Welton Owners AGMs
Welton Owners Club
Meeting of the 55th Annual General Meeting held at
Bothamsall Village Hall, Nottinghamshire.
Saturday 14th September 2024
1. Apologies for absence.
Den & Val Mattocks, Kathy & David Shearing, Brian and Barbara Gent, Julian and Claire Boyden, Jeremy and Christine Walker, Brian and Diane Ford, Bill & Aubyn Arbuckle, Richard and Gail Haste, Paul and Julia Burden, David and Janice Kent, Jan and David Hale.
2. Minutes of the 54th Annual General Meeting.
The minutes were approved and proposed by Dennis Harris and Seconded by Rosemay Germaine.
3. Matters Arising.
There were no matters arising.
4. Chairmans Report.
As Jean was unwell Tracy Totman opened the meeting.
Tracy welcomed everyone to the 55th AGM, and then continued to explain Jean was unable to attend the meeting due to an injury to her knee that she sustained earlier in the year putting up her awning at Rately. Tracy explained that Jean had decided not to wait for NHS surgery as it was going to take too long and had opted to go private. She is due to have surgery early in October which should mean she will be fit and well to commence rallying next year. Tracy then presented Jeans report.
We had a difficult start to the year, when once again we lost members. My cousin John Tyler and Bernard Hawkins both died, and our condolences were sent to the families. Chris Sanderson is battling a health problem, and I know members are in regular contact with both Chris and Maggie, and we send Chris all our good wishes for a speedy recovery.
On the plus side, we have had new members join and we send a hearty welcome to them all.
The weather once again played havoc with our rallies, and low numbers and late bookers, do make things difficult. A hostage to hospital appointments myself these days, I understand sometimes that forward planning can be impossible, but the cut off dates for booking in the rally book are there for a reason, and these are the dates that the site owners impose upon us for the numbers, and we cannot guarantee a place for those booking after these dates.
This is our 55th AGM and the committee felt that we should do something to record another milestone in the club’s history. We chose the 1939 painting of the Green Dragon pub at Welton as something a little different, and hope that you like what we have done with the coasters. Perhaps in future years we could use the painting
on other things. The 16th Century pub has an interesting history, and a claim to fame, as well as being the place where the first meeting of the Welton Owners Club, was held 55 years ago, it is also the place where Dick Turpin spent his last hours of freedom before being arrested on a charge of brawling. Turpin was living in Welton under the assumed name of John Palmer, and wrote to his brother, but neglected to pre-pay the postage. His brother refused the letter and so it was returned to sender. Somehow it came into the possession of the schoolmaster who recognised his former pupil Turpin’s hand and hence Turpin was tried and hanged in 1739
My Thanks of course go to the officers and committee for giving their time and expertise to run our club. We must also thank those who volunteer to run the rallies. David is standing down as Rally Secretary this year, having done a sterling job for us, and not forgetting the Rally Secretary’s Secretary Tracy, who has also put a lot of time into finding sites, getting discounts and dealing with all of our questions. We have thank goodness, received an offer from Pete Reynolds to take on the job, and for that I am extremely grateful. I am sure Pete will welcome suggestions and ideas for sites as he puts together the 2026 programme.
Pat stood down as Treasurer at last year’s AGM and Gill took over. Our constitution forbids the secretary and treasurer from standing down in the same year. But Tracy can now move on with Gill in post and I can stand down in 2025. We do need more volunteers if we are to survive, and I am grateful for the new committee members, Andy and Neil, who have come forward this year. So, I finish with a huge welcome from us all to the new committee for 2025.
Proposed by Gaye Reynolds
Seconded by Gill Dance.
5. Treasurers Report
This year we are celebrating the 55th anniversary of the Welton Owners Club so we have decided to present each member attending the AGM with a celebrity Coaster. We have a website designer onboard; he has done a great job so far. The bank statement at our closing year stands at £2,097.92, as I am new to this it looks like it is on course. All expenses are explained on the account sheet. If you have any questions, I am happy to do my best to answer them.
Proposed by Peter Reynolds
Seconded by Sally Gaffer.
Dennis Harris asked the treasurer why there was less in the bank at the close of the year compared to last year’s accounts.
Tracy explained to the meeting that we had paid out for two websites for a few months, the cost of the coasters, and also there had been fewer rallies this year and also less attendees, which had all had a knock-on effect. Dennis was happy with this explanation.
6. Secretary’s Report.
There was no correspondence.
The membership stands at 44 members at the present time, two less than this time last year. There had been 6 new members. I managed to recruit whilst on holiday in Scotland and Neil has volunteered to join the Committee, although he has not managed to attend a rally with us yet due to previous commitments. Neil and Nicky, his wife have driven up from near Stratford Upon Avon to be here this afternoon, so Thank You, and its lovely to see you here.
Chris Sanderson managed to recruit whilst selling his caravan equipment. Andy and Sally Gaffer managed to attempt to recruit whilst on another club’s rally, we won’t mention which one, I am still waiting to hear back from them. Others came from recommendations, so keep it up.
7 members failed to renew their membership this year. Many of them had joined and had not rallied with us, some had reached an age where they felt it was time to hang up their caravan keys for good. Unfortunately as you have already heard John Tyler passed away.
We still have members that have joined but not yet rallied, lets hope they decide to join us on the rally field in 2025.
We will loose two more members from our numbers, Chirs and Maggie Sanderson have had to stop caravaning as Chris is unwell and is going through Chemotherapy at the moment. Very sadly, Bernie Hawkins had an accident last December and fell from a ladder and sustained a serious head injury and died in January. Bernie will be remembered from always running everywhere. Both couples will be missed as they were regular ralliers.
I am in contact with Viv Hawkins, and she misses us all and is doing OK, she is busy with her walking club and visiting her sons and grandchildren. She is going to move into a flat as her house and garden is too big for her to manage. She has promised to come and see us all when we are at Battlebridge next year. Let’s hope she does it will be lovely to see her.
As you would have read in the Newsletter, Jean is standing down as Chairman next year so I will be standing for the position. That means that the Secretary’s position is now vacant. We cannot continue to run without someone coming forward. Jean and I were hoping that someone would come forward now so that I could mentor them this year whilst standing as Vice Chairman. It is not too late please consider this. Come and talk to me.
I have membership cards ready for 2025 and I will be happy to take your money after the AGM or anytime on the rally field.
Proposed by Pat Vigors
Seconded by Andy Gaffer.
7. Election of Officers.
There was no vote, so the Officers and Committee are as follow. -
Chairman Jean Yates
Secretary Tracy Totman
Treasurer Gill Dance
Rally Secretary Peter Reynolds
8. Election of Committee members and presentations.
Dennis Harris
Gail Haste
Pat Vigors
David Totman
Andy Gaffer
Neil Whitmore.
9. A.O.B
Peter said that he had managed to set up the new website and we were still waiting for the old one to be closed down. Tracy said she would discuss this with Jean and send a message to Helen. There would be no payments made to that domain anymore so it should cease to be from the end of September. Peter asked the members to be more involved in what is put on the website. He said he was hoping to make a member’s section where people would need to put in a password to gain access. Rally reports need to be sent to Peter to allow him to put on the website and also any photographs that members have and would like to share.
Neil Whitmore said that he had experience of running websites and would happily help Peter and be his assistant. There was then a discussion about how to take the website forward.
Tracy said that the Coasters would be for sale after the meeting. They would be £3.00 each for £10 for 4. They would be available on rallies.
Tracy reported that as it was a special AGM there was a cake that she had made, and her daughter Vicky had iced. There would be bubbly which would be served after David had done his report and presentation of the 2025 rallies.
10.Rally Secretary Report.
The first rally of 2024, the Easter Rally was cancelled due to lack of support. Only one van booked on apart from the rally officers. Obviously, a bad choice. The AGM venue had to be changed as the site at Car Colston stopped holding rallies. This meant a last-minute change. A big decision had to be made, was it to go cheap to allow all to attend, that meant no EHU or go to £25 night on a proper site with EHU. Whatever decision I made would be wrong so after a consultation with Jean it was decided to go cheap to allow people who are on a budget to attend. As you can see by the number of members here it has been a poor turnout.
Rally attendance continues to be low, may be due to the higher cost of fuel, and also rally site cost have increased. I know from other clubs that they have also been cancelling rallies due to low numbers. Sites are also reporting low turn outs. Perhaps they might look at their prices and decide to reduce them, we can at least
hope. I have tried to put-on low-cost rallies, but many members want EHU, and this means higher site fees. Unfortunately, you cannot have both. The programme for 2025 is a mixture of EHU and non EHU as usual to allow everyone to attend at some point throughout the year. We have managed to book some rallies where you can choose to have EHU or not.
We have 4 new sites for next year and 6 that we have been to before, although some of them we have not been to for some time.
I would like to Thank all those who ran rallies this year and to those of you who have volunteered to run them for 2025. I still have one rally that needs a rally officer and that is the Easter rally in Dorset. I would be grateful for volunteers. I would also like to Thank Tracy for being the Rally Secretary’s Secretary, and for all the work she does for me.
I have great pleasure in handing over the job of rally secretary to Peter Reynolds for next year and wish him well, I will support Peter as much as he needs me. Good luck with the 2026 programme. New broom, new ideas. I will attempt to get the rally book typed up as soon as get home from the next rally and hopefully it will be available in late November, early December.
I will now present the 2025 rally programme.
The rally programme for 2025 is as follows: -
12th to 26th April South Lytchett Manor, Poole Dorset (Easter) 26th April to 10th May Widdicombe Farm, Compton Torquay Deveon 21st May to 31st May Muggeridge Farm, Battlesbridge Essex. (May BH) 8th June to 18th June Alnwick Rugby Club, Alnwick, Northumberland 18th June to 28th June Tynedale Rugby Club, Corbridge, Northumberland, 28th June to 9th July Newsholme Manor, Keighley, West Yorks, 27th July to 10th August Burleigh Hill Farm, St Ives, Cambridgeshire 3rd to 14th September Bridge Farm, Appledore, Kent
28th Sept to 12th Oct Yew Tree Farm, Far Forest, Worcs (AGM) 12th to 26th Oct Lady Heyes Touring, Frodsham Cheshire.
Following the presentation David invited Peter to say a few words. Peter said that he was hoping to find some themed rallies, such as shows, and events. He also asked people to come forward and give him ideas of what they would like to see in the programme. He said he like the idea this year of 3 rallies of 10 days each following on from each other. There was then a discussion around what people wanted.
The meeting closed at 15.05pm
Date and venue of the next AGM meeting.
Saturday 4th October at 2p.m at the meeting room. Yew Tree Farm, Pound Bank, Far Forest, Kidderminster, Worcs.
Welton Owners Club
Meeting of the 54th Annual General Meeting held at
Monks Farm Barn Stratford Upon Avon.
Saturday 30th September 2023
1. Apologies for absence.
Gary and Nikki Norris, Gail and Richard Haste, John Tyler, Paul and Hilary Bridger, Alan and Rosemary Germaine, Jeremy and Christine Walker, Aubyn and Bill Arbuckle, Tony and Marion Munday, David and Janice Kent.
2. Minutes of the 53rd Annual General Meeting.
The minutes were approved and proposed by Dennis Mattocks and seconded by Peter Reynolds
3. Matters arising.
There were no matters arising.
4. Chairmans report.
Welcome to the 54th AGM of the Welton Owners Club. The monks have kindly allowed us to use their tithe barn once again this year.
I need to report on a number of things. Firstly, during this year Jeanette Tarbuck has died. She was a committee member for Welton until 2013 when ill health prevented her from caravanning any longer. Jeanette and her partner Barbara were the first Weltonians to form a civil partnership many years ago, and the then current Chairman, who was Albert Rawlings and my late husband acted as the two best men. I have sent Jeanette’s daughter our condolences.
Secondly, we had to renew the club’s licences this year. For the benefit of our new members, the licences which enable us to site on farmers land or on unlicensed fields attached to sites, without applying for planning permission, are issued by Natural England on behalf of the government. They include a 5 day, and a 28-day licence to rally in England and a separate licence to rally in Wales. We do not apply for, and do not therefore hold licences for Scotland.
Licences have to be renewed every five years and during the time the rules which we have to agree, publish in our rally book and comply with change. This year I had six weeks to rewrite the club’s constitution and rules of conduct, to enable us to renew the licences before they ran out. You have been emailed with the changes and will be asked to ratify these later in the meeting. The new version’s will be in the rally book for 2024, and therefore you will have a copy. David tells me the book will be 28 pages long next year instead of the usual 24, because of the changes.
Next, I need to say that no one has come forward to be the club secretary for the coming year, and in the natural progression of things, Tracy would become Chair. Thus, I am in a position where I am approaching a fifth year as Chair, which is not ideal. Pat Vigors, who has been our Treasurer for some years has sadly also tendered her
resignation. I do want to thank Pat for looking after our millions over the last few years, and hope that she will remain on the Committee so that we benefit from her advice and wisdom.
We are in danger of being unable to operate as a club if these posts are not filled in the coming year. We must have a full complement of officers and a minimum of four committee members to meet the rules of the government licence requirement. Pat is willing to train someone this year and to step down as soon as her successor feels comfortable.
I am seriously and urgently looking to fill both of these positions, secretary and treasurer, and I am happy to take volunteers from the floor now or come and speak to me later.
At this point Gillian Dance put herself forward for the position of Treasurer. Details of how she would be trained up and eased into the position to be discussed at Committee meeting following AGM.
Jean thanked Gill for coming forward.
I would like to thank the committee and officers for their work in the last year. Pat has again kept our finances in good order, David has planned another year of rallies which we will hear about shortly, and Tracy has written minutes and communicated with you all on many occasions. We have lost John Tyler from the Committee and the club through ill health and we wish him well. A number of members, including me, have done battle with health issues in the past year or so, and a personal thank you from me to everyone, and especially Tracy, without whose help I could not have rallied when on my own. I now know how frustrating it is not to be able to manage your own chores, and how difficult it is to ask others for help. But, as in all good clubs, members come to the aid of those in need and I have been extremely grateful for that help when I needed it.
The recent pandemic years have changed our caravanning. Prices have gone up, site owners have changed, and caravan and motorhome sales have gone through the roof, as the population realised that people like us had got it right.
Steve tells me that in the bible there is a passage which encourages the community to leave their houses once a year, and live a simpler way of life outdoors, in order to remember and appreciate a plainer existence that we all once had. It is called the Feast of Tabernacles, a major Jewish festival and occurs at harvest time, when we should all pray for a rainy season between October and March, and construct a temporary shelter and live in it for a week. Well, we may not build our own caravans and motorhomes, and we do use them for longer than a week, but the moral is the same.
We belong to a club that is not quite unique, but certainly rare, in that we enjoy in the Welton’sthe opportunity to stay longer than the more common rally weekend. It would be a shame almost criminal to relinquish our 28-day licence which was hard fought for 25 years ago. I manged to obtain it after the foot and mouth epidemic which was then
the current challenge to our rallying. But every cloud has a silver lining and the extension to 28 days was ours. Can we work together and keep that precious licence? With your help we can, so please volunteer.
Proposed by Dianne Ford and Seconded by Dennis Harris
5. Treasurers Report.
This year the accounts are back to being for 12 months, 1st September2022 to 31st August 2023.
The balance at the end of the year is £2789.44. Slightly up on last year so I believe this is still healthy.
The coronation celebrations held at St Ives had the cake, Pimms, and breakfast food paid for by the club. The lovely cake was made by Tracy and decorated by Vicky, Tracy and Davids daughter and the breakfast prepared and cooked by Tracy and David. Other expenses are the usual kind as reported on the accounts sheet. If you have any questions, please ask me and I will try to answer them.
Proposed by Val Mattocks and Seconded by Jean Gollins.
6. Secretary’s Report
The only correspondence I have is from John Tyler. Unfortunately, John has been unwell this year and has now had to sell his caravan. He has stood down from Committee but has said that he only rallied for a short time with the Welton’s, but he enjoyed everyone’s company each time we met up. He wished to continue as a member so that he could keep in touch with all our adventures.
I will be sending John our best wishes and thank him for his time spent on Committee and for running the St Ives rally this year especially as he was unwell at the time.
The membership stands at 46 members at the present time.
8 members failed to renew their membership this year. Many of them had joined but not rallied with us, some had reached an age where they felt it was time to hang up their caravan keys for good.
We have 8 new members, 4 of whom have rallied, so that is good.
The new members have come mainly from word of mouth. We did recruit at Lyme Regis, when a members friends came to visit and joined us for an afternoon of crazy golf and tea and donuts. They enjoyed themselves and thought we were a good bunch and joined. They have rallied since joining.
I have membership cards ready for 2024 and I will be happy to take your money after the AGM or anytime on the rally field.
Proposed by Val Mattocks and seconded by Dennis Harris.
7. Election of Officers.
There was no vote, so the Officers and Committee are as follows: -
Chairman Jean Yates
Secretary Tracy Totman
Treasurer Pat Vigors
Rally Secretary David Totman
8. Election of Committee members and presentations.
Dennis Harris,
Marion Clow
Gail Haste
Gill Dance
Peter Reynolds
Jean welcomed Peter on to the Committee and then presented the officers and committee with their plaques.
Tracy presented Jean with her plaque.
Jean thanked everyone for serving the club.
9. The adoption of the new constitution and code of conduct.
Jean requested that there was a show of hands on the floor to agree to adopt the new constitution.
Vote was unanimously approved.
Jean then requested that there was a show of hands from the floor to agree the new code of conduct.
Vote was unanimously approved.
10. A.O.B.
There was none.
11. Rally Secretary’s report and presentation of 2024 rallies.
One rally had to be cancelled this year due to lack of interest, but after it had been cancelled about 5 people came forward and said they would have gone. This is a shame for them, the rally officers, and the site, who were very understanding, thankfully.
Rally attendance was down, may be due to the higher cost of fuel this year and also rally site costs have increased.
It has been quite a challenging trying to book sites for 2024. Many sites have increased their prices to over £35 a night. Some have put in EHU metres which gives us a choice as to how much electricity we use and pay for. It is very expensive to put in EHU metres, so some sites are charging per unit by reading a metre on your pitch, where others are
using pre-payment cards. Sites seem to be charging a variety of prices which is totally out of our control. This year we have paid as little as 35p a unit up to 78p a unit.
Many members at the last AGM stated that they wanted EHU but that does pose a problem for me trying to find cheap rates. I have tried to put a bit of everything in the programme. Have linked rallies to months away, so that members can dip in and out
of rallies to try and reduce fuel cost of doing lots of journeys. I have also booked sites some of you wished to return too. We have some sites on rally fields and some on sites, some with EHU and some without. A choice for everyone.
We have 6 new sites for next year and 3 that we have used before.
I would like to thank all those of you who ran rallies this year and for those of you who have volunteered to run rallies in 2024. I would also like to thank Tracy, the rally secretary’s secretary, for all the work that she does for me.
I have started to look at 2025, any suggestions would be welcomed. New areas or sites that you would like to visit.
The rally book is nearing completion so once proofread it will be off to the printers. I will now present the 2024 rally programme.
The rally programme for 2024 will be as follows: -
24th March to 7th April Easter Apple fields Caravan and Camping site. Leiston Suffolk 28th April to 12th May BH West End Farm CP, Weston Super Mare. 12th May to 26th May Mount Farm Park, Ratley, Oxfordshire. 14th to 28th June Swiss Farm, Henley on Thames
14th to 28th July Grove Lock Marina, Leighton Buzzard, Beds. 28th July to 11th August Lyndon Top Rutland Water.
8th to 22nd Sept. AGM The Royal Oak, Car Colston, Nottingham 22nd Sept to 2nd Oct Batemans Brewery, Wainfleet, Lincs. 13th to 27th Oct. Townsend Farm CP, Pembridge, Herefordshire.
Date and venue of next AGM meeting
Saturday 14th September 2024 at 2p.m
The Royal Oak, The Green, Car Colston, Nottingham NG13 8JE
WELTON OWNERS CLUB
Meeting of the 53rd Annual General Meeting held at
Elm Cottage Touring Park, Winsford, Cheshire.
Saturday 8th October 2022.
1. Apologies for absence.
Denis and Val Mattocks, Brian and Barbara Gent, Jeremy and Christine Walker, Paul and Julia Burden, Sheena and Michael McCartney, Tony and Lynn Syrett, Kenny and Marion Clow, Jean and Malcolm Mortimer, Chris and Maggie Sanderson, Jan and Dave Hale, Viv and Bernie Hawkins, Gail and Richard Haste, Peter Reynolds, Linda and Malcolm Boyce, Louise and Brian Buckingham.
2. Minutes of the 52nd Annual General Meeting.
The minutes of the meeting were agreed and proposed by Gill Dance and seconded by Bill Arbuckle.
3. Matters arising.
No matters arising.
4. Chairmans Report.
My last AGM report began with ‘Another Covid affected year’ and ‘Will we ever get to the Lawns I wonder’, well, we did get to the Lawns this year, but I think members catching up on Covid postponed holidays, has affected some of our rallying figures.
My sad news is that Gerry Smith, our past Treasurer has passed away, after many years of suffering from a degenerative condition of the brain. The Club was represented at the funeral and sent a donation to the family’s chosen charity. I must also mention Barbara and Brian Gent who are hanging up their towing mirrors after a lifetime of caravanning and Welton Membership. Brian was our rally secretary before Jean Jennings and me, so that is more than 40 years ago. They owned a Welton Caravan, and I always refer website enquiries about refurbishing old Welton Caravans to them. Strangely, for the last couple of years, these enquiries have emanated from Holland. We will be offering Barbara and Brian Honorary Membership which I hope they will accept.For those new members who perhaps have not heard of this, honorary membership is offered by the Committee to members who have served the club well and can no longer rally. It means that they continue to receive newsletters, and rally information, keeping them in touch, but they do not have to pay the annual fee.
We currently have four honorary members and 47 paying members, but Tracy will be giving us details of numbers in her report.
I would like to repeat part of a paragraph that is in my last year’s report. “The most difficult job is that of Rally Secretary, I know, I did the job for twenty years. To find a site, has often taken many hours of work, phone calls, emails and negotiations. So can we please be kind to our rally secretary and his secretary, and to all our rally officers who are doing their best for you and me’Anyone who can achieve a reduction of around 50% on a site gets my thanks, and if you are not aware, we are currently on pitches which cost between £25 and £35 a night. We Weltonians are paying £17.50.Could we adopt a new Welton Mantra where we all help and contribute, it would make running the club and rallies so much more pleasant and easier for those who take on these jobs.
When I joined this club, the Chairman, Rex Milward, said to me there is nothing difficult about putting white boxes on a field. But in 25 years things have changed. We rarely put white boxes on just a field these days, our expectations are so much more, and caravans are designed very differently. It is impossible to please everyone, and meet every member’s desires, but I would like today when we reach A.O.B to have a discussion concerning the increase in fuel and energy costs and how that may affect our future. My question for you to ponder on, and discuss later is: -
What is the most important factor when you choose the rallies you are going to attend?Is it the services such as electric, wi-fi etc, is it the venue as in the area of the country, is it the dates fit with other commitments, or will it be the price? We will come back to this.
Moving on, Pat has kept our finances in good order for another year, and perhaps with the Coronation of Kings Charles III on the horizon, we may persuade her to loosen the purse strings and do something special in 2023.
You will see under item 9, that we have a few changes to the Constitution. One concerns the length of time that a chairperson should hold office. The rules currently state that 3 years is the maximum. Partly because of Covid, which has been an exceptional time, been chairman for 4 years and now am about to enter my 5th year. But this situation cannot continue. For me to step down and for the Welton Owners Club to continue, we need someone to volunteer to take on one of the officer’s jobs of Secretary or Rally Secretary, because I am giving notice today that I do not intend to stand again next year.
It just remains for me personally to thank the officers and committee for their work and support this year, in particular Chris Sanderson, who is coming off the committee this year, and those who have run rallies in 2022 and those who have offered to run rallies in 2023, and you the membership for your continued support of the club.
Proposed John Tyler. Seconded Dianne Ford.
5. Treasurers Report.
As you will notice these accounts differ from previous ones as the year dates have been changed in the Constitution from 1st January – 31st December to 1st September - 31st August. This means that you have 20 months figures instead of 12 this year. Back to 12 months next year. The clubs final balance is £2644.75p which is, I believe, quite healthy. Each rally has been successful, helping to add funds. The Platinum Jubilee rally provided Pimm’s, and a lovely cake (made by Tracy’s daughter) and the cost paid for them from the rally fees. New flags were purchased and have proved successful. The web site is now paid six monthly – March and September.I have asked for a further amendment to be made to the constitution because Banks facilities (BACs) make it easier to pay funds into the account.
Proposed Dennis Harris Seconded Gaye Reynolds.
Bill Arbuckle asked Pat if Banks charged for paying money in. Pat replied they did not.
6. Secretary’s Report
There is no relevant correspondence to report.The Membership stands at 47 members at the present time. Seven members failed to renew this year. Many of them had joined and had not rallied with us, some had reached an age where they felt it was time to hang up their caravan keys for good. We have 5 members that joined this year or before that have not rallied yet. We have 6 new members that have joined this year. The membership is much less East Anglian based. We now have 23 members in East Anglia and 24 members from around the country, ranging from Wales, Devon, Southeast and the North. These members have come from recruiting from the rally field and word of mouth from happy members. have membership cards ready for 2023 and I will be happy to take your money after the AGM or anytime on the rally field.
Proposed Rosemary Germaine Seconded Brain Ford.
7. Election of Officers
There was no vote, so the Officers and Committee are as follows.
Chairman Jean Yates
Secretary Tracy Totman
Treasurer Pat Vigors
Rally Secretary David Totman
8. Election of Committee and presentations.
Committee
Dennis Harris
Gail Haste
Marion Clow
John Tyler
Gill Dance.
Jean then presented the plaques to the officers and Committee.
Tracy presented Jean with her plaque
Thanks was given to all those serving.
9. Proposed Changes to the Constitution.
There was a discussion around the proposed changes to the Constitution and why we needed to change it. All the changes were agreed. The changes had been sent to all members and no one had objected.
There was a vote, and it was unanimous.
10. A.O.B.
Pat Vigors raised the issue around Rally Officers confirming that they had received rally slips from ralliers. There had been some confusion this year when people thought they had sent slips and rally officers had not received them. All rally officers must confirm receipt of slips to members.
Jean Yates said for many years we have tried to offer a variety of venues with a range of services in order to give members the choice of less expensive rallies and top of the range super sites. This year a rally with no electric in Cardiff was cancelled because people said they would not go if there was no electric, and a more expensive one on a commercial site was substituted at Monmouth which was supported.
What is the most important factor when you choose the rallies you are going to attend?
Is it the services such as electric, wi-fi, is it the venue as in the area of the country, is it that the dates fit with other commitments or is it the price?
Can we now talk about it and then have a hands up?
There then ensued a discussion. Gill Dance said it was the location, as somewhere they wanted to visit and the cost. Alan Germaine said he had a motor home and wished for hard standing. Brian and Dianne Ford, said electric was very important, cost was not an issue for them. Bill Arbuckle said that EHU was getting very expensive, and he anticipated that we may be having to use meters soon. There was a discussion around this, and it was said that some sites were struggling with the cost of electric and were having to pass it on to the customer but having meters fitted was also very expensive. We then had a show of hands,
Must have electric 1 vote
Venue important 12 votes
Distance not an issue for most although some would restrict the distance driven. David Totman said that as we have members all over the country rallies needed to be in all areas to give people choice.
Rose Germaine said she like how the rallies were linked together in months, not to far apart.
The cost was also said to have an impact on some ralliers.
Dennis Harris suggested buying a generator for the use of ralliers so that if we went on non EHU fields we could charge batteries if there was an issue. There was a discussion, and it was decided that the logistics of passing a generator around the rally officers was not viable.
The conclusion was really that we all wanted something different from our rallying, so we needed to put everything in the programme over the year to please everyone.
It was suggested by the Committee that the Rally officers should receive a free night on the first night that they attended the rally, to help encourage volunteers and to say Thank you. This would be funded out of Club funds. This will start next year in 2023.
11. Rally Secretary Report and presentation of 2023 rallies.
All rallies went ahead this year as there were no cancellations, which is an improvement on last year. Rally attendance is down, may be due to the higher cost of fuel this year and also rally site costs have increased. It has been quite a challenge booking sites for 2023. Many sites won’t commit to prices due to the expected cost of electricity over the next few months. Some where asking £30 plus a night for a rally. I have tried to keep the costs below £20 a night but this does restrict where we can go. We have two rallies next year that are over £20 but they are on sites with good amenities. Two sites have also given us a price and have said they have to increase this depending on how much electricity goes up over the next few months. Lots of CL’s and small sites are now charging £20 to £30 a night. Many sites are asking over £40 plus a night.
Many members at the last AGM that they wanted EHU but that does pose a problem for me trying to find places at cheap rates. I have tried to put a bit of everything in the programme. I have linked rallies to months away so that members can dip in and out of them to reduce the fuel costs of doing long journeys. I have also booked sites that some of you said you would like to return too.
I would like to thank all those who ran rallies this year and to those of you who have volunteered to run them in 2023. We have two sets of new members coming forward to run rallies, Dianne and Brian Ford and Arlene and David Hall, Thank you to them.
I have started to look at 2024, any suggestions would be welcomed. New areas, or sites that you would like to visit. Henley on Thames is already booked. I am taking the rally co-ordinates out of the rally book as I don’t think anyone uses them now. Does anyone object.
There was no objection.
David then went on to present the 2023 rally programme by power point presentation.
The rally programme for 2023 will be as follows: -
22nd March to 2nd April Ashfield Touring Park, Dunnington York
2nd April to 16th April Easter Wolds Way Caravan Park, Malton, North Yorks
26th April to 7th May BH Burleigh Hill Farm, St Ives, Cambs Coronation
7th May to 21st May Stanford Hall Caravan Park, Swinford, Leics
4th June to 18th June Shrubbery Caravan Park, Rousden, Dorset.
18th June 2nd July Orchard Farm, Chidham, Chichester
16th July to 30th July Red Lion Ice Cream Farm, Haughton, Staffs
30th July to 13th August Smeaton Lakes, Newark, Notts
12th Sept to 26th September Lickhill Manor Caravan Park, Stourport, Worc.
26th Sept to 8th Oct AGM Monks Farm Barn, Stratford Upon Avon,
22nd Oct to 31st Oct Halloween Deer’s Glade Caravan Park, Hanworth Norfolk.
Date and Venue of Next AGM
Saturday 30th September 2023 at 2p.m
The Barn, Monks Farm Barn, Stratford-upon Avon Warwickshire CV37 8NA