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FROM THE SECRETARY

Firstly, you will all have now seen the picture on the first page, and I am sure you would all like to join with me in wishing Janet and John all the best for the future. As I am writing this they have just left for their honeymoon in Goa. They will not be back until the day after this month’s meeting – the AGM – so the personal congratulations from the rest of you will have to wait until the February meeting!
Secondly, I must apologise for the lateness of this installment – Christmas, New Year etc.
I hope you all approve of the change in layout to the front page – the various gaps should be filled after the meeting this month!
No minutes this edition of course as we don’t hold a meeting in December.
Nigel makes mention of the AGM in his “Natter” this month – I am not going to say anything else apart from to point out that all candidates for office must be fully paid up members of both the Branch and the National MMOC – please ensure that you bring your current membership cards with you - there is an example of one branch being excluded from the MMOC when it was realised that one of it’s committee members was not in the MMOC!!
Hopefully, this year will be as busy and interesting as last year, and I am sure that the Chairman will wish to have committee meeting shortly after the AGM in order to agree this year’s calendar of events and the responsibilities of the new committee members.

Keith.
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Nigel’s Natter

Normally I write this piece on the day following the meeting. However, seeing our last meeting, the Christmas Meal, was very early in the month, on the post meeting day, I was writing an article on the filming for ‘See no Evil’, which, had been on the Saturday prior to the Christmas meal. So this month’s Natter was only forth coming after a reminder from Keith.

A slight mistake in the last newsletter. The MMOC meeting did not take place on 26th December, it should have been 26th November.

A number of things have progressed/evolved/ready to fly as follows: -

Christmas Meal.

First of all I must thank Keith for the excellent organisation of the Christmas meal a Shorrocks Hill. The seating plan together with the name cards doesn’t just materialise by magic, its needs careful planning and organisation. Also we were fortunate enough that Father Christmas was able to pay us a visit this year, and bring us all a present. Thank you Father Christmas. 37 people had booked, but unfortunately around 7 people were unable to make it.
It was nice to see members of Lancashire and NE Lancashire Branches there, and hopefully things can be arranged so that next year, members from Merseyside Branch can also attend. (The dates of the Merseyside and Sefton Christmas meals clashed.)
One of the advantages of being at Shorrocks Hill, is that it is fairly central, and we have the exclusive use of the room. I think this is the third year we have been there, and until now the catering side has been excellent. However, this year was the first time that we did not have to ‘pre select’ the meal, and this may be the reason that speed of serving was not as quick as in previous years. Personally my main course was excellent, but unfortunately let down by the quantity of vegetables and potatoes which were available. Having to ask for condiments, which arrived as dollops of cranberry source, horse radish source and mint source all on the same plate jarred a bit, as did the late arrive of the napkins.

The cost of the meal was extremely reasonable, but unfortunately let down by some of the details.
Having said that, I would be happy to go back there again, if they pull their socks up.

AGM

The next meeting is the AGM. The last Newsletter covered this in a fair amount of detail, which I repeat one or two points here.

The main thing is that there will be a proposal to increase the annual membership fee from £5 to £6. (See survey results)

In general terms, so far we have received only one nomination for the Officers posts of Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. Regarding the committee, there is one more person willing to stand than there are positions (there are already 2 extra positions on the committee to comply with the current constitution). It has been agreed at the committee meeting that where there are more candidates than there are positions there will be a secret ballot. This is because if a show of hand were used, the un-elected person would be able to see who did not vote for him/her, and that could be personally divisive.

As indicated in the last Newsletter, if there are any more people interested in standing for the committee, please contact Keith by Wednesday 11th January.

I would guess that the vote counting would take some time, which will allow time for socialising.

List of Members

The list of members and their vehicles is now ready for issuing to members, and these will be distributed at the AGM. Members not present will have their list posted to them after the AGM. Hopefully you will find this list helpful, and a positive benefit for being a member of Sefton Branch.

Results of survey

The results of the survey are attached. You can read the results and formulate your own views as well as I can. This is possibly something we can all discuss once the motions and elections have been completed at the AGM.

I reproduce the notes at the top of the survey form:-

In order that the committee can gauge the requirement of the membership, we need to know if we are getting it right, or are there areas which need improving.

We cannot guarantee to act on all the suggestions, because some may not be reasonably practical, expensive to implement, very labour intensive, or in direct conflict the majority of member’s views.

However, we want to retain your membership, and where practical, we would hope that your views could be acted upon.

Please ring YES, NO VIEW, or NO as appropriate. Included as answers was an OK and a ‘YES + NO’ both of which I counted as both being NO.

My personal initial assessment is that the majority of members are reasonably happy with what is happening in the Branch. However, not wishing to wear the rose coloured glasses, there are a couple of areas, joint activities with other branches, and workshop sessions, where some development is required. Hopefully we will be able to make progress in these areas. Also a number of members indicated they could assist either in giving a talk at a Branch meeting, or making a contribution to the newsletter. Once again, hopefully we can follow this up. The Christmas meal survey comments relate to the 2004 meal, not the 2005 meal.

What I would hope we can avoid, is the problems that have occurred with the MMOC survey that happened around 2 1/2 years ago. One of the results was that a majority of members that responded wanted more articles on the restoration of Minors. I assume as a result of this, there was a request for any one restoring a Traveler to contact the MMOC. So far I have not noticed any significant articles on Minor restoration. Similarly there were complaints about how out of date the MMOC website is. That is still the case. E.g. although our current meeting place is in Minor Matters, our old meeting place is on the website.

Hopefully by this time next year, we will be able to point towards particular meetings/events that have happened as a direct result of our survey.

See you at the AGM.

Happy New Year

Nigel
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Results of Sefton Branch Member Survey

There were 23 survey forms issued in September 2005. 18 forms were returned. Some forms were fully completed, and some were only partly completed. Every question was unanswered by at least 1 person. The figures shown are actual replies to each question.

1.      VENUE. Are you happy with the current venue, the Blue Bell at Barton?
YES = 13, NO VIEW = 3,   NO = 1. (An ‘OK’ was counted as a NO VIEW)
Comments.
Excellent venue, very friendly.    Free, comfortable, accessible.
Could do with door between room and bar. Excellent, Welcoming.
Cosy.        Too far for me, small room.
It’s an awful place to access.    Could be smarter, but the price                                                                                             is right.

2. MEETINGS.   Are you happy with the way the majority of meetings are structured with an Agenda and then a named theme or Talk? YES = 15, NO VIEW = 1, NO = 1.

3. Do you prefer the earlier format, which had no named theme or talk?
YES = 1, NO VIEW = 5, NO = 8

Comments on structure and content of Meetings.
Those attended have been most Satisfactory.
Fine, sometimes interesting, other times just pleasant to chat.
Fine as long as we retain a strong social element.
Talks may or may not be interesting, and are worth trying, but members should have the opportunity to just talk and BOND.

4. Have you any contacts that could come to talk to Sefton Branch, or are you willing to give a talk, for example on your hobby?                                       YES = 9, NO = 7.
If YES, please give details
Batman. Possible contacts. Shipping. Minor History. Art of Harmonica playing. XK 120…… Self. Minor Natters.
.
5. Would you be willing to participate in a joint activity with another Branch, at their venue?
Lancashire (Meeting place Preston)                YES = 11, NO = 5.
Merseyside (Meeting Place Hoylake)               YES = 13, NO = 3

6. WORKSHOPS Would you be interested in a Minor based Workshop session? (Lancashire have changed engines, and Merseyside have stripped and reassembled gearboxes)?                                                      YES = 13, NO VIEW = 1, NO = 2

7. RALLIES. The main Sefton rally is at Woodvale. Is this a satisfactory venue?
YES = 17, NO VIEW = 0, NO = 0.
If NO please suggest an alternative venue. No Comments.

8. CHRISTMAS MEAL. Are you happy with Shorrocks Hill, Formby being the venue for the Christmas meal?                                                   YES = 13, NO VIEW = 4, NO = 0.

If NO, please suggest a suitable venue.
Hope to come to this year’s meal.
Evening meal.

9. SUBSCRIPTIONS. The current subscription (£5 annual membership and 50p attendance) is the same as when the branch started in 1998. From October 2006 it is proposed to have an increase in subscription to from £5 to £6, retaining the existing meeting attendance fee of 50p, which is waived when there is a raffle, and where there are additional members living at the same address, their annual fee reduced to £3. (£5 at present). Would this proposal put you off continuing your membership of Sefton Branch? YES = 1, NO VIEW= 1,   NO = 15
Comments. Subscription rate is very reasonable.

10. NEWSLETTER. Are you happy with the content of the current style of Newsletter?                  .                                                                               YES = 16, NO VIEW =0, NO = 1.              .
Suggestions for improvement. Don’t have email, so can’t contribute.

11. Are you able to provide a contribution to the Newsletter          YES = 6, NO = 6.
If YES, please give details.
Not sure yet.
Article about Merseyside Branch.
Contribute every month.
Only typewritten ones.

12. WEBSITE. The website is under construction. Should the website be developed further?                                                                                                    YES = 11, NO VIEW = 6, NO = 0.
Comments /suggestions Would like suggestions.

13. Are you happy with the performance of the Committee? YES = 13, NO VIEW = 1, NO = 0.
Comments. You work hard and are very progressive. Declared interest.

14. Would you be willing to stand for the committee?                    YES = 10, NO = 6.
If YES, please indicate what position you would like to be proposed for. Continuation of existing role [Secretary].

15 GENERAL. Please make any further comments or suggestions.

As 3 members of Merseyside Branch also belong to Sefton Branch, and Sefton’s chairman is also a member of Merseyside, it would be good to develop further links.

More rally visits.

I feel the club has had an excellent year.

The meeting clashes …. main loyalty to Merseyside Branch, but will support Sefton when I can.

Next year … hope to be able to attend more frequently.

As mentioned before, it is essential that we maintain a strong social element.

You know my deafness problem and I greatly appreciate what you are doing [to assist me] .

[Detailed suggestions for workshop sessions]
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WEBSITE – – email: - under construction by Phil, with a lot of help from Jimmy – do have a look!!!

See you all on Wednesday 18th January 2006, the Blue Bell, Barton at 8.00pm for the AGM.
Keith

0151 931 2557
07950125498
DISCLAIMER
The Sefton Branch Committee would like to point out that any advice, articles or views expressed in this newsletter, are entirely those of the individual contributors.