AGM 2021

The committee has met online using Skype or TEAMS for the entire year. Obviously club activity has been severely curtailed over the past twelve months but we have managed to get in a reasonable number of trials, a few days of Laning but sadly not a single show could go ahead.
As a way of compensation each membership has been extended by up to seven months over the last eighteen months. The latest extension is for one month to give time for changes agreed at the AGM to be implemented on the 1st of August. That means many of our members will have received nineteen months membership for the price of twelve.
Over the last year we had a change of Treasurer with Stanly Goulding stepping down and Richard Clark stepping into the role. A big thanks to Stanley for the last five years and to Richard taking up this important role.
Trials events have been very well supported and thanks must go to Tim Wyman and Keith Pocock our twin Comp Secs for their hard work and unbridled enthusiasm. They have made a great success of their first year in charge.
Essex 4x4 Response members were very busy during the bad weather a few months back and received thanks from many quarters but especially the police.
Green Lane trips were badly affected by Covid rules, quite hard to put a trip on even when we were not in full lockdown. The rule of six severely limits the ability to make up the groups. There is also a growing need for more leaders on Laning trips.
We have bitten the bullet and made some changes to the club rules. Some are in an effort to stave off the threat of corporation tax should HMRC come calling again and some were thrust upon us due changes external to the club. Thanks here go to John Musham for all the work he has put into this update.
Update to Club Rules - Main points • Statement that the company is a Not For Profit organisation to try to head off issues with HMRC and Corporation Tax • Change the wording surrounding classes of membership to avoid confusion and misinterpretation • Remove the word His to make the rules gender neutral • Update references to the Association of Land Rover Clubs • Update rules to show Motorsport UK (new name for the MSA) • Add rule regarding period of membership • Change the wording on the make up of the Committee to provide greater clarity and reduce the maximum numbers • Change the Directors to include all elected committee members • Change wording from Child Protection Office to Safeguarding Officer • Change the rules to permit the taking and distribution of minutes in electronic form.
All I can add is a big thank you to everyone in the club both, committee and members, who together make up one of the finest clubs of any type in this country. Keep it up and may the club prosper for many years to come.

Ray Booty

Despite a year of shutdowns due to Covid19 that has forced the Committee to sadly cancel many of the events that we all love to attend, we have continued to meet as a Committee ‘behind the scenes’.
As Secretary answering messages people send either directly or via the website has not stopped, taking and writing up minutes through to the purchasing of new Trophies, it has been Business as Usual; with perhaps more time to reduce the ‘to do’ list on the ‘rolling restoration’ projects....
The biggest task I have taken on has been to review and potentially overhaul the Clubs Articles of Association and the Memorandum of Association.
The Club formed an official Company back on the 27th of May 1987, it has been lovely reading the Rules and ethos of the then members who first set out the Club Rules that we still have today (although heavily modified – in typical LR fashion). Over the years, at each AGM, members have voted in changes as a natural evolution as the Club grew; however, we felt it was time for a complete review and overhaul.
Various options have been discussed between the Committee as to what we have proposed at this AGM. Due to the number of tweaks of the rules we felt necessary, asking members to vote on every single one individually we felt was too laborious, instead we have opted for a ‘blanket’ vote of the changes; the risk being that if we do not have a majority, we would need to hold an EGM at a later date.
It has been nice to see the ethos of the Club has not changed over the 34 plus years, even getting the chance to speak to one of its founders. Each Committee over that time, all of which are volunteers, working tirelessly behind the scenes for its members and of course still have fun being part of the Land Rover fraternity.
I will be happy to continue as Secretary for our Club if the members will allow.

John Musham

It has been a rather different time since the last report for the Annual General Meeting.
This year alone so far, has seen 29 new Members – some returning, who want to take part in the Club’s activities. There are quite a few who will be new to trialling and many who want to take part in the Club’s green laning days.
Memberships have needed to be extended twice due to lack of Club activity meaning that all Members have had amended expiry dates. This created some unexpected issues at times and showed up inaccuracies on LoveAdmin. This included all new Members up until 31st March 2021.
The committee has also extended the renewal dates again to accommodate any potential changes coming from the upcoming AGM as there would be insufficient time to implement these changes between the meeting and the renewals on the 30th of June 2021.
This date has now been extended to 31st July and all other Members with a later renewal date will be extended by one month as well.
Currently there are 189 lead Members of which 84 are Individuals, 100 Family and 5 Free of Charge memberships making a total of some 368 Members.
I have carried out an intensive audit of Members details on LoveAdmin and there are at least 16 Family Memberships that have or are likely to have members in the wrong category. This specifically relates to Member’s children becoming 18 and not being transferred into the Additional Family Member group. There are also a couple of Memberships whereby the definition of Family is outside the Club’s description.
These will need addressing before the next renewals.
There is a proposal at the AGM to raise the subscription cost for Additional Family Members to £15 so if there are family Members who are not going to be part of your Membership please let me know and I can delete their records.
As a reminder the current wording of the Rule 3.5.3 – Additional Family Membership is-
A Member eligible to drive in competitive events, who is a dependent of the Individual Member, such as a young adult in full time education, resident at the same address as the primary family member, or their previous partner.
This rule has been defined on the most recent Membership application forms as - a family member 18 years and over resident at the same address. This means that any adult currently living away from the Family Member’s residence would need to join the Club as an Individual Member.
An example: Family Membership of £40 plus one Additional Family Membership of £15 means a renewal cost of £55 from 1st July 2021 if agreed at the AGM.
The Committee is aware of the additional cost to some Members, but this is a change that has been sometime coming and cannot be put off any longer due to the Club needing to comply with current regulations.
I would ask that in these changing times Members make use of the facility on LoveAdmin to pay by direct debit and to consider using auto-renew for future Membership. All you need to do is access your LoveAdmin account and amend your details.
If you are not sure how LoveAdmin works, it uses the email address you supplied to the Club and a password. There is a facility to change your password if you have forgotten it.
I am happy to stand again as Membership Secretary for the next 12 months unless anyone wishes to take the role on after this AGM.
As this will be my last term as Membership Secretary any Member who would like to take on the role from June 2022 is more than welcome to ‘shadow’ the role with me from the start of 2022 in preparation for taking over.

Mike Rosewell

Here are some interesting statistics from the past 3 years. It is interesting to see that this month we have sent more copies of Exploits than ever before and this year we have had more pages!
I hope you have enjoyed your Exploits this year. Thanks to everyone who has contributed.
I am happy to stand again.

Sue Coulson

We would like to thank all the members for their support during the last 12 months, especially those who gave up their time to help run competitions, without your help the club could not run them.
We are sorry some Tyro drivers could not compete due to the Covid rule of not having passengers, hopefully this is now all behind us and looking forward we have a fully planned list of trials for all classes every month, except August.
In August we are holding a driving weekend, whereby members will be able to try out different activities that the club provides including trialling, green laning and winch recovery, plus off road driving.
During the last limited year, many new members, young and old, and some returning after a few years off, have joined in the fun of trialling and it’s been great to see you. All members can come along and find out what it is all about and a warm welcome is made to anyone who would like to take part, help or just watch.

Keith Pocock and Tim Wyman

Essex 4x4 Response remained active right through last year ready to assist with the Covid crisis if required. The NHS volunteer scheme was highly successful which meant we did not get much of a look in supporting the community not even in the early stages last March. There have been a number of de-brief meetings where I have asked the question why we were not used, the main reason seems to be the huge scale of the operation which the County had not had to deal with since the last war. In some ways it was a blessing as we would not have been able to provide support for the extended period it was required.
We did get involved in a “Grow you own” project for Maldon Council delivering 150 kits to the public in the Maldon area.
The snow in February 2021 kept us busy primarily in the Tendering area, we completed over 50 calls mainly transporting medical staff, but we did recover a couple of ambulances. We received some welcome publicity on Radio Essex and BBC Look East.
Membership continues to grow, and we are hopeful as life returns to normal we will be able to resume some face-to-face meetings and training events. Although our members mainly use a Land Rover of some sort we now have quite a selection of other makes of 4x4 vehicles which is great to see.
We are still supporting Herts 4x4 Response and Norfolk and Suffolk when asked.
My sincere thanks to everyone who has helped at any of the charity events or supported 4x4 Response during the past year.

Nigel Wood

The last year has been incredibly quiet with no charity events taking place at all. We were initially hopeful that some events would be re-scheduled to the autumn but alas the pandemic was still well and truly with us.
It is looking a bit more promising for this year, all our usual events run from August onwards which means we are doing quite a few on consecutive weekends. That said, it will be great to get back to helping out all our friends raise some much needed funds for their respective charities.
All the events we support are a great shop window for the club and Land Rovers in general, most are attended by 1000+ members of the public and see club members helping to ensure the smooth running of the event.

Nigel Wood

Trying not to state the obvious, as far as I am aware there are not any shows going ahead at present. It is unlikely that any will this year due to there being no time left now to organise them for this season. Fingers crossed for next year, I am keeping an eye on the situation and should this change I will get us booked in.

Paul Warner

Not a huge amount to report as the Club Safeguarding Officer for this year's AGM; fortunately there have been no incidents of notes which is good news. I did take the time at the start of 2021 to update the Club's Safeguarding Policy; the only real change was to some contact details for the Safeguarding Lead at Motorsport UK. At the request of the committee, I had an updated DBS check through Motorsport UK which came back clear and will be updated again in 3 years time. I have also attended a number of webinars for Motorsport UK Officials in the past year relating to Covid-19 with regards to their restart of Motorsport.
I am happy to continue to stand as the Club's Safeguarding Officer and wish to remind all club members (young and old) that any issues please do not hesitate to contact me. I will send my apologies for the AGM due to a clash with a motorsport event.

Steve Wood