by John Switala

We had a working bee at the GCV Clubhouse on 16 May 2009 to fix a few items that required attention. Here is some of the action!

Glyn Yates dismantles the old (ancient!) playground equipment. This was not by choice but as a directive from Council. Apparently the kiddies could have got their fingers and bits jammed in the old equipment!

Most worked, others talked!

A briefing was required to explain to Toby what a shifter does and how it worked. While being a slow learner he finally got it!

Jonathan’s answer to using a spanner to remove bolts! Jonathan wanted me to point out the sparks he was generating. Very manly!

Mark seems to not get the concept of working during a working bee!

This stuff was going to the tip until Laurie saw all the steel. Can’t help some people!

The day was regulated by the constant chip, chip, chip from John Millott and Mitchell Turner you were busy cleaning the bricks from the old Bar-B-Q most of the day. The bricks are to be used to fill in the holes left by the removal of the old and unused evaporative air conditions from the office and as a standby stock to fill in the holes when we need to replace the refrigerated conditioners used in the main room of the clubhouse.

Brendan English was also busy operating a concrete saw in removing the bricks from the Bar-B-Q. I didn’t get a photo of Brendan because there was nothing but a cloud of dust with Brendan somewhere on the inside of it!

Honourable mentions also go the Rossco Carroll, Gerry Hogan and Stu Smith who spent most of Sunday painting the refurbished and restrengthened wooden benches on the lawn outside the clubhouse. We had to dispose of a few unsaveable benches and we used the good parts to fix up the others. Thanks to Peter Martin who did the preliminary identification of good vs bad benches. We now have five remaining.

Ron Gant was also busy. Mostly bossing us around on the day, but also in replastering the holes on the inside caused by the removal of the old air conditioners in the weeks after the working bee.

Part of the reason for doing the work on the air conditioners and making good the inside walls is because we are getting the State Gliding Centre repainted both interior and exterior. With the repainting a change of colour scheme is warranted to freshen up the place. Inside we propose having a 'mushroom' colour (read this as beige with a slight brown tint as opposed to the beige with a yellow tint we have now) as the wall colour throughout. The current style is also, I am lead to believe, to paint the walls with satin finish of the chosen colour, the ceiling with flat and half shade lighter and the architraves and doors in gloss with one and a half shades darker. This should look quite attractive and still be of a conservative nature that the Centre should maintain.

On the exterior and pergola an initial suggestion of gum leaf green was offered by “Artist in residence”, Laurie McKinlay. A sample section was painted on a pergola post but lacked the “punch” that the sample colour seemed to show. With using green there is also no connection to any existing building colours. A further suggestion of a rich and dark blue/gray was offered. This would pickup the blue glazing that is flecked through the bricks in the Centre. The colour is also more contemporary. We’ll put a sample on a section of the pergola and see if it is reasonable match.

The painting is being paid for by the State Gliding Centre Committee of Management and is part of regular maintenance activities. Also being replaced is the carpet in the GCV Office as it is well worn and torn in places.

The painting is scheduled to start in mid to late September so the new clubhouse will be ready for the soaring season. We will need some volunteers to help remove the paintings, posters and other items on the walls on the weekend before the painters arrive. We’ll let you know but we are looking at a weekend on probably 19-20 or 26-27 September. We’ll let you know.

Our clubhouse will look very smart for our 80th year celebrations in December!