The Committee decided to bring the AGM forward so that the New Year can begin full steam ahead. Our President’s report was so appropriate that it appears here in its unabridged glory. The new Executive Committee is as follows: President, Simone Williams; Secretary, Sue Horan; Treasurer, Luke Verrier; VP, Tom Clark; Jr VP, Tessa O’Hare. Good evening, everyone. What a whirlwind eight months it's been, we've achieved so much in such a short period of time. With the forming of our teams we hit the ground running, with our website going live in a matter of weeks, thanks to Cort's good friend Maddy, Luke and Sue. Then one night at Joker Poker, Leanne Staniforth asked us if we'd be interested in hosting the movie "Just a Farmer", Sue and I looked at each other and said "We have to do this", it was far too important not to. Secretary Sue went to town literally, she was everywhere drumming up support and sponsorship wherever she went. Considering it was the middle of June, it was a beautiful night, Tom got the fires going and we had plenty of hot food to keep everyone warm. Our very own MC and professional spruiker Ralph kicked off the night by sharing his own personal story, this brought everyone just a little bit closer to each other, we all thought about our own lives and struggles. Ralph handed the baton to Leanne, looking around there wasn't a dry eye in the place, she hit home the fact that we all need to look out for each other. Nine days later we cooked and sold raffle tickets like never before. Our street stall was absolutely massive banking over four thousand dollars, thanks mainly to the monster raffle organised by Kerrie. While these major events were being organised and happening, the Rouseabout's team lead by Helen Hickey were busy catching up with our Stewards, trying to extract information on what was working but more importantly what they needed from us to improve their section. The PR team were busy with getting sponsorship money in and working on the schedule with our dear friend of the show Elizabeth Menzies. July was a wakeup call, we had all of the entertainment booked, we knew the events within the event, but now we had to physically make it happen, oh yes and we had to learn how to work "Showdayonline". Luke took the bull by the horns putting in countless hours of research in order to pass on his knowledge to the committee and the technically challenged plebs like me by running lessons and answering a barrage of questions. Luke makes everything look easy with his can-do attitude and is very generous with his time and knowledge. As we had ear tagged the street stall proceeds to improvements for the pavilion, Kerrie ordered and picked up all of the new shelving, boards and paint. Tradie team members Kaine and Luke along with Mother hen Kerrie, replaced old, warped shelving, pin boards from the art and photography sections while Kris and Jo Jo created the black pavilions matter movement, painting all down the right side and gave the old craft section display shelving a new lease on life. The management team have stepped up purchasing a mower through council this year, along with a pressure washer, blower, backpack sprayer, chairs and tables. Thank you to Paul for servicing the mower, and to his committee including caretakers Terry and Jordan thank you for being so approachable, embracing our team concept and being such an integral part of our forward movement. Our vice presidents Tom and Tessa have really stepped up this year, Tom going over and above physically and mentally coping with a president who clicks her fingers and wants everything done in a day, for that I'm sorry and very grateful at the same time. Tessa is steward of the flower section, which I must say was amazing this year and has also agreed to take on Donna's job of managing the Young Woman of the year, with Lyndal Strickland taking on the little Showgirls and Beaus of the show. Thank you to Donna for her time some 23 years looking after the Miss Showgirls and more recently Young Women of the year. To look around and see the next generation come through taking on positions can only mean that we have a healthy and exciting future for our show. The Grant Whisperer (Jenny)struck gold again this year, ten thousand dollars from both Grain Corp and the Tin mines grants enabled us to get stage one of the bar precinct completed and hopefully we can be lucky again this year to continue the improvements. Speaking of improvements, what about our chook house, if you didn't get time to drop in for a gander, do yourself a favour and arrange for a guided tour by mine hosts Henry and Jill. They've done an amazing job putting all the new cage fronts together, painting and tidying the entire enclosure knowing that at any stage it could've been called off due to bird flu. Henry and Jill's commitment doesn't stop in the chook house, if we need anything done, whether it's picking up chairs etc from Wagga, or car parts from around town, Henry and Jill are just a phone call away and their generosity is second to none donating meat trays to our street stall and prizes for the show, we are blessed to have them as members of our show family. To Leanne and Dale at the London Hotel, week after week, they give to our Society through Joker Poker. It's a fun way to make money, go and have dinner and drinks with your family and friends every week. They also give us big sponsorship bucks for the Quick Shear and the Ken Horan Show and Shine. Another business that gives a lot behind the scenes is the Post Office, all of our local members schedules, and mail drops went out free of charge plus sponsorship money on top, so a huge thank you to Nugget and her team. We are also blessed to have the team at Wirrakirri involved, from mowing, lifting heavy stuff out of the pavilion, picking up the Foodworks order to cooking the BBQ on the day, thank you Matt, Sophie and co for your support. For those who don't know, through having extra sideshow rides and food vans we needed an extra three phase power outlet, one phone call to Nicola at Grain Corp and we had a massive generator dropped off to relieve the pressure. Kailan at LDC is an absolute champion bringing his water truck out for the tractor pull and also lending us his loader driven by the ever reliable Martin Nisbet under the guidance of Vice President Tom to smooth out the entrance to the central ring for parking. Tom and Cort pulled off another fantastic Quick Shear, thank you to you both for the enormous amount of work you've put into this event, and please pass on a big thank you to our site managers Fergus and Dulcie. The inaugural Ken Horan Show and Shine was an enormous success, thanks to Sue, Kerrie, Kaine and Thommo, with some much-loved vehicles in all shapes and sizes travelling surprising distances out of respect for the great man and the event. From all reports the Tractor Pull went well and hopefully we can host the event again next year. The MX Trucks had another great weekend, I've had a catch up with Ben since show day, discussing how we can have more involvement with this event particularly advertising and us being more inclusive. Thank you to our lovely friend Janne Skewes secretary of the Leeton show who has been a guiding light in our journey to entering showdayonline and was out here at 7am on show day to help out. Thank you to the Lions Club for providing a lovely lunch, their numbers were up substantially on last year so well done to them. A massive thank you to our Executive and all team leaders and their members, you should all be very proud of what we've achieved together. Last, but certainly not least, a huge thank you to all our volunteers. The day was a huge success, and we've had some wonderful feedback, but at the same time we can't rest on our laurels, there's areas that we can improve on, so bring on 2027.
