November 2011 - Chairman's Report

Vryheid Vintage Car Club's Chairman's Report
For the newly elected management committee the year 2010/2011 started with numerous challenges and obligations. At the AGM during November 2010 the constitution of the club was amended to make provision for the election of honorary and special members. Ted Herman was elected as honorary member and Manfred Duvel was elected as special member.
Attendance of meetings
The committee met 14 times during the year. Twelve general meetings for the members with an average attendance of 23 members per meeting. The worst attended meeting was December with only 13 members present. The best attended meeting was March 2011 with 53 members present.
Membership
The club started the new year (January 2011 with 49 members plus one honorary and 1 special member). The year ended with 51 members and 1 honorary member and 1 special member, a total of 53 members.
New members that joined during the year were: G Janse Van Resburg, T Ferreira, L Van der Berg and De Beer Janse Van Rensburg. With the exception of T Ferreira made a great contribution in lowering the average age of the members in the club. Average age of members now is 54.12 years.
Financials
Donations of R15,000.00 were made during the year, namely R7,000.00, R7,000.00 to Hospice and R1,000.00 to the SPCA.
The membership and joining fees were left unchanged at R220.00 and R250.00
Members who attended the year end function and rally were given 100% discount on their membership fees for the following year.
For the first time a calendar was compiled with photos of members cars and farm implements. Thank you very much to Harvie Van Heerden who made these calendars available to members at only R20.00 each.
Events
23 took part in the 2010 yearend rally. The winner of the vintage cars was Des Lemmon-Warde and Terry Bunge ended last in that category. The winner of the classic car section was Andre Nel with Arthur Duvenhage in the last position.
Our January outing was cancelled due to rainy weather.
During February 9 members attended a very pleasant and successful outing to Jan Randall at Lothair. Jan Randall owns one of the most collections of aeroplanes, tractors, stationary engines, cars, motorbikes and model tractors in the country.He is a fantastic host and a visit to his farm is an unforgettable experience.
In March a small group of the members visited Paulpietersburg Dam.
During April the visit of Pasella to Vryheid saw 21 cars of the club exhibited at the Klipkerk in town. It was quite a unique experience and I would once again like to thank all who participated.
In May 6 members attended the Talana Museum cultural day in Dundee.
The Edwardian Rally took place at Ficksburg and 4 of our members namely Arthur Duvenhage, Gordon Lemmon-Warde, Leon Oelofse and Hendrik Delport took part in their pre- 1918 vehicles. A trip which was enjoyed by all.
In May the Pietermaritzburg CIP was poorly attend by our members, as only 3 cars took part.
June 2011 saw the best Vryheid Car Show ever. Our show is highly recommended by many vintage car lovers from all over the country. It also commemorated the 100 years of Chevrolet. This is an event we should cherish and be proud of.
During July 12 cars travelled to Piet Retief for the Hoeka Toeka Car Show. In total 15 members attended this most enjoyable day in Piet Retief.
In August we had the best outing of them all - the chicken run to Kowie and Carol Lombaard.
At Pionier Wildsfees and excellent exhibition was given by the members of the club.
The Dolos Festival in Richards Bay was attended by one of our members.
Johan Horn and Arthur Duvenage represented the VVCC at the Innieriet Festival in Pongola.
During September 7 members attended the Vaal Ou Wiele Show in Vanderbijl Park.
A most enjoyable and excting outing was the visit to Pongola where several of the members paid a visit to Coen Labuschagne's crocodile breeding farm as well as Johan Horn's stationery engines.
They also visited a plastic processing plant at Arthur Duvenage boat factory and they were also able to see his car collection.
7 cars were exhibited at the Klipkerk's 125 year festival. Several cars were used for the two High School's matric farewells.
Arthur and Elize Duvenage participated in the George 200 anniversary long distance tour.
In October 9 members went on a garage safari to visit the garages of Hendrik Delport and Kowie Lombaard.
Acknowledgements
A special thank you to the following committee members: Harvie Van Heerden, Alfie Ball, Hendrik Delport, Nico Van Wyk, Dirkie Kruger and Kobus Botha for all their help and support during the year. Their help is most appreciated by all the members of the VVCC. Thanks to all the ladies for all their help as well.
Challenges for 2012
A special effort must be made to motivate all our members when it comes to attending club outings. Outings must be planned properly and the possiblity of subsidising outings must be investigated.
We should give back more to the members as a token of appreciation/maybe after evaluation.
Our cars must be made much more visible, maybe we can park our cars say once every two months in front of Klipkerk. Members must be invited to bring their cars to the club meetings to tell us more about their cars. A vision and mission must be established for the club - maybe a museum of exhibition centre where members can store their cars and the public can pay to see the cars.Our website must be supported, as many photos and articles as possible must be submitted. The show of 2012 must be something out of this world - please give us your full support and input.
Conclusion
I am proud to be a member of The VVCC. We have got something that is working. Let us take hands and grow this club to something that is unbelievable and that will be the envy of other clubs in South Africa.
Submitted by Cassie Lourens (Chairman)