I thank Karl and Barb for their contributions, and welcome Ray and Cathy to the committee for 2012. Both of these new committee members have many years of membership and are in tune with the members’ needs, so I look forward to their contributions to further growing and strengthening our club.

In challenging times, our membership and finances have both grown over the past year, putting us in a good position to continue to deliver value to you in the coming year. Participation rates in club events have been very gratifying this year, including at our monthly meetings.

As some of you would be aware, Harry and Dianne Turner enjoyed a lengthy USA holiday recently. On a previous visit, Harry had developed a relationship with personnel from Pratt and Miller, who run the Corvette Race Team for Chevrolet. Harry and Dianne again spent time with the team, and Harry managed to obtain some terrific memorabilia, including posters, prints, caps, and shirts signed by team drivers. Harry and Dianne are donating much of these collectibles to the club, to be auctioned at our 2012 ‘Vettes Rock The ‘Gong National Convention, but are giving members first shot at obtaining some of them at our December Christmas meeting. A sampling of items, listed on page## of this magazine will be offered to you at a mini auction on Tuesday night December 13th. So don’t miss this one folks, and as they say in the classics, bring your money with you! Actually we will arrange credit card direct debits on the night if you prefer.
Thank you in advance Harry and Dianne for this very generous gesture.

Elsewhere in this edition you will find an update from the Convention committee. With less than five months to go, the committee will now start calling for volunteers for some of the tasks that we need to do over the Easter weekend. From parking attendants to cruise group leaders to balloon blower uppers, there will be a job for all of us to help make our 2012 National Convention a successful and memorable one for Corvette enthusiasts attending from all over Australia. So when you are asked to volunteer, please join me in contributing our time and efforts as needed.

The success of our Convention will largely be determined by the participation rate of our own members. There is a contingent of regular interstate attendees, who travel year after year to each of the state’s conventions, bringing with them some fabulous Corvettes. The difference between us having dollars in the bank or a shortfall after Easter 2012, will be the level of entrants from our New South Wales club in our own event. So if you haven’t sent of an entry yet I would ask that you make every effort to support your club and get your entry in before the end of December. Let’s see a great show of strength from our members, and make this convention a success in every way.

I believe the renovations at Regents Park Sporting and Bowling Club are progressing well, so we should be back “home” there for our December Christmas meeting. As you know we do not have a January meeting, and our editor also has a break with no magazine printed in January. So the committee looks forward to a well attended Christmas meeting before the break. We will keep in touch with you through this break however, by email and post, to keep you informed of runs and other events that occur in this period.

Until next month
I hope to see you on a run somewhere soon.
Gary Nelson