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There were 14 members present.

There were apologies from Mel, Lesley, Jim and Les.

Nigel welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Last Meeting & Christmas Meal.

The last meeting was held in November and it was the annual music quiz this was very enjoyable, the

winners of the quiz were from Sefton Branch.

Everyone was happy with the new venue for the Christmas meal, it will most probably be at the same

place next year.

Secretary’s Report

Last year was a varied year, the snowdrop walk was the first event which took place at Bankhall, A run

to the Transport Museum was also in the month of February.

There was also a run out to Lady Heyes Antique and Craft Fair at Frodsham organised in March.

On St. Georges Day there was a day out organised, we went for a meal and then went down to Crosby

to see the iron men.

Nigel attended the MM Rally which was held at Blacks farm in Lincolnshire at the end of April, then

there was the Northern Rally held at Harporley POW Camp in County Durham. The Merseyside rally

which was to be held at Arley Hall was cancelled due to bad weather conditions.

There was the National Rally held at Scunthorpe which was very enjoyable and the North West

Classic Car Show at Fiddlers Ferry in Penketh ,both of these were held in July.

On August the 6th it was our Annual Branch Rally held at Woodvale once again this was a very

Enjoyable day out and was very well attended and the new gazebo was a success, the North East

Branch Rally was held at Townley Park - Nigel and Tom attended this there was hall which they went

Round. The branch barbeque was also held in August at Tony Seeds house.

The Scarisbrick Hall Show was held in September also the Beaulieu Autojumble and the Widnes Car

Show.

In October there was a walk round the Williamson tunnels organised and Nigel went to the Classic Car

Show held at the NEC at Birmingham.

Treasurers Report

At the last committee meeting it was decided that the accounts sheet should run from January to

January, Tom has compiled a balance sheet which was set out very well and very easy to follow this

showed income and expenditure for 2006.

Chairman’s Report

Nigel handed out a sheet showing what went on at the monthly meetings for 2006, they are as follows:-

Month Attendance Event

February 13 Discussion of AGM & Election of the Committee

March 14 Social Evening

April 15 Concours Cars and Peter Miller

May 14 No substitute for wool talk by Derek Swift

June 18 Social Evening

July 18 Musical Evening presented by Flingel Bunt

August 13 Social Evening

September 18 Talk on Shipping by Peter Gannicliffe

October 14 Social Evening

November 15 Musical Quiz and Raffle

December 34 Christmas Meal

Election of the Committee

In the newsletter there was a form to fill in if anyone wants to stand for the committee there were no members who came forward

So the committee for 2006 will carry on for 2007 this was proposed by Graham and seconded by Andrew the result was unanimous.

Motions

There were no motions to be put to the committee and there were no motions brought forward.

Future Events

The following is a list of the main events for 2007:-

Sunday 22nd April St Georges Day run to York and Railway Museum.

Sunday 3rd June Noth Regional Rally, Haigh Hall nr Wigan.

July 7th & 8th National Rally at Kelmarsh Hall at Northampton.

Sunday August 5th Woodvale

8th September Beaulieu Autojumble.

Committee Meeting

The first committee meeting for 2007 will be held on February 7th.

Any Other Business.

Nigel has with a copy of the hand book he had compiled we were very impressed with this.

Phil sold all the Morris Minor calendars he had compiled for 2007 these were done very well and he made the club £40.00 from the sale of the Calendars.

Jimmy has posted a link on the website to a discussion forum.

The meeting closed at 10.00pm

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Nigel’s Natter.

First of all, thank you for re-electing all of the committee including myself at the AGM. We had a good turnout at the AGM, with 15 attending.

Also thank you to all of those that have made contribution to the Newsletter last year and to all of the committee for the work you have put in last year. Hopefully at our forthcoming committee meeting, we can draw up a program of events that we can all take part in.

Thank you for your complements on my efforts in revising the 2007 MMOC handbook. It will be interesting to see what comments (if any) there are in Minor Matters. I have to admit the handbook was all done in a bit of a rush. Although I had penned some comments on the handbook in the Spring, it was not really until after I had a chat with Ray Newell at the Classic car Show at the NEC on 29th October, did I really get down to the nitty gritty of revising the handbook.

At a very early stage, various suggestions were sent to me for the front cover, one of which was the series of separate pictures. My initial thoughts was to have miniatures of all the forthcoming 2007 Minor Matters front covers, so there was continuity between each edition of Minor Matters and the handbook, but this idea fell at the first hurdle, because the covers for Minor Matters are not planned that far ahead. So we settled on a series of library pictures, showing the development of the Minor.

Once I got down to looking at the text in detail, it quickly transpired, that in my opinion, it was a rewrite job, rather than changing the odd word or two. I knew that my location maps, would take up two extra pages, so the space taken up by the Regalia, and club contacts, were both halved from 2 pages to one page. My objective had been if possible to stay at 28 pages, but if necessary go to 32 pages. Also to save costs, to reduce from 8 colour pages to just 4 colour pages.

My initial drafts were circulated to the 3 main MMOC committee members for ‘technical & typographical error spotting’. Some comments came back that went somewhat beyond that remit, and encroached into the editorial area. I had a face to face discussion with those MMOC committee members on the morning of the MMOC AGM, (25th November) and a way forward was agreed. At this stage, the handbook was still 3 separate ‘word’ documents, (Main text, Branch/Register contacts, and Specialists list) together with items I only had in paper form like the location maps, and the unchanged faultfinding charts, although the general order was defined, but the detailed layout was not. The revised words went to Hawksworth, the printers on 30th November, and there, Yvonne sorted out the proof layout by 4th November. This was the first time I saw the handbook in very much its final form. I was very impressed with the fast turnaround, and the quality of the work. I had anticipated I would need to pay a visit to Hawksworth to sort things out, but this was not necessary. Things like the location maps, I saw for the first time. All I had sent in was a photocopy of a traced UK outline, with a series of numbered dots.

Seeing time was marching on, I confined myself to the minor typographical errors, which I had missed before, or had crept in during the laying out process. Then a revised proof was sent to two MMOC committee members, prior to printing commencing.

From my point of view, the handbook had taken just of 4 weeks to do from start to finish.

What would I change in it, given more time? Well Tom has pointed out a missing Minor Specialist. On the Branch contact list, the location numbers need to be more prominent, either in bold, or before the Branch name. The book list layout could do with some refining. In actual fact, rather than being a definitive list of books about the Minor, it is actually the list of books I have about the Minor, which is slightly different. Also the list of Minor Specialists although being listed in function order (rather than alphabetical order as before) would be better being laid out in portrait rather than landscape.

Also, on the Events List, a couple of entries got missed out, like the Classic Car show at the NEC, as did the MMOC AGM.

I have to admit that some times the English does not always flow too well, particularly in the introduction. Also that the appeal for suggestions and improvements, in the Introduction on page 2, should have also included the option of writing to Minor Matters.

Well, that is the inside story of the handbook. You heard if here first.

Would I do another handbook? In my view, each year’s handbook needs to be different to the previous one, so it is preferably someone else should edit it next year. However, if no one else materialises, then I would do another one, but it would be almost a carbon copy of this one.

What are your specific comments for improvement to the handbook?

Send comments either to Keith for inclusion in the next Newsletter, or to Minor Matters.

Regards

Nigel

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FROM THE SECRETARY

Here we go again! Another month has passed, and we’re already into February.

Firstly, I would like to add my thanks to those of Nigel’s, and thank you all for re-electing the Committee and Officers for a further 12 months.

We have our first committee meeting of the year on the 7th February, where our main task is to sort out the events calendar for the rest of the year, and, hopefully, the guest speakers for the meetings. All being well the hard copies will go out with next month’s newsletter, or be available for collection at this month’s meeting.

I was hoping to have full details for the St George’s day run to York for this month’s meeting, but, unfortunately the Area 1 meeting has been postponed – I will do my best to have full information for you all as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, I will be missing the next 2 meetings myself as this month, the date coincides with Joan’s birthday, and next month I will be going to see the master of the electric bass guitar, and legend in his own lifetime, Jet Harris, in concert.

However, my spies will be out, and I trust that we will have a good turnout for both meetings!!

As you will see below, I now have my ukonline email address fully working again at long last – any contributions for the newsletter or member’s advertising can be sent to me at either address, or, alternatively sent to me in longhand by “snail mail”.

WEBSITE – www.sefton.mmoc.org.uk – email: sefton@mmoc.org.uk

See you all on Wednesday 21st February 2007, the Blue Bell, Barton at 8.00pm.

Keith

KeithSrtn@aol.com