Carrick,
5 Chess Close, Newlands, 7700.
Ph: mmm-mmm.
31 December 1991.
Dear Member
This is a note to wish you all a very good New Year and to pass on some news and information.
Members.
In July we, and many others, suffered a very great loss with the sudden death of Dr. Frank Mitchell. I cannot speak too highly of his interest, helpfullness to this branch and his many other interests. A few days before his death he, as usual, helped make the talk on the Birkenhead successful. We were well represented at his huge funeral and will always remember him. Our thoughts go out to Betty and all his family.
Mr. Noel Carter has moved to Jeffries Bay but is still a member. We are sorry you are so far away and hope to see you soon.
We welcome, from the Transvaal, Mrs Thorn and also Col. Ozzie Baker and Mrs. Baker who are now living at Gordons Bay. Ozzie recently retired from being the manager of the Military History Museum in the city of gold. He has already been inspanned to give some lectures! Welcome to you all.
I am very glad to be able to say that, after many months, our treasurer, Mr. Harry Peel, tells me he is really on the mend. We very much look forward to seeing you again Harry! !
Would all members please be on the look-out for potential members and/or those interested. We will be pleased to send details to them.
Programmes in 1991 and 1992.
We try to vary the programme to cater for a wide variety of interests and subjects and are always glad of suggestions.
We had three occasions in 1991 when the audience far exceeded our expectations. The subjects were The Birkenhead, Lawrence of Arabia and Pearl Harbour. While we would like to have large audiences we feel that we are not, at present, justified in the very much greater expence[sic] of permanently booking the larger room.
In 1992 we are in the thick of the 50th anniversaries of WWII battles and while we will have some talks on these must resist the temptation to have too many! We are, however, planning to have a 'Panel Discussion' on the battle of El Alamein in October.
Finance.
We end this year with a balance of about R1500. Double last year's. The reason for the increase is greater income from visitors, particularly at the 3 large meetings, some donations from members, the increased subscriptions and continued careful control of expenditure by the treasurer and Paul Lange.
I would like to publicly thank Paul for the many years of most careful expenditure on our printing, postage, publicity etc .. This has meant that half our expences[sic] are in very good hands.
The other half of our expences[sic] is the hire of the room in the Athenaeum. Because this has been rising fast we have been looking for other premises and are grateful to those members who came forward with ideas. All were considered but for various reasons we have decided to continue at the Athenaeum. This decision has been helped by their decision to increase the rent for 1992 by only 10%! From R500 to R550 for the year.
Despite the healthy balance we feel we must be cautious and increase our CAPE TOWN subscriptions by a small amount of R2 and this is reflected in the lists on the attached subscription details. Our Associate Members' subscription is for the running of the branch for ALL members.
FULL members pay the extra which we forward to the Head Office in Johannesburg and entitles these members to attend meetings anywhere and to the 6 monthly Military History Magazine.
FULL members' subscriptions have been increased by R2.50 for both normal and family members. There is an entry fee of R2 for FULL members but none for Associate members.
Our visitors fee of R2 has not been increased.
I must thank Mr. Tom Fuller for volunteering (genuinely!) to act as treasurer in place of Mr. Harry Peel and also Mr. Bob Buser who again agreed to do our audit for 1991.
I must also thank those who made donations to the branch. These donations are a great help and assist in keeping subscriptions down.
It is possible that some members may have difficulty in meeting the subscriptions. If this applies or if you know of anybody who has this difficulty please let ME know in confidence so that we can 'make a plan'. This is a delicate subject but we would hate those who are interested not to be able to attend meetings.
Enclosures. Enclosed is the programme for the next two months and the form for renewing subscriptions. A stamped and addressed envelope is also enclosed, an early reply would be much appreciated.
Other activities.