Vice Captain Lips Out – October 2014

This is my sixth report as Vice-Captain already, so we are halfway there. It seems odd that I have been Vice-Captain for six months, but have been collecting Andrew Mentis funds for almost 10 months. The financial year end does not correspond to the term of office and will close at end December 2014. After having submitted my budget earlier in the year, I am pleased to announce that it has been exceeded. Many thanks to all Gauteng Nomads for having supported our fund raising efforts during the year. As a consequence of this support and having achieved budget, there will be no further need to bring along additional cash to either Germiston or Randpark, you all deserve a break.

As it turns out, the final fund raising event for my year was the Ellis Park Rugby Day. I must admit that I was initially apprehensive to take on such a massive event. One cannot imagine the amount of planning, effort and funds it takes to arrange this day. Without the assistance of Darren there is no way I would have coped, many thanks Darren. Notwithstanding the effort, I will be first in line for next year and look forward to assisting Barry in putting it together.

A massive thank you to Antonio Rossetti for his continued support of Nomads and also to Solomon Mahlatsi from SAB for all his assistance. Solomon arrived at the venue on the Friday afternoon with a truck carrying all the tables, chairs, umbrellas, bar, ice and lots of drinks. Without the assistance of SAB this event is not a viable one. I have heard that, when the economy is poor, there is a noticeable increase in alcohol consumption. This thinking was evident at the post match stock take, with a fifty percent increase on last year’s consumption. According to the food and beverage manager at Randpark, “we do not use that amount of alcohol for a function of 300”.

The old Race Day is a thing of the past, as it lacked support and did not make a profit. What has not changed is that as part of our annual subs, each Nomad pays R200 towards the “Race Day Tickets”. This has now been changed to the Andrew Mentis Endowment tickets. This year we have decided to do away with the booklets and to rather allocate a random number to each Nomad who has paid. All those who have paid will automatically be entered into the draw, to be done at X-mas cup. This new approach removes the cost of printing and avoids a situation where a paid member omits to complete and enter his booklet into the draw. This year there are two prizes, first prize will be a R10,000 voucher for The Golfer’s Club and second prize (sponsored by David Rigby) is a four night mid-week trip to a gold RCI resort for 4 people. Only Gauteng Nomads qualify and you do not have to be present to win the prize.

One of my final duties to perform is to arrange the annual Captain’s dinner. The purpose of which is to thank Darren, as well as the twelve Captain’s from the clubs at which we play our monthly games. The committee have decided that, as opposed to having to round up the same old sixty faces and having to organise a speaker (at no cost), why not rather invite all the Captain’s to a true Nomad’s day of golf and evening entertainment. As a result, this year the Captain’s dinner will be held at X-mas cup.