Tuesday, March 5, 2024

ANZAC Poems and other Sprigs of Wattle Book

---- We have Happy Hours at our Hut most Fridays from 5 pm. Everyone is welcome ---- 
One of our members, Maurie O'Brien is a popular bush poet and author who wrote "ANZAC Poems & Other Sprigs of Wattle". 

Maurie was raised in a country town in the Mid-North of South Australia. He is well respected and admired for the strong delivery of his poetry at public events.

This collection of poems from Maurie contains many fine tributes to Australia's fellow veterans and pioneers with many humorous poetic anecdotes (see The Handbag stanza below). The collection will surely appeal to all those who respect and value the sacrifices made by Australians during the conflicts of World War I and II, whether at the front, behind the lines, or at home.

The Handbag
There are some things mysterious,
To the ordinary bloke,
Like the things your wife possesses,
About which you never joke.
Now, one of these is her handbag,
That just never leaves her side,
A deep, dark holder of secrets,
In which many things reside
.
I highly recommend this 102 treasure trove of poetry and humour that is a very reasonable price and available electronically (Kindle) or in paperback. You can find it here.

If you buy a copy, I'd love to hear what you think of it. Please comment below.

Robin Henry, Editor

Friday, February 23, 2024

Pizza Happy Hour - 1 March 24

---- We open most Fridays from 5 pm. Everyone is welcome ----It's not that far off, our Happy Hour Pizza night. 

This slice could be on your plate!
Come along for the usual good food, good wine, and good company. 

You don't have to be a member, everyone is welcome but arrive early enough for us to get a headcount (perhaps by 5:30 pm) before we order the pizza from one of our great pizza shops.

Our Happy Hour prices are the best in town at $6 per glass of wine, beer or spirits. Non-alcoholic beverages are $4 and coffee $3. That should be enough to make anyone happy.

We look forward to seeing you there and new members are always welcome.

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Management Committee Feedback

---- We open most Fridays from 5 pm. Everyone is welcome ---- Your Management Committee met on 5 February 24, the first meeting of your new committee. We like to provide feedback to keep you informed about what is happening or planned for your club.
While much of what we discuss is routine, relatively low-key topics such as bill payments, there are other topics that we feel might be of interest to you, our member.

With ANZAC Day on the horizon, we began planning for the event, perhaps our most important of the year.
 
There's much to do to ensure a smooth, efficient ANZAC Day is provided for our members and community. This planning will continue now until after ANZAC Day when the crosses we erect at the Garden of Remembrance will need to be removed, cleaned and stored away until Remembrance Day.

Member Neville Jaeschke has been doing this for years with the help of a few other members and a handful of students from Faith College.

Committee Roles: As we have a new committee we had to review the roles that each of us has so that nothing gets missed. Apart from the obvious roles as president, secretary, and treasurer, we also need a catering team, someone to look after maintenance, rostering for our donation activities, social media, and veterans' health. A team needs to be available to clean the Hut after each Happy Hour or open session. These arrangements need to be flexible enough to cover members on holidays, in hospital or for other reasons, unavailable.

Maintenance Issues: We had to have the Hut sprayed to keep an increasing number of tiny ants from infesting the bar and decide how we could ensure hygiene would be sufficient to discourage them from searching for food scraps. 

Our water heater in the bar is leaking and we had to decide how to remedy the situation. We're buying an on-demand gas heater to replace it.

Wall Planner: Commonly known as a Gantt chart, the wall planner is displayed on our noticeboard and shows significant dates for meetings, holidays, and special events such as our sausage sizzle and other fundraising activities plus significant days within our military history.

It will be kept accurate when things change or are added. Later we'll add it to this site.

Member of the Month: Vice-President Patsy came up with the idea of a Member of the Month who will be asked several questions and the answers displayed on the noticeboard. Treasurer, Craig Dunning was the first lucky person to be grilled by Patsy and you can read all about it on the notice board.

The idea of Patsy's is for us to get to know each other a little better.

Who will be next?

Going forward: We have had an extension of our liquor licence area and can now consume alcoholic beverages in the area between the Hut and the canon placement. We plan to install three sails in that area that will be erected when we are using the area. 

Two fans, generously donated to us by members Elizabeth and Tony Boyle have been erected in the Hut, and dimming of the LED lights in the main area of the Hut has been made.

President David wants to see if we can rearrange our display cabinets by theatre of war if we have sufficient memorabilia from each of our major theatres. This will be a long-term project.

We have some insulation material and hope to insulate the main shed with the help of some friendly tradies and several of our own members.

Expanding some of our activities is a work in progress and could include:
  1. Opening for an hour or two on significant historical ADF days eg, Korean Veterans Day; we already do this for Vietnam Veterans Day

  2. Opening on ad hoc days inviting any members who wish to attend for an hour or two

  3. Inviting guest speakers to address us on significant and interesting topics

  4. Showing short military-related videos on our overhead projector screen

  5. Visiting other RSL sub-branches by arrangement
The idea is to provide more opportunities to engage for our members and also to promote what we do to the public.

Well, that's it folks. I hope you found this interesting and informative. You can always tell us what you think by sending a comment below.

Thursday, February 8, 2024

Happy Hour Has Returned!

---- We open most Fridays from 5 pm. Everyone is welcome ---- After a lengthy break over the Christmas-New Year period, our first Happy Hour for 2024 returns tomorrow - Friday, 9 FEB.

We hope you can make it. If you do you'll notice quite a few changes to the Hut premises that were made during the break.

Not only that, you'll be able to take part in a barbecue for a mere $10 per head.

Drink prices are still the same despite a recent increase in alcohol excise, and you'll have time to catch up or meet the usual friendly people who frequent the Hut.

And there's more: On Sunday, 11 Feb members of the Seaton Park RSL sub-branch are visiting us for an hour or so from around 12 midday. You are invited to join us to make them feel welcome.

Looking forward to seeing you.

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Vietnam War's Inaugural Medal of Honor Awardee Dies

---- We open most Fridays from 5 pm. Everyone is welcome ---- 

The Vietnam War’s Inaugural Medal of Honor Awardee, Roger H.C. Donlon, has passed away on January 25, just five days before his 90th birthday. 

Upon enlisting in the Army in 1958, Roger H.C. Donlon, already acquainted with military life from a stint in the Air Force in 1953, embarked on a journey that would lead him to become the first Medal of Honor recipient of the Vietnam War. Leaving the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1957 after initially enrolling, Donlon chose to pursue his destiny in the Army. Following Officer Candidate School, he qualified for Special Forces and was deployed to Vietnam in 1964. 

It was in July of that year that he displayed exceptional courage and tenacity in defending an Americal training camp, earning him the prestigious Medal of Honor, the highest award for valor in the US Military. It's equivalent to Australia's Victoria Cross.
- Read more on Frontline
US Medal of Honor