2024 Annual General Meeting

06 November 2024 / Story by Ian Combes, Photos by Rob Wilko & Senia Gaunson

The 2024 AGM of the Mazda MX-5 Club of NSW was held at the Ryde-Eastwood Leagues Club on Friday 25 October. Many thanks to our interim Vice-President Bryan Shedden for organising the venue and lining up such a tasty selection of finger food for us. I don’t remember the food being so good or so plentiful last year – we were still going at the end of the meeting!

Once again, we offered a video option (Google Meet now) for our members who could not attend in person. We are getting better at this each time we do it.

We had 60 members attend the AGM in person, and another 15 via Google Meet, with 40 apologies.

I have attended a few AGMs now, and I think that this was a great night – seemed more enjoyable even than last year.

John Purcell presented his first report as Club Captain, and like everything John does – it was very thorough and informative. The Presidents Picnic (covered in John’s report in detail) was most excellent.

David Lawler presented his last report as Motorsport Secretary. The attendance graph in David's report told a sorry story – the number of people participating in Motorsport has dropped alarmingly from a fairly stable low 400s to only 148 in 2024. Even with a greatly reduced number of track days, this unfortunately translated into another financial loss for Motorsport in FY2024. Knowing that this was unfolding, David has been having discussions with the Combined Sports Cars Association (CSCA) about the MX-5 Club of NSW becoming involved. With the new One Raceway seemingly priced out of our reach for club tracks days, we will have to combine with other clubs to hold events there, and also at Sydney Motorsport Park.

This year we had audited financial accounts to present to the AGM. Many thanks to our Treasurer Helen Green for the great accounts that she produced. The Club remains in a strong financial position, even if that position did slip last financial year. Much of this was due to one-off expenses, but motorsport did post another (smaller) loss again in FY2024. All the reports from the AGM can be viewed at the following links:

• President's Report
• Club Captain's Report
• Motorsport Secretary’s Report
• Treasurer's Report (concise), Treasurer's Report (detail), Final Audited Account FY 2023/24

The final formal part of the evening was to elect the Committee for 2024. I am the only office-bearer we didn't need to re-elect. Welcome to Jeff Rowe as our new Vice-President and Wayne Luxford as our new Secretary, while Helen Green was re-elected as Treasurer. We had a number of interim appointments during the year and all were confirmed as elected – Senia Gaunson as Publications Officer, Ian Mash as Governance Officer. We also welcome Phil Donnelley back to the Committee as our General Committee Member. The Committee members who were not due for election and are continuing for another year were Bryan Shedden (Membership Secretary), John Purcell (Club Captain), and Fiona Shedden (Regalia Officer). 

The Club has an almost full Committee of motivated and talented people. Best of all, the dynamics and culture in your Club's Committee is exceptionally healthy and positive. It is a pleasure to serve on this Committee. The one outstanding vacancy is Motorsport Secretary, which is a significant gap, especially at this time of year when we are planning the calendar for next year. By the time you read this, we may have a new Motorsport Secretary though.

Once the election of the Committee members was confirmed by the members attending, we moved onto the awards presentation.

 

Awards Presentation

Membership Tenure Awards were granted to a record 147 members this year. We had 73 members who qualified for 5-year badges, 34 for 10-year badges, 26 for 15-year badges, 5 for 20 year badges, 5 for 25-year badges and 4 for 30 year badges, many of whom received their badge in person at the meeting. One highlight of the night was a video from our 30 year member in the UK - Russell Wheatley. The full list of tenure awards call be found here.

Another five members qualified for the MXV Award in 2024 – Senia Gaunson, Ian Combes, Graham Fletcher, Christine Cameron, and Jenny Luttrell. Earning an MXV award is no easy feat, so many congratulations!

Service Awards were presented for the first time to recognise the long-term contribution of members to the management of the Club through their service on the Committee. Our Silver Award recipients for at least 10 years service were Michael Hicks, Michael Soulos, Ken & Maggie Liston, Keith Monaghan, and Bryan Shedden. Our Bronze Award recipients for at least 5 years service were Stephen Carter, Phil Roberts, Jean Cook, Pam & Ray Estreich, Glenn Thomas, Julie Sando, Ian Combes, David Lawler, Wesley Hill, Christine Cameron, and Bryan Hicks. Thank you all for your dedicated service to the Club.

 

With the President's Award this year, I have to say the two members I picked out were both very worthy recipients. Senia Gaunson did great work as Co-Convenor of Illawarra Chapter, but just as importantly has absolutely set the world on fire as the Publication Officer this year – spectacular. In a similar view, what Rod Nicholas has done in the Canberra Chapter in the last few years is also fantastic – not only being the Convenor, but also organising many events. Additionally, Rod made a great contribution to the Committee, most notably in spearheading the development of a comprehensive Chapter Convenors Guide. Well done guys!