Committee Chatterbox

4 March 2026

February started with rain, rain and more rain.  Our first rally of 2026 at Sherwood Forest Holiday Park was soggy to say the least, but like true ralliers, we made the very best of it and had a great rally with 26 units arriving. We welcomed visitors from Nottinghamshire, Midlands, Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire Centres along with one first time rallying Derbyshire member.  We were all invited to a gathering to celebrate Sherry’s big birthday where we were treated to a fantastic spread.

This was followed by a rally held at the Winking Man pub near Buxton.  We had 14 units attend with visitors from Cheshire Centre.   A group meal on Saturday evening was organised followed by karaoke.  Check out the videos on the Centre’s Facebook page! 

You may wonder why I didn’t part-take….  well if you heard me sing, you would wonder no more 😊

We have two rallies to look forward to in March -  Peak Rail and Lickpenny Club site and following those we have the Easter Rally at Southport.  I will be emailing all those booked onto the Southport rally to make sure that we are aware of all children attending and their ages (thanks to those who have responded to my previous email).  This is to ensure we have enough Easter Eggs to go around. 

To help support the funding of the Centre, we ran 50/50 draws at Sherwood Forest and the Winking Man and we have raised £64.50.  Thanks to everyone who has ‘had a go’! We will continue to run 50/50 draws at our rallies as this is really helpful to boost the Centre’s finances.  Speaking of which, as you know, the Centre has 2 defibrillators and there are some associated on-going costs with these.  The pads, which we hope never to use, have a limited lifespan and had both expired.  We have replaced those at a cost of £126.  Current costs for replacement batteries are around £245 and we would anticipate needing to replace these batteries in approximately 2 years time. 

We are also very grateful to our sponsors for their support.  Please visit the sponsors page on the website:  https://www.derbyshirecentre.co.uk/sponsors 

We had a Committee meeting last night.  We had a detailed discussion about rally cancellations and our current policy on refunds.   We have tweaked these and will publish asap.  They will apply to bookings made from 1 April 2026. 

We also looked at some guidance HQ sent out on Rally and Event Terminology Guidance; Setting the tone for modern rallies.  We are confident that the Derbyshire Centre meet these guidelines already, but we will share them as a download on the website in due course. 

Keep an eye out for some more news to come later this month…. 

Here’s a little clue. 

Hope to see you on a rally field soon. 

Denise

Chair