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Whickham and District Motor Club Limited

Annual General Meeting - 22 February 2017

AGM 2017

Chairmans Report

Club Chairman Ollie Currie was flanked by Guy and Tosh and summed up the years achievements in his typical understated style but accentuated the point that the Club had been very active in 2016.

"Firstly, a review of our club events, The Border Counties enjoyed success as far as the event was concerned. It was a solid entry list just short of the 100 mark and closely contested battle – ending in a dead heat with only 7 seconds separating the top 3! Well done to Paul Fawcett and co for stepping up to be a stage commander after sometime away from that side of things. This year’s rally follows a similar format on the Scottish side of the border, but has the exciting news of being the opening round of the British Rally Championship. The new sponsor Prestone, seem very eager and enthusiastic to make it a real success and hopefully the efforts of the organising team are rewarded come the day of the event. It is shaping up to again attract a good entry list with new championships included.

The Shaw however, was less successful, in that it never ran! It is never nice to cancel an event but thanks go to Ronnie and his team for the effort they put in despite this. This year’s event has a provisional route and the key organising positions in place, so hopefully we can put on a good show…though a few additional hands on deck would, as always, be appreciated.

The Cheviot in memory of Keith Knox ran well, albeit a few hiccups. The MSA safety delegate was very impressed with the event and further thanks to Guy Wickham for this. Let’s see what this year’s event can bring.

Last but by no means least was Tranwell. A few events ran at the venue and all perfectly as ever, whether through the Ant and Dec organising team or the Knoxy’s. Thanks to All and Leigh Mawson for continued use of the venue.

Despite membership being down slightly from our bumper year in 2015 the club has enjoyed a steady membership and varied array of club nights. Thank you Gordon Bradford our very active membership secretary who has been working tirelessly with Tosh recently. More of which is covered in the secretary’s report.

The club has also brought the Inter Club championship trophy back to the cabinet at Kibby Club – where it’ll hopefully stay this year! We had strong competitor results over the year and were certainly deserved winners of the award.

Sadly however, and not surprisingly in the way things are, there continues to be threats to our sport from outwith the motorsport world and MSA, but hopefully we can continue to keep the sport we love alive, and grow from strength to strength, whether rallying, hillclimbs, autocross or track events.

My personal appreciation goes to the committee and management team who keep the club in order, I have had increased work commitments over the past 12 months which has impacted on getting to the club as much as I’d have liked, however, having a good team of both young and old allows the club to continue with their valuable input…Thank you all!

A final word of thanks to Ronnie for his contribution to the club in various roles whether as Vice Chairman, director, a club member or event organiser to name but a few roles, the club has benefitted from a lot you have done over the years.

Once again thank you everyone for being a part of this great club and hopefully this year will be another good year".

 

Secretarys Report

Club Secretary Gary Lavericks report remarked on how 2016 has been a steady year for the club, with the core membership remaining strong. Club nights have been varied, with new events coming on board and a good element of competition taking place each week, although numbers attending club nights have steadily fallen throughout the year. The committee have taken note of this and it has been discussed at length in committee meetings, and is a situation we continue to work on. Popular club nights such as the awards night and January sale have still had excellent attendance, which shows the club is still relevant in these digital times where everything seems to occur online.

For a long time, we have lacked an online membership renewal system and this has resulted in some members not getting around to renewing their membership due to not being able to attend club nights for reasons of time or distance. lt is to this end that Gordon Bradford and Tosh Townsend have worked extremely hard to develop a new online membership facility, which means you can renew your membership over the internet, check and/or update your details if necessary and use various methods to pay your membership fees.

You can pay on line via BACS or PayPal, send in a cheque or do it the old fashioned way and pay cash to the Membership Secretary. The system is now live for the 2017 membership year and we encourage you to try it out and also spread the word to members more further afield than ourselves. l’d like to thank Tosh and Gordon for all of their time and effort put in to this system, I think you'll agree it's been a long awaited development.

Attendance to committee meetings this year has been strong which shows the passion for the running of the club, with an average of 12-14 members at each meeting. Younger members have come through and provided valuable input to meetings and have shown a willingness to get involved and put the effort in to enhance the club. Thank you to everyone for their efforts.

All matters in relation to MSA and Associations are in order. Details held by the club are compliant with the Data Protection Act. All data held on the Club's database is secure and is not shared with any other organisation.

Gary thanked all who had supported him in the role throughout the Year.

Competition Secretarys Report

Tosh Townsend read out the Competition Secretary's report and commented on the number of competing members - 18 drivers and 16 navigators taking part in at least 65 different events in 2016. This strong committment earned Whickham and District Motor Club the AS Performance NETRC Interclub Championship Trophy for 2016 and it is proudly displayed in the Club's Trophy Cabinet at Kibblesworth Workmens Club.

The Superstars championship was fought more closely than ever, with final positions not decided until the final event of the year. Overall we held 27 different events over the course of the year with the July Scalextric attracting an entry of 18 members! There were also new events brought on board which have provided very popular with our members.

The sporting and maps championships continued to tick along at a steady pace with the regular members enjoying good competition and high quality events. These championships would benefit from attracting some new competitors in to the tables and this should be a focus for 2017.

The club’s events have mostly had a good year, with the BCR attracting a brilliant entry and also turning a small profit. The Cheviot returned this year after the disappointment of last year and fielded a good entry, with challenging stages that competitors enjoyed. Again a small profit was returned from this event.

Tranwell saw a first for the event by running during the summer on a Saturday, organised by Jimmy and Kevin Knox who did a sterling job and created an excellent atmosphere on the Friday night with overnight camping, something we must do again.

Unfortunately, the Shaw didn’t return in 2016 for various reasons, but planning for the 2017 event is already underway as we want to ensure it runs once more. As ever the key to getting this event off the ground is the support of our club members and we would like to invite everyone to help with the organisation this year.

 
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