Archive News
August 2010... from the President
I would like to take this opportunity to thank John Honeybone for his leadership over the past year. John has put a lot of time and effort in to the branch at many levels, over many years, so thank you for filling the seat over the past year as President.
I'm sure you will join me in wishing John well and a speedy recovery. We all look forward to seeing you at the next meeting John.
I also wish to acknowledge the efforts of your committee who are the backbone of the Canterbury Branch. Without their commitment, ideas and hard work throughout the year, very little in the way of activities would be organized for us all to enjoy.
Special mention goes to Scott Brightling, for his unrelenting commitment recording the minutes and accuracy with branch finances, Graeme Barber in his role as Branch Rep, for his dedication and passion in supporting our needs as a Branch, Dave Theyers, for the huge amount of time and effort he puts into producing the Plainsman newsletter and Bruce Adams for his stoic effort as shooting convener.
A big thank you to those committee members who are standing down, Julian Watson, Rod Woods. To David Hunter, Anders Gillies, Mike Harris, Jim Henry (now VP), John Abbott, and Steve Pratt. The tasks you regularly undertake for the branch and your commitment is very much appreciated, and for this we owe you a huge debt of gratitude – well done and thank you very much!!
It has been a pleasure working with all of you on the committee over the last year and I look forward to doing so in the coming year as return committee members as well as Glen Morgan our newest committee member, welcome Glen. Good to see new people getting involved in something they are passionate about. I think the progress we have made as a committee over the past year has been fantastic and will provide a great platform to work from in the year ahead.
Finally, thank you to all of the members; you are the life blood of the branch (indeed any branch). Thank you for your words of encouragement and support, together I hope we can carry on the good work already done and continue to develop this branch to its fullest potential.
Meetings & News
Monthly meeting for June and the library benefitted from the purchase of a DVD “ANZAC‟s in Vietnam” and a donation of a DVD of photographs of the Birmingham Proof House. A large cartridge collection plus some other items have been put into the branch auction. Phillip Moore brought along some “ANZAC‟s in Vietnam” DVD‟s for members to purchase at $30, which is cheaper than in stores.
Graeme advised that Les Munro will be giving a talk about his experiences with the “Dam Busters” and about his training. This will happen between 3 – 5pm on the Saturday afternoon, there will be an admission charge. Unfortunately our guest speaker for the night had to cancel out as he had the misfortune to fall off his shed roof the weekend before! Graeme Barber then put on a DVD from the National Archives of the “Weekly Review Extract #64 – 180” these are what was shown before the start of the main feature movies during WW2 in picture theatres around NZ to “show how well our boys were doing overseas”.
The AGM in July Rod advised the John had had surgery that day but no details were known, we saw our annual subscription set at $30 these will be payable when accounts come out in January with the National subscription, this was put forward because the balance sheet shows that we have made an overall loss in the last financial year. The following have been elected as the office bearers of your Branch:
Election of Officers:
President Paul Mainwaring
Vice President John Henry (JD)
Secretary/Treasurer J Scott Brightling
Branch Rep/CSF. Graeme Barber
Immediate Past President John Honeybone
Committee: John Abbott – Honorary Solicitor
Anders Gillies – Refreshments prövidëre
Mike Harris
David Hunter – Library
Steve Pratt
Glenn Morgan
Dave Theyers – Plainsman editor
Bruce Adams – Shooting convenor (seconded onto Committee).
On taking the chair Paul asked for a vote of thanks to John and the out going committee members.
Arms Amendment Act #4 does not look to be a go ahead as the Government and Police have been made to realise that things are in fact going fine as they are. However don't be surprised if it comes back to bite us some in the future.
The monthly meeting for July, Graeme gave a de-brief of the MAMS weekend (see a report elsewhere in this newsletter). The library has a new Armourer and also a copy of the DVD which was shown last month.
Rod advised that there were still quite a number of items coming in for the September auction from a number of sources.
Graeme advised that as a result of a meeting by the management committee in Wellington the membership cards would in future be distributed by Branch Secretaries. Scott pointed out that branch membership cards in general were never uplifted by members therefore it was decide that these cards were not to be produced unless a member specially required one.
Bruce said he was getting ready for the postal shoot also that the October shoot would not be taking place as that weekend there would be a “McLeans Island Open Day” and the Hand loaders would be having a display and would like the Branch to have a Black Powder display on as well, perhaps going over loading etc.
Graeme advised that MAMS next year would be on the 15-16 July. After a short break the MOA started under the control of Rod.
Committee meeting 11 August, Graeme thanked everybody for their support during MAMS and advised that next year the show would be held on the 24 July. Paul advised that they had been sorting out the catalogue for our auction and it has been recommended that we investigate a programme that would make it easier to carry out the task of cataloguing items and possibly process people coming to our auctions, therefore making Scott‟s job that much easier also. It has been decided to purchase a laptop computer for the Secretary.
Having received an email from a member of QEII Memorial Museum Waiouru regarding the disposal of some of their items it was decided that Mike Harris would be the contact point for our Branch. There was discussion regarding whether we open up our annual auction to the public in an effort to get a higher return for those who submit items into the auction and at present we do not have enough items, therefore to get higher prices we need to get more items to get more people to get higher prices to get… …. Do you see a pattern forming here? It was decided to try and investigate other avenues to locate items for our annual auctions. Displays can be set up on the Friday 10th Sept and there will be some sleeping over and the rooms will be open early to allow those who still need time to set up before the auction or drop off items for the auction.
Security will also be a feature of the auction and at the conclusion of the auction no items will be given out with out a ticket form Scott; no ticket no pickup. This includes those items passed in. Firearms Licenses must be produced for ammunitions and firearms.
What are we doing wrong? There are decreasing numbers of members attending meetings, fewer people standing up for LoTM. Do members want a different hall location? If you do, you can help us by helping to find one. We need to know:
a. Is it central?
b. What is the rent?
c. Can we store our Library there?
d. Does it have parking?
e. Is it warm?
Any assistance in this matter would be appreciated.
It was further decided that the Sales Table and Display Table would be restarted on meeting nights. Paul floated an idea about as a Branch we could get together and do something about restoring at least one of the guns on Ripapa Island. This may be bigger than we as a branch could do but if a trust could be formed and contact made with Ngai Tahu, DOC, local bodies, harbour board, museums and perhaps even Ferry Mead, but we would be interested in hearing from branch members.