WHERE TO FROM HERE

Phil Bradshaw

I joined the Constructor’s Car Club around 1997 from memory, after meeting and being encouraged by Dave Beazer to join up. It wasn’t until 2009 that I actually managed to attend a club night due to living in either Auckland or Dunedin and never managing to be in Wellington on the relevant Tuesday.

From the outset the regular arrival in my mail box of Spare Parts and the content therein convinced me that this club was something special. This was further reinforced by the two car shows held in Lower Hutt, which I managed to attend. With my relocation to Wellington last year with work I was finally able to join the committee and give something back, and now I find myself President.

It would be remiss of me to not thank Dave Clout for holding the Presidency for the past 12 months, and to note the effort Matthew Porritt has put into the Secretary role. I would also like to acknowledge Grant Major for his outstanding contribution to the Technical Committee for many years.

The vast majority of both the Club Committee and Technical Committee members have signed up for another year, and I thank them for their ongoing support to the club.

AGMs punctuate the annual club cycle and give rise to the question of ‘where to from here?’ The committee has been considering this question during the last few meetings, with the primary catalyst being a discussion on membership numbers that in turn raised a number of other topics.

Broadly speaking the club membership is around 180, down from a peak of 230 or so (from memory). The consensus of opinion was that the old adage of ‘if you build it, they will come’ should be applied, in that if we focus on providing the existing membership with a range of events and activities that raise their interest, then those same events and activities will serve to draw new members.

To this end considerable effort has been put into developing the events calendar in more detail, the first iteration of which appeared in last month’s magazine. This will no doubt evolve as the year progresses, but our aim is to provide as much notice as possible of a broad range of activities for at least the next 6 months, and ideally the next 12.

Please do not hesitate to contact myself or any other member of the committee with ideas for activities or guest speakers etc.

Another topic discussed was club finances. Overall the club is in a strong financial position, with seed money ring fenced for a future car show in addition to a generous ‘working’ account balance. Ultimately there is around $10,000 that could be spent to the benefit of club members without jeopardising the club’s viability. To this end we would welcome any proposal, however, no half baked schemes please!

We need to consider how any proposed expenditure will benefit the club in the long term. A classic example is the often mooted purchase of a car trailer – not only does a trailer have to be stored somewhere and kept in a road legal condition, but there needs to be a viable means of booking it, some way of insuring it, dealing with the inevitable damage repair (and recovery of associated costs). In short the club would end up with all the complications of being a hire company without the return, which seriously calls into question why we would want to buy a car trailer.

2013 is the club’s 25th anniversary, and I would suggest that amongst other festivities a car show might be a suitable signature event to mark the occasion. The past two shows have proven that the club is well capable of staging a successful event, but to do so requires considerable time and effort, plus the seed money ring fenced for the purpose.

As best I can tell the club first met in March 1988, so as we are some 18 months out from our 25th anniversary year I think it is time to start thinking about how we might like to celebrate this milestone. What is really needed is a general 25th anniversary sub committee and a separate car show committee (assuming there is the interest in holding one).

Please consider how you might want to be involved in helping your club mark this significant milestone, as ideally we should get the ball rolling later this year.

Phil