The day of the jubilee

We had an appointment with Nico early on the day to drive from our home in Hilversum to the clubhouse of MC Wombarg. This would give us enough time to decorate the place together with Jan and Hennie and to make the other necessary arrangements.
But already when we drove onto the A1 highway at Laren we got stuck in a traffic jam. The A28 was blocked and this made that the traffic in the whole center of the Netherlands was more or less jammed. A trip that would normally take not more than 40 minutes now took more than 2 hours, due to all the alternate routes that we had to take. Fortunately Jan and Hennie were there on time, and when we arrived a lot of things had already been arranged. Together we re-arranged and decorated the place, picked up the flowers and cake, and then we were ready.

Clubhouse of the MC Wombarg in Woudenberg, it is clear that the MFN gathered here

The place is extensively decorated for the party

Early in the afternoon our Danish friends arrived, and after that the other members started to drop in. Many of them came by motorcycle, which could be parked right in front of the building.
At the entrance they applied to Nico to receive their present, a luminous magnifying glass with MFN imptrint. Those who where not at the meeting have received their magnifying glass with the latest newsletter. After that everyone could enjoy coffee with cake. It was a nice stir, and the hall of Wombarg became nicely filled.

In the beginning of the afternoon a short member meeting was held, as usual. But this time with a special extra, as we could finally present the new catalogue. We had chosen to present the first one to Herman van der Maaten. Herman has been serving in the MFN committee for a long time, including a few years as chairman. After his leave he was very busy with his other hobbies, the ANWB and his caravan, and with this presentation we could finally thank him for his efforts for the MFN. Thank you, Herman.
During the round of questions Ben Spruit did not have a real question, more a gesture. As evidence of his appreciation for the work that the committee members do, he offered them all a nice Skimmia plant.

After the meeting all attention turned to Nico. He gave an interesting and nicely set-up presentation about all the aspects of motorcycle philately. Many, if not all, kinds of philately have literally been shed light on with a beamer on a big screen. Motorcycles driving away from their stamps and images flowing into each other made his presentation to a fascinating show. at the end the members where still silent, and Nico got a lot of esteem. Very nice and educational.

Then it was time for the start of the official part of the afternoon: celebration of the Jubilee!
On a large table a great variety of philatelic collectionables for the lottery was exposed. All present members had a bid number for the auction and with that, in order determined by a lottery, everyone could make his choice from the table.

Before that happened, we opened with thanking the wives of the committee members with a nice bouquet of flowers, because they always have to listen to all our stories, and bridle our readiness to fight. They are doing a great job on that, and that's what we appreciate. Ladies, thank you for supporting us.
For one of the ladies we had an extra surprise. Madelèn, Paul's wife, does a lot of work for the website of the MFN. She spends a lot of time to improve and beautify our website. That is worth a special appreciation by apointing her as one of the "Friends of the MFN". Surprised she received the special stamp sheet for this. Madelèn, thanks again for all your work for the MFN.

Apart from the fact that the club itself was 25 years old, there were off course also a few people who are member right from the start. On this day we also wanted to praise them and therefore we had a special sheet of personalised "25 years of MFN" jubilee stamps. In alphabetic order all of them present received their reward, with as last Jan Termaaten, founder of the club.
For him we had a special souvenir to this day, as in the end he is the one who brought us, motorcycle enthusiasts, together 25 years ago. And still, years after his leave from the MFN committee, we can fall back on him for help. Also for this celebration he, and his wife Hennie, has assisted us. From PostNL we had ordered for him the special MFN jubilee stamp made in silver. Jan was very pleased with his silver appraisal, and his "ohs and ahs" were loudly heared. Jan, on behalf of all MFN members thanks for your dedication during this 25 years.

Hans hands over the reward to one of the members right from the start

Jan Termaaten with his silver jubilee stamp

The intention was to let Jan pick the first lottery number after all these events. But Paul disturbed this plan by an, also for us, totally unexpected extra homage of those who are also 25 years part of the MFN committee. Together with Eric and Nico I had the honour to receive a nice sheet of personalised MFN-committee stamps, for which off course our thanks. We like to do it, as despite the stress that it sometimes gives, it still is our hobby to manage the MFN.

After that Jan could finally perform the first lottery draw with the famous Bingo machine. By turns all members present could choose a souvenir from the loaded table.
Next it was time for the Jubilee auction, filled with some special items. A lot of nice items found a new owner, and almost all lots were sold.
The auction marked the end of the offical celebration, and after that all members were invited for a happy hour payed for by the MFN. It ended as a nice afternoon filled with talking, and thanks to the nice wheather the front of the MC Wombarg clubhouse could be opened to include the terrace in the festivities.
Around 6 o'clock those who joined the barbeque could pick up their portion of meat and the salads and bread were put on the table. The BBQ did his best, and their was a lively exchange of chicken and sausages.

Everybody had filled his/her stomach and darkness started to fall when the dog was put in the sidecar and most members started their way home.

Yes, we can look back to a nice celebration of our jubilee and this barbeque, it will probably be repeated….

Hans de Kloet

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