Minutes of meeting held on 21st April 2007

 

Welcome and review of last years minutes.

Club President, Paul Roberts, opened the meeting at 2pm and welcomed everyone. The Minutes for the 2006 AGM were reviewed and accepted unanimously as a true record of that meeting.

 

Chairman’s Report

Brendan Fennell, Club Chairman, welcomed everyone to the 2007 AGM. He noted that although people come and go, new members were joining regularly and that the membership base was staying at a consistent 450+, which was encouraging.

He mentioned the fact that the GTO’s purchase price was dropping, and that that was attracting more members who would have less knowledge than previous years due to the easier availability of the marque. He said that new members should be encouraged to ask questions on the forums, and not be scared of posting. Existing members should have patience and answer these questions that have been asked many times before, maintaining the friendly nature that has been seen on the forums over the last 12 months.

Brendan spoke about the Speedball Rally, and although it was a small number of GTO’s that participated due to various reasons, it was a good event that he felt was ideally suited to the car. A good time was had by all involved, and he felt that more people should try to do this type of thing.

He spoke briefly about future plans for the club, which would be coming up in “Matters Arising”

 

Treasurers Report

Simon Baker showed everyone the accounts for the membership year 2006/2007, which were unanimously accepted as being an accurate record.

 

GTO UK Accounts 31 March 2007 - Part 2 GTO UK Accounts 31 March 2007 - Part 1

 

Election of Officers

Honorary Positions:            Club President      –               Paul Roberts

Vice President      –               Mark Sturman

The following positions were voted in, unanimously, by a show of hands:

Chairman Brendan Fennell Treasurer Simon Baker
Secretary/External Relations Ian Trevena Membership Database Pete Draper
Events Organiser TBA Membership Secretary Mark Flook
Web Master Steve Lawtey

 

Matters Arising

A number of topics were raised for voting.

  • Prospective Members:
  1. There was discussion about if we should allow non-owners to join the club, therefore changing from an Owners Club, or if we should allow an “Associate Membership”. The 20 post limit was also discussed.
  2. There was a vote: “Do we allow full members without cars?” – carried “NO”
  3. There was a vote: “Do we allow an Associate / Affiliate membership level?” – carried “YES”
  4. Simon Baker was to sort out the details on this membership level.

 

  • Traders/Committee members be allowed moderation rights
  1. There was discussion on this subject, and whether this could produce a conflict of interest. A specific case was mentioned, as the members present were confused by the non-specific conversation. Brendan explained, and Rob clarified what he considered the situation was.
  2. Steve pointed out that he could track changes on posts and inform the committee of these.
  3. There was a vote: “Should a trader have moderation rights outside of his own section, if he is also a committee member?” – carried “YES”

 

  • Non-traders offering goods or services via PM or via the forums
  1. There was discussion about a recent problem that someone had with another, non-forum registered trader, involving large sums of money and extremely poor service. Could the club do anything to stop this happening?
  2. It was asked if there could be a naming and shaming policy, but there were legal implications with this that made it impossible. It was then asked if a new PM template could be implemented that added a disclaimer along the lines of “If you are being offered goods or services via PM, please report this to the committee” – this was to be looked into by Steve.
  3. There was a vote: “If someone is touting for business via PM or forum, and they are not a club-registered trader, should they be given a ban?” – carried “YES” (one warning, then ban)

 

  • In what way can the members help with the running of the club and events?
  1. Newsletter
    1. It was pointed out that without submission, creating a newsletter was difficult.
    2. Stevie and Tracie were asked to run the Newsletter, with submissions from the regional event organisers outline below, which should make it easier.
  2. Regional Event Organisers
    1. The UK was divided into 10 regions, and Regional Event Coordinators were picked. The role would involve organising regular local meets, and welcoming new members. In addition, they would provide a write-up of the events and happenings to the Newsletter Team for inclusion in the newsletter.
    2. The Regional Event Coordinators are:
      Region Number Event Coordinator Region Number Event Coordinator
      1 Rob 2 Malcolm
      3 Jane 4 Ian (ICS)
      5 Mark Saunders 6 Mike Miller
      7 Pete & Carole Bennett 8 Dave Naxton
      9 Markdas 10 Hukent
  3. National Event Organisers
    1. It was decided that the following should continue to organise the main national events:
      National Event Organiser National Event Organiser
      Japfest Adam JAE James
      Christmas Meal Mark B AGM 2007 ?
    2. As for the AGM, Brendan told the room that the committee was willing to travel anywhere as long as it was organised by someone local to the event. Given the problems organising the 2007 AGM, it was felt that the members could offer support in setting the location of the meeting, and organising an AGM event that suited them. The only guideline offered being that it had to remain at the same time period in the year. This would be posted on the forums shortly, so that it could be discussed and arranged in plenty of time for next year.

Merchandising

  1. Simon Baker advised that income from this had halved over the last year and suggested that an ad-hoc subcommittee be formed from people who had the contacts and ideas to both create and supply new products that might appeal to the membership. This was to be posted on the forums shortly, so that the general membership could put forward offers of assistance.

 

Any Other Business

  1. Marty announced that MK Performance was closing down after 18 months of trading
  2. Paul reminded everyone that if they had documents detailing maintenance tasks, or upgrades etc with pictures (as “How to…” guides), that they should e-mail them to him, and he could include them on the website to help other members.
  3. It was asked whether some posts could be moved to the FAQ – Brendan agreed to look to see if this had been done.
  4. Rob offered advice to the new Regional Coordinators – pick one location for the main meet, and stick to it.
  5. Graham presented the ¼ mile trophy to Ben Hartley for his fastest ¼ mile of the last membership year.

 

Brendan Fennell closed the meeting at 3.55 pm.