It is my pleasure to present the Presidents report for the Volkswagen Owners Club for the year ended 30th June 2021.
The club is in good health, both membership wise and financially. Club membership has remained steady this year, with 127 paid up members at the end of June, compared to 129 last year. Approximately 38 members did not renew their membership at the start of the year but these were replaced by 36 new members joining throughout the year. The clubs Facebook group continues to be popular with new requests to join on a near daily basis. The page currently has 1002 members. Unfortunately we don’t get to see tooooo many of them at our events / outings !
The year, while still affected by the Covid-19 Pandemic and several, shorter and more localised lockdowns, has none the less been a busy one with lots of VW club events held throughout the year.
Our monthly club meetings are held at Qualitat European and we thank them for the continued use of their premises and the parts discount they offer club members, and also thank Vagn Dyson for his time opening up the workshops for us to have a look at what they are working on. Turnouts at club meetings have generally been around the 12 people mark, with a high of about 32 people on the night we had Rob Elliott, the ex Motor Holdings CEO come to talk to us about his days in the motor industry. Not sure what we can do to attract more to come along on other nights. On a couple of occasions we have had our monthly meetings at a Burgerfuel outlet and these meetings also proved quite popular, especially in the summer months !
Our major event for the year, the Spring Jamboree, was again held at the Vellenoweth Green in St. Heliers and was quite well attended, by both the air-cooled and water-cooled fraternity! It was a fine, sunny day and the BBQ and the bottles of wine for the prize winners went down well! This event is highly regarded in Auckland VW circles and is one way of fostering the Volkswagen marque, which then helps us get support from the VW importers ( use of the EMD BBQ for example ).
We have had several events throughout the year that made use of the monthly Caffeine & Classics meetings in both Takapuna and Hampton Downs as starting points followed by a run around the countryside for a lunch etc. One that was very popular was the one that started at the Papakura Autobahn, went down to Hampton Downs and then carried on to visit the Wrights Water Garden in Patumahoe for lunch and a wander. Another was the run from Takapuna up to Coatsville village for lunch and an ice cream !
In December we joined in with the annual Raglan coast to coast run, which was well attended on a sunny day, and the club fired up a BBQ for all participants which was greatly appreciated. In mid January we again took part in the Kumeu Hot Rod show weekend, having our own site, with about 10 members vehicles on display, including a very nicely restored Karmann Ghia that had been converted to electric propulsion. Thank you to all members who brought their vehicles and thank you to Terry Sawyer and Ben Doughney for helping with the site setup. In February we put on a great display of 8 club vehicles at the annual Ellerslie Concourse, followed by a display of 16 club vehicles at the Brit-Euro show in Howick in March.
Other club events held over the last 12 months included the Westy brunch at the german restaurant Mitten Drin and then went there again in June for dinner for the annual Worldwide VW Beetle Day event. Both were well attended.
Finally I would like to thank committee members who have helped in organising, setting up and running events, without you nothing would happen. Special mention and THANK YOU to Terry Sawyer for the work he does for the club as Secretary/Treasurer but also for such things as club photographer and helping with organising events etc. Most members probably don’t realise how much work you do Terry but it is a lot and is appreciated.
Knut Erbs President – Volkswagen Owners Club ( Auckland )