Committee Chatterbox

11 August 2026

I hope that you are all enjoying the continued hot summer weather and making the most of your caravans or motorhomes (especially if you have EHU and aircon!).

Since my last blog, we have had one rally.  This was a new site for us - Ambleside Holiday Rally with 167 nights in total with up to 26 units staying for a range of days.  My understanding was that it was a bit cooler up in the Lakes, but that didn’t spoil the enjoyment as seen on various posts and photos on the Centre Facebook group.  From this rally a further £20.00 was collected through the 50/50 draw.  Thanks once again for supporting this. 

Now, please don’t stop reading….  we need to talk about the Committee for next year…….. 

You may recall that we had a bit of a shuffle around of roles after the last AGM. 

Antony was co-opted into the Secretary role and I was co-opted as Chair.  We also co-opted 2 new Committee members into vital roles – Amy took on the Webmaster role and Glyn agreed (whilst in the pub!) to take on the role of Rally Secretary. 

Being co-opted is a very different scenario to actually putting yourself forward for nomination into a role you really want to do – so, I speak on behalf of all members, to say that we are very grateful for those stepping forward to cover these roles. 

All roles are up for nomination every year and we will need a nomination for the Secretary role to take over after the AGM in October.   

Secretary is one of the key roles which we must fill to continue to operate as a Centre. 

No Secretary = No Centre

What does the Secretary do?  The Secretary role is general administration and co-ordination on behalf of the Committee and the key tasks are:

• Committee meetings – set up and circulate a teams meeting link, prepare the Agenda from a template and take brief minutes to capture decisions and actions (which can be from a recording of the meeting if that is easier).  We usually have 10 or 11 meetings a year which last between 60-90 minutes. 

• Regular emails – Using lists provided by HQ and template emails, send out welcome emails weekly to all new Centre members and send out reminder emails monthly to all Centre non returners after their subscription has renewed/ended.

• General Correspondence – monitor any email correspondence and respond or circulate amongst the Committee as appropriate.  This is a regular Agenda item at the Committee meetings. 

• AGM – publish the notice of the AGM from a template.  Help with the arrangements for the AGM, including reading through the notices and formalities (from a template) on the day.  Take the minutes for the AGM. 

  
  

• Other administrative tasks – support the Committee and Chair to keep Centre documentation up to date and filed appropriately using a shared on-line system.  Any other relevant administration which crops up from time to time.

  
  

• General Committee tasks – the Secretary is part of the Committee and will be involved in the decision making process which takes place at Committee meetings. If possible, the Secretary should support any Committee activities such as Open Forum and Committee led rallies. 

Do you have the skills to put yourself forward?

Visit https://www.derbyshirecentre.co.uk/agm/nominations-for-committee to download the form. The deadline for nominations is 2pm on Saturday 19 September 2026.

If you have any questions abut the role of Secretary, please contact either Ant or me and we will do our best to answer them. 

We would also encourage nominations from members to become General Committee Officers – it’s a low time commitment, all meetings are on-line and it’s really important that we have a wide representation as we act on behalf of all Centre members.

Hope to see you on a rally field soon. 

Denise

Chair