In defence of the NHMA.
Well, here I go, throwing myself in the deep end ....again.....but I’d like to have my say, just this once.....AND, you don't have to read it.....
Regardless of all the rubbish that’s recently been posted on Smokestak and this forum, the NHMA is not the enemy.
They're not a bunch of shiney bum-ed suits sitting in a glass tower on Castlereagh St, rather, they are a committee made up of us.
Some of the committee are older retirees, some are farmers, some are engineers but ALL of them come from the vintage machinery movement. They have a passion for preserving the nations vintage machinery heritage and it’s this passion that drives them to take up these thankless positions on the committee.
The NHMA was formed in 1987. Can you imagine just how this hobby would be now if they hadn’t been in existence for the past 30 years and every club had to organise its own insurance?
Just to indicate how dedicated they are, I’ll use this as an example.
I was an active NHMA committee member (V.P. and ACT State Rep) when the steam traction engine exploded in Medina Ohio USA, and killed 5 people and injured 43, in 2001. Following that event and fearing litigation issues, NO insurance company would even consider insuring the movement. Even our insurance broker at the time eventually gave up and we were despairing.
If it hadn’t been for the NHMA’s WA Rep, single handedly finding a company who would insure us, just 2 days before our, then current, policy expired, the NHMA would have ceased to exist. But like a dog with a bone, he didn’t give up and personally organized it so the movement could continue as it does to this day. I hope you can see that this was a massive effort by one single man who virtually saved the hobby, as we know it now, nationally.
He’s not alone, because it’s my belief that all the committee members are still this passionate about it.
The vast majority of members, right across Australia, had no idea about this problem or about how close they came to having no insurance and therefore, no rallies or displays. However, some did, and I was fielding phone calls and queries, some well after midnight, from irate members.
Recently there’s been bucket-loads of messages left on the 2 major forums mentioned above, regarding a recent poor NHMA decision.
Many of these posts have been fueled by some folk who have a hidden agenda, an ulterior motive.
As a result of this poor decision, there has also been quite a bit of urging by these people to get clubs and individuals to leave, breakaway from the NHMA and organise their own insurance.
Several clubs have done so, but they are BIG clubs and as far as I can make out, actually made the break long before this recent kerfuffle.
It is not a case of "Them and Us".....The NHMA IS us.
Cheers,
Rob
