2008 Annual General Meeting	December 2008

 

The meeting was held at the Bengal Tandoori Restaurant in Wickham Market, a venue decidedly warmer than the club room and better for coherent discussion. The food was pretty good , too! The following club members were present. were Nigel Harvey, Kevin Letherington, Sarah Harvey, Paul Austin, John Careford and Richard Mack. Apologises for absence were received from Gary Harvey and Stuart Manson. As there were no notes from the previous meeting it was straight into the main business of the meeting, electing officials for 2009 and looking to how the club can move forward. Kevin Letherington was happy to continue as the Club Secretary. Paul Austin volunteered to take on the Competition Secretary job and John Careford the Treasurer, in the light of Nigel harvey's resignation from both these posts. It was agreed that a simplified race control procedure would be employed reverting to a paper race sheet to record all race details. The computer will be used just to record laps in the hope that this would allow more of the membership to run a race night. Other changes were discussed to allow other responsible members to run a club night in the absence of the officials. Nigel Harvey will give support to both new officials in the New Year as they find their feet in their new roles. Rule changes for the coming season were limited to a change of body shell in the 1/24 Production class. It was agreed that saloon type bodies would be run in this class in place of the current sports racing shells. A ‘saloon’ by definition is a car whose full size original has four or five seats and is a closed car with a solid roof. As long as it fits this description and covers the chassis it is legal. no approved body lists here! There was, also, some discussion with regards running another class in the reverse direction as well as the current 1/24 Production class. Some trials will be done in January to assess which class would most benefit from this. The possibility of fitting reversing switches to the track was discussed but the rewiring work required would be very substantial so at the present time it was decided not to modify the track but ask competitors to swop their lead wires over instead. With only two or three members showing an interest in racing at the combined Area 6/10 rounds it was suggested that the club could hold a one off event on a Sunday, date to be convenient for all members interested. This would be open to all club members and would be run on area round lines with racing in all four BSCRA 1/32 classes. Some time was spent discussing the low membership and ideas were put forward to increase numbers. It was suggested that the publicity posters recently produced should have added to them a banner reading “New members wanted!”. There is to be schools Scalextrix programme of which Nigel Harvey will find out more details with a view to club involvement. Getting publicity in adult areas was thought to be paramount A number of large local employers will be targeted with a view to running an exhibition track on site. Finally it was agreed to set a date later in the year to do maintenance on the track and perhaps repaint and number it. as this is long overdue. Some braid and slot repairs or corner modification could also be done then. The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Bengal (highly recommended grub!) and a very positive feeling for the coming season. Results of the 2008 Championship will appear here in the New Year.

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