been reviewed by existing life members and will now be circulated to all club members for any further input. My thanks to Vice President Richard Sellars who has done a great job in instigating this initiative and preparing the document.
The committee has decided that the comparatively low numbers at the informal January meeting does not justify the expense of hiring the room at Sporting Car Club, and that we will look at having an off-site location for future January informal club meetings.
At the time of writing this report, the All British Day is scheduled for next Sunday, 2nd March. I know that our ABD committee rep, Stephen Wade has done a lot of work in the layout of the ovals, and the Triumph marque clubs (TSOA, TR Register and Stag Club) display area in particular. I am sure this day will be a great success, and I thank Stephen for all his work with ABD on our behalf.
The committee has agreed in principle to having a celebration lunch to commemorate the 60th birthday of TSOA SA on Sunday 20th July, and we will shortly form an organising committee. More details are to follow, but I would like to see this as a major celebration, and hope that many of our club members who we don’t see regularly these days will attend.
The date of the Christmas dinner has now been set for Saturday 22nd November, and we plan to again hold this function at the Royal Adelaide Golf Club. More details to come closer to the event.
Unfortunately, registrations have filled for the 2025 TSOA Nationals in Port Stephens NSW in October, and there is now a waiting list. Previous Nationals attendees were given the first opportunity to register, and all spots were taken by these previous attendees within a few days of release. If you are interested in being placed on the waiting list, or would like to know more about this event, please call me on 0412 823 798, or log onto the TSOA NSW website.
Social Secretary Natalie Farrell continues to organise great social functions, ably assisted by Lawrie and Kay Placing who are organising mid-week runs. The MSCA picnic on 23rd February and All British Day at the start of March has curtailed other club activities for this period, but we will be getting back into the swing of things on the 6th April. See Fastrak or the website for more details.
We have two of our life members, Bill Berlemon and Rory Gibson on the sick list at present, and both were not able to attend the February meeting. Both Bill and Rory have been stalwarts of our club over many years, and I know all TSOA members will join me in wishing them both speedy recoveries. We hope to see Bill and Margie, and Rory and Sue back at club meetings in the near future.
Alex Smithson
President