Eastern Suburbs Dog Training Club

Last year I gave my 1st President's report on the highlights of what had been a very busy year at the Club. This year I find myself struggling to recall what we’ve done in past year since the last AGM!

My lapse in memory may be partly due to the rescheduling of our annual obedience trial from May to our traditional late September. This has meant that we haven’t held an obedience trial, one of our biggest events, in well over 12 months.

Or perhaps the lapse is a "mid term" effect, as this year marked the middle of my 3 year term as Club President. Maybe, like politicians, Dog Club presidents are busiest at the beginning and end of their terms?

In the end I trawled through back issues of PawPrints and picked out these highlights for my report:

• In November 2009, we celebrated the 2nd anniversary of Activity Classes at the Club with our 2nd annual Activity Encouragement Trial. Activity Classes, have continued to prove very popular at the Club and so have the encouragement trials. My thanks to our Activity Class Instructors and, in particular, Sandra Walker and Tsuey Hiu, for helping to promote these fun classes at the Club
• Speaking of fun, in December 2009 we held our year ending Xmas Fun Day, which was once again a great success. My thanks to Heather Martyn for her imagination and organisation of the events and prizes
• In March 2010, Centennial Park held a Tree Dedication Ceremony on our training grounds to mark the donation of $5000 by the Club for a replacement oak. As I commented at the time, it will be many years before the young oak is as shady as the old tree, but in the meantime Club Members can take pride in watching it grow
• At the May General Meeting I was proud to be nominated for Life Membership by former President and Life Member, Grahame Brown
• And in July the Club fielded 2 teams in the annual NSW Interclub Challenge. We may not have done as well as we had hoped in the rings. However, it was a very pleasant day at the Blacktown Canine Centre and was an enjoyable social outing for team members and supporters.

Apart from these highlights, as I commented in the February edition of PawPrints, with the help of 38 volunteers the Club ran 40 weekends of training in 2009 (less a few wet Sundays), running an average of 10 adult dog obedience and activity classes and 3 puppy classes.

As usual, it was a lot of work by relatively few volunteers, as Instructors, on the Registration Desk and Inspection Line, serving tea and coffee, towing the trailer, setting up and packing away, and on Committee, to ensure that our 650 plus Membership could train their dogs.

In trying to recall highlights, it is easy to forget that this is the major function of our Club, to help our General Membership train and enjoy their dogs. For this I thank the volunteers who week after week help us to achieve our worthy goal.

I cannot close without making special mention of 2 volunteers who are standing down from Committee today. Julia Batty has twice served on Committee and represented Activity Classes during her 2nd term.

And Jan Evans, who has served on Committee and as an Office Bearer and as a wise counsel to your current President for as long as I can remember.

On behalf of the Club, I would like to thank Julia and Jan for their selfless service.

Robert Fairhead
Club President