Holden Retirees Club News

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 Our 7th March 2024 Lunch

Around 85 members attended our 173rd Luncheon, which was a little disappointing given that the outside temperature had returned to a more normal mid-twenties, and the promise of an interesting speaker. However, those who attended had a great meal, great company and the promised excellent speaker, Nick Bagolou.

Our President, Bill Hooper opened the meeting at 12:30 PM by welcoming members and our speaker.

He advised that the Mulgrave Club had a following booking for the room, and had asked if we could help them by vacating the room by 2:30 PM so they could setup for the next users. As this was not much earlier than we often finshed, we had agreed to do so.

Bill then introduced our one new member who had joined since our last lunch:

Paul Gibson, Engineering, Fishermens Bend.

Paul was given a warm welcome to the Club.

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Unfortunately, we have been advised of the following deaths since our last meeting:

Don Clifton, Engineering, Fishermens Bend

John Donovan, Elizabeth plastics

Norm Thompson, Truck sales, Perth

Doug Cheers, Sales & Marketing, Dandenong

Members stood silent for one minute in their memory.

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Lunch was then served, and our Speaker, Nick Baloglou, was introduced earlier than is usual so we could meet our committment to finish a little earler.

Nick graduated from the University of South Australia in 1987, with a Bachelor of Mech Eng, and commenced work with GMH at the Elizabeth plant in Manufacturing Engineering.NickIn 1995 he moved to the role of Assistant Manager, Manufacturing Engineering, In this role, he led the ME team in the design and development of the General Assembly requirements for VT program and the Plastics Plant Product Development Team for the VT Instrument Panel.

 In 1998 Nick became Manufacturing Director, Vehicle Line Executive Team, for Large/Luxury Cars. He led studies into new vehicle architectures in conjunction with the Portfolio Development Centre in GMNA and co-led the development of the Holden Monaro business case and program.

In 2000 he became Program Manager for Adventra, VX Series ll and Export. Nick led the program team on the execution of the Holden Adventra and AWD program and grew market volume in the Middle East and Asia.

In 2004 he moved to the role of Director of Quality, Vehicle Operations, once again at Elizabeth. Here Nick was responsible for all aspects of operational quality. This included Quality Engineering, a NATA approved Lab, a Checking Centre with full dimensional and analytical skills, Product Quality Assurance, Critical Process Monitoring and on-line Process Vehicle Inspection.

In 2012 he became Director of Business Strategies, Manufacturing Program Management and Launch. Led the very successful launch of the VF Commodore and the VF based Chevrolet SS. Led the ME team in the study of next generation small and large cars.

In Feb 2014 Nick resigned from Holden and joined Chery Jaguar Land Rover in Shangai China as Director of Quality and then moved on to Senior Director, Customer Satisfaction and Company Quality in Oct 2014.

In Sept 2016 Nick moved to Gaydon in the UK to be Director of Quality Engineering at Jaguar Land Rover.

He returned to Australia in 2021.

Nick's interesting presentation covered what it was like to work in a start up joint venture in China between Chery and Jaguar Land Rover, followed by working on all-new vehicle programs at the JLR Engineering Centre in the UK. Truely, a different world to what most of us are used to! We are fortunate to have both a voice recording of Nick's speech, plus the slide pack that was shown.

Members gave Nick some resounding applause for his excellent preparation and entertaining delivery of his interesting topic. 

The voice recording can be heard at this link, and the Slide Pack is available here.

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Some of the attendees at Lunch:

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Bill moved to General Business, and announced that there would be a repeat of the very successful ex-Employees Day at the Trafalgar Holden Museum on Sunday, 16th June. Entry fee includes a free barbeque lunch. See you there!

Members were reminded that subscriptions for 2024 were now due, so those needing to pay could see the Treasurer or by bank deposit.

There was a special prize donated for the lucky door prize draw:

Member Arnie Vejins donated a large Smithsonian model kit which could be assembled to make a working four cylinder engine, which created some interest. Thanks go to Arnie for the gift, which was selected by the first winner drawn from the 'barrel'. The next three winners received one of the usual Westfield cards provided by the Club, for  $30, $20 or $10. Arnie actually donated two of these kits, so there will be another opportunity to win one at the June Lunch!

Bill thanked all for attending and closed the lunch at 2:35 PM.

The next lunch will be Thursday, 6th June 2024

We look forward to seeing you there! 


The Holden Tribute Cruise

By Russell Nainie

The Holden Tribute Cruise was Brett Murray’s idea, the dialogue started on 22 Jan 2023. The intent was to commemorate 75 years of Holden in Australia, as close to 29 Nov 2023 as possible. We then found out that Neil Joiner was having a big event at the Trafalgar Holden Museum about that time, so the Cruise was moved to 3 Dec 2023. 

I talked to the current owners of 191 Salmon Street, “Arrow Capital Partners, to allow us to use the forecourt to stage a few iconic cars, food trucks, and to give us access to the Car Park. They were open to the idea and paid for the day's indemnity insurance. 

The owners of 251 Salmon Street, “Boral”, gave us access to the large car park, where we staged the cars that participated in the Cruise. 

Five days before the event I had a call from Chanel Seven, who wanted to do a live cross at 8:30 am from the Strand in Williamstown where the Cruise cars were staging, and I jumped at their suggestion. The cars started gathering at the strand from 8 am onwards and left after the Channel 7 live cross to Sunday Sunrise Show. 

Around 11 am, Norm Darwin did a "walk and talk" from the start of 241 Salmon Street, the old Holden Administration building, highlighting the Axle Plant, Plant 5, etc. Then moved onto the rooftop of HQ191 & highlighted the buildings Plant 16-10-Foundry-HFV6 etc. Needless to say he was like the Pied Piper.

In all the day was a great success.

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Gold Coast Group.

The Gold Coast Retirees Lunch was held at Club Southport on 7 March 2024.

2023 Dec Qld Group

Seated L-R: Garry Newsome, Maureen Roberts, Sue Bryant, Ted Bryant, Bevan Rawson, Graeme  Roberts, Rod Alford, & Graeme Coverdale

Great company, food and lively conversation and good to catch up once again.

Regards Ted

Thanks to Ted Bryant for the information.  Ted is available on 0428 123 206 if anyone from that area needs a ride to the Lunch.  All welcome!


 Woodville 25 Year Club 2023 Annual Dinner 

On Friday 20th October, 74 members of the GMH Woodville Toolroom 25 Year Club gathered at the West Lakes Golf Club on the occasion of its 2023 Annual Dinner.

Members were treated to the normal three-course dinner, with the evening interspersed with the Chairman Pat Beerworth’s opening address, a raffle of 6 bottles of Port, and a presentation by one of our members, our special Guest Speaker Mr Kym Atwell, followed by lots of catch-ups and chats amongst members during the evening.

Kym Atwell, recently retired from the position of Drum Major of The Pipes & Drums band of The Royal Caledonian Society of South Australia.  Kym has been involved with the band for the some 35 years and was the Drum Major leading the band to The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Edinburgh in 2007 & 2011, The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Sydney, Australia in 2010, The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Melbourne, Australia in 2016, The Basel Tattoo in Switzerland in 2013 & HRH The Queen’s 90th Birthday Celebration at Windsor Castle in 2016

All of the members attending the our Annual Dinners are passionate Holden people, developed from a strong work and social culture which existed in the Woodville Toolroom during its historic existence from 1940s through to the 1980s, where it was the largest toolroom of its type in the Southern Hemisphere.

 

Thanks to Darrell Thomas for this report.


For Social Media users

Members who are users of Social Media might like to know that there are some pages of interest to both current and retired Holden employees. The first is the “GM Holden Alumni Group” on Facebook, which at the time of writing, has 1,647 members.  This is a Private Group, so you must apply on the site to join, but only other members can see who is in the group and what they post.  It is a lively group, started and moderated by HRC member, Thalia Abramzon.

The second is the “Holden Engineering Alumni” Group, which also a Private Group on Facebook, but you must have been a member of Engineering at some time to join.  It currently has 465 members and is moderated by Sharmy Francis and Rod Pettit. Quote: “The aim of the Group is to share photos, news, stories & thoughts between past & current Holden Engineering team members. Any group member can invite others to join. All members MUST BE or HAVE BEEN Holden Engineering Team members. Please ensure that people you invite to join meet this simple criteria. Posts must be positive, professional & appropriate. No GM Confidential information.”

Lastly, for users of LinkedIn there is a “GM Holden Alumni” page with 362 members in the network at present, again administered by Thalia Abramzon. The direct link to the Group is: www.linkedin.com/groups/12295307.

All these groups are recommended to interested members who want to keep in touch with current and past mates.