To each of our valued Supporters and Patrons
This month sees three milestones achieved, and all are very good news for our Supporters.
The Economic Study initiated by your Foundation, funded by some very generous Sponsors has begun. All the participating club members and enthusiasts across the nation will have received the survey questionnaire by email now. Responses can only be made anonymously, privacy is secure. There has been a very good initial acceptance and the numbers we need are coming in.
Our professional helper Mercurius has the reins from this point, and their report and analysis will be in our hands on schedule. The timeline will see our report published in the final quarter this year. Our supervising committee, led by Director Tom Wheelwright has worked very hard to get this up.
A new Director has joined our Board this month. Megan Lavender has been well-known to many as the immediate past President of the Royal Automobile Club of Australia. Her experience with a great variety of companies, associations and community organisations is already making its mark with us. Megan is not the first female to serve on our Board – that honour belongs with Emily Kucukalic – and we are very glad to have such an accomplished professional lady with us again.
The ‘Fireside Chat’ on 23rd June with Colin Bond was another milestone for your AMHF. About 150 enthusiasts came to hear our Director Peter Robinson interview Colin at the ARDC’s conference room. This was an extraordinary and deserved response, Bondy is a legend in Australian motorsport and Robbo is similarly a legend as one of our most prominent journalists and recorders of the sport.
Peter Ulbrich kindly brought along the Lynx-Peugeot open-wheeler which Bondy drove with great success. It has not been run since the 1970s and Peter is to undertake a full restoration.
The depth and extent of Robbo’s research was special and Bondy’s enthusiasm for history was sparked. The whole chat – all 90 minutes – is on our YouTube channel, with the link available here: https://youtu.be/XETchCCic_M. This is a part of what your Foundation is all about – the oral history which is our heritage. The ‘Fireside Chat’ format enables us to have a better, accessible and searchable record of Bondy’s time in Australian motor sport. You can expect to see more of the same.
One other thing, not so much a ‘milestone’ but an ongoing process. The unique database set up to handle the multiple resources of the Foundation, making them accessible and searchable by you all, is moving towards full development. With our database partner First Software Solutions the whole framework is close to finality. We already have several thousand items in our piece of the Microsoft Cloud, and now we are setting up the access paths and protocols needed to use it. Our unique research tool is being fashioned for our Supporters, online and expertly done.
Many thanks for your great support.
Hugh King
Chairman
July 2023
