President's Report - Beechmont Burnout
I wanted to thank everyone for their personal contribution to making yesterday's Run one of the best we have been on. In surveying the actual Run thread I don't think any previous Run has been so well covered with pictures, and if you haven't seen it you should take a look at the You Tube compilation put together by Knightrous. It provides a real feel for what these Runs are all about and the music really suits the mood. The time and effort put into making the video is much appreciated Aaron.
It was also a great response to the "formal" start to the Club with close to 20 paid up members as the starting group. We're a bit different up here in Queensland (after all, our main business is putting the bend in bananas to make them easier for southeners to eat), so instead of getting caught up in politics we held a draw for initial membership numbers. Our membership basis is focused around the cars, so its actually the car that is the registered item ahead of its owner. In doing things this way we avoid the perennial discussion of who was number one, who was number two, etc; when launching the incorporation, and as fate would have it the No1. membership went to our only lady owner with her spotless red Spyder. Check out the photos of this car on the main thread.
As these Run groups get larger their management on the road certainly becomes more complicated and we are therefore looking at formalising some "Standard Operating Procedures" (SOP) for different sized groups. From experience its almost impossible to keep a group of more than seven cars together safely, so from our various learning experiences we are going to focus in future on publishing and testing some SOP to make the Runs better. Remember, there are no such things as mistakes, only learning experiences, although if you have a learning experience and you don't learn then it might be a mistake. The third time it happens you should look for enemy action.
If anyone has any suggestions on this subject then please PM me, we are open to anything reasonable except tying the cars together with string, although rumour has it that Groper doesn't mind being tied up from time to time.
Some of the Run members have made mention in their posts of the plague of cyclists we had to manoeuver around on the Beechmont Plateau Road. While you have to admire people who attempt to ride up 10% grades for over 5 kilometers under their own power, and you are thankful that there was an ambulance equipped with a defibrillator cruising around behind the main bunch, when you see large printed signs that tell the riders to "Slow Down, Steep
Decent Ahead" you do wonder whether or not this was an intended pun on the down hill slide of a prominent Tour de France personality in recent weeks? Either that, or the sign creator hasn't spell-checked "descent" correctly a number of times.
All-in-all this was a fantastic turnout, the weather completely held off (amazing), we had a great lunch venue, the limited space in the MR2 again proved its worth after some of the co-drivers went shopping at "Flutterbyes" (look it up), and all the cars performed very well. Hogans Road, a great discovery by Dbutoille, was just the icing on the cake, which our Past President wanted to dig up and take home with him.
See you all (and hopefully a few more) at the Christmas Party on Sunday the 9th of December. Don't forget the best tattoos competition.
