"Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The inaugural meeting of your Club was held in the lubritorium of the Town and Country Garage, Parramatta, by kind permission of the owner Mr. W.H. Schroder, on the 15th November 1955. About 27 interested Rileyites attended that first meeting, and the first business was the adoption of the Alvis Car Club constitution as a temporary measure, until such time as we could formulate one to suit our own Club.

Officers were then elected as follows: President: Mr. S.D.Spink, Vice-President: Mr.A.F.Ashby,M.I.Mech.E., Treasurer: Mr. C. Hopkins. Secretary: Mr. L. Cossor, and a committee consisting of Messrs. N.Borstel and J. Schroder. At the following meeting Mr. Hopkin's resignation was received by mail so Mr. M. Mackenzie was elected in his stead. Mr. Ashby also resigned as Vice-President, but was persuaded to accept the Office of Patron and Advising Engineer. The Office of Vice-president being left vacant for the time.

The first meeting decided on 10/0 as joining fee, with One Pound/10/0 annual subscription, that one sports outing be held each month, that Mr. W.H. Schroder be given Honorary membership, that the Club would not have "Foundation Members", and Mr. Borstel undertook the responsibility of obtaining a sample and quote for Car and Lapel badges, which he did to some purpose, and we soon had our present attractive badges.

The nest meeting produced the possibility of Club rooms in the School rooms of the Vacuum Oil Company at Gladesville, Tony Harbutt interviewing the responsible people at the Company Head Office. However, more suitable rooms were made available in the City, our thanks go to Tony for this valuable asset, at the following meeting, our third and last held in the Lub of the Town and Country. At that meeting also Don Spink informed the Club that he had arranged with Peter Lloyd Pty.Ltd. for their donation of an annual non-return Trophy for the sporting points score.

The Club moved into it's present rooms on the third floor of Kembla Building, Margaret St., Sydney on 14 February, financial strength at this time being about eight, although we were receiving quite a few visitors at all meetings.

The final draft of the Constitution was approved and an order placed with Waverley Press for printing of same, and they were available for the March meeting.

As the President was to go into hospital for an indefinite period, an operation being necessary on his damaged leg, it became necessary to fill the vacant post of Vice-President at an early date, so at the next meeting John Schroder was elected, with Graham Gibson filling the then vacancy on the committee. At this time we were short of a Club Captain, so Barry Turner was elected to the post.

March meeting also decided to run our own magazine, and Graham Gibson was unanimously elected as it's Editor. Two names were proposed, "Rileyitis" and "Riley Revue", but the selection of the name was deferred to next meeting, when members decided on "Riley Revue" as most suitable.

April meeting adopted the Constitution, with amendments to paragraphs 7-c; and 12, and Graham Gibson was elected to the Office of Auditor, this being his third position in the Club.

John Schroder also informed the meeting that he had acquired a Riley '9' Monacco in fairly good condition, a working bee to be formed to re-condition it for re-sale with resultant profit to go to Club funds. A very generous offer on John's part, as he purchased the car out of his own pocket. This venture eventually returned the handsome sum of about 30Pound, a much needed boost to the book balance, and a hearty vote of thanks to those members that took part in the job.

We had our first goodwill visitor at the May meeting in the person of Mr. Keith Boaz, of the Motoring Club of Australia, who gave us a brief history of his club, and issued an open invitation to members to attend any, or all, meeting held by his club - sporting or social.

At this meeting it was proposed that the Club affiliate with the Confederation of Australia Motor Sport (The official controlling body) at the earliest convenience, but the motion was heavily defeated.

June meeting decided that members could nominate two ladies, (wives or girlfriends) and children to the age of 17 years for associate membership, which gives them all the rights, except voting at meeting. It was also decided that two sports meeting be held each month.

Mr. R. Babb, President of the Council of Combined Motor Clubs attended this meeting and give the Club a most interesting and informative talk on the latest developments in the dispute between C.A.M.S. and the C.C.M.C. The meeting then carried a motion giving full moral support to the Council in their efforts to clear up the injustice in the control of the sport in Australia.

July didn't produce anything startling so we pass on to August, a most profitable month in one respect. Bill White, of Newcastle arrived with the good news that he had a group in his home town, just itching to start a branch of the Riley Car Club of Australia up there, and asked for a little help in this direction, and you can be sure, it was very willingly offered, and accepted. The upshot of this meeting was a run to Newcastle for quite a keen group of supporters, breaking their neck to help this worthy cause. They arrived a little late, as the branch had started and had organised a keen sports day for our visit. I believe a good time was had by all.

At this meeting, it was also decided to organise a debate between the representatives of the C.A.M.S. and C.C.M.C. organisations for a meeting in September.

September saw the first of our film showings, in the Club rooms, when a representative of the Road Safety Council, was good enough to attend with a selection of hair raising films, depicting some of the most common mistakes made by the average, week-end driver, sometimes with tragic results, as was demonstrated.

The next meeting was an extra, held on the 25th September, for the purpose of hearing a debate between the two representatives from C.A.M.S. and C.C.M.C., both bodies having indicated their intention to attend, and take part. However, the C.A.M.S. representatives did not appear, and the C.C.M.C. representatives spoke to a motion that this Club join with C.C.M.C. Afterwards, the motion was carried, but at the following meeting the President ruled this meeting as unconstitutional, and the decision therefore null and void.

The October meeting was fully occupied in discussion of the debate, with some violence, but all seemed to be settled in so far as affiliation or rather non-affiliation was concerned. We had Mr. Sheafe, of the Shell Oil Co., in attendance with a projector and some entertaining films, mostly of a sporting, but some of an educational nature, which were of considerable interest.

November was very quiet, nothing of importance taking place. So ends the first year of this promising Club, we have 63 financial members, some useful equipment and, I firmly believe, our prospective future second to none in the field of friendly competitive motor sport. Our members come from all walks of life, and widely separated points of the nation and New Zealand, and all meet in a common bond of interest in "Riley."