Chairman’s Report – AGM 2011
2011 has quite possibly been the busiest year for the club. It has, without doubt, been a year full of events and special memories.
We decided, as a club, to “get back to basics”, attend local events and support local charities, which we have done with great gusto and I applaud all who have supported the many events over the past 12 months, as we have had so many.
We kicked off the season with our Drive It Day activity on 17th April. We had quite a turn out with 17 Morris Minors, 2 Minis and 2 sweep cars making their way along the Yorkshire Moors and onwards to the coast for a Fish ‘n chip lunch – Arthur Henderson put together a really fantastic coastal route and Fish ‘n chips at Redcar were well worth the trip, plus the weather was glorious, making it a great start to our club’s season.
Souter in May was somewhat challenging, the weather was pretty grim, but we battened down the hatches and still all managed to have a really enjoyable time, with 26 cars attending. Every year we, as a club, look forward to Souter and every year we hope that the weather will not let us down, but this year and last year we’ve had possibly some of the worst weather ever. Still, it will not stop us from being there again next year.
Our branch was approached by Area 1 to host the Northern Regional Rally in 2011, which we accepted with good grace. The North East Branch has become renowned for our wonderful hospitality and ability to host successful, fun events. However, this particular event proved difficult to plan and host, not only due to location, but also due to cost. Our committee were more than challenged every step of the way, but true to form we pulled out all the stops and the weekend was a great success, much to the great pleasure of the Area 1 Committee. Thank you to the team; Arthur & Kath Henderson, Colin & Sue Bell, Malcolm & Dorothy Bainbridge, Brian Butler and Grant Cramond. Colin spent many days and hours trawling not only the internet but the streets in search of locations and possible sites for the camping and the actual rally, so grateful thanks to him for his determination and perseverance in bringing it all together. We had 34 cars on the field, 3 of which were other classics. Six of the 14 regional branches were represented and we even had representation from Area 2. Sue Akrill, Area Chair, certainly sang our praises and will do so again at the next Area Liaison meeting.
Wallington in June, despite yet more dreadful weather, was very well attended with 40 cars on the field. It was really fantastic to see so many people take up the mantle and come in 1940’s attire. The visitors to Wallington were thoroughly impressed not only with our cars but also with some of the very attractive outfits.
The National event at Knebworth House was really good weekend and we had quite a large North East Branch contingency attend, which was superb. It’s never a good weekend without some incident to mark the occasion, and Paddy bouncing his beloved Betsy off his trailer certainly made for interesting memories of the weekend. Hearty congratulations to Brian Phillips who was awarded the trophy for best Visitor Car with his red Morris Oxford.
Again this year we were invited to a number of local events, the Durham Regatta featured on our calendar and the club attended on both the Saturday and the Sunday. Sue Baker with her lovely Old English white saloon won a trophy for best in class on the Saturday – another winner for the club! It’s always good to have one of our own cars win at the local events that we attend. We have been invited back next year and are hopeful to fit it into our calendar, as it was quite popular.
Our Branch Rally in August was another superb weekend filled with all kinds of activities. The weather was indeed kind to us up to a point. Although the almost “monsoon-like” conditions on the Saturday evening proved challenging and unfortunately cut the evening short for safety reasons. Our Saturday night entertainment and BBQ was without doubt spectacular, our resident line-dancing cowboys (Arthur, Colin & Paddy) looked amazing in pink and certainly strutted their stuff, and our singer Trudi was really brilliant, and we will certainly be looking to have her come back next year. The rally on Sunday was excellent; it was good to see the field so full of Morris Minors and also to see a healthy number of other classics come along too.
Seaton Delaval was new to our club calendar this year and one we intend to keep on the calendar for 2012 and having 21 cars on the forecourt was in itself amazing for a first time at this venue. It is a truly beautiful venue and all
the restoration work should be completed before we plan to go back in September next year, so it will mean a much more enjoyable visit to see it all restored to its former glory, I will be very excited to go back to see the results.
Our charity this year was the Brighter Skies based in Spennymoor, and I’d like to thank Kath Henderson for working very hard to raise funds for this worthwhile concern who do tremendous work to raise funds for Alzheimer’s research. We managed to raise £500 in funds this year for them.
I’d like to thank Sue and Colin Bell for continuing to put together and distribute our club magazine and keep our web site current. Both our magazine and our web site work extremely well for the club and our members. We continue to get very good feedback on both. Our web site certainly brings people from other areas and car clubs to our events, which is always a good thing.
I’d like to thank our Club Liaison Officers, Malcolm Bainbridge and Grant Cramond for continuing to represent our club at regional and national liaison meetings this year. They have worked to ensure that our members get feedback from these meetings and raise any issues our club or its members may need to address.
I would like to thank Dorothy Bainbridge and Andrew Henderson who have both worked very hard for the club at various rallies. Andrew continues to hold our Senior Marshall title and does the job very well in all weather conditions!
And last but not least I thank Brian Butler for managing our membership; Brian has seen the largest growth over 2011, which has kept growing month on month. Plus we are already seeing renewals coming through so it’s encouraging that we appear to be doing something right and the fruits of all the hard work are certainly showing in the numbers.
Our Drive it Night each year always proves to be a little embarrassing, not because we do a bad job of the planning, but because on many occasions we have met potential new members out in the car park, or perhaps members who do not come often and who may have forgotten about our social plans in June., and they arrive without their beloved Morris Minor, so in an effort to avoid this happening in the future we have decided that we will move away from the normal social night and the Drive it Night Social next year will take place on Thursday 10th June, the week after our normal social meeting night. We are also considering a fresh new route.
Diary Dates – The following 2012 rally dates have been confirmed:
Souter Lighthouse – 13th May
Wallington Hall – 10th June
Branch Rally Stanhope – 19th August (provisional)
Seaton Delaval Hall – 9th September (provisional)
Another season is coming to an end and most members will be putting their cars away for the winter. However, we still have a number of events to look forward to, most especially our Christmas Party on 1st December. We have planned our annual post-Christmas get together for a meal out for the 14th January at The Old Mill, so keep all these dates in your diaries.
I would like to thank all our members for their continued support this year. It has been encouraging to see the participation at our events this year, it has certainly made all the hard work of the Committee members very worthwhile. This small but effective
Tracey Cramond
Chairperson
(October 2010 - September 2011)