Here’s the report that Mark presented to this year’s AGM regarding the progress on organising next year’s National Rally.
AGM National Rally update
First the basics – We’ve already said previously that the land agreement has been agreed and signed by both Alex at Copford and SROC. Deposit paid.
We have several opportunities for sponsorship for either the whole event or parts of the event. We have recently put together a sponsorship proposal for a whole event (title) sponsor and sent it to them. Hopefully they will either agree or start a negotiation with us to set terms to come on board with us. This potentially will cover most or all of the land hire.
We have also got a plan B if not. And also other non-conflicting sponsors or supporters that could help out in various areas.
Next topic event clothing and the only bad news.
Unfortunately despite our supplier giving us a quote for the reversible jackets and agreeing to have some available for this meeting we found out earlier this week that the yellow/navy reversible jackets are no longer available. Jayne Baitup and several other committee members have been frantically searching the web and making phone calls to see what can be done. We have been offered an alternative by the supplier, hopefully there is a sample here tonight. If we go ahead with this coat it will be in Bottle Green colour and the National logo will be yellow outline as opposed to solid yellow. As the jacket colour provides the background colour. We will let you know the final decision.
Right onto better stuff.
Kevin Filmer has a good working relationship with 4 Jays facilities hire and has started working out where the toilets will be located. Along with fresh water taps for the camping and catering areas.
Through his contacts in the comping world Charles Darby has made contact with someone who can supply the first aid and paramedic services we need to cover the event as a whole and the motor sport events specifically. We are just waiting a response.
Right next – bookings probably quite important!
We have decided on the pricing structure for the event and anticipate the bookings and event website (which Dave Green has spent a lot of time on and is almost ready) going live either the day after this year’s National or worst case the 1st June.
After looking at several ways of taking people’s money we have decided to stay with the system that has been in use for a few years now, which has been developed by the ALRC. The big change here though is that instead of one of the men who developed it being the entries secretary and running it for us, it is being passed to us. Jean will be the entries secretary and take the bookings and make sure the money tallies up. From there though we need someone to look after the database and feed out the information from it to keep everyone updated how things are going.
This person will also be creating the groups (taking into account all the requests to be in the same group as friends, relatives, etc) and running orders, this can be done as the entries come in and we have a demo version to show how it is run. At the event itself you will be liaising with members of the ALRC to get the scores and trophies organized for the daily prize givings. There are also people in the club who have done it before who can be called upon for advice. If anyone is interested in taking this on please let me know by the Tuesday after Easter. I am available over the Easter event if you need to ask me about it.
Alongside this, part of the booking form allows people to indicate if they are available to marshal any of the trials. So we need someone to be a Marshal coordinator and make contact with the volunteers, thank them and be a point of contact. Possibly at the event itself to phone, text or otherwise get in touch with them to remind them to sign on. This role will be working closely with the competition director, Charles Darby, who has already quite a few names lined up.
While on the subject of marshals/volunteers we realise that all Southern members are going to be very busy and that at a previous meeting it was agreed that we all need to book in and pay to camp in the same way as the entrants. Be assured we are looking at ways to thank and reward everyone who helps out and hopefully offset the cost of the camping in some way. Though this is dependent on the amount of profit we make!!
So far as the bar and catering facilities are concerned, we have put together an invitation to supply document together. On this we have listed the basic times and meals we would like to be supplied and various other likes and wants. We have sent this to 2 known interested parties and is ongoing at the moment.
So I think that is it for now, are there any questions?