Archive of Club Records
This section has quick links to the club's archives, followed by an explanation of each archive and tips on how to search.
Quick Links
- Archive of Parra-Natta newsletters produced by the club from 1967 to the present.
- Archive of meeting programs since 2008.
- Archive of club meeting minutes since 2004.
- Archive of executive committee meeting minutes since 2014.
Newsletters
The newsletter of the club has always been known as the Parra-Natta, although commonly referred to as just the Natta. It was first published as a one-off issue in 1967 and then again in 1968. In 1969 David Goodrich became Editor and introduced the cnncept of a fortnightly newsletter, posted out to members in the off-week to our fortnightly meetings. After a few trial issues, a newsletter format and a production and mailing routine were established which David maintained through to the end of 1970.
The position of Editor then became a permanent non-Executive role in the club until 1991, when Toastmasters added the role of Vice-President Public Relations (VPPR) to the elected Executive. The main function of the VPPR became the production of the regular Parra-Natta.
By the late 1990s personal computers were becoming more common, coinciding with the introduction of the internet and then the club’s first website in 1998. This resulted in an increasing take-up of email by members, enabling the club to change from mailing out the Parra-Natta to an email distribution list in 2000. By year end 48 out of our 52 members had opted for email receipt, with the Natta emailed as an attached RTF (Rich Text Format) file compatible with all early computer software. This also led to the introduction of colour and then photos in 2002. It also enabled editors to add additional pages where desired, a trend that reached its peak with over 20 pages per issue in early 2005, before resorting to a tighter format.
With only minor occurrences preventing preparation of an issue, our production of fortnightly newsletters happened continuously from 1969 until the COVID crisis in 2019. That is, 50 years of dedicated effort by a varied but most reliable group of Editors/VPPRs. This is truly amazing for a voluntary organisation, reflecting the underlying culture that has kept the club so strong for so long. All of these members are listed on the Leadership page of our Hall of Fame. Since 2020 the production of newsletters has become sporadic, with attention turning to social media supported by occasional newsletters. This helps keep people informed, but social media lacks the permanency of this archive.
Some notes have been inserted in the archive to explain some of disruptions, particularly the 40 meetings that were lost in 1990 and then replaced with 40 meetings in the lead up to a genuine 1000th meeting in 2004.
This archive is in the form of one continuous series of files from 1967 to the present, with all Nattas listed by the meeting number that they covered and the month of publication. Most of those from the first 40 years were reproduced by scanning by different people and using different techniques, while many in the last 20 years are PDFs made from files kept, for many years in some cases, by the Editors that produced them.
Club Meeting Programs
In the early days when the Parra-Natta was posted out to members, it usually included programs for the next 2 meetings on its back page, as can be seen in the Natta archives. Then with email they became separate documents. This archive folder includes meeting programs from 2008 through to the present, stored in folders by Toastmasters year, although in some early years our records are incomplete. The files in each folder are in chronological order of meeting number and date.
Club Meeting Minutes
This archive folder includes minutes of Club meetings from 2004-05 through to the present, stored in folders by Toastmasters year. The files in each folder are in chronological order of meeting number and date.
Club Executive Committee Minutes
This archive folder includes minutes of Club Executive Meetings from 2014-15 through to the present, stored in folders by Toastmasters year. The files in each folder are in chronological order of meeting number and date.
Search the Records
This website employs a Google search facility. See the Search button on the top left of most pages. This can be used to track down references to a particular member. For example, a search for Joe Gallur will bring up 5 results, 2 Hall of Fame references plus 3 in different Parra-Nattas. This falls down in the case of long-term members with many references in Parra-Nattas, programs, minutes etc. But it is possible to narrow a search down.
Thus a search can be defined to cover just the file of Parra-Nattas. In any page click the Search button on the top left. Insert the text below with a member name. Depending on the person, this will bring up many Parra-Natta references for them.
site:https://www.parramattatm.au/archive/nattas/ "name"