PRESIDENTS REPORT 2016/2017.
It is my pleasure to present the annual report of ANZROC Victoria.
Meetings
We have enjoyed hearing from interesting Guest Speakers bush poet Don McQueen and motorbike travellers Brian and Shirley Rix at our City meetings both of which attracted a very good turnout of Members. Regional meetings at Woodend, Ballarat and Geelong were also well supported as were the Suburban venues at Moonee Valley, Caulfield, Greensborough and Mulgrave. We continue to commemorate Anzac Day and support the Salvation Army at our April and May lunches.
Newsletter
Our regular monthly newsletters continue to keep everyone in touch with former colleagues. We are indebted to our editor Ron Adams, who continues to do a great job in collating all the letters received from Members and producing the newsletter. Thanks also to Anne Wee for creating the colourful on-line version.
Social Media
ANZROC’s Website has been in operation now for over 7 years and has received 170,000 views to date. The ANZ Retired Officers’ Facebook page has 335 followers which is a 50% increase on last year. We have published a range of articles relating to ANZ from the Bluenotes platform which have proved to be popular. We also publish items of interest to our Members and post Tributes to our members who have passed away. We encourage all Members and their families to catch up with what we are doing via these Social Media channels. Thanks to Elina Law, our youngest member for maintaining our website.
Committee Activities
Our Secretary Vicky Genius continues to look after the administration of the club with a combination of efficiency and humour and has also undertaken the role of distributing the printed newsletter of which there are still around 200 per month.
Our Social Committee Noel Beanland, Joan Nathan, Ken Pattison, Neville Pearson, Wolf Damschitz and Kathy Trace have identified guest speakers and tested out a range of venues for our meetings. Committee members George Cooper, Ken Crawford, Con La Fauci and Ken Pattison ensure that members are welcomed at meetings, collect the money and hand out name tags created by Ken Crawford.
Our Welfare Committee Ken Crawford, Joan Nathan, Neville Pearson, and Kathy Trace continue to provide support to members who have had various issues.Birthday cards are sent to all members (which always arrive on the day despite the vagaries of Auspost), Christmas cards to members aged over 90 years, and visiting members who are unwell and need support.
We also continue to insert obituary notices in the Herald Sun as a tribute to our departed members.
Immediate past president Peter Pritchard has been a great support to me in transition to the President role and has been instrumental in dealing with arrangements for our Christmas lunch this year with the Arts Centre and sending out invitations to the ANZ Executives. Peter also worked with Geoff and Lesley Cooke to set up the Regional lunch in Geelong. Glyn and Carl are planning to organise something similar on the Mornington Peninsula in 2018.
We were able to successfully re-activate our Golf events this year with spring and autumn competitions at Cheltenham won by Chris Proctor and Con La Fauci and Kathy Shady twice. Thanks to Ken Pattison and Glyn Parry-Jones for bringing ANZROC Golf back to life and attracting around 20 members each time.
John McPhee, Kevin Mitchell and Neville Pearson all Ex-Presidents and Life members of ANZROC retired from the Committee in 2016 and 2017. Gary Mason who served on the Committee for around 10 years retired in 2017. We thank all of them for their long and dedicated Service in the working of the Committee over many years.
Christmas Lunch
Last year our 2016 Christmas Luncheon at the Arts Centre was well attended with 280 members and bank guests enjoying the opportunity to get together. ANZ guests included Shayne Elliott, Graham Hodges, Michelle Jablko, Fred Ohlsson, Bob Santamaria and Tom Walker. We continue to be indebted to the Bank for their most generous financial support to ANZROC. At our Christmas luncheon Shayne Elliott, responded to the toast to ANZ given by Bob Lyon.
Membership
We have been very successful this year in attracting 51 new members. Sadly during the year 35 members passed away including some very close to us all. Can you please pause to remember them.
Financial
The club is in good financial position thanks to the good work of our Treasurer Glyn Parry-Jones and his predecessor John Brown. Member’s subscriptions and the Bank subsidy allow us to provide the resources to enable the club to function. We thank Norris Gale for undertaking the role of Hon. Auditor.
The Membership Management system introduced in 2016 has streamlined our financial processes and allows an easy means of communicating with our members. Thanks to John Brown, Carl Garley and Glyn Parry-Jones for getting the system up and running so smoothly. John Brown is a key user of the system in his role as Membership Officer making sure that all our members’ details are up to date.
Conclusion
I have been honoured to take on the role of President this year and I thank all committee members for their contribution. On my and your behalf, I invite you to show our appreciation and thanks to the committee, for the achievements and results attained during the past year.
Eamon Veaney
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