Dear members, well the 50th Anniversary of the club has been and gone but hopefully will not be forgotten. To the 200 members that attended the event, I hope you will have a great memory of the day and all the special moments created.
As I said at the event, the planning started 18 months ago, with a small team of Doug Sherman, Gordon Reynolds, Lance Yenik, Adam Tribe and myself. The success of these events is in the detail and that is what we continually worked upon. The black and gold theme, the pens, the gold cutlery, even the wine in the 50th celebration bottles and the gold and black chocolates all added a little something to the day.
However, I think it was the electronic videos provided by Adam Tribe that made the impact and took things to another level. (Click here to see it)
The weekend began on the Saturday, with a team of people arriving to prepare the venue for the next day. Duncan McRae had his history group working diligently in the adjacent room putting together a wonderful display of our club’s history. Unfortunately, there are gaps so if you have any material at home that you think the club could use, please contact Duncan, I am sure he would be very grateful. Duncan will be continuing with his group to expand on the history of the club and maybe one day it will be collated into a book.
In the Silks room Lance and I were preparing the tables and Adam and his operator Kris were piecing together the AV equipment and had many run-throughs to ensure that everything went to plan on the day. They did find a couple of gremlins, so the time spent was worthwhile.
I must say at this time that the staff of the Geelong Racing Club and their Operations Manager Sophie and CEO Luke could not have been more supportive or co-operative in assisting us in having a successful day, they accepted all our requests without question.
As we left the room at 5.00pm, a last-minute check, a couple of photos from Lance, the room looked fantastic, the only improvement would be people and that was only a few hours away.
A restless night and Sunday finally arrived, so off to the race course, where several of our helpers were waiting at the main gate at 10.00am before the racing club staff had arrived.
Lawrie Ulph, David Brett and Richard Trigg were our parking crew, dressed in high-vis and ready to go. Adam and Kris were back to do a final check of the all things electronic and Lance, Gordon and I did a check of the room again and again, finding a couple of little issues, which were quickly addressed.
Just prior to 11.00 am, the members started arriving for their complimentary drink and a chance to review all the hard work done by the history group. It worked to a treat as members reminisced, about past adventures, tours and get-togethers, it was also a chance for new members to mingle and get a feel for the club and the comradery.
At 11.45 am we started moving into the Silks room and the first reactions were as we had hoped “WOW!” it appeared everyone was suitably impressed, the hard work and effort had been worth it.
Now we were in the hands of our MC Patron Denis Walter and what a superb job he did, he is truly such a professional and set the tone for the day. After his welcome Denis introduced us to Adam Tribes video of the club history, the day went to another level again and was received with thunderous applause.
Next were the awards I presented from 2022 to, Anna Selway-Hoskins, Club Person of the Year, Lawrie Ulph and Max Richards Octagon award winners 11 and 12 respectfully and then the big one, a Life Membership to Don Collins which I am pretty sure caught him by surprise? All very worthy award winners.
Of course through the day eating was a priority and the food provided by the racing club was magnificent and thoroughly enjoyed by those attending.
After lunch, it was the turn of our guest speaker Ian Cover, who again provided many stories of his personal life and kept the crowd entertained.
A few final raffle draws, speeches and thank-you’ s and the day was over, 18 months of planning and activity culminated into 4 hours, it was over in a flash. As I said at the start it will be the memory of the day that is important, there was plenty of time for chatter, renewal of old acquaintances, the words “remember when?” was used tirelessly through the day.
I would like to thank Doug, Adam, Lance and Gordon, for all their help, enthusiasm and encouragement. To Duncan and his crew thank you, to Lawrie and his helpers thank you, and to the members a very big thank you!!
