Newsletter

Second Quarter

2007 

Chairman’s half yearly report ending 28 February 2007

Trading income for this half year has been disappointing and the figures are set out below.

This had been anticipated in the fire insurance claim and accordingly some R350 000 of the proceeds of the Business Interruption claim have been appropriated to meet the net shortfall. This can be ascribed in the main to lower usage by members during the period. A number of remedial measures have been instituted to relieve this and to encourage more usage and attract new members.

The Committee has instituted a membership drive amongst younger people in Johannesburg. Following on the authority given by members at the last annual general meeting, school leavers and students will be encouraged to join and are to be admitted at a low entrance fee. Committee members will be meeting with heads of various schools to promote this form of membership. Furthermore, during the period up to 31 August 2007 to attract other candidates who are not school leavers or students, the Club will credit and apply the entrance fee ( paid by any new member) to his or her house account for usage within 6 months of admission as a member. This is a good opportunity to encourage friends and colleagues to join this great institution.

Meetings and gatherings at lunch and in the evening are the major source of revenue for the Club, and the Manager is arranging a number of functions to enhance these, inter alia -

• Lunchtime speakers at regular intervals on topics of interest to members;

• Functions to coincide with sporting events and international matches;

• Music events;

• Bridge and card playing events;

• Gala Dinner and celebration of the Club's 120th anniversary.

The Inanda Club has informed us that usage there is limited due to the renovations presently underway, and we encourage Inanda members to make use of the Rand Club reciprocity arrangement. The facilities available at the Rand Club are now second to none and the recent refurbishment after the fire has considerably enhanced the appearance of the Club rooms and building to an international standard. The re-instatement of bedroom accommodation in order to meet our reciprocity arrangements with other clubs is being started.

A new second lift is now in operation to give speedier access to the upper floors. 97 Fox Street is being refurbished as a sports function and dining room. Upgrading of the snooker and billiards room is being looked at. The Library has been enhanced by the move of the old lending library to the Chapel library on the first floor gallery, and makes for a lovely, quiet reading and writing room. The Club's collection of books is almost unequalled in private institutions in South Africa and continues to be enlarged by purchase of up to date books and publications. It has become a valuable source of information on a wide variety of subjects, as well as a constant pleasure to those members who use it.

It is sad to report the death of Max Borkum who has been one of the Club's longstanding and devoted Trustees. In March of this year, David Fish retired from the Committee as is customary for former chairmen, and Mr. R.A. Legh has been elected in his place and we wish him many happy years of Committee membership.

It is gratifying to note the number of candidates for membership put forward and the members who did so are thanked most cordially.

- Peter Briggs -

Comparative figures are not included for the period ended February 2006 because this relates to the period that the Club was not fully operative, and are therefore not meaningful.

Summary of insurance reserve for anticipated expenditure at 28 February 2007

Ladies and gentlemen, another quarter has passed us by and it has been a very exciting three months. At long last all the contractors are off site and the club is now fully restored to its former glory and looking absolutely magnificent.

I have, as many of you are aware, I have introduced some new lunchtime specials every Tuesday and Thursday and these are being received with great enthusiasm. I am also promoting wines and whiskies throughout the whole month and these are available every day of the week for you to enjoy. These specials are being rotated each month so please pay attention to your email inbox and to your newsletters so that you can see what is available. This month will also see the introduction of the Rand Club Curry Day that will be available on every second Wednesday of each month.

As most of you are aware, we are on a membership drive until the end of August 2007 and I would encourage you to invite your friends and colleagues to the club to show off our establishment and maybe entice them to become members enabling them to profit from the present membership deal that is in place.

Since the 1st January 2007, we have welcomed 25 new members into the Rand Club and there are presently 14 pending applications. I think this reflects positively on the efforts being made to ensure continuation of the club for many years to come.

I have great pleasure in announcing that as an added bonus to the club environment, we are implementing a music and sports lounge and a business center. The music and sports lounge will enable the Rand Club to provide permanent televised sports coverage and the same room can and will be used for jazz and classical music evenings.

The business centre will have permanent wi-fi access for your laptops and there will be a PC with printer provided by the Rand Club also permanently linked to the internet for the members to use at their leisure, free of charge.

The Rand Club Golf Day will be held on Friday June 29th and the better ball stableford event will take place at the wonderful Riverclub Golf Course. Details of the event will soon be sent to your email and as there are limited places available, please book early to avoid disappointment.

Thinking further forward into the year and following the success of last year’s rugby event with Percy Montgomery, we will be following the 2007 Rugby World Cup very closely. I will be televising all the games in the new music and sports lounge. When South Africa makes the semis and eventually the finals, I will arrange for a guest speaker to promote what will surely be a repeat of the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

The new website, www.randclub.co.za is now up and running and I hope that members will use the newsletter and the website to keep themselves informed as to upcoming and past events.

Until next time, take care and I look forward to seeing you in the club soon.

- Robby -

A reminder to members that the minimum requirement of dress is

Gentlemen

traditional African dress (including Nehru collars), throughout the club. Smart Casual – open necked long/short sleeved shirts. T-shirts of any kind, jeans, leather jackets, golf shirts, trainers and/or shorts are not acceptable.

Ladies

dress is Smart Casual.

Members are reminded to ensure that their guests are made aware of the Dress Rules when visiting the Club.

Dress code for special functions will be specified in the newsletter

A REMINDER to all members that a requirement of the Clubs Act is that member's must sign their guests in when entering the premises. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

MEMBERS POST, MESSAGES & LIBRARY BOOKS

Members notice is drawn to the fact that all mail, newspapers, messages, periodicals etc, will in future be left in the alphabetical cubby holes beneath the main notice board. They will no longer be left at the Porters Lodge.

VARIOUS PRESENTATIONS OF THE FOLLOWING WERE MADE TO THE CLUB HOUSE

“Cecil Rhodes” by A. Maurois;

“Rhodes” by J.G. Lockhart and The Hon. C.M. Woodhouse;

“Rhodes” by S.G. Millin;

“Mr. Diamond” by Douglas Frantz;

“The Warcos” by Richard Collier;

“The Lessons of History” by W. and A. Durant;

“No Bugles for Spies” by R.H. Alcorn;

“Here’s England” by R. McKenney and R. Bransten;

“Single or Return” by F. Wentzel;

“Gideon goes to War” by L. Mosley;

“The Squad” by M. Milan;

“Bodyguard of Lies” by A.C. Brown,

“Best Stories of the Navy” chosen by T. Woodrooffe; Behind the Lines: edited by I.W. Blacker;

“The age of the Moguls” by S.H. Holbrook and

“The Money Lenders” by A. Sampson – from R.T. Dale (Member)

“Butterflies of the Table Mountain range” by A.J.M. Claassens & C.G.C. Dickson;

“Cape Dutch Houses” by C.J. Jansen and

“Alexandra, I love you” – a record of seventy years, text by Jon Swift – from Brenthurst Library (Marcelle Weiner)

The Hurlingham Club - has ruled that temporary reciprocity membership will cease from January 2007 -this particularly affects the members of the Rand Club who are residing in the United Kingdom. Rand Club members are still permitted by the club to visit a maximum of fourteen (14) times per year.

Union Club & University and Schools Club of Sydney – will be amalgamating. This happened on 31 January 2007. The name of the new club is “Union, University & Schools Club of Sydney. Rand Club’s reciprocal agreement will remain unchanged. Rand Club has established reciprocal relations with The Royal Society of Medicine Club in London. This club has accommodation at their own 40 bed roomed hotel – Domus Medica and another 18 rooms at their nearby luxury hotel Chandos House. They have a RSM library with 500 000 volumes and 22 PC workstations. RSM syndicate/ boardrooms to a superb 300 seat lecture theatre. They also have a Members restaurant and a Common room.

The Chicago Athletic Association – is undergoing a period of transformation. The club will be closed from 28 May 2007 for at least 18-24 months for renovations.

Rand Club Members visiting Inanda Club Inanda Club requires any new members visiting Inanda Club, to either have a letter of intro or an Inanda / Rand Club card. Should you not have a Rand Club/Inanda card, please inform Roanne

Roanne does all the reciprocity bookings, so please call her when next planning a visit to any one of the 130 reciprocity clubs worldwide.

For many members the Library is the focal point of their visit to the club and we would encourage all members to make use of it. Our Librarian Mrs Jenny Brand, who has taken over from Beth upon her retirement, is in the Library on Wednesdays & Fridays from 9:30am to 1:30pm. The Library Committee meets every second month in order to select new books both non-fiction and fiction. If a particular title is not available when you visit, please leave a note for Jenny and she will look into it.

The following periodicals are available in the Main Library

Newspapers - Business Day, The Citizen, Mail & Guardian, The Star, International Express & Sunday Telegraph.

Magazines - Africa Birds & Birding, Africa Geographic, Car, Financial Mail, Men’s Health, Noseweek, The Economist, The Spectator, Time & Private Eye.

The following books have been added to our Library

FICTION

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Cleft by Doris Lessing

The Innocent Man by John Grisham

The Native Commissioner by Shawn Johnson

The Song before it is sung by Justin Cartwright

Wash this blood clean from my hand by Fred Vargas

7 Battles that shaped South Africa by Greg Mills & David Williams

Brewer’s Cabinet of Curiosities by Ian Crofton

No Cold Kitchen: a biography of Nadine Gardiner by Ronald S. Roberts

Portrait with Keys: Jo’burg and what – what by Ian Vladislavic

Royals and the Reich by Jonathan Petropoulos

Sam Jonath and the Remaking of Ashanti by Sam Jonah

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

The last Mughal: the Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857 by William Dalrymple

The Race of Timbuktu: in search of Africa’s City of Gold by Frank T. Kryza

The Universe: a Biography by John Gribbin

DONATIONS

Before the Frost - by Henning Mankell Donated by C.A. Dean

Miracles that are changing a Nation 4 copies of “The Scottish highlands” by W. Melven Donated by J. Dewar

Yanks – by J.S.D. Eisenhower

Ships of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea by Gary Kinder

Submarine Warfare in the Civil War by Mark K. Ragan Donated by JL Davis

LENDING LIBRARY

Books withdrawn from the Lending library are being offered to the members at a very nominal price. Watch for these displayed on trestle tables! Only excess and superfluous stock is being withdrawn. The Lending Library now housed in the Chapel on the first floor is again operational and books are available for loan, mainly novels and light nonfiction.

Clubs within the club!

Our Draw in April 2007 went to:

1st Prize R1 922.00 C. V DEAN

2nd Prize R 7 68.00 J. R BRIERLEY

3rd Prize R 3 85.00 I. F LAUGHLAND

Attendance Prize R 385.00 G.F RICHARDSON

*carried forward

Our Draw in May 2007 went to:

1st Prize R2 382.00 G. S. BOWDEN

2nd Prize R 9 52.00 W .S. YEOWART

3rd Prize R 4 76.00 R .J. LINNELL*

Attendance Prize R 476.00 J.E. BALDERSON

*carried forward

Our Draw in April 2007 went to:

1st Prize R 7 148.00 P.R. DUCK

2nd Prize R 2 858.00 T. COUPER

3rd Prize R 1 430.00 D.M. THOMPSON

Attendance Prize R 1 430.00 N. GOODWIN

*carried forward

Our Draw in May 2007 went to:

1st Prize R 5000.00 K. MARTYN

2nd Prize R 2000.00 J.E. BALDERSON

3rd Prize R 1000.00 D.G.K. FISH*

Attendance Prize R 1000.00 B. CAMPBELL

*carried forward

MEMBERS AND THEIR GUESTS ARE REMINDED

I was ecstatic to hear that my recipe, given in the first edition newsletter, was tried and enjoyed by some of the members. It is wonderful to receive great compliments and comments.

Thank you.

Recently, the Catering manager brought to my attention the love our members have for Salmon, which is not surprising as Salmon is South Africa’s favorite fish. I would thus like to take this opportunity to explain to you a little about this fish.

The best Salmon is wild Salmon; however, the wild species are very rare. Chinook or King Salmon, the very best of them all, have been so over fished and are almost impossible to obtain. The Salmon that is available are farm bred/cultivated and although very acceptable they are milder in taste than wild Salmon, but tend to have lower oil content and less muscle mass. Both types of Salmon are rich in Vitamins and Minerals as well as being a good source of high quality Protein and Omega-3, Fatty Acids.

When purchasing your fish buy it as fresh as possible and use within 36 hours. If you ask the fishmonger, when buying your fish he can tell how often the fish is delivered and how old the fish is. When checking your Salmon for freshness, the smell should be of a fresh nature and not have a strong odour, the eyes, should be clear and the gills a bright red. The flesh should be firm, light pink, and when pressed should bounce back.

Cooking your Salmon:

Personally I like to grill my Salmon, sprinkling the fish with salt 2 or 3 minutes before cooking. This helps draw out the natural juices. Grill the whole Salmon with the skin on, this holds the flesh together and retains the flavour. Eating raw or undercooked Salmon can be dangerous. Grill the Salmon until it becomes opaque (raw Salmon is translucent). Serve the Salmon immediately after removing from the grill. If there are leftovers, refrigerate within an hour. The leftovers should be eaten within 2 days.

All the surface areas that have been used in the preparation of raw Salmon need to be sanitized. Always wash your hands after handling raw or cooked Salmon. Do not allow any non-sanitized surface to come into contact with cooked Salmon.

Until next time!

Your Chef,

Tom Couper

One of the Club's longstanding and devoted Trustees and a member since 1968 passed away in April of 2007.

He will be greatly missed.

From the year 1976 onwards, a selected piece of paving outside the Club in Loveday street, was used as a playing board. Grooves were carved out on this piece of paving and bottle tops or stones were used to play a game called Mraba-raba. This game is known today as tictac-toe.

Mraba-raba was played by certain member’s chauffeurs while waiting for their employers to conclude their business in the Club.

On your next visit to the Club, why not make a point of looking out for this little piece of history, on the paving just in front of the main steps.