Report
on the Council meeting from Al Barnett (V8 Chairman)
Mike Russell and I attended the Council meeting yesterday at Gaydon
as the representatives of the V8 Register. It was a reasonably good
tempered meeting with only Doug Bush (SE Centre) sounding a less than
cheerful note on a couple of occasions. John Dutton, Club Treasurer,
gave his customary clear exposition of the Club's financial performance
and financial position but announced that he will be standing down
in October 2008. The finances are much improved with the accounts
for last year back in balance and the magazine losses successfully
stemmed following the termination of the publishing arrangement with
MG Enthusiast and the launch of a revitalised and enlarged Club magazine,
Safety Fast!.
The main theme of the day was about falling membership but the subject
was confused by a lack of clarity concerning the MG Enthusiast membership
changes. There is to be a one day facilitated seminar, at a date to
be decided, to discuss the problem. I will circulate the details when
I get them. Mike has kindly offered to attend for the V8 Register
if he is available on the chosen date. There was a lot of talk about
attracting younger members but from the V8 Register viewpoint we are
never likely to attract many twenty year olds to V8 ownership as the
insurance costs preclude that!
Other points covered during the meeting were:
New Club Website - it is now under test and it is hoped it
will go live in a couple of weeks time - we shall see.
Kimber House extension - work continues on the project with
planning consent obtained and building regulation approval requested.
The meeting approved a capital spend of up to £100,000. John
Dutton says this should leave the Club with reserves of £250,000.
Work should start soon after the Club's International MG Meeting at
Silverstone in June. A motion from the SE Centre to delay the work
was rejected by a big majority.
International MG Meeting at Silverstone. Details were given
to the meeting of the annual event to be held in June but these were
little different from those given in Safety Fast!
Club's 80th Anniversary - a proposal from SE Centre to commit
the Club to major celebrations in 2010 for the 80th anniversary of
the Club was, on the advice of the Board, turned down by 29 to 1.
New member
recruitment - Richard Jones, General Manager, was disappointed
to report that |
Club
Council
The Club's Council comprises the nominated representative
of each CRB (known as the Council Member) together with a
second nominee (who has no vote but who may attend Council
meetings as an observer, taking over if the Council Member
is unable to attend). The Council Members each have a vote
at both Council meetings and at general meetings of the Company.
There are presently just over 30 CRBs eligible to have their
nominated representatives attend Council meetings. Council
usually meets twice a year in March/April and in October.
The role of Council, set out in the Articles of Association,
is to supervise and monitor the performance of the Executive
Committee and to represent the views and concerns of Club
members. For this purpose Council receives reports from the
Executive Committee, subcommittees and the General Manager
and considers motions submitted by the CRBs.
Club organisation information. More |
having distributed
70,000 recruiting cards only 150 had been returned and just 8 members
signed up. We were all urged to do better! See
footnote
Abingdon Museum - Brian Moylan, with the help of the Club
archives, is expanding the Abingdon Museum MG display, this could
be of interest to V8 Register members and friends during the V8
30th Anniversary Week.
Motor sport - Ron Gammons reported a strong start to the
competitions season with full grids and costs covered.
Club
subscriptions - an increase of £2 for all subscriptions
was proposed by the Board and after some discussion was accepted
by the meeting. The increase takes effect in May 2008.
The meeting
finished on time at 17.00.
Footnote
on new member recruitment
The comments made at the meeting seem to have overlooked the
fact that the V8 Register has been and continues to be a leading
recruiter of new members for the Club. We refer all new registrations
who do not appear to be existing MG Car Club members to Club
Office who send out a new member pack. A high proportion subsequently
join the Club. You can see the flow of members registering
with the V8 Register is considerable. More |
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