Chairman's Chat

I am sure the evening of Monday 10th December must have presented a dilemma for many members, do I go to the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club AGM or do I go to the Led Zeppelin reunion concert in London? Well I am glad to report that a lot of you decided to head for the Wheatsheaf and we ended up with every seat in the Function Room taken and standing room only for the late arrivals.

Follow up:

After listening to my report on the year’s events (you can read this elsewhere), Martin Baker took us through the accounts and explained about the small increase in the annual subscription. I am sure you will agree that it is still very good value for money and at least a fiver cheaper than other similar clubs. It was then time to elect the Board of Directors. With Ken Robson having stood down, I was very pleased to receive the nomination of Cherry Robinson to join us. All twelve names were duly elected, so welcome aboard Cherry.

Following the chance to ask questions of the Board, the formal meeting ended and the excellent buffet was served. This was the last chance to buy raffle tickets for the great range of prizes assembled by Martin Emsley. In fact Charlie Emsley and Donny Allen sold out of tickets, and every ticket sold was going to get a prize.

The second half of the evening commenced with the drawing of the top three raffle prizes by Martin, Bob Hart and our guest for the evening Sarah Reeves from Diabetes UK. Martin then had great pleasure in presenting a cheque to Sarah for £2000. Sarah was very pleased to receive the cheque and thanked the club for their fund raising efforts. She also told us that Diabetes UK, as well as raising funds for research, was also keen to inform members of the public of the symptoms of Diabetes and to ensure that they sought help from their Doctor if they showed any symptoms. Sarah then headed off home to Taunton and we proceeded to hand out the trophies to the 2007 winners.

Vice President Dick Craddy started the proceedings by thanking the Committee for their efforts during the year and for organising the wide range of events. Dick also gave us his own thoughts about the politics of the FIA and Formula One and how very different it was from the grass roots motorsport of our own Club. Following the presentation of the event trophies, it was time to hand out the Marshals award and this year it went to Martin Emsley. He had just taken his seat, when it was time for Martin to return to receive the Committee Rose Bowl Award. This was presented to Martin to thank him for all his efforts he had undertaken for the Club in 2007; Organising our first AutoSolo, roles in all four Sprints including running the Pegasus as Clerk of the Course, organising two Treasure Hunts and a Nav Ex, putting up our new storage shed, running two charity raffles, Stoneleigh trip organising and promoting the Club.

Before the award of the Clubman’s trophies there was a Special Award made. To celebrate the 22 years that Mal Allen has been the Membership Secretary, he was presented with an engraved tankard. The awards presentation ended with Paul Bird picking up the third place trophy in the Clubman’s Championship, second place went to Martin Baker and a well deserved first place went to our Competitions Secretary, Chris Goodchild.

The evening then ended with Ken Robson taking the Auctioneers gavel and raising some more money for Charity. Bob Hart has kindly agreed to organise a flight in a light aircraft and the three seats available fetched £50 each. We then had two vouchers for Merlin Motorsport at Castle Combe, a voucher for The Raceway at Avomouth, a Jacket presented by Wessex Garages, and a track day donated by Motorsport Events. The auction raised a further £340. It was then time to dive into the pile of raffle prizes and see what you had won.

My thanks go to those who contributed to the evening in organising the trophies, the raffle and the auction and to all of you who came along. Let us hope that 2008 is as successful a year for the Club.