CONTENTS:
Editorial
President's Report
Vice President's Report
Secretary's Report
Bunbury AGM 1998
Dawes Underwriting Stay(s) Upright
New Triumph Thunder Bird
Bike Law Talk
Superkarts at Philip Island
| EDITORIAL | |
| Sorry last
issue was a bit late! Anyone who's had anything to do
with the advertising industry will tell you that client
OKs often stuff up the best of schedules, especially if
they're off shore. Plus poor old Cadillac, our printers,
lost a major account - and a shift. Bummer! Anyway, all
is back to normal now, except, I did hear of a courier
strike looming, promised for about the time the magazine
is sent to Adelaide. Why me? The training scene is looking really healthy. The Ulysses Club now has access to, and a choice of, the best training deals and training organisations in Australia. With the insurance companies adding their incentives, we should be the best trained, best insured riders in Oz. Be in it! It works! A Branch of our Club was concerned enough about Riding On becoming an extension of the newspaper lonely hearts columns (on the basis of one insert) to write a letter of complaint to NatCom. I would suggest that, if there is any matter of concern about the magazine, check it out with me first. Riding On is a service, and a method of communication, for members. You'll just have to trust me that I have the benefit of all members in mind, and a fairly good network with which to check on any dubious inclusions. Members move to different areas, lose partners, or are just lonely. I think it's a valid function of the journal of a social club for older people to assist in making those members' lives a little brighter. |
Over the
four years that I have been attending NatCom meetings in
my ex officio function of Riding On editor, cookie thief
and wind breaker, I've heard a few of the problems that
Gary alludes to in his report. Some people are just
empire builders, stirrers or plain strange! They
sometimes end up on committees! '28 committee members, with strictly defined tasks', 'change the constitution', you name it! What I've always noticed though, is the members just ignore 'em - and they go away! There's a very strong vein of good old common sense in this Club - must be one of the benefits of old age - and the Club's constitution and structure is like me. Simple! Who wants to get bogged down in bureaucracy when all we want is good company, our bikes, and the road! John Miller |
 PRESIDENTS REPORT |
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| At the
head of this Ulysses Club that we all belong to and enjoy
so much is the Club National Committee, but few members
really know what it does and, most probably, care even
less. This is probably because, from the day the original members formed the Sydney Branch followed by the formation of other Branches and Groups, the real strength of the Ulysses Club has been in smaller gatherings. With their social events and rides, and with smaller, more manageable, groupings, it remains possible to know most of the people in your segment of the Club and for many of them to become close friends. Quite obviously, this wouldn't be possible if we were just one big club with 10,000 members. For most members, the role of the National Committee (NatCom) would be seen as the organisation of the Annual General Meeting and responsibility for the production of Riding On. Indeed, these are two of our responsibilities, but there are others, such as the selection, ordering and distribution of Club merchandise, general administration of our finances, and the management of membership. These would be fairly obvious to anyone who gave it a bit of thought. All of these things are important in the general management of the Club however, in my view, they are not as significant as another role that successive NatComs have taken on and that may be as complete a surprise to most members as it was to me when I first joined NatCom some six years ago. The role I refer to is keeping the Club together. Keeping the Club together may sound a very simplistic thing to do, but I want to tell you that nothing could be further from the truth. Any club with 10,000 financial members, and particularly with the diversity of characters that we have in the Ulysses Club, is going to have a whole range of dynamics going on, all the time, and this is very much the case in our club. |
Unfortunately,
sometimes the passion and emotion involved in divergent
views and attitudes about things associated with the
Club, its Branches or Groups, threaten to get out of
hand. The potential exists for others, outside the
warring parties, to take sides and for the whole Club to
be ultimately split and, who knows, maybe destroyed, to
everyone's loss. Successive NatComs have, fortunately, been aware of these dangers and have acted, and will continue to do so, to ensure that when disputes arise they are quickly resolved, and that the Club continues to run like a duck gliding smoothly on a pond, with no evidence on the surface of the paddling taking place below. Most members never become aware of the problems that arise, and that's the way we want it to be so that the Club keeps together. We are now approaching a hectic time of the year for motorcyclists. As I write, there are only four weeks to spring and then the October Odyssey for east coast riders, held this year on my old university campus at Bathurst. Then the Grand Prix at Phillip Island, where it always should have been, and before we all know it Christmas, Toy Runs and the AGM in Bunbury. I have visited Bunbury and can tell you that the locals are looking forward to hosting the AGM and will make everyone who arrives feel very welcome. By now you should be fairly advanced in your planning and, if you are like Kate and I, looking forward to riding the Nullarbor both ways. The really distant AGMs like this one, 1994 to Alice, and 1999 to Cairns have a double pleasure. The AGM itself, and the joys of a long and taxing ride. Personally, I can't wait! See you somewhere down the road. Gary Vandersluis
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