south
australian branch
reports' archive
Archive of past reports from the SSPA South Australian Branch.
2000 |
2001 | 2002
| 2003 |
2004 | 2005
We had our Christmas get together on December 11th at the home of Ian and Sharyn Gunn. The weather was a bit cool but this did not stop the children from using the pool. We had most members here along with a couple from the Barossa Valley who we had attend a previous get together that we had organized. They have a daughter with short stature and seem interested in what the association has to offer. Time will tell if they wish to become members. Even if not then we hope that we can help them with any questions, needs etc.I'm sure that we will maintain contact with them which is what we need to do to keep the Association alive in this State.
We are looking towards the future to see how we can grow our membership within South Australia and plan to liaise with the Genetic Department at the Children's Hospital to see if they can offer any ideas.
Our next meeting will be in February where I hope that we can formulate a plan of activities for the next 12 months. If any members here in South Australia or any where in Australia or the World have any suggestions then please let me know We will continue to maintain the association in South Australia as best we can.
Regards,
Ian Gunn, SA Branch Secretary
Hello to everyone from South Australia.
We are all looking forward to the Convention. There's not much to tell at the moment. Life's pretty quiet here in SA.
We had our annual Christmas dinner for members on 18th March all be it a little late. We had 10 members attend with apologies from 2 others. All who came along had an enjoyable time. This year we went to the Goodwood Park Hotel. The meal was good, the company good but as always the pokies were not as good.
Our next event will be a family-oriented get-together. Details to be sent out to members soon.
All the best to members from,
Ian Gunn, SA Branch Secretary
Hi everyone,
Life's pretty quiet here in S.A. We are all looking forward to the Convention and catching up with everyone. The program certainly looks very interesting and full of non-stop action.
We recently celebrated a birthday milestone for one of our parent members. Being 50 just means another number doesn't it Stephen. A quiet little party was held just to remind him how young he really is.
Our next event will be a family-orientated get-together, hopefully in July. A venue is yet to be decided . We hope to have another Adult function prior to the Convention.
Regards from all in S.A.,
Ian Gunn, SA Branch Secretary
Branch report - September 2000
Hi everyone,
I'm afraid there's nothing to report from South Australia at the moment. Those of us who are coming to the Convention are really anticipating a good time.
Sherryl, I think you are doing a great job producing the Journal and sure that there will be plenty of help for you when you want it.
All the best for now, see you all in September.
Regards from all in S.A.,
Ian Gunn, SA Branch Secretary
Firstly, we would like to extend our best wishes to Sherryl and hope she makes a speedy recovery.
We have been busy here in South Australia researching various sites for the 2002 Convention. We have narrowed the sites down to a list of possibilities worth visiting. This is a job for the new year. We should be able to provide details of where it will be by the next Council meeting and Journal.
Unfortunately Christmas has come along too quickly this year and finding a free Saturday/Sunday for our annual Christmas Party has proved to be difficult so we will do things a little differently and have our Christmas get-together in January instead. Hopefully everything will be calmer by then. A venue and time will be announced before the end of the year.
We would like to extend the compliments of the season to all members and wish you all a safe and happy New Year.
Ian Gunn, SA Branch Secretary
By the time this reaches the Journal we would have finally had our Adults Christmas Dinner. We are holding it at a local Thai restaurant at Norwood on Saturday 3 February.
We wish Karen, Bernie, Lisa and Scott Canala a safe trip as they jet off to the UK for a much deserved holiday.
Convention sites are still on the agenda. A couple of sites will be visited soon.
Ian Gunn, SA Branch Secretary
Things are going along slowly here in SA. We are still looking for a convention site that will be suitable.
We recently had a dinner for members at an Indian restaurant. Those who attended had a good time. We were scheduled to have a cruise up the Port River in early June, but the Navy decided to come to town and as a result took over the wharf that the boat was using! We are now going on 24 June, unless another unforeseen occurrence happens, After this we will be having another dinner in late July, followed by a family day in the city.
Variety, hopefully will keep members interested.
We hope everyone has recovered after the Albury weekend, and not too many brain cells were lost!!
Until next time,
Ian Gunn, SA Branch Secretary
Since the last Journal report we've had a cruise up the Port River which everyone enjoyed. We also had a dinner for the adults at a local hotel. Our next event is on 26th August which will be something in the city and family-orientated.
The search for a convention site for 2002 has finally ended. We have found a site in the Adelaide Hills not too far away from the City. Details will be available at the upcoming Convention. The next step will be fundraising.
I would like to once again thank Joan Leslie for her continued support of SSPA in this state.
That's it for now. Hope to see you all at Stanwell Tops.
Ian Gunn, SA Branch Secretary
Hello to everyone from South Australia,
Well another Convention has come and gone. To the New South Wales Branch, thanks for a great time. To those who did not get there you missed a great Convention. Start saving for next year as we would love to see as many members as possible come to Adelaide.
We had a family day at a place in the Adelaide Hills on 20th October which had train rides and farm animals. Something for all members and families. Our last function for 2001 will be our Christmas get-together at Bernie and Karen Canala's home on 24th November.
After this, we will start the serious work of organising a convention. That's it for now.
Ian Gunn, SA Branch Secretary
Hello from South Australia.
We've had a couple of events since the Convention. One being a family day in the Adelaide Hills at a farm, which had animals and a train museum complete with train rides. This wasn't as well attended as other functions have been, as a lot of our members had other commitments for that weekend. The other was our annual Christmas Party held at Bernie and Karen Canala's home. In keeping with tradition the pool party was accompanied by cool weather, but that didn't seem to bother the children who were more than happy to swim. We had a very pleasant afternoon and evening, and this was very well attended by the majority of members.
We are still working on the programme for the Convention week and it promises to be a very good week. We will publish the programme in the New Year to whet your appetite.
Nothing planned yet for future events. Once the Christmas rush has finished, we will sit down and plan the next 12 months giving members plenty of time to organise their lives, including working towards what will be needed for the Convention.
All the best for Christmas to all members and have a happy and safe New Year no matter where you may be.
Ian Gunn, SA Branch Secretary
The year seems to be flying by with only 5 months until the Convention. We hope everyone had a good Easter and ate lots of chocolate.
We had a meeting recently to finalise the Convention details. A tentative programme has been done and a copy is in the Journal. Final costs for the Convention have also been decided upon.
The Convention site has a website so if you want to know anything about it, visit http://www.nunyara.com.au or you can contact Stephen Pinnell or myself.
We are having another meeting on 5th May to discuss any final details for the Convention.
Ian Gunn, SA Branch Secretary
We have been busy here in SA with convention details being number one on our list of things to do. We have had two meetings in recent times to finalise the convention week. Everyone here is looking forward to September. Another meeting will be held on 15th June to finalise all the last minute details.
We have had contact with the Women's and Children's Hospital regarding contacting new members. So far we have had contact with a few people who seemed interested about the association and the fact that we are holding a convention. We will continue to communicate with these people through phone contact and face-to-face contact so as they can know more about what the SSPA is about.
Don't forget that the Convention site has a website so if you want to know anything about it visit www.nunyara.com.au or you can contact Stephen Pinnell or myself.
Hope to see you all in September. (only 3 months to go).
Ian Gunn, SA Branch Secretary
What a week! Twelve months of planning, and then before you know it the week has gone. We hope those of you who were able to attend had an enjoyable convention.
We would like to thank everyone who attended and made the week so memorable for us all. It was fantastic to catch up with old friends and of course, make new friends, especially those who travelled from New Zealand to experience a Convention Down Under!! Now we can all start saving for the Canberra Convention in 2003.
We will be holding a post-Convention get-together very soon and arranging our next 12 months of activities. The highlight of the get-together will be looking at everyone's photos and videos.
Ian Gunn, SA Branch Secretary
News from South Australia is that things are very quiet at the moment. We are maintaining contact via phone calls until I can organise some social events. Unfortunately, Christmas came and went before we knew it. The problem with this state is the small number of members and the large range of mix - parents, teenagers, young adults and young children. Trying to find something that will benefit everyone is a challenge.
I was hopeful that with a convention being held here that we would have had more enquiries from people interested or just wanting to know about the SSPA but nothing has seemed to happen in relation to this. Perhaps as raised in the last Journal, the SSPA in this state is shrinking. Maybe its time for new blood to be involved. This is I'm sure a problem that has come up in other states. The hard part is finding the answer as to why no-one is interested and what to do to maintain the interest. Enquiries from the Women's and Children's Hospital seemed to have stopped. We will endeavour to follow up with them to see what is happening and what we can do to arouse interest. Sharyn (Ian's wife) has a couple of ideas regarding this and hopefully her work commitments will lessen next term and she will be able to look further into this area.
Till next time,
Ian Gunn, SA Branch Secretary
Quiet times once again in the greatest state in Australia. At least the Crows and Power are doing well.
No news to report. We had a meeting recently to discuss starting up a SA basketball team. Interest was quite good and it seems that we will have enough players to begin. Allan Devine agreed to act as coach with the first training session happening on 25th May.
Socially we will be holding a dinner during July. Times and dates will be sent out to members soon. Membership remains static. Enquiries have been few and far between so far this year.
It's good to see that the Albury weekend is still happening and we hope that everyone who attends have a good time. The programme for Canberra looks very interesting. Attendance should be good one would think. Angela and Peter appear to be well organised as those of us who have been involved in hosting a convention know how much hard work is involved.
That's all for now, hopefully there will be more to report next time.
Ian Gunn, SA Branch Secretary
Things have been moving very slowly here in SA ever since the Basketball weekend and I hear that the Convention was a huge success. Congratulations Angela, ajob well done.
We are having a Christmas get-together at the end of November for both adults and children at the Gunn's in the form of a pizza night and swimming if the weather ever decides that it is supposed to be summer!!
We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Safe New Year.
Ian Gunn, SA Branch Secretary
We hope that all members had a good Christmas and New Year.
Things have been going along slowly here in SA. We held a Christmas party on 21st November at the Gunn household where most members attended. As always the weather was warm every day until the night of the party when surprise, surprise the weather turned cold. But the young and silly still decided to go swimming. One of our newest families attended and the interaction between old and new was positive.
With the majority of members now being young adults there is the need to provide events which will cater for the young, not so young and parents. This will provide us with a challenge to maintain the interest in SSPA here in South Australia. I read with interest in the last Journal that NSW have started to send out a regular newsletter. This is something that we did a couple of years ago but due to this and that it stopped. After reading this I think that I will have to do the same as from the New Year.
Ian Gunn, SA Branch Secretary
All members would know that SSPA lost a valued member and dear friend recently in Orsola Willamson ( Panuccio). We will all have different fond memories of Orsola and I am sure that she would want us to remember her by the way that she touched each of us. When she returned from America a few months back our initial thoughts were that SSPA in South Australia had regained a friend and someone with fresh ideas to help continue the work of SSPA here in SA but sadly it was not to be.
Orsola was one of the founders of the South Australian branch along with Joan Leslie (Lau) who all those years ago saw the need for a branch of the then LPAA to be established here, and worked tirelessly with us to raise awareness of short-statured people both in South Australia and Australia as a whole.
Joan Leslie has recently retired from teaching of drama and producing plays with the Stirling-based Hills Youth Theatre, a very successful Company with a waiting list of some five years for children to gain a position for tuition. Acting and Drama has been her life since she was a very young girl. For many years now Joan has been singing and giving talks to various Community groups about her life and as a result of these talks she has helped SSPA immensely by donating monetary gifts from the Community groups to SSPA in South Australia and has helped maintain public awareness of what SSPA is all about and we would like to take this opportunity to thank Joan once again for all the support she gives the SA Branch.
We wish Joan all the best for her retirement and trust she can now sit back and relax.
By the time the journal is published we should have had a dinner for parents and older members during March. We are looking at having a family event early in April.
A list of proposed events has been sent out to members allowing them to organise their diaries and keep them informed with any happenings in SA.
That’s all for now.
Ian Gunn
Secretary SA Branch
We had a dinner for parents and older members at a Thai restaurant during March which was well attended. Everyone had a good time and socialised well into the night.
Early May we are going ten-pin bowling. Bumper rails will be used to ensure a strike or two will occur. We have planned another dinner in June, which we hope will be supported by members.
That's all for now.
Ian Gunn
Secretary SA Branch
Social events have dominated life for the SSPA SA branch during the last couple of months.
Early May we went ten pin bowling. A few strikes were obtained. Thankfully bumper rails were used. The aim of the day was for members of all ages plus family members to interact and enjoy themselves. Overall it was a very successful day.
On the June weekend when many members of the association would have been enjoying themselves at Albury we in SA had a well attended dinner at a local hotel. Again most members attended with one of our newest members coming along to meet us. The night was very successful.
Our next social function will be late July followed by our AGM on September 12th.
We look forward to reading about Albury and finding out more about Philip Island. The programme of events looks good with something for everyone.
That’s it for now. Until next time.
Regards,
Ian Gunn
SA
Secretary.
Branch report - September 2004
There isn’t much to report from the South Australian Branch this time. We did have a lunch/movie outing that was cancelled due to lack of support. We will be having an AGM in the next couple of weeks and we will advise of the office bearers at that time.
We would like to wish the Victorian Group every success with their up and coming Convention. I am sure it will be a fantastic week. Unfortunately we will be unable to attend this time as Sharyn has lectures in the school holidays for her work.
Regards,
Ian Gunn
SA Secretary.
We had a successful gathering for members on the 30th October as a post- convention get together. The members that went to Phillip Island shared their experiences along with photos and videos. Congratulations to the Victorian Convention committee on what sounded like an excellent time.
We will be following this up with a post Christmas gathering on the 8th January. Trying to organise anything during December proved to be too difficult. Contact with current members remains strong.
At our last meeting we decided that we would follow up the Women’s and Children’s Hospital regarding how they let people know about the Association as we have had no contact from them regarding new born children with short stature or older children for a long time now.
We also discussed what information was available for new parents and in general. We have the information guide but I am wondering if we could have a updated version of the brochure that we once had, which showed phone numbers etc. This may help high light awareness of the Association as we could distribute it to other areas as well.
Regards,
Ian Gunn,
SA
Secretary.
We had a
successful gathering for members on the 30th
October as a post convention get together at the home of Mary and Ian
Jenkins. The members that went to Phillip Island shared their
experiences along with photos and videos. Congratulations to the
Victorian convention committee on what sounded like an excellent time.
We followed this up with a post Christmas gathering on the 8th
January at the home of Karen and Bernie Canala. Trying to organise
anything during December proved to be too difficult so we did it after
things calmed down. A good night was had by all who attended. We had a
surprise visit from Karyn & Sean McCartney and the kids who were here in
Adelaide for a couple of days.
A couple of special occasions over the Christmas period with Trish and Stephen Pinnell having a visit from their new grandson Kobey along with Amanda and Damian of course. We also celebrated a big day with Bernie Canala reaching the unforgettable 50.
Future events are to be arranged and members will being notified when dates are finalised.
We trust all members had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Ian
Gunn,
Secretary.
We had a post Christmas gathering on the 8th of January at the home of Karen & Bernie Canala. This was well attended with most members coming along. We also had a visit from Karyn and Sean McCartney who came over from Nhill for a couple of days.
Our next meeting and get together has not been decided upon yet. Being a small group of members we can maintain closeness via regular telephone links.
Ian Gunn
Secretary