A Case of: Thank you, Marshall; Goodbye, Marshall?

The Macsteel and Fast One Cycle Races have been a part of the New Dawn landscape from the very beginning from when the club founder, Don Lindsay, made them a part of our fundraising efforts.
     They've been a steady source of income during the past eight or so years and the money has been put to good use.

The Macsteel team at 4.45 am on Sunday: Myself, Abi Barrel, Adriaen Slicher's partner, Adriaen, Linda, Judy Sligcher with Judy Symons in front of her, Amina Frense, DG Jankees Sligcher, president Carol Stier and Paul Kasango in front. With the drama to follow it's no wonder DGA Judy looks like she's praying!

     Two observations though: the amount of money has barely changed over the years due mainly to smaller fields of cyclists and the nature of the task of marshalling has changed dramatically. It has become more dangerous.
     This was proved on Sunday with an accident that was preventable but quite literally almost took out Adriaen Sligcher and his partner, Abi Barrel and Paul Kasango.

The overturned truck and car in which three people were seriously injured in a head-on collision

     Our stretch of road along North Boundary Road, that runs from the Carnival City Casino, crosses the N3 and goes on to Alberton, is a dual carriageway. The idea was that motorists would use one carriageway (the eastbound one) and the cyclists the westbound lanes.
     The problem was that nobody told the motorists and there was nobody, in the form of traffic police, to tell them in the early stages of the race. The Metro police only arrived after 7am, while the various races had started at 5.45.

Marshalls meet Metro police ... Myself, Carol, Linda, Amina and Judy were lucky enough to have an enthusiastic and competent team of young traffic officers at our point, even if they did pitch up late

     The accident happened when a truck and car collided head-on because neither was sure where they should have been driving. The speed limit along the stretch of road is 100 km/h, and many motorists were trying to beat that despite it being clearly dangerous.
     Once the traffic police arrived, the traffic was diverted onto the correct lanes for the long first stretch of the race ... for less than an hour. For the final stages cars and cyclists once again shared the same lanes and the fact that nobody else was hurt, is a miracle.
     At our point both president Carol Stier and Judy Symons had several narrow escapes.
     My personal feeling is that New Dawn has outgrown the marshalling duties at cycle races. We should inform the organisers of the Fast One race in Henley that we won't be back in January next year. We should then wait for payment from the Macsteel race and then inform the Rotary Club of Germiston officially that we won't be back in October next year.
     This is something we could discuss at the meeting tomorrow.

From pedals to wine boxes

President Carol Stier with Michael Fridjhon, founder and a director of Winex

     All is not doom and gloom, however.
     Those that were able to participate, agree that working at Winex was far greater fun than marshalling at 5am on a Sunday.
     The income should be almost the same as for the two cycle races combined, so it would make sense to swop them. Perhaps we should wait until final payment before confirming our attendance next year.

     I found all the bending over to get bottles out of boxes heavy going because of a sore back (amongst other age-related afflictions) and was suitably embarrassed to have had Frayne doing much of the heavy lifting, as she and I were a team serving one station with 6 wineries!

A big thank you to Frayne, Judy and Debbie de Vries for all the hard work at Winex

     Judy Symons had it worse, as she had to serve a whole station mostly on her own the first day.
     President Carol and president-elect Linda were a team at one of the biggest stations and put the rest of us to shame in all aspects.
     Linda says in general the women fared far better at Winex than the guys! That may be a hint to the able bodied for next year.

Carol with Carl Chemaly, an ex-Rotarian from the Johannesburg club who seems interested in rejoining, but to our club this time

Megan Maynard from The Link was also a visitor to Winex

     Winex has a couple of spin-off benefits; one is that we're able to buy wine at reasonable prices from the Rotary Club of Benoni Aurora after the show when wineries donate leftover wines to them. This year about 1000 bottles were donated.
     The other was the opportunity for networking with like-minded people amongst the winemakers, the public and the other Rotarians that were helping.

Linda with Adriaen and Abi before things got rough on Sunday

Three ex-members schmooze ... Graham Donet helped on two nights and met Peter and Jean James-Smith

     The most important was that although it was hard work, it was interesting and fun. It is the biggest wine show in South Africa by far and claimed to be the biggest in the southern hemisphere so that almost all of the most prominent wineries are represented.
   

Carin and Joan on the exhibition floor

Sam and Rob Deverceuil with mom Joan

Sitting pretty ... Graham Donet and I take a break

The news in a nutshell
     The meeting last week with Barnard Beukman, editor of Beeld as the speaker, went off very well and we had quite a few visitors to bolster our numbers.
     Barnard spoke about producing news in a changing environment and the role of the media in the current political climate.

Barnard Beukman and Amina Frense at the meeting

       Under the headline Media discusses its electronic future the caption to the photograph, for those who battle with Afrikaans, reads: The development of electronic media and its role in the present political climate was the subject of a meeting on Wednesday of the Rotary Club of Johannesburg New Dawn. Left is Barnard Beukman, editor of Beeld and guest speaker with Amina Frense, chairman of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism and a member of the club.
     The photograph and caption were used prominently on Page 4 of Beeld last Thursday morning.

President Lyn Colllocott and AG Dave Bradshaw at the meeting

     Amongst the visitors were Lyn Collocott, president of Rosebank Rotary and Dave Bradshaw, also of Rosebank Rotary and our Assistant Governor for the year. Lyn was our previous AG.

Visitors Andrew Smith and Greta Schuler

     Other visitors were the Smith family, Andrew, Russ and daughter Cathy. Russ is a past member of the club.
     Greta Schuler, John's wife, was also there with John, paying a rare visit to his club!

Rudi Vink, flanked by daughter Cathy and mom Russ Smith, also came to hear the talk

Richard Wear and Mike MacDonald

     Mike MacDonald brought a friend, the recently retired Richard Wear, along to the meeting. We're relying on Mike to rope him in as a member of the club.

And finally ...
     Don't forget the Golf Day on Friday, 10th November at the Parkview Golf Club.
     Although the shiny new wheelbarrow that Judy Symons bought is filling up nicely, a few extra bottles would be most welcome, so bring them along tomorrow.
     A Thought for the Week: If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. - Mark Twain (1835-1910)