One Year On


This 1994 report has now been preserved on wbe site.
It doesn't seem like a year, I know.  
More like forever.  
The monthly club meetings are now such a regular feature of life for most of us that it seems a little hard to think of a time when there wasn't a Diplomacy Club of Canberra.  
If a week is a long time in politics, a year is a hell of a long time in Diplomacy.

How I remember our first meeting, when I was England lying prostrate on the floor of the Canberra RSL backroom with French cutlery (Jim Venn's) in my back.  
Just seven of us made that first gathering: Venn, Gould, O'Brien, Stewart, Cody Giumelli, Trevor Hughes and myself.  
People we have learned to love and hate.  We switched to the Burns Club in Kambah.  
It was free, but they decided to remodel the club and made the boardroom a storeroom.  
Actually, I suspect some patron from the bistro complained about the people arguing over Serbia and Trieste.  
Our search for a new home brought us to an unlikely Nirvana - the Slovenian-Australian Association in Woden.  
Mentioning that we were struggling (in part) over Serbia seemed an even riskier business here!

The Slov was a shot in the arm.  
Numbers doubled instantly and suddenly the club had a totally different "feel".  
Ask some of the victims!  
We have maintained a fairly regular two boards ever since, a couple of times having 2+ and once 2xDip plus 1830.  
That, in just 12 months, is really moving!  
We now have some 40 people "on the book" and just need to encourage them to come back now and again (ally with them, you buggers!).  
By comparison, I hear that the Sydney Diplomacy Club is ailing - and they have a huge base of known Diplomacy players.


We have brought new and significant talent to the hobby, founded a significant club which has a hobby presence if only by the weight of its PR machine, and run a tournament, the Nationals.  
Our next challenge will be in running the inaugural ACT Diplomacy Championships in July.  
Above all, of course, we simply hope you are having fun and thinking of bringing your friends (if you have any left!).  
I plan to take some of the credit, but a lot belongs to Doug Stewart as well.  
We have worked very well as a team, so much so that sometimes ... [I finish his sentences - Ed].  
This sort of leadership is seriously lacking elsewhere in the country, with predictable lacklustre results:  the influx of new blood is not keeping pace with the haemorrhage of old blood.  
Our plan to solve this is simple: bring back the barmaid!  [For those who didn't see her: WOW - Ed] 

One year on, much done, much fun had and more to have.  
Our own ACT Championship will have some unique aspects planned that any who miss out will later regret.  
Club shirts are underway (about $15 complete, place your order NOW!).  
It is al happening in Canberra - one key thing we have, although small, which others lack, is a sense of identity, which has been important.  
We have a newsletter which keeps everyone in touch with what is happening; congrats and thanks to Doug for editing it, and Alan Howard for running the PBM section.

To paraphrase Churchill: this is not the beginning, it is not even the end of the beginning, but it is the end of peace as we know it on one Friday night a month.  
We have the people, the talent, the wherewithal - what next, everyone?  Poland looks good, or should we just annex Tuggeranong??

To all the members of DCOC, a very happy first birthday.  

You've come a long way baby!

Andrew Geraghty (President, DCOC)