PRESIDENT’S REPORT – JANUARY 2021

Julie and I will be away for February visiting our daughters’ families in Melbourne and celebrating 3 birthdays, 1 birth and Chinese New Year.  We are driving over and hope that at the end of February we can get back into SA without having to quarantine.   The Committee will keep the Club running smoothly and Vice President Ian Rigby has kindly consented to chairing the February meeting.

Since November we have had 4 official Club functions, the Christmas Social, the after-Christmas Run, the informal January Club meeting and our traditional Ice-cream Run.   These have all been well attended with no forced cancellations, so things are looking up!!

During the Christmas/New Year break the Committee started planning for a return to more normal activities.   Supper (Covid-Safe) is on again and Bill and Margie have prepared the Club’s event Calendar for 2021 out to the end of May (see this FasTRak).  Several cancelled events from 2020 feature in the program.  So some exciting stuff is coming up including Valentine’s Day, the Breakfast Run, the long-awaited Observation Run and our May Weekender.

And mentioning Club Runs, are the photos below of early 1950’s Club Runs in the UK?  No! – too many people?  – too much sunshine?  Yes, you are right!  They were taken at Le Mans where the Standard Triumph Team was well represented.  A member with Coventry connections supplied the photos.

 

Condolences were sent to Mike Temby and his family following the passing of his wife Trina, just before Christmas.  Mike and his family were great supporters of the Club, Mike is a past President (2015/16) and was largely responsible for initiating and successfully managing the most recent review of our Constitution.  The family moved to Queensland 3 to 4 years ago

In early January I sent an email, entitled “Your Club”, to a number of members seeking to personally encourage greater involvement in club activities, rather than just enjoying the benefits of historic registration.  This was done with conviction, but some trepidation and I have been encouraged by the responses I have received so far.

It does seem clear that

• members could benefit by greater communication between each other (this needs to be self-driven) and
• some members are reluctant to get more involved because they don’t have a driveable Triumph. This is no barrier to attending meetings or coming on Club runs!  Whilst we encourage driving your Triumph, you can come to events in your family car.

And the following comments received are worth repeating:

• “When I feel confident the car will handle a 1,000 km round trip (from Mt Gambier) with touring in between and not leave me red faced at the side of the road, half-way there, I’ll certainly be coming to some events.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
• “Unfortunately, our Stag is stuck in a container in Singapore (on its way from Yorkshire). We will join you on an event as soon as we are able.”

• Thanks for the email…and yes, we should all try a bit harder to get more involved…that said, I am sure the efforts of those who do the heavy lifting are appreciated by all!

These are just a fraction of the views that members have but they certainly consolidate my confidence in the continuing value of the Club.

I wish all members a happy New Year.  Enjoy your February and see you again in March.

Kind regards,

Peter Davidge (President)