To members in recognition of service

Allison Kay: Nine years on the committee

Allison is stepping down from the committee after 10 years of service, nine of them as treasurer as well as a part-year as acting treasurer, when Barbara Thomson was unable to continue due to illness.

Allison’s extended service as treasurer was acknowledged at the 2022 AGM, when she handed over the reins to Christine Crewdson. Her final job as treasurer was to supply a comprehensive deskfile as a reference tool for Christine, with detailed information on the role of club treasurer.

It is typical of Allison’s strong sense of commitment to the club, that she continued on the committee a further year to provide any backup and support that Christine might need. Allison is now retiring from the committee in the knowledge that she has ensured a seamless transition from one treasurer to the next.

As outlined at last year’s AGM, Allison has been involved in the organisation of many events during her years on the committee, in addition to her financial duties.

She served on the shared annual dance committee from 2018-2022, supervised the kitchen at mid-year dinner socials, and has been involved on the catering side for any number of club events. Despite leaving the committee, it’s fantastic that Allison has offered to continue to help with catering for future club events.

Allison has always been an involved and totally reliable member of the club committee, and I am grateful to have had her input and support over the last 10 years. Thank you Allison.

John Markham: Eight years on the committee

John is another stalwart of the committee, having served as a general committee member for the last eight years. I think he may have missed only one meeting in those eight years, and it has been a pleasure to work with him on the committee.

John brings the valuable perspective of someone who has danced for over 50 years, and also been a member of other Wellington clubs Kelburn and Ngaio. He is always positive and supportive, appreciating and acknowledging the work that others do to keep the club running.

John is the epitome of a willing worker. He has been a constant help with hall setup for club events, and will forever be associated in my mind with the club’s tartan bunting, as he has strung it up so many times over the years.

He has volunteered on the supper team since at least 2018, starting as a casual supper helper then becoming a monthly supper team member. He has also been part of the summer Beginners’ Class poster team, putting up posters each year in January to publicise our classes – initially in Ngaio, then in Thorndon once he moved into town.

Then there are the special contributions that John has made. When still working as a PE teacher at Onslow College, he taught Scottish Country Dancing to his students as part of the PE curriculum and brought them along to club, giving both groups a lot of fun.

John is also a regular performer at the club’s Summer Ceilidhs, starting with the very first one held in 2014 at our home in Newlands where he kept us all entertained with his humorous recitation of the The Lion and Albert. At later Summer Ceilidhs at the Johnsonville Bowling club, John has acted as quiz master, and also sung for us.

John is a very loyal member of Johnsonville Club, and has served it well. He even came along to club on crutches after his hip replacement, despite being unable to dance. Although he is stepping away from the committee, like Allison, John plans to continue to help whenever he’s needed.

Thank you John for your commitment to Johnsonville Club, and all you’ve done for it.

Maureen Sullivan: Eight years and more

Maureen last received a service award in 2019 for her work co-ordinating potluck food at the summer ceilidhs, the hall roster when Rod and I were away for extended periods over a number of years, being key holder and opening the hall during those times, and standing in when all members of the executive were away due to travel/illness.

Four years on, Maureen continues to serve the club, and is now in her seventh year as a committee member. She has continued to co-ordinate potluck offerings at the Summer Ceilidh since her award in 2019, and has been second in command in the kitchen at our midwinter dinners at St Johns for the last few years, giving Allison some time out of the kitchen.

Maureen comes early every week for hall setup, and produces a master running list of events across the Region, updating it weekly for the noticeboard. Robert and I find this list invaluable in keeping track of upcoming events for inclusion in the newsletter, and for planning purposes to avoid clashes with other clubs’ events.

Last year Maureen developed a comprehensive Khandallah Town Hall storage cupboard inventory, so we know what the club has in storage. She made a master list split out into sub-lists for each shelf so we know where to find things and where to return them to.

This year, Maureen took the lead in organising the very successful Stars and Stripes dinner. Whenever we move to a new venue or use a different caterer, there’s lots of initial work to be done. Maureen put in a lot of time liaising with both the Johnsonville Club re the venue, and the chef of the Capital Bistro for catering.

Additionally, Maureen is a volunteer on the summer Beginners’ Class poster team each year, putting up posters around Johnsonville. She is also a backup for sound equipment setup, and has been a tester for John Homes’ deskfile instructions on how to set it up.

All in all Maureen gives service to the club on many different fronts, and has now added tutoring to the list. Thank you Maureen.

Aline Homes: Club Artiste

Aline Homes has been a member of Johnsonville Scottish Country Dance Club since 1982, and was awarded Honorary Life Membership in 2011. She has served on the club committee, the Wellington Region committee as a Johnsonville delegate, and used skills from her preliminary certificate to act as relieving tutor at club.

Although Aline is not able to do a great deal of dancing these days, she retains an active interest in the club and has continued to create wonderful floral displays at club Annual Dances – something she’s done since at least 1995!

She also created decorations for any number of theme nights over the years. The wall hanging at this year’s Stars and Stripes Ceilidh was one from the past, on the theme of ‘a moonlit night’ and was perfect as a centrepiece for this year’s celebrations.

In 2022, Aline added ‘club bard’ to her artistic endeavours, sharing her first story with us at Halloween. In 2023 she added St Patrick’s Day. It is not an easy thing to stand up in front of the club and offer us her version of ancient Celtic tales. We are grateful for the ancient knowledge and verse-making Aline shares with us at our St Patrick’s Day and Halloween celebrations.

More recently Aline has done some video recording of dances at club events, the most significant being Johnsonville dancing Linton Ploughman for the New Zealand Branch’s PickUp 52 centenary project.

Thank you Aline for your commitment to the club over so many years, and the richness you add to our lives through your artistry.

Elizabeth Judge and Maura Beattie: Supper team and more

Last, but most definitely not least, Elizabeth and Maura are both members of our very much appreciated supper team. They give up their own dancing time at club to bring us a hugely welcome cup of tea and a biscuit, and also volunteer as supper helpers at events like the annual dance.

Supper co-ordinator Elizabeth Ngan says ‘they both deserve a medal’ for always being there to help without being asked. And always with a smile and a cheerful word.

Elizabeth Judge has now been volunteering for at least four years, possibly longer. I have a picture in my mind of her helping Elizabeth Ngan cut up cake at Johnsonville Bowling Club in 2020, and I believe she was already offering a helping hand at suppertime in her first year of dancing at Johnsonville School Hall in 2019.

As long-serving supper team members have stepped down, Elizabeth has stepped into their shoes as someone to be relied on to do whatever is needed in the kitchen, with no fuss and a great attitude.

Elizabeth’s caring nature means she also encourages and supports new dancers who may happen to live along her route to the hall by offering them a ride, and helping them feel at ease once they reach their destination.

Additionally, this year Elizabeth was involved in club community outreach – a visit to Newlands Brownies. Elizabeth was one of an enthusiastic set of volunteers, who spent the evening demonstrating for and dancing with the brownies, as part of their badge promoting good health through fitness.

Maura Beattie also joined the club in 2019, and became a supper team member in 2021. She then joined the club committee at the end of 2021, and brings her knowledge of the supper team to committee discussions. Maura does the purchasing of supper supplies, and has represented the supper team on the Annual Dance sub-committee and New Dancers Celebration sub-committee.

Maura also contributes to other activities with her committee hat on. She helped with protracted process of sorting, recording, and repacking the contents of the store cupboard, and is responsible for checking and updating the club’s first aid kit annually.

This year Maura has also taken on extra duties, co-ordinating Beginners’ Class poster distribution in January, and organising the upcoming club Christmas Lunch in December. She also continues to be responsible for booking the venue for our committee meetings, and picking up and dropping off the key.

Thank you Elizabeth and Maura for your cheerful and willing service. It is wonderful to have helpers who are always ready to lend a hand, and quietly step in when needed.

Kristin Downey
21 November 2023

Rod and I have known Loralee since we started dancing in 1991, and she has been increasingly involved in supporting Johnsonville club activities across the last 30 years or so.

Apart from time living overseas, Loralee has been a Johnsonville club member since at least 1993 (the earliest date recorded), and was dancing at the club prior to that while still a member of Ngaio club.

She was Club President in 1998, 1999 and 2000 and under her stewardship club membership increased from 27 in 1997, to 50 in 2000. Loralee encouraged the relaxed and informal atmosphere that we continue to enjoy in the club today, with mixing between newer and experienced dancers, and an emphasis on having fun.

Loralee has also served the club in many other capacities during the last 30 years, even though she hasn’t been able to dance regularly in the last few years. Although not official roles, they are integral to building the club’s membership and its sense of community, as well as providing support for the club’s ability to operate effectively.

Photography

Loralee’s most visible role is as club photographer. She’s taken photos at club events over many years, as far back as 1991, and at Wellington Region events such as Hogmanays and New Dancers’ Celebrations where she manages to capture as many club members as possible dancing at these evenings. She also takes photos of club members as required for newspaper articles, the newsletter, the website etc.

You will see Loralee’s photos accompanying newsletter items, in articles posted on the club website and Facebook, and in the Wellington Region newsletter, Harbour City Happenings. Whenever I’m writing any sort of historical article about the club or our people, I am able to call on Loralee to provide a photo from her vast collection.

Loralee also employs her photo editing skills to help enhance the photos she and others take – cropping photos to show the subjects to best advantage, scanning printed photos in high quality, improving the light or clarity, and resizing photos so they’re suitable for publication.

Behind the scenes Loralee has taken on the role of photographic archivist – at the end of each year she backs up all the club photos that she has taken that year (or received from others), onto an external hard drive. We now have an archive of over 2000 photos.

For the club’s 50 Golden Years Celebration in 2016, Loralee not only took photos on the night, she curated a collection of archival photos which were displayed as a video presentation at the event. This was a huge amount of work, and was a very special feature of the celebrations.

Then during lockdown in 2020, Loralee broadened her scope, taking on some video-recording to illustrate Rod’s website articles on practising dancing.

These continue to prove useful, especially for the club’s new dancers. (For example, this year, the Talking about reels page was one of the most-viewed posts at the time when Rod was teaching reels.)

Digital communications

Loralee’s professional background in communications and marketing has been of great value to the club.

Facebook page

Loralee set up the club’s Facebook page in 2014, a first foray for the club into social media, allowing us to increase our club profile, and promote beginners’ classes and club events more widely.

Club website

Two years later, in 2016, Loralee was responsible for setting up the club website, which really has made a huge difference in our digital presence. It provides a central point of information for club members, relating to events, dancing resources and news. It is also a historical repository.

Website statistics from 2017 to the present show large increases in the number of visitors each year (rising from 1531 to 3937), and number of views (4365 to 9808). It is clear the website provides a great service to our members, and many others.

The website really came into its own during Covid, keeping members engaged and informed when we were unable to dance. In 2020, there were almost 11,000 views of the website from more than 3000 visitors.

Loralee continues to maintain the website, restructuring it as required, and updating the calendar, beginners, membership, and ‘about us’ pages. She also posts all the articles that appear on the website, involving formatting text, and supplying, editing and inserting photos.

Her design skills are employed in beginners’ class advertising, poster design for beginners’ classes and dance programmes, and designing promotional material for other events such as the club’s mid-winter dinners. She also develops online forms for event registration and club membership, making club operations more effective and efficient.

Loralee also writes articles for the club website and for Harbour City Happenings, mainly historical photo stories about special events club members have participated in over the years such as Hogmanays, and tributes to those who have contributed to Scottish Country Dancing in the Wellington Region.

Mailchimp newsletters

In 2019 Loralee suggested we create special e-newsletters to inform and encourage new dancers in particular, to attend the Annual Dance.

She created a template and edited Mailchimp newsletters over four weeks, resulting in a very successful event with a large turnout of both newer and experienced dancers.

Based on this success, Loralee went on to develop the Mailchimp template which has become standard for the club’s weekly newsletters.

Initially she also edited the newsletters, later training John Homes and me, and continues to give ongoing support. The club has received many compliments regarding the professionalism and presentation of the newsletter.

Altogether, Loralee averages 75-100 hours a year of work on the club’s behalf, and during covid lockdown in 2020, that increased to almost 130 hours loading articles onto the website to keep dancers engaged and informed when club dancing was not possible.

There are now 258 articles on the website, which along with Loralee’s photos, provide a valuable historical record of the friendship and fun we have at Johnsonville club.

Thank you Loralee for your long and active support of the club through digital communication and photography, beyond the call of duty.

Kristin Downey
Club President
28 November 2022

See more about Loralee’s life time of photography

To members in recognition of service

Allison Kay

For 9 years’ service as Club Treasurer

Allison joined Johnsonville Scottish Country Dance Club as a beginner in 2013. At the end of 2013, club treasurer Barbara Thomson became very ill, and in early 2014 Allison volunteered to take on the role of acting treasurer.

Allison stood as treasurer at the 2014 AGM, and has been club treasurer ever since, an amazing tenure of nine years in the job. No other Johnsonville club treasurer has approached that length of service. (According to club records the next most long-serving was Ron Hook, treasurer for five years from 1984-1988.)

Changing times

Over the last nine years, quite a few things have changed in the life of the club, increasing the number of financial transactions, and expanding the duties of treasurer.

The club:

• has widened its advertising campaign for beginners’ classes
• holds more social events like the summer ceilidh and midwinter dinner
• continues to increase the number of live music nights
• has introduced the option of an annual door fee.

Each of these comes with an increasing number of costs and payments, and consequent increased workload for the treasurer.

The ANZ:

• reduced its opening hours and then closed its branch in Johnsonville, making banking of door money less straightforward
• phased out cheque books, necessitating the club switching to online authorisation of payments, not an easy transition due to ANZ processes
• Covid also came into play. Cancellation of club nights and events over the last three years has resulted in reimbursements to those who had paid annual door fees, and registration fees for cancelled events.

Additional service

In her time on the committee, Allison has also taken on other responsibilities.

She has:

• been heavily involved in Midwinter dinners since we introduced them in 2015, delighting us with her mulled wine, co-organising catering, and taking on the role of kitchen co-ordinator
• served as finance person on the combined Annual Dance sub-committee each year since 2018, when we made the move to shared annual dances with Capital City Club
• handled finances for special club events like the club’s 50 Golden Years Celebration, and one-off region events organised by Johnsonville, such as Hogmanay and New Dancers’ Celebrations.

I am extremely grateful to have had the continuity of service that Allison has brought, and particularly to have had her support during the Covid years. It has made my role as President an easier one, having someone with an intimate knowledge of the club’s finances, who I can rely on completely. Thank you Allison.

Christine Crewdson

For her spreadsheet work (membership and dance books)

Christine is a very recent member of the club, only joining us at beginners’ classes in February.

Despite this, in April she stepped forward when I asked if anyone could help with updating the club’s historical spreadsheet of membership. This list was created by Joan Clayton in 2016 for the club’s 50 Golden Years’ Celebration, but hadn’t been updated since then.

On 21 April I passed on five years’ worth of membership lists, and by 4 May it was done and dusted, and I thought I would try my luck and see if Christine would be interested in cataloguing the club’s dance books.

With dreary weather coming up, Christine thought it could be a good autumn-winter activity. Over the next 2-3 months we exchanged packages of books on Monday nights, and Christine created a catalogue of the 227 different books held by the club, Rod’s copies of those books and the additional 164 which Rod owns personally.

A lot of the books have been donated over the years, to the club and to Rod. Christine suggested including donor information, along with all the other information. In total, Christine worked her way through 629 books once duplicates were included. A mighty effort.

Spreadsheets are not everyone’s cup of tea, but fortunately for us, Christine enjoys ‘playing with spreadsheets’. Her work has added to the club’s historical records of membership and made life easier for Rod ,and for future tutors using the club’s collection of dance books. Thank you Christine.

Kristin Downey
7 November 2022

Nearly 50 years of photographing Scottish Country Dancing

It wasn’t until I inherited thousands of photos and slides from my mother Tess Hyde after she died in 2018 that I fully realised where my love of photography came from.

In this treasure trove of photos, I discovered my mother had kept her own mother’s collection of dozens of photos of her family from the late 1890s onward. The first photo my grandmother had of my mother was taken in 1924 when she was just three weeks old.

Mum had told me she’d been given a Brownie box camera when she was in her early twenties. That  started a lifetime of recording family life and activities including birthdays, weddings and travels.

My father Jim Hyde was a keen photographer as well, capturing records of farming life in the 1930s on the family farm in Horahora, near Cambridge. Dad kept a diary in 1937 when he was aged 16, detailing life on the farm and his first year of paid farming work for a neighbour. His diary entry for 22 February says, “Mr Scarlett took me to town. I bought a camera for 9/3.” (9 shillings & 3 pence; around NZ$0.92).

In 1962 mum finally got a high quality camera which could take colour photos; a Zeiss purchased duty-free by her mother and step-father when they went to the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia. Right through the 1960s and early 1970s she took slides as they were cheaper to develop than colour film. In the late 1970s she changed to colour film when she and my father toured Britain and Europe.

An early start to my photography journey

Mum passed her Brownie on to me in 1962 and that started me off on my photography journey, initially taking photos of our family activities.

The Brownie was old by then and didn’t produce great shots so I was thrilled to get a new camera for Christmas in 1962 (I can’t remember what type it was).

From that time on, I invariably had a camera around my neck at family celebrations and holidays.

Near the end of the 1960s, I got a Kodak Instamatic, a very popular camera with ‘magic flash cubes’ that clicked on to the top of the camera.

Early photos of dancing

By the mid-1970s I’d moved on to a Pentax Spotmatic, a 35mm single-lens reflex camera which I used for years.

My friend Christine (who now lives and dances in Rockingham south of Perth) introduced me to Scottish Country Dancing in Hamilton in 1974. I was hooked from the first evening. My sister Karen started dancing in Hamilton at much the same time.

I soon began taking photos of dancers and dancing. However, the flash on my Pentax Spotmatic wasn’t strong enough to take good photos of people actually dancing in the low-light conditions of many halls. So I generally stuck to photos of groups, particularly when dressed up for special occasions such as theme nights or ceilidhs.

Enjoy more photos in this article ‘Dressed for the Part’ reflecting the fun we’ve had ‘dressing for the part’ from the 1970s to the present

Moving to Wellington

I moved to Wellington from Hamilton in 1983, initially taking up dancing at Lower Hutt Club before moving on to Ngaio and then Johnsonville. Some of the halls we danced at did have good lighting. Even with a limited flash, at times I managed to get reasonable photos of dancers taking to the floor.

Wellington Region Events in the 1990s Take a look at the fun and friendship of some of the Region’s events through the 1990s (including the names of all the tutors in the photo below).

I spent 2003-2004 in Tanzania with Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA); an amazing opportunity for wonderful wildlife and landscape photos. In 2004, I got my first digital camera, a Lumix DMC-FX1 which had a small zoom lens; great for capturing wild animals but not so good for photographing birds (which I was increasingly passionate about.) The size of the images was just 3 megapixels, compared to the 12 megapixel photos available on many mobile phones nowadays!

Although there wasn’t any Scottish Country Dancing available in Tanzania, I still had the opportunity to dance occasionally. Here I am dancing with Maasai women at a friend’s family celebration. I handed my camera to the driver who took us out to my friend’s home in the grasslands in northern Tanzania. He enjoyed taking some great shots!

A digital single-lens-reflex camera: A boon for better photographs

My photography of both dancing and birds took off when I got my first digital single-lens camera in 2008; a Panasonic Lumix with a small zoom lens. Being able to take clearer and close-up photos was a revelation.

As this camera produced higher-quality images of dancing, I recorded more and more events for Johnsonville Club along with other celebrations throughout the RSCDS Wellington Region.

Hogmanays

Welcoming in the New Year with toe-tapping music and fine dancing at a Hogmanay is a special celebration for Scottish Country Dancers.

See other Memories of celebrating Hogmanay in Wellington from 2006-2018 including more from the 2008 and 2010 celebrations above.

New Dancers’ Celebrations

New Dancers’ Celebrations welcome new dancers to the wider Scottish Country Dancing community, with experienced dancers attending in support.

In 2013, Johnsonville Club hosted this event at the Newlands Centennial Hall which was decorated with the newly produced club bunting along the walls.

See my memories of New Dancers’ Celebrations since 2013 plus photos from Johnsonville Club archives

Tributes to those who have contributed to Scottish Country Dancing in Wellington

The archive of photos Johnsonville photographers have produced over the years provides a visual history of those who have made major contributions to dancing in the Region or who are no longer with us.

Click the links below to see more about some of these dancers and musicians:

2022 Kelburn’s Farewell Kelburn Club held its final dance on 19 June, closing after more than sixty years. John Gregory was presented with a Tribute from the Region to mark his enormous contribution to dancing.

2022 Barbara Kent: 30 years at Johnsonville Club

2021 Bernice Kelly, President of the RSCDS Wellington Region from 2005-2010

2019 Tribute to Maureen Robson A special Region dance on 7 December paid tribute to Maureen who retired after teaching Tawa Club for 38 years.

2018 A photo history of musician Peter Elmes and his band from 1990-2018

Peter Elmes played a special role in the musical history of Johnsonville Club

2018 Tribute to Peter Elmes On 24 November, a Region tribute dance marked Peter’s retirement from playing his beloved button accordion for Scottish Country Dancing.

2017 A Tribute to Betty Redfearn Betty was tutor at Kelburn for 46 years until her retirement in 2015.

The joy of special Scottish Country Dancing occasions

I got my current camera, a Nikon D7200, together with a great zoom lens in 2015. With this camera I can get wonderful shots of birds…as well as continuing to photograph special dancing events in the Region.

2021 Wellington Region 60th Anniversary Ball A fine dinner and dance to commemorate 60 years of the Wellington District Branch of the New Zealand Scottish Country Dance Society.

2021 Ngaio 50th Anniversary As a member of Ngaio Club from 1990-1992, I was thrilled the club asked me (along with John Patterson) to take photos at this celebration, another evening filled with the joy of fun and friendship.

2018 NZ Branch 50th Anniversary Ball at Government House With swirling kilts and fabulous colours of the ballgowns, this evening proved a grand celebration with a welcome from The Governor General, The Rt Hon Dame Patsy Reddy.

I also shared an article about a photographer’s view of the Branch 50th Ball—how the smiles of the dancers, their laughter and the fun had by all made photographing the event an enjoyable assignment.

2016 Johnsonville Club 50 Golden Years Celebration A significant occasion for our club.

See all about this grand event and the photos taken by me and fellow Johnsonville Club photographer John Patterson

2014 Wellington Region 1920s Ball An elegant evening of dancing in a beautifully decorated ballroom to celebrate the decade in which the RSCDS was formed.

To make sure I occasionally get a photo of me dancing, I sometimes hand my camera over to someone on the side-line, asking them to get some shots, like the one below.

2012 Wellington Region Diamond Jubilee Ball This Ball at Government House celebrated the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll. The Governor General Lt. Gen The Rt Hon Sir Jerry Mateparae and Lady Janine welcomed us and joined in some of the dancing. The smiles of the dancers, their laughter and the fun had by all made photographing the event an enjoyable activity.

Continuing to make memories…

I’m still working hard to get good photos of birds. Although dancers move around, I’m more likely to anticipate where they’re going than for birds which flit around or simply fly off!

There’s nothing quite like photographing the joy of Scottish Country Dancing; attempting to catch the moment dancers smile to their partner or across the set, and covering well. As shown in my photo on the cover of the New Zealand Scottish Country Dancer 2022, Volume 69.

My plan is to continue recording dancing celebrations and tributes, so we can easily reflect on the fun we’ve had and the friendships made.

Loralee Hyde
30 August 2022

Johnsonville longest-standing members

Kelburn’s Farewell Dance on Sunday 20 June started me thinking about club history, and reminded me that Johnsonville’s longest-standing members also have links to Kelburn Club.

It’s a nice opportunity to find out more about those members who have danced at Johnsonville for so many years, and also recognise the inter-connectedness of the Wellington Scottish Country Dancing community.

There are four current members who have been dancing at Johnsonville Club since the 1980s. Elizabeth Rendell, John Markham and John Homes all joined the club in 1981, and Aline Holden as she was then (now Homes) joined in 1982.

One way or another they all have connections to Kelburn Club.

John Markham’s first experience of Scottish country dancing was at Kelburn, having gone along as a spectator in 1969, and been ‘dragged up’ (John’s words) by original Kelburn tutor, Mirth Smallwood

Read Mirth’s obituary in Harbour City Happenings Volume 7 No. 5, November 2004

Elizabeth Rendell started her dancing as a teenager at the Wainuiomata Club in 1965, then danced at Kelburn Club before moving to Johnsonville in 1981.

John Homes danced at Kelburn Club in the early 1970s, with tutor Betty Redfearn, before moving to Johnsonville in 1981. He met Aline when she joined Johnsonville Club in 1982, and they went on to marry in 1986.

The teachers in the photo above are:
Back row: Iain Boyd, Margaret Laidlaw, Romaine Butterfield, Rita Brennan, Margaret Allison (Bailey), Edith Campbell, Hilda Brodie (Smith), Kath Burn, Maureen Robson, Damon Collin, Dave Macfarlane, Mirth Smallwood, Barbara Gill, Elizabeth Ferguson, Val Jenness, Gary Morris, Marie Malcolm, Alma Secker, Glenys Mills, Noeline O’Connor, Ian Simmonds, Raynor Stratford.
Front row: Betty Redfearn, Norm Whitson, Carol Smith, Annette Zuppicich

Find out more about Kelburn Club’s history from 1959-1984 in this brochure

Kristin Downey
16 June 2022

Photos: Loralee Hyde

Friends and fellow dancers heard the sad news that Barbara Kent passed away on Friday 25 February in her 89th year. She will be missed by many in the Wellington Region, and farther afield.

Barbara was part of the Wellington Scottish Country dance community dating from the 1960s. She loved her dancing and contributed a great deal to the community, while preferring to keep a low profile.

Barbara danced at (the now dis-established) Wellington Club, and at Lower Hutt Club before coming to Johnsonville, where she was a member for around 30 years. Her earliest recorded membership is in 1973, and she was still recorded as a member in 2002. In later years she was a long-standing member of Tawa Club.

I don’t have much information on Barbara’s earlier years, but in 2017, Désirée Patterson, interviewed Barbara for her Tawa Club Life Membership award. You can read about Barbara’s fascinating life, in the June 2017 issue of Wellington Region newsletter Harbour City Happenings

As part of Barbara’s job with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she was posted overseas on multiple occasions, and danced wherever she went. In the 1972 NZ Scottish Country Dancer magazine Barbara wrote an article News from Paris, where she described dancing with the Le Chardon d’Ecosse (the thistle of Scotland) group.

However, her trips weren’t only for work. In 1979 she joined a group of 36 dancers on a trip to Canada (described in full in the 1980 NZ Scottish Country Dancer magazine).

Barbara was part of a Māori performance item at the 1979 Oktoberfest at Kitchener/ Waterloo. As Scottish Country dancers, they ‘found a compromise (with Māori approval) by wearing a Māori type sash and headband with white frocks and shirts’, and were well received.

In amongst all her travel, Barbara found time to support Johnsonville Club both as a tutor and a member of the committee. She was club tutor in 1985 and part of 1986, took beginners’ classes in 1991, 93, 94 and 1996, and was a relieving tutor through the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In 1976 her role as president was cut short, when she was posted to Moscow, but she returned as a committee member from 1978-79, and then served a part year as president again in 1980, and was back on the committee in 1991.

1991 was the year Rod and I started dancing, and we really enjoyed our time in Barbara’s beginners’ class. In those days beginners were initially taught in a separate room in Johnsonville School until supper time, then joined experienced dancers in the hall for the rest of the night.

As beginning dancers, Barbara prepared us well. Her encouraging manner and graceful style paired well with her strong technique and clarity of instruction. For some reason my abiding memory is of her teaching hands across, getting us to understand the elegance and precision of the formation as opposed to muddling through with hands everywhere and anywhere.

When Johnsonville held its 50 Golden Years celebration in 2016, Barbara’s health did not permit her to dance, but we were very pleased she accepted the club’s invitation to be part of our celebration of those past members who contributed so much to the club.

Johnsonville Club remembers Barbara for her commitment to dancing, her support of the club and its members, and her many achievements. As her family expressed it in the Family Notices in the DomPost on Wednesday 2 March – A full life well lived and enjoyed.

Barbara’s family also thanked Malvina Major Village (among others) for their care of Barbara. Unit #9 was Barbara’s home over the last few years, and she told me she was quite tickled to have followed in the footsteps of Ngaio dancers Frieda and Murray Allardice who themselves followed Johnsonville Life Members Isla and Eric Norris in making #9 their home.

Kristin Downey
President
3 March 2022

To members in recognition of service

This year at the AGM the committee was pleased to recognise the work that often flies under the radar – that of hall setup and pack-up.

Most often, service awards go to those who hold a formal position in the club, or perform a service which is highly visible in some way.

This year, the committee chose to recognise the service of three members who fly under the radar.

None of these members holds a formal committee position, but each of them makes a regular and ongoing contribution to the club, with no fuss, no bother, no expectation of recognition, and a great attitude of service to our club community.

This year the committee took pleasure in recognising the contributions of the following club members, who have made substantial and ongoing commitments to the set-up and pack-up of the hall, before and after club nights.

Tomoko Burden

Tomoko has been with the club since 2013, when she and husband Charles, came along to the club’s beginners’ classes.

For many years now, Tomoko has been part of the team of people who stays till the end of every club night, to help pack up the hall – first at Johnsonville School Hall, then Johnsonville Bowling Club, and now at Khandallah Town Hall.

This is not a formally appointed team, it’s not rostered, it’s made up of people who see the need and step in. From 2017-2019 there were also formally rostered teams of volunteers to cover pack-up (when Rod and I were overseas for extended periods), and Tomoko’s name was always on the list.

Tomoko works quietly in the background, always looking out for what needs doing, helping out when she can, ensuring there are plenty of hands to share the work of packing up. Thank you Tomoko, your practical support for the club over many years is very much appreciated.

Wendy Donald

Wendy already had a long history as a Scottish Country dancer when she joined the club in 2019. She was so keen to dance with us, that she joined in the fun at the Summer Ceilidh before the dancing year started.

Wendy is one of the dancers who has danced at three different club venues since she joined, and has always been an early bird, arriving before dancing begins. Soon after joining us in 2019 for her first year at Johnsonville School hall, Wendy was asking what she could do to help with hall set-up, and so she began.

With the move to Johnsonville Bowling Club, helping with set-up translated into a lot of furniture moving! Wendy (working with fellow early-bird Robert Vale), moved countless chairs and tables on and off the dance floor during our 2020 year of dancing at the Bowling Club, and again this year when we returned there to dance during Level 2.

Wendy has continued to arrive early and help with hall set-up at Khandallah Town Hall, doing whatever needs doing, working alongside committee members who also arrive early. Thank you Wendy, the willing work you put in makes a big difference, and we appreciate it.

Lizzie Tan

Lizzie is the most recent club member to be recognised this year, joining the club following beginners’ classes at the Bowling Club in 2020. She is an enthusiastic dancer, and has joined fully in the life of the club from the beginning, attending classes, and bringing her husband PK along to social events.

Despite all the interruptions to dancing over the last two years, Lizzie has kept on coming back, and from early on has stayed to watch the more experienced dancers in the latter part of the night.

Seeing the need, Lizzie became part of the furniture-moving crew at the Bowling Club, starting to pack up while the very experienced enjoyed the final dance of the night. She has continued helping with pack-up at Khandallah Town Hall, staying till the very end to help carry out bags to the car, before heading home herself.

While Lizzie is not the member who travels the farthest to be with us, she does have a fair distance to drive home to Porirua – more so since we moved from Johnsonville to Khandallah. But she still stays on till the end, bringing her enthusiasm to the task. Thank you Lizzie.

Photos: Loralee Hyde

To members in recognition of service

It is a real pleasure for the committee to have the opportunity to recognise members who have made special contributions to the club, either by way of a special project, or a long-term commitment.

John Patterson

John continues to serve the club as our ‘techie’, digitising any new CDs the club purchases, loading them onto the club music master collection, helping Rod with his ongoing battles with iTunes, and repairing of our aging club equipment as required.

This year he also took on the challenge of getting the club’s new headset up and running, building a mixer to allow it to operate with our existing amplifier, then testing and monitoring it, supporting both our guest tutors and also Rod.

Thank you John, we really appreciate your efforts.

Prisilla Conroy

Prisilla is a person who sees something that needs doing and just gets on with it. She has been ‘doing her bit’ in the background at club nights, tartan nights, annual dances and other events for almost as long she has been a member.

Priscilla is stepping down from the supper team at the end of the year. What you may not know is how long she has been in that role. Club records show that she joined the club in 2004 and the very next year she joined the supper team. She has now been on supper duty for 13 years!

Thank you so much Prisilla, you have given sterling service. We will miss you on the supper team, but look forward to seeing more of your smiling face on the dance floor.

John Munro

John is our outgoing secretary, and soon to be past-member. The secretary’s role is a special one. Historically it was very much an administrative role but more recently with the introduction of the club newsletter, it sits at the heart of the club.

Each club secretary brings themselves to the newsletter, entertaining, informing and connecting us all. John has continued this tradition, and infused the newsletter with his cheery, friendly nature.

He’s also been an innovator in the secretary role. He leaves the role much more digitally organised than before, making it a much easier transition for future secretaries.

John took on a project this year to set up a generic Gmail ‘Johnsonville secretary’ address, with associated cloud storage for sharing and archiving club documents. This involved a lot of work on his part, laying the groundwork for the club’s long term benefit. Future committees will find it much easier to access club information and history.

Last but not least, John has been a smiling face at club, and offered many a ride to any number of members and visitors who have needed a ride to or from town.

Thank you John. We wish you well in your new home in Martinborough and club in Carterton, and hope to see you back dancing with us when the opportunity arises. We hope you will wear our small gift and remember good times at Johnsonville.

Photos: Loralee Hyde except where noted