West of Scotland RSOC

Hi all,

Thanks to those of you who were able to make the AGM last week at meetnight.

In summary:

We went through the Committee and Group Official Roles to see if anyone was interested in taking a role. Andy confirmed he would be stepping down to concentrate on rubbin next year..........sorry racing! Thanks very much to Andy for his work in the last year especially at the Kames show.

The outcome is as follows:

Committee

Chairperson – Melanie Dickson (Mel D)
Treasurer – Barry Clason (Stormracer)
Secretary – Amber Bird; Welcome to the Committee and Thanks

Group Official

Events Coordinator – Stuart Fulton (Stu/RS)
Merchandise Coordinator – Keith Perkins (jimmyson)


We had another successful Scottish Ford Enthusiasts Show this year at Kames and the club funds are very healthy.

We discussed at the AGM what ideas people have for events and shows throughout the year and what comments people had on the last year.

The ideas put forward included:

• Track nights at Knockhill of either 4 or 2 hour duration to include novice sessions
• Go-karting; making a day of it at Raceland, Haddington
• Meet-up at MJ Racing; could maybe do a BBQ or get burger van etc. See some of Ali’s cars!
• Expand the Facebook site to include a Private Group for Members only to give us better coverage of members as the website becomes less popular
• Christmas night out; same as previous format, Glasgow, World Buffet and drink (and strip club for Brad!)
• Forrestburn Hillclimb; suggestion that we try an event at the hillclimb or rent track
• Road trip; run out with lunch
• Rolling Road day
• Road trip with Treasure Hunt
• Trip to M Sport; possibly a minibus for a group trip
• Photoshoot; we attempted to arrange a Ford RS photoshoot for Scotland. Needs much more work but N&E and C&E were on board with the idea, Ade was very interested
• Meetnight location change


The Plan

In the next couple of months we will investigate and hopefully organise;

Trip to M-Sport (Cockermouth, Cumbria)

We hope to get a bus so we can all travel together for a tour of M-Sport

Christmas night out

This will more likely be organised for a night in the week between Christmas and New Year. We will book the World Buffet on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow

Please look out for posts for these events in the next few weeks.

We will investigate the Go-karting with a view to arranging a trip in the New Year/Spring as a warm up event to the show season

We will find out more about hiring Forrestburn Hillclimb, Ali has emailed Monklands Sporting Car Club to get more details about us attending a meet.

We will definitely look into organising Track Nights for next year.

We spoke about the annual show at the AGM. Although the show was financially successful and enjoyed by those who attended we did not see a great attendance by our own members. The members who did attend all helped throughout the day rather than being able to help a little and have the majority of the day to enjoy the show – my thanks to you all. I personally have a huge workload with my job which may see me going back to shifts at some point next year for a period of time. I cannot commit to organising the show again and for me the yearly show has lost some of its appeal. I believe this is the case for many members hence the dip in interest. Additionally we do not enjoy any support from the other RSOC Groups which is something I would like to work on in the future, possibly through the previously mentioned Photoshoot. We want to therefore look at alternatives such as organising a couple of Track nights at Knockhill and organising better Club attendance at some other shows.

If anyone would like to take on the task of organising an annual show for the club this year then please discuss with the Committee.

The other main point to mention is the meetnight location. As many of you know our previous location of the Mail Coach closed down which prompted us to find a quick replacement which was the Black Bear. We were very lucky to find an alternative venue at short notice and certainly it has proved much lighter, warmer and serves better food!! On the negative though we believe the Club has suffered a bit with not having the cars right outside and an easy opportunity to hang around outside with the cars in summer. Certainly member attendance has been ok but car attendance is down! With that in mind we will, over winter, investigate alternative venues to see if we can find something more suited to summer. There was one suggestion, thanks Jennifer, at meetnight. Let us know if you believe it may be suitable.

Additionally the Committee believes we should change the Membership rules; currently after the first years 3 event/meet attendance; to retain membership only requires attendance at one event or meet.
We believe it would be more appropriate for Members to attend 3 events/meets per year in order that the Members who are active in the Club can benefit from Events etc. This change will require Registers to be filled in accurately to ensure Membership.


Lastly thanks for all your support thoughout the year, I believe next year will be a bit different however hopefully it can be more inspiring and fun!

If you have any queries or comments please PM me or post here.

Cheers,

Mel

CheeRS for the update Mel

Unfortunately I could not attend the AGM due to other commitments


CheeRS
Chris

thanks for that mel......
I think the member thing should be put in place 3 meetings or shows a year is not out of the question

could we not look at putting on a show at forestburn ??? I know it doesn't have a big car park to show cars but it's a lot more central for most.......just a sugestion

Cheers for the update Mel. Some good things going on for the coming year too

Sorry I couldn't make Meet night again but as you know my health is still pretty crappy. Hopefully I'll make one before the years out!

So whens the rolling road day lol

congratulations on the new role Amber

You say "Most the income come from Kames" and yet some people are not happy if people don't come to the meetnights? Give me a break, it would 4 hours to come to your meetnights. This club covers the West of Scotland not Strathclyde and Ayrshire . I have no interest in talking my car on the track so Knockhill nights are no good to me.

Sorry to say this but this club seems to be biased to track venues.

Just my thoughts....

[quote]On occasion the club runs subsidised events, this is something we want to offer more of, but we always find Members take advantage of these events having only attended the one mandatory Meetnight/other eventsthroughtout the year and therefore do not generally contribute to the club. This in turn makes the other Members, who regularly attend and contribute both time and money, feel aggreived.[quote]

Hasn't the 3 shows/meet policy been in place for years now ..

Very well said Mel you are a credit to this club and you could have just been blunt but you have put one and all of us on the straight path to a better understanding of what is required to make this club better and what it wants to be. Sorry been on the beers all day xxx

When is this new 3 meet/event rule coming into force?

Just wondering as I've struggled recently with getting to meetnights due to my ill health plus other events again due to my health & the fact they are quite far away from me. So just wondering when the 12 months are going to run from. Been a member a long & enjoyable time & don't want to lose it. Obviously if my health keeps deteriating & I can't make meets etc then its tough but I'm hoping it wont come to that.