Committee Chatterbox

12 May 2026

Since our last blog we have held 4 rallies.  Osmaston Polo Ground with 23 units, Uppertown Farm Carsington with 27 units, Ashover Showground with 44 units and Shardlow Marina with 15 units.

We held an Open Forum at Ashover which was well attended.  Thank you to all those who took an hour out of their weekend to join us.  Topics discussed included:

• Plaques – we have started using a more flexible supplier of wooden plaques.  This enables us to order smaller amounts as there will be less wastage.  This does however mean that bookings made later than 4 weeks before the rally cannot be guaranteed a plaque.

• 2027 rallies – we shared a few of the confirmed bookings and hope to get a ‘rally board’ onto the rally field soon. 

• A suggestion from Jackie Brown was discussed about getting some feedback from non-ralliers to try and find out why they have not tried rallying and also from active ralliers to see what we can do better.

• A discussion also held following a suggestion from David Barber about trying low/no noise fireworks at the Bonfire Rally.  This was received well and has since been discussed at the Committee meeting and we will try to progress. 

• Bakewell Carnival – we are putting a vehicle and trailer into the parade with the theme of Top of the Pops, as voted by members.  We will be in contact with all those booked onto the rally shortly as we would like to get as many members involved as we can.  It’s been a long time since the Centre entered a float into a parade.    

• Committee vacancies – we will be needing a Secretary at the next AGM.  If anyone is interested in this role, please contact me or our current Secretary, Ant for a chat. 

A few days after the Open Forum we held a Committee meeting.  Two things to update from the meeting are that in line with the CAMC, it was agreed that members will be able to save 2 pitches on a rally field for friends and family.  The caveat is that on some sites, the marshals might feel that this is not appropriate, and their decision is final. We will update Centre Rules, Marshal Guidance notes to this effect as soon as we can.    We also discussed funded places for Marshals.   Currently, if a landowner does not fund any places for Marshals, the Centre funds one space and the Marshals have to pay for the other space (usually split between 2 marshals).   With the exception of CAMC and other Commercial sites, where this is not financially viable, we will try to support funding 2 free Marshal places as a Centre.  Usually this only applies to one or 2 sites per year and we will need to look at this on a case-by-case basis to make sure it is affordable. 

I think that’s all the updates for you!  Hope to see you on a rally field soon. 

Denise

Chair