Grand Parade & AGM

                                                      

Saturday 17th May.

Up very early this morning as the assembly for the grand parade commences at 7:00am on the oval prior to a 9:00am start. I was not sure at this stage if I had been successful in my request to the Manning Valley mob for a lift as pillion passenger for the 7km parade around Alice Springs and through the main shopping centre precinct of Todd Mall. However I was offered a ride by two of our members which was great. The assembly point for the estimated 1500 bikes and trikes was extremely well controlled and organised with all participants lining up in two rows in preparation for moving off under the leadership of two police highway cars. These two vehicles led the parade and were ably supported by other police manning the many intersections to allow a smooth and continuous flow of the huge procession. The locals turned out in their thousands along the entire route of the parade to cheer and wave to all bikes. Being a pillion passenger I was able to take quite a number of photos during our travel. There were a very large number of indigenous people amongst the crowds and of particular interest was the small coloured children who could hardly contain their excitement. They jumped up and down excitedly as though they were standing on an ants nest.

The parade ended at the convention centre where the formalities were carried out and an hour or so later the actual AGM took place in a large auditorium where a record number of 709 attended.

For the first time ever in the 30 year history of the Ulysses Club, females were elected by the voting membership to fill both the roll of President and Vice President.

Current membership cards have to be shown to enter the auditorium and receive voting papers.

I discovered about an hour before the doors opened for the meeting that I had left my membership card back at the motorhome. One of the Manning Valley guys offered me the use of his BMW to ride back to the showgrounds to collect it and return in time before the doors were closed at the appointed start time. As the identity number on the bike did not match my wrist band number I was unable to ride the bike into the showgrounds so I had to leave it at the entry gate and make my way on foot back to the motorhome. Fortunately I made it back in time, but one thing is for sure; I will cop a fine back at the next branch meeting I attend. Maybe by September they will have forgotten.

Gail and I returned to the Casino where we had a nice dinner and a few drinks, then caught a taxi back to the showgrounds. A very pleasant day today.