1998 Annual General Meeting and Prizegiving

The Annual General Meeting of the Bristol Aeroplane Company Motor Club held at the BAWA Leisure Centre, Southmead Road, Bristol, on Wednesday 16 December 1998.

28 members attended. Apologies for absence were received from Dave Parsons, Paul Priddey and Arthur Tankins.

Chairman Kieron Winter opened the meeting by welcoming those present. Under the new format introduced last year the minutes of the previous AGM were not read out to the meeting but copies had been circulated in advance. The motion that those minutes were an accurate record of that meeting was proposed by Paul Bird, seconded by Martin Emsley and carried unanimously.

CHAIRMAN'S REPORT

Kieron began his report by saying that we had set out to run the usual mixture of social and competitive events. He started his review of the social side with last year's AGM. In addition to the usual business, there had been an auction of tools and oddments kindly donated by Tom King. Tim Murray had acted as auctioneer, persuading people to part with money and raising 45 which had been donated to the Motor Sport Training Fund. In the same week as the AGM we had had a visit to the Jaguar factory and the Coventry Museum of Transport. At the museum we were shown behind the scenes at some of their vehicles awaiting restoration, and also had the chance to have a good look at Thrust 2, which still has our club badge attached to its steering wheel.

Club nights in 1998 commenced with a video evening in January featuring footage of a Werrington hillclimb where a certain red Morgan well-known in the club was seen attacking some innocent daffodils. In February we had an evening of Arthur Tankins films which was unfortunately not well attended. March saw another video evening, featuring a film on the Rover-BRMs at Le Mans. Noggin & Natters were held at various hostelries, including the Golden Heart, the Dog and the White Hart at Littleton. The autumn club night season had started with another Terry Sanger talk in his usual entertaining style. In October we had more Arthur Tankins films, much better attended this time. The skittles evening in November had a turnout of more than 30, with Howard Johnston scooping the dosh.

The karting this year was held at Hullavington, and took the form of an endurance event between several teams. The Castle Combe Test Day in July had been fully subscribed. It was held on a nice sunny day and ran very smoothly thanks to Phil Harris's excellent paddock marshalling. The F1 Fantasy competition ran again, and again ended in a three-way tie for first place. The tie-break (the winning margin on the RAC Rally) was won by Howard Johnston. Although it was not a club event, the visit of Thrust SSC to Rolls-Royce was of great interest, giving us the opportunity to have a good look at the car and hear a lecture from Richard Noble and his team.

On the competitions side, Competitions Secretary Richard Reynolds had tried to provide the usual mix, but some events had unfortunately been lost. There were 4 Nav Ex's, with entries varying between 4 and 9 crews. A Nav Scatter replaced the 12 car rally. A production car trial had been planned at a new venue provided by Gerry Bath, but had to be cancelled as the weather was inclement and only three entries had been received. The Testing Trial was not held as no organiser was forthcoming. The autotest was again co-promoted with MG CC. Treasure hunt entries varied between 3 and 14 crews - the excellent first prize on offer might well have lured the 14 out.

The usual three sprints were run. The Wessex had Ian Hall as its Clerk of Course for the first time. The Two Clubs was marred by an accident where the driver broke his wrist; its Top 12 Run Off ran well, apart from one competitor who broke down on both runs. The Pegasus had a full entry and ran well, apart from the two Morgans which threw themselves off at Quarry.

A survey of the membership, co-ordinated by Phil Harris, was sent out with the membership renewal forms to find out what events people were interested in competing in. This enabled us to target interested parties with mailshots in the run-up to the relevant events. Martin Emsley and Phil also organised a well-attended meeting with the other local motor clubs to look into holding more co-promoted events. The major finding was that whilst Bristol, MG and ourselves had good entries for our big sprint events, and Bath and Tavern had good entries for their major rallies, all had poor entries for their more minor events. As a result we are now planning a number of co-promoted events with Bristol and MG. Tavern and Bath were not so interested.

Moving on to the club championships, Kieron noted that 76 people had scored in the Clubmans Championship - up from 64 last year - with Paul Bird and Howard Johnston out ahead yet again. 36 people (up from 28 last year) scored points in the Marshals Championship. On the marshalling front Bob Hart carried out a survey to enable the creation of a list of sprint marshals. This proved extremely useful to the three clubs, and was much appreciated. In November around half a dozen of us attended the training day for speed event marshals at Castle Combe. This was a very good day, held in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. It will be held again next year, and Kieron highly recommended it.

As always a number of members were doing events outside the club, including sprints, hillclimbs, races and trials. Kieron encouraged those doing outside events to let Andy Moss know, for inclusion in Backfire. Our club is a member of both the ASWMC and ACSMC, and both these organisations run a variety of championships (Richard Reynolds can provide details of these to anyone interested), so it's possible to take part in a lot of events just by being a member of this club. We provided marshals for several external events, including the startline crew for Bristol MC's Castle Combe sprint, part of the Margam stage of the RAC Rally, and a section of the Allen trial, where we were entertained by a tractor on fire in a neighbouring field, and the fire engine getting bogged down in the mud after putting the fire out.

The transfer of all club memberships to run from 1 January to 31 December was now complete. The membership figures stood at a total of 143, slightly down on last year's 150.

Kieron noted that the Backfire newsletter has a very professional look these days, and paid tribute to editor Andy Moss and all who had contributed articles. These had included some lively correspondence, the tale of our Le Mans entry, the Antipodean issue, the A-Z of car makes, and last but not least the definitive article about Morris Marinas.

At last year's AGM only 10 people had been willing to stand for the 11 committee posts. During the year Tony Smith had joined the committee and had taken on the role of Social Secretary. The benefit of his work should be seen in 1999 with some guest speakers and club visits. Kieron thanked the committee for their services during the year.

In closing, Kieron noted that the reorganisations at the RAC will result in three entirely separate organisations. The RAC (Club) will remain at Pall Mall and Epsom. The RAC Motoring Services will operate as before under new ownership. A new body, the Royal Automobile Club Motor Sports Association (MSA), with a new logo, has received the FIA mandate to run motor sport in this country. Club members will still receive the discount from RAC Motoring Services, so we should not notice a lot of difference from these changes.

TREASURER'S REPORT

Martin Baker presented the accounts for our financial year 1 November 1997 to 31 October 1998. He noted that the surplus from membership fees and RAC subscriptions was up on last year following the transfer to the Jan - Dec membership year and because we were selling more higher-value RAC memberships. Events had shown their expected large loss as they generate no income apart from an insurance refund, whilst expenditure goes on trophies. The sprints were again in surplus, although the co-promoted surplus was slightly down due to the purchase of new cones.

Interest earned was up on last year following the transfer of all funds into the current account. Film stock for the club films is becoming more expensive. Backfire expenses rose considerably following the change to commercial printing.

The gross surplus for the year was about equal to the sprints surplus. Thus the club breaks even on all activities apart from the sprints.

On the basis of these figures Martin saw no need for a rise in membership fees. He thanked Rex Meaden for auditing these accounts.

Dick Craddy proposed that these accounts be approved. This was seconded by Malcolm Allen and carried nem con. Martin then proposed that Rex Meaden be reappointed as auditor. This was seconded by Ian Hall and again carried nem con.

COMMITTEE

There were 11 nominations to fill the 11 posts. These were:

Malcolm Allen
Martin Baker
Paul Draper
Martin Emsley
Ian Hall
Phil Harris
Andy Moss
Tim Murray
Richard Reynolds
Tony Smith
Kieron Winter

The election of this committee was proposed by Bob Hart, seconded by Alan Spencer and carried nem con.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Paul Bird asked about the promised floppy disks for non-Internet users giving the info featured on our web site. Andy Moss reported that due to shortage of time the web site had got a bit behind, but that Richard Reynolds was now assisting with this.

Gerry Bath was disturbed that there were now so few club members at BAe and RR. It was noted that with RR numbers down to 4,500 and BAe at 3,500 there was just not any new blood coming in, and the situation was unlikely to improve. Alan Spencer asked if we should be worried. The consensus was that we were OK for the moment.

Bill Farrow reported that RAC Motoring Services had refused to provide him with a recovery service after his accident at Wiscombe. After a lot of hassle he had got them to admit liability and pay his expenses. Jonathan Milne had enquired about this at the Motor Show and been told that if he joined through the MSA he would be covered. Max Barton had obtained the service with no problem; Mike McBraida had been brought back from Wroughton only after much persuasion on his part. There is obviously some confusion. Malcolm Allen was asked to keep an eye on the situation.

Howard Johnston asked if we were still receiving invitations to other clubs' events. Richard Reynolds reported that we were getting very little from local clubs, with a bit more from elsewhere in the ACSMC. Kieron suggested that people register their interests with Richard, who will then keep them posted with anything he receives. Gerry Bath recommended the Haynes Classic Tour the entry fee was 50 but this included meals and free entry to various places etc.

Ian Hall noted that Bath MC have a sprint date at Colerne in September. Kieron Winter wondered if there was still a restriction on the number of events allowed there each year. Dick Craddy stated that it used to be six events.

Malcolm Allen asked whether it was worth trying to run production car trials. Kieron Winter noted that we were involved in running two next year, one with Bristol MC and one with MG CC. Dick Craddy asked if the entry fees for these events would be the same. Kieron said that this had not yet been decided.

Bob Hart reported that Bristol MC were proposing an inter-club karting event at Castle Combe, probably around Easter time. Paul Draper suggested it would be to the same format that we ran this year at Hullavington. Dave Cutcliffe reckoned Hullavington was better than Combe. Paul Bird disagreed, stating that the new Combe layout was very good.

The meeting closed at 9-10 pm.

Prizegiving

Clubmans Championship winner Howard Johnston poses with his trophy. Photo : Martin Baker

Commitee Rose Bowl Winner Dave Cutcliffe with Trophy - Crew members Jonathon Milne (left) and Pete Stowe (right). Dave was awarded the trophy for his out standing performance in the British Sprint Championship in his self prepared Van Diemen sprint car. Photo : Martin Baker.

Bill Farrow with special award.

Second place in the Clubmans Championship went to Paul Bird. Photo : Martin Baker.