From The Members’ Rooms By: B.R. Forsyth This article is being written in the last month of the Club Financial year and the opportunity is being taken to review the activities of the past twelve months. The committee, in their planning of events for the year, decided to broaden the range of activities in order to attract members of different age groups. Three classic movie nights featured: Concert in the Park (which covered the reunion concert of Simon and Garfunkel), The Red Violin and the 1974 film, Great Gatsby. Led by Joe Aspinall, an entertaining quizmaster, a series of ‘Wine and Wisdom’ quizzes throughout the year proved very popular. To complement these events, we also held classical music evenings, which spotlighted up-and-coming young classical musicians, whose talent was phenomenal. In April 2013 a large group of members visited the National War Museum at Saxonwold in Johannesburg, where the Curator of the museum led us on an interesting guided tour of the complex. This was followed by a lunch at the historic Rand Club, with whom we share reciprocity. Our month-end lunches attracted fullhouses, and the wide range of speakers included Carel Mieny, who spoke on the bizarre friendship of Tchaikovsky and Madam von Meck. Dr Pierre Davis’s subject was very apt – “Ageing, is there a Fountain of Youth?” The following month it was the turn of Tom Coetzee, C.E.O. of the S.A. Banknote Company, who covered the issue of the new banknotes and their security features. Dr Pierre Edwards concentrated on the history of Pretoria, covering the period 1855 to 1885 and the efforts made to build the railway line from Pretoria to Delagoa Bay. Brian Currin, who has gained international recognition as a peace negotiator, told us of his experiences in Northern Ireland and Bosnia. Neil Smith, a former director of the Toyota Group, covered the subject of “The Toyota Story – A Family Affair”. All the speakers were of a very high standard, and we thank them for their time. The last month-end lunch took on a different format, which was also a new initiative of that of a book launch. The author, Raoul van der Westhuizen, gave a very informative talk on his experiences, and kindly signed many copies of the book Veld Stories for members and guests. Our Economic Forum Breakfasts were addressed by Dr Johan van der Heever, Head of the Economics Unit of the South African Reserve Bank, who gave us information on the current economic outlook of this country, whilst Johan van der Walt, from the South African Revenue Services, discussed the Voluntary Disclosure Programme. Highlighting the Special Events in our calendar: They were the successful French Evening in October where we were entertained by Helena Hettema, and Burn’s Nicht, which has developed into a Pretoria institution. Comment received tends to show that in the fourteen years the event has been produced, <strong>2014</strong> was the best. Thanks are due to Makro for their generous sponsorship of this event. Our regular events also fared well, with the Century Club and Mid-month Draw leading the way. No doubt the R60 000.00 prize money won proved an added attraction, but the Steak and Ale and Pub nights had solid support. February <strong>2014</strong> was special as the introduction of another new venture, the classical string quartet on Sunday mornings in the Members Rooms, which proved successful and the 129th Anniversary of the founding of the Club was celebrated. Issue 1 - <strong>2014</strong> | PRETORIA COUNTRY CLUB | 6
Pretoria Country Club New members Philip Voutsas, Ermis Marques, Chris Dippenaar Piet de Wet, Leon van Biljon Simone Malan, Margaret Trunk Louis Wolfaard, Dirkie Wolfaard, Paul Pelser, Dawid Muller Margaret Trunk, Lin Besaans, Beatrice de Swardt, Geta Nel, Nancy Blomerus, Rona Erasmus, Simone Malan Johnny Klopper, Dawie Bekker, Louis Fourie Issue 1 - <strong>2014</strong> | PRETORIA COUNTRY CLUB | 7
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