Riding On Report Winter 2022

Welcome to another committee year as members of this wonderful organisation called the ULYSSES CLUB. We have a new National Committee, and some new and exciting challenges ahead are in store for them and us.

The first exciting news is that I am in contact with our Sydney Researchers headed up by Meilang Xue of the Sutton Laboratory and she has put forward a proposal that continues the focused work of previous projects and has that continued dream of targeting Rheumatoid Arthritis and eradicating it from our society.

For those that made the S.E. Qld Rally, well done and I hope you enjoyed your time in the Greater Warwick region. Unfortunate that we had a rain burst for 12 hours the night before opening the gates, but we found out how many of us and how long it takes, to relocate an entire TENT City. Thank you to the ones that had come early to volunteer because that Monday morning certainly would not have happened as well as it did without all available hands working as one. An apology to the rally goers about the announcer of the event, it was yours truly. Yep, somewhere along the line I had agreed to do some announcing for the rally event but from Monday morning my focus was changed by circumstances, and I became the travelling microphone. P.S. the showgrounds PA system is designed for the centre arena only and we were using it as an entire ground system. It was cranked up to MAX and was in danger of overload, so we did what we did with what we had.

From my roaming around the grounds for 5 days I got to chat to many, many people from all over Australia. Without exception, they all were ULYSSIANS through and through. Happy to be there and wanting nothing more than that. The most important thing for me is that the majority knew about UCARF and what its aim is. For the others, by the time the rally was over, the UCARF flag had been flown high by a lot of the volunteer team and people reminded of its importance to the CLUB.

Now to the donations since last report by Member and then Branch (which are many):

Mike Abberfield $90, David & Christine Smith $250, Kristi-Anne Hill $15 and a Bequeath from Keith Greenland $300.

Branches: $500 Port Macquarie Mid North Coast, $115 Tweed Border Branch, $45.50 SEQ Branches, $500 North West Tasmania Coast, $300 Torrens Valley, $800 Newcastle Lower Hunter, $335 Redlands, $80 Canberra, $300 Hills, $283 South Coast, $200 Central Victoria, $500 PMMNC, $3680 2022 Rally
Warwick, $75 Hills, $250 Echuca, $200 Mandurah, $453 Blue Mountains, $750 Ballarat Central, $1,000 Alice Springs Central Deserts, $500 UCARF Patch Campaign, $121 Southern Cross Tourers, $131 Macedon Ranges, $1,048 Melbourne.

On the note of contributions, the members that are using UNITED PETROLEUM have, by 2c each litre, donated $2523.00. Not a bad effort and that shows how many litres we can burn through in a year. Remember some important sayings, “It is not the size that matters, just the fact it is being done.”
Or
“It is not the brand you ride, but the fact that you ride”

Also, heartfelt congratulations to the Northern Beaches Branch (Jo DEARNLEY Award) and the Lockyer Branch (Good Joint Award) for their valuable donations and subsequent awards.

Each donation is gathered by Branches by various means and some take a while by holding many BBQ’s or the like and then others by regular things like TOY RUN’s, charity events each year. Whatever way it is decided to gather funds for UCARF, it’s appreciated and respected.

Now, have you a copy of and read the Ulysses Story? The story of the events leading up to the creation of our Club and events that formed it in such a way that only minor changes to its constitution and structure have been needed in the following years. It’s a fantastic read about Stephen and his mates as they came together to create the Ulysses Club Inc.

From each sale of the book, the profit made comes to UCARF and for a few years, I used to rent out my copy for a gold coin (or greater) to my local members with that money going to ‘you know where’…..

Please keep safe and healthy,

Ian ‘Foggy’ Winter
UCARF Coordinator,
#5306 TM #59