Ladies and Gentlemen: - This evening’s talk will be very short as I don’t want to hold you back from your dancing. Firstly, I want to give you all a very warm welcome to Rosspark Hotel for our annual dinner dance 2024.
Thelma and I have been looking forward to tonight which I am sure, judging by the number here, you are too. We have welcomed 52 new members during 2023. We have a grand total of 342 members as of today in our groups. Group 24=332 and group 42=12 members. Our average rally attendance over 2023 was 35 vans.
Our club is strong and will continue to grow with all our support. Events like this tonight don’t just happen, so I want to thank all those who made this weekend possible. Planning for this event started earlier in 2023. I will say that without the support and efforts from the MCCNI Committee’s of 2023 & 2024 this would not have happened. On behalf of the MCCNI 24 & 42 Groups I Thank you all for your total support.
I also would take this opportunity to give a big thank you to all who hosted our rallies in 22/23. We sincerely hope you will continue to support your club for 2024. Without our volunteer hosts it would be impossible to have rallies. The responsibility to make sure we have hosts for each relay or meet is our Hosting Officer David Davidson. { David Thank you } On our Club members behalf, I take this opportunity to thank all our Entertainers who provide excellent memorable evenings of music for all our enjoyment at our rallies.
Thanks to Jenny & Roy Dowie, David Davidson, Sam Arlow, Andy Clarke, Bailey Stewart, who have done a super job of parking all our motor homes up safely on Friday evening and Saturday morning. As chairman I extend a great big thank you to all the budding photographers who are constantly adding to our photo gallery. Also all our club members who compose our rally reports for the magazine over the past year.
Thanks to William Tinsley our Web-master for all his work on our website. This has proven to be very difficult this past year. Also I would like to thank Irene for all her work on the friends of the MCCNI Facebook page. {Thank you Irene}
Our rally programme for 2023 has been very successfully completed. Our rally officer Roy has as you can see in our Club booklet got our 2024 rally programme completed. {Thank-you Roy} To date we have been unable to secure a location for a Southern Ireland meet. We will continue to investigate this possibility.
Turning now to the staff of the Rosspark Hotel. To everyone from the housekeeping staff, bar & restaurant staff, to the Hotel Manager. A sincere thank you from myself, the Committee and all attending members of the MCCNI. To everyone who contributed to making our stay so comfortable and our Dinner Dance so enjoyable. (Please Applause) I hope I have not overlooked thanking anyone.
Before I finish, I would like to mention this year’s chairman’s Charity which is Alzheimer’s Society Northern Ireland. We have already raised £40.00 Thank you for your support for this worthy cause. A great thing about our club is the events calendar so with that in mind I’d like to promote our Burns Night rally taking place in Cookstown Primary School January 26th 28th. This is one of our popular rally locations and it would be great to see you all there. Before I pass the mic over to our Hon President & Com Home-craft Coordinator, I would like to thank Selma for all her support. Thank-you Selma.
Please all rise and join me in two toasts. (1)Ladies and Gentlemen – To friends and family who are no longer with us. (2)Ladies and Gentlemen – To the ongoing success of the MCCNI Group. Thank You all. Enjoy your evening.