Members of the Society,
What an honour it is to be the President of this wonderful Society, but one was not expecting that the first official duty I would carry out back in March 2020, would be to shut the show down indefinitely!
Fortunately however, we only missed three dinners in the last 12 months, April, August and the picnic in February. Admittedly we did have to diversify and in a first (some would say, hopefully the last) in the long history of the Society we held two “Virtual” dinners by ZOOM. My thanks to the Committee for their hard work and support in a time where nothing was certain and planning was extremely difficult.
Whilst the ZOOM dinners were a little clumsy, I believe those that participated enjoyed the opportunity to enjoy good food and good wine in an unprecedented time in global history.
Luckily, we were able to celebrate two momentous occasions, the opportunity to celebrate and honour Mr John Williams for his outstanding contribution during 50 years of membership, congratulations once again John. We also celebrated the 75 year anniversary of the Wine and Food Society of Ballarat.
One unfortunate casualty of the pandemic was our opportunity to host the FWFSA Victor Gibson weekend later this month. However, for now this has just been postponed to later in the year and we hope, that as the months pass, normality returns and we will get to showcase our town and Society to the national membership.
On the Membership front, we have welcomed new members and thank those current members who have done the introductions as this will ensure our Society continues strongly into the future.
I take this opportunity to especially thank our hard working Committee, none the least, Mr Andrew Lewis, who as Food Master, had a most challenging time finding suitable venues and caterers. Mr Andrew Rowan, who in his first year as Wine Master was tested with some untraditional moments to cater for. Office bearers Mr Dean Stevens, Secretary and Mr Gabriel Yanes, Treasurer. Mr Shaun English is making his mark as Cellar Master and to the rest of the Committee Mr John Coco, Mr Andrew Bradley and Mr Paul Martino. Thanks for your support and hard work.
Thank you also to Mr Bob House for his continued work and upkeep of our blog.
I sincerely hope that the last twelve months has just been a bump in the road, and I look forward to future gatherings in keeping with the tradition of the last 75 years.
Cheers.
12th March 2021.
“The difference between a glass of wine and your opinion, is that I asked for a glass of wine.”
