Phoenix Car Club

News

Annual General Meeting - 17 October 2007

The first Annual General Meeting of the Phoenix Car Club was held at Hotel La Torre, Los Montesinos on Wednesday 17 October. Item 1 was to receive a report from the Steering Group covering the period 28 July 2007 to 17 October 2007, which was presented by Elaine Evans.

A synopsis of this report is as follows:

The Steering Group was set up in late July with the objective of creating our new classic and specialist car club. Members of the Steering Group were Neil and Elaine Evans, Mel and Sandra Baker, Jeff Sheridan and Terry Braithwaite.

The brief was to ensure that this was a democratic Club, run for the members by the members as well as being friendly, inclusive and offering a broad range of activities – both car related and social.

When the SG first met, Elaine Evans, as Coordinator presented a project plan which set out everything we had to do within a very tight timescale. We also had to be very creative as we had no money at all to use. At first, some people doubted that this could be achieved, but we are very pleased to report that we have met all our objectives, and in fact exceeded our own expectations in some areas.

Elaine has concentrated on ensuring that all the work set out in the project plan has come together in a coherent fashion, helping out in pressure areas and maintaining an overview so that we didn´t forget anything crucial that would hold up the launch of the new Club.

We have all worked together and by combining our various skills and expertise, have had full input into every aspect of the project plan. We think we have produced a model that most of you like, judging by the fact that we were able to set the fees early and take membership applications sooner than expected as potential members were excited about what we were creating and wanted to be involved. We already have over 50 members!

Individuals have made outstanding contributions in various ways. For example:

Jeff Sheridan took a lead on the new Constitution for the Club and also drew up the job descriptions and person specifications for the new Executive Committee positions. He also did a lot of work on the categories of cars that can be admitted to Club, which is not as straight forward as it sounds!

Mel and Sandra Baker have had a major focus on events for the Club and drew up the excellent and varied programme until the end of the year. They have spent many hours turning our dreams into reality – the Novelda trip in September has been hailed as one of the most well organised and interesting trip a lot of people here had experienced. In addition, Sandra has been our ad hoc Treasurer and has ably managed all financial aspects of the Club.

Terry Braithwaite has designed an Access database which is going to be invaluable to the Club to minimise the workload regarding membership applications, records, etc. This database can create of wide range of bespoke and standard reports e.g. members, cars etc. have already been very useful.

Neil Evans designed the new Club website from scratch, which went live on 18 September. Neil managed to persuade a top programmer who worked for us in London to sponsor this free of charge for the programming work and he is providing ongoing technical support. Neil and I have sponsored the hosting and domain registration for the first year. We think that this again will be a very valuable tool for the Club to use for communication purposes as it is a dynamic website and very easy to update quickly, so that everyone in Club knows what is happening as it is happening.

Mel, Neil and Elaine have also had great input into trying to create a professional image for the Club. For example, the logo was created by Neil and Mel and has been incorporated into all Club releases and the website. Car display stickers and other publicity materials have also been created. Mel did the initial design for the membership cards. We have tried to ensure that all documents that have been released are correct and in the Club´s specific house style. We have also created guidelines for the two new events coordinators to help them with their management of the Club´s events to try to ensure consistency.

Item 2 was a proposal that the meeting adopted the previously circulated Constitution in its entirety, and this was carried by a unanimous vote.

Item 3 was the Election of the Executive Committee: Candidates standing were:

Jeff Sheridan – President
Elaine Evans – Vice President
Gill Collins – Secretary
Douglas Maggs – Treasurer
Neil Evans – Publicity and Promotions Coordinator
Terry Braithwaite – Membership Coordinator
Alan Herbert – Events (Indoor) Coordinator
Eric Clarke – Evans (Outdoor) Coordinator

The proposal to elect the nominees for the posts en bloc was carried by a unanimous vote.

Item 4 was the formal handover by the Steering Group to the new Executive Committee. Jeff Sheridan, our new President spoke to the meeting giving a vote of thanks to Elaine Evans and talked to members about the future of the Club.

Item 5 was the Appointment of Auditors. Joy Meopham, Maddy Whybrow and Colin Edghill were nominated and this was carried by a unanimous vote.

The meeting closed and reconvened for an informal meeting where members were briefed by Eric Clarke and Alan Herbert, about the run to Cabo Tiñoso on Sunday 28 October, an outline of the November run was also given together with details of the quiz that has been organised for our next Clubnight on 21 November.

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