President’s Report - May 2025

Greetings everyone

I’m going to start this report with a line that my late Father-in-Law, Graeme lived by – “Aren’t we lucky” as we move further into Autumn this really pops into mind. Trees changing colour, a great club trip to the zoo, a great clubroom, a forthcoming Federal Rally, fabulous friendships, amazing cars (even when they don’t behave) – we do have so much to be grateful for and I for one intend to get out and enjoy every bit of it.

The Vic Branch is seeking a new Secretary. Due to the transpiration of events at last months General Meeting, Larry Picker has decided to resign from this position. On behalf of all of the members of the club and especially the committee I thank Larry for all he has done for the club. I have learnt much from Larry both personally and professionally and for this I will be forever grateful. If you feel that you have the skills and energy to contribute to our club in this capacity, please get in touch with me directly – you will have big shoes to fill but you will be assured of our support.

As many of us head off to Federal Rally our May general meeting will be a lower key affair in the form of a Movie Night. We will be screening the classic movie from 1964, The Yellow Rolls Royce staring Rex Harrison, Ingrid Bergman, Shirley MacLaine, Omar Sharif, George C. Scott, Alain Delon and Jeanne Moreau. Also of note was the soundtrack song “Forget Domani” by Riz Ortolani won Best Original Song at the 23rd Golden Globe Awards. I’m sure this will be an entertaining way of spending the evening – we will even have popcorn and choc ices however anyone trying to roll Jaffa’s down the aisle will have to clean them up themselves.

Coming up, Simon Roberts has been able to organise a special visit to Austin 7 Heaven, the Austin 7 club are an amazing group of enthusiasts and their technical an parts resources are absolutely mind-blowing, I understand that they can build a complete car with just some of the spares that they have available, an outing not to miss.

Your committee and other willing recruits are also working very hard to organise some interesting events and outings to come including a club meeting in at Melbourne Rolls-Royce. Also exciting is the forthcoming club meeting in a regional centre, this is most likely to be Castlemaine and involve a trip to Maldon on the Historic Railway complete with a guest speaker from the railway too. We are trying to put the finer details together so stay tuned for this exciting event.

As stated earlier, we have a lot to be grateful for, interesting runs and speakers, great technical support, fabulous friends but most importantly the dedicated volunteers that bring all of this to you. We have put a call out previously for some editorial assistance for Wayne, some social coordination runs/ events support and now for a secretary. If you enjoy your club and think it is a great place to be please consider being a greater part of it by assisting in any of these or any other capacities.

Drive Safe and stay well

Keith Mortimer