Committee Chatterbox

25 November 2025

Huge thanks to all those who supported the Bonfire Rally by attending and/or helping.  Following a successful Bonfire Rally we now have a bit of down time until the New Year Rally. But as the saying goes, there's no rest for the wicked!!

So what's happening behind the scenes of the Centre……

The committee are still working away in the background. Because we have new Officers in many of the roles, we have much to learn.  

Tilly, our new Treasurer is doing a great job at picking up the role and working hard to make sure that the finances of the Centre run smoothly. This includes navigating the extremely frustrating bureaucracy to get new signatories on the Centre bank account and to get on-line banking access.   Technology is wonderful when it works!

Ant, our new Secretary is making sure all the Centre administrative processes are in order and is liaising with other Central Division Secretaries to share good practice and form a support network.

Glynn, our new Rally Secretary has been ensuring that all the paperwork is in place for the 2026 rallies and with the support of our Assistant Rally Secretary (and Vice Chair), Richard, planning has commenced for next year.   They already have some exciting plans for 2027. We still need marshals and co-marshals for a few of the 2026 rallies.   A new list with the gaps will be shared soon.

Amy, our new Webmaster has had some initial training on the website and is keen to get to grips with the role.   Please bear with us if we are a bit slower to update the website.  This is because we are storing tasks up to work on as part of the training.

Craig, our Equipment Officer is trying to source more appropriate storage facilities for the Centre. We still have some work to do in relation to streamlining what we store, and this will be picked up in the Spring. 

Sherry, our Plaque Officer is tying up loose ends ready to hand over to Amy in the New Year. Spoiler alert -  the plaques in 2027 will be purple. 

Our general Committee Members, Rick, Michelle and Shaun are supporting us all behind the scenes and helping out wherever they can. 

Finding myself unexpectedly in the role of Chair, I am thankful I have a great team to work with.   I have been helping and supporting all the Officers in new roles as best I can.   In addition we have updated the marshal guidance notes and drafted a new template for communicating rally information to marshals.  We have anecdotal feedback from marshals that they would like to feel more supported and we hope that this process will plug the gap. 

My next challenge personally is to co-marshal the New Year Rally. We have a lovely mix of Derbyshire members and regular and new visitors joining us for the 3 night Rally at Cromford.  We have 3 nights of entertainment lined up and there will also be some fun and games.   When we agreed to be part of the team running this rally up back in May our main aim was to make sure the rally could go ahead and to ensure we didn't lose the Matlock Rugby Club as a venue.  It also seemed so far away....  Now it is just around the corner. 

The Committee is very grateful to the members who have stepped forward to run the 2026 New Year Rally.  It is great to have it picked up so far in advance and I understand that planning has already started!  Please support this rally and team of marshals when we open the rally for bookings.

Thanks for reading my ramblings! Hope to see you on a rally field soon.

Denise

Chair