MINUTES OF ROVER SPORTS REGISTER AND ROVER P6 CLUB
JUBILEE RALLY 2013
WASH-UP MEETING
Date and Venue :
9th August 2013 at 8 p.m. at The Premier Inn, Hockley Heath
Present :
Mike Maher (Chairman) (MM) Dixon Sheppard (Chairman P6 Club) (DS), Janice Sheppard (P6 Club) (JS), Chris York (Secretary P6 Club) (CY), Adrian Mitchell (President) (AM), Mark Hinman (Treasurer) (MH), Richard Bryant (Company Secretary) (RB), Ian Elliott (Editor of Freewheel) (IE), John Holford (Post 50 Registrar) (JH), Nick Dunning (Events Secretary) (ND) and Robin Wilson (RW)
Apologies :
Mike Woollard (Spares Officer) (MW), Godfrey Owen (Advertising Officer) (GO), Paul Williams (IT Officer) (PW), Bill Heywood (Pre-50 Registrar) (BH), Keith Oxley (KO) and Steven Benyon (P6 Club) (SB)
ACTION
Finances :
MH had circulated the rally accounts which showed a very small deficit of £2.86p but in effect the event had broken even as originally intended. IE pointed out that payments of £200 were due from advertisers in the souvenir programme and it was proposed by MM and agreed unanimously that a further donation of £300 be sent to the National Trust at Coughton Court to be covered by the £200 advertising fees and a contribution of £50 from each of the two clubs. CY will arrange for the £50 due from the P6 Club to be sent to MH.
MM/MH/CY
Learning points and analysis
MM confirmed that the attendance was approximately 340 cars and CY explained that a count by the P6 Club indicated that the attendance of P6s was between 110 and 112 cars.
MM thanked everyone who had taken part in organising the event both in advance and on the day. CY echoed his comments from the point of view of the P6 Club and stated that it had been a delight to work with the RSR. It had been a joint show and the P6 Club (both committee and ordinary members) had enjoyed it as such. This was reciprocated by MM.
CY confirmed that a vote of thanks was due to IE who had undertaken far more than his fair share of the work involved with the rally and suggested that a gift of flowers or similar be sent to IE’s wife Dorothy who had assisted him with much of the work.
IE confirmed that a vote of thanks was also due to RW for all his work in connection with the veteran and vintage aspect of the rally. RW confirmed that the owners of the veteran and vintage vehicles had enjoyed all the activities on the Saturday and the Sunday rally and had been pleased to provide some celebrities with rides in some of the veteran vehicles on the Sunday.
It was noted that the efforts made by both clubs in seeking to publicise the event appears to have paid off handsomely not only in the very large attendance but also in the publicity appearing in the classic car press after the event. So far, reports have appeared in Classic Car Buyer, Classic and Sports Car, Practical Classics and Classic Motor Monthly (the Autojumbler).
The contact with the BBC and Central Television had also been very fruitful including in particular the feature on the event on Central Television on the Sunday evening, a clear indication of our success in drawing the attention of the general public in addition to Rover enthusiasts.
CY reported that the latest issue of the P6 Club magazine was about to come out containing a full report of the rally including all aspects and not just the P6 element. IE confirmed that the August Freewheel would be distributed in the coming week with a preliminary report on the rally but that the October issue would be a special 48 page version celebrating the RSR 60th anniversary and the rally.
Letters of thanks will be sent to Nick Taylor of the National Trust at Coughton Court, the Kings Court Hotel and the Alcester Rugby Club.
IE remarked that the preparations for the rally would have been extremely difficult without the availability of e-mails as the main means of communication. It was noted that the various preliminary site visits to Coughton Court had been essential and CY remarked that the plans prepared by RW had been extremely useful.
There had been a problem that one of the tents had blown away immediately after it had been put up and before it could be pegged down and we had been fortunate that the providers of the tent had not made any additional charge for the damage. JH remarked that, with the benefit of hindsight, it would have been helpful if rather more of the works of preliminary set up had been completed on the Friday or Saturday rather than on the Sunday morning.
There was a discussion regarding the inevitable problem that a minority of rally goers will always arrive considerably before the advertised start time. It transpired that CY had not had much previous experience of organising rallies and was not aware of this phenomenon. It was noted that if others had been aware of his lack of experience, they would have been at pains to provide him with more guidance and in particular to point out that the organising team need to be on site well in advance of the start time. In fact, most people were on site by 8.30 a.m.
CY asked AM to pass on his thanks to AM’s son Jack who had worked very hard assisting him at the point of entry to the rally site.
Thanks were recorded in particular to SB and his team of marshals (mainly from the P6 Club) who had worked so hard and so effectively in getting the cars on and off the field. It was believed that the main rally field directly in front of the house ended up holding between 220 and 240 vehicles.
It was noted that some problems had been experienced with the public address system during the day including some temporary failures of the microphones and that the system had proved not to be powerful enough for such a large rally. MM pointed out that the quote for a professional public address system had been £750 plus a further £200 to have the appropriate technician in attendance throughout the day. The professional system would have involved the erection of a tall loud speaker tower secured by guy ropes which would have taken up a considerable amount of space on the field.
The raffle had generated considerable funds but it was felt that the draw system used, whilst well intentioned, had not proved satisfactory.
It was also agreed that the awards ceremony had been less than satisfactory and long drawn out. It was unfortunate that DS had not been more involved in the presentations and for the future it was noted that it would be helpful to lay out the trophies in order of presentation in advance of the ceremony. MM explained that unfortunately the detailed list of awards which he had prepared was temporarily mislaid on the day.
MM thanked everybody who had assisted with packing up the equipment and clearing the site at the end of the day and remarked that everyone had been amazed at the sheer quantity of equipment which could be packed into the Mercedes hire van.
CY reported that the P6 Club have sold all 50 of the special badges which it had obtained and MM confirmed that the RSR had already sold 95 of the 100 RSR jubilee car badges. The video (DVD etc) of the event is still being prepared by the cameraman. It was noted that the P6 Club would like to have a quantity of the videos which they could sell to their members and it was remarked that it may well be appropriate for a special edited version to be prepared specifically for P6 Club members. MM will liaise with Michael Allen of the P6 Club about this.
MM
All agreed that it had been an extremely successful event and there was discussion regarding the possibility of a future joint event. It was felt that everyone was rather tired and therefore it was inappropriate to undertake a further large event in the immediate future but it was agreed to think about the possibility of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the V8 engine in 2017, noting that there are several other clubs who are affected by that anniversary.
The meeting closed at 9.10 p.m.