THE GREAT CANBERRA SWAP MEET

28 OCTOBER 2007

Click on the thumb to see a larger image
(224KB)
(263KB)
(227KB)



ONCE AGAIN, HARD WORK PAYS OFF FOR THE VVC!

Once again the VVCMCC has run a successful Canberra Swap Meet, and it gets a bit harder every year. This year we were fortunate to have the return of Gateway Park, but again had the Computer Fair in our main pavilion until 5.00pm on the Saturday (set up day for many of our stallholders). We had no plant sale this year in the Henley Pavilion with demands for thoroughfare through the Swap meet, as well as using toilets which we were paying for. We were able to mark out on Friday so this was good, although we had carpet in Fitzroy so it had to be marked out as well. We were not sure how much of the masking tape would remain on the floor after the Computer fair.

The Swap Meet unfortunately started on the change to Daylight Saving again and it caught many people unawares and gave us very limited sleep. We were up 3.40am for our 5am start and the Swap meet started to wind down around 1pm, when the kitchen closed and we stopped charging punters. The Kitchen had sold out of egg and bacon Rolls by about 9.30am and we went through 10kg Bacon, 15 kg skinless franks, 15 dozen eggs, 600 sausages, 8kg onions, trays and trays of bread and bread rolls, etc. which was about 20% down on last year, although the Kitchen results were only a few hundred $ down on last year. Despite the above and a few other complications, we managed to produce an excellent result for the Club and this will be reflected in an increased number of Club funded BBQ’s and other functions during the coming year.

And again we see the same tireless workers behind the scenes in the following tasks:

PUBLICITY OFFICER Ann Toet. This task consists of many hours of updating Community Noticeboards, related industry magazine and newspaper advertisements, contacting previous site holders for intentions at the forthcoming Swap, a mail-out, organising flyers and hassling people to distribute them, taking many phone calls, plus allocating sites, including providing site plans and obtaining moneys for same. Ann also has to collect site fees on the day, assist site holders to their site and determine pre-bookings for next year.

PROPERTY OFFICER John Broad. This onerous task involves making sure that we have the necessary signage, kitchen hardware, gate jockeys, etc, for the task. John does a lot of work making signs, putting them out or arranging same and fights well above his category for a bloke in his mid seventies. His signage crew this year were Ray Scott, Trevor Fowler and and the Toet’s. (This year’s signage included retrieving some “impounded” signs but we are across this issue and hopefully next year shall have the blessing of the “Nature Strip Patrols”). One of the interesting effects of the drought is that the nature strips are as hard as 2020 MPa concrete and it certainly takes some effort to erect the signs. Between the Nature Strip Police, the winds, and the mowing, some of the signs did not last long.

GATEMASTER John Broad John is also the point of contact and organiser of the gate crews, who filter patrons, site holders etc into the Swap Meet. He was ably assisted by at least 20 Club Members including (please forgive me if I don’t mention you, tell me at the next meeting!) Ernie Seary , Steve Butcher, Peter Wilson, Anemie Claerhoudt, Lorraine Litster, Col Hill, Stan Perry, Ray Scott, Bob Courtney, Len Shipper, Geoff Duddy , Troy Searle, Peter White, Brian Halton, Steve Davey, Charlie Davey, Stu Ross, Thomas & Ben Ault. To those of you who did the dawn patrol – a big thankyou.

TREASURER AND DISPLAY CO-ORDINATOR; Col Hill Col was very hard working within and behind the scenes providing floats, gate duties, display bikes etc on the Swap Meet days. He had his very rare '38-ish Ariel Square Four on display and it looked a treat. The Ariel Register had a very good site and drew lots of attention. There were a number of other Clubs with sites providing details of membership etc and it appears to be an increasing trend, in that Swap Meets are moving over to Social Meets.

MARKING-OUT TEAM Peter Toet (also assistant food purchaser) This is usually carried out on Friday afternoon and this year involved John Broad, Stan Perry, Ann Toet, Thomas Ault, Bernie Medway, Peter Wilson and Anemie Claerhoudt, Peter Newark, Jeff??? . There is a lot of basic mathmetics involved in this exercise and when it gets out of whack, the walkways are like the Stairway to Heaven.

THE KITCHEN CREW Nerida Barges. Nerida runs a very tight ship and achieves great results in terms of value for the punter and return for the Club. An indication of this would be that we provide soft drinks at $1 each whilst these are $3.50 each in the any other show in EPIC (much effort goes into finding drinks etc at the right price in the weeks leading up to the Swap). Nerida usually has lots of notes on her observation of the activities on the day and I’m sure this year will be no exception:

Nerida’s Crew:
BBQ Cooks: Geoff Nicholas, Waine Summerfield, Ian Barges
Canteen Helpers: Marion Van Wely (not a club member but such a good Sport in helping out), Kath Richards, Helen Harvey, Illona White, Ben, Thomas and Kylie Ault

THE CLEAN-UP CREW One of the worst tasks is cleaning up after a Swap Meet. The bins tell part of the story as about double this rubbish consists of unsaleable goods which are abandoned at the site. We used a 2 cubic metre tipper again this year and had 2 trips to clear the rubbish. Highlights of the clear-up, taking up to about 5pm, notwithstanding that there were many items to be delivered to the shed at Peter Davey’s the next day, and the signage to be retrieved, etc, were efforts by : Steve Butcher, John Broad, Stew Ross, Ben and Thomas Ault, Bernie Medway, Bob Courtney, Len Skipper and Col Hill. We had a storm front through at about 2 pm which caused a bit of damage to goods etc, but we had a promise from the major political parties (especially the greens who control the storms), that next year will be mild, fine and sunny.

THE SUMMARY: We were very concerned that the Swap meet was around 40 % down on vendors, although we were only about 15% down on punters. This concentration of punters to vendors meant that the on site vendors generally did well. We were not alone as the Crookwell Swap and Gatton Swap were noticeably down on numbers as we also clashed with the Classic Racing and Motorbike Swap Meet at Eastern Creek. The Canberra Swap was a very good Swap Meet considering the large number of adverse circumstances having some affect on the day. I’m sure that I have left some helpers out so I do sincerely apologise, but a big WELL DONE!!!, to all those involved. We must also thank Renee, Trevor and the other helpful staff from EPIC who really do look after us with the Swap Meet and the Annual Rally.

See all at the next VVC run.

Peter Toet, President VVCMCC