Club night is every wednesday
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- Important – PLEASE TAKE NOTE
- Chairmans Corner
Ed’s Bit…That was the year that was….. There’s a bit of a 2003 retrospective about this month’s issue – as I always suspected, you were out there competing last year – it’s just taken a bit of time to write about it! This is by far the ‘fattest’ mag for many a month, and will no doubt have pushed up the postage cost (!), but I’m sure that you don’t want to wait another 5 issues before finding out what everyone was up to in 2004…. If you haven’t got the hint already, all I’m saying is ‘PLEASE DON’T WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR BEFORE WRITING AN ARTICE ABOUT WHAT YOU’VE DONE IN 2004’. This will become even more important this year, as we will not be awarding trophies at the Centenary Dinner to anyone who has not written an article. See Pete Farmer’s bit for more details… While on the subject of the Centenary Dinner, every issue for the rest of this year will have a page dedicated to what we have planned for next year, and to anything that we need help with - i.e. old magazines and memorabilia, tracing old members, special events etc. etc. To kick things off, Tom has written an article explaining the background to the Centenary Dinner and what/when/where/how the current plan of things are. If you want to hear a more detailed version, come down to the AGM on Wednesday 21st April, where Kathleen Dawson will reveal exactly what we have planned (there you go, even managed to get the AGM mentioned – I’m almost getting good at this….). The AGM is your chance to have your say on any aspect of the club – if you have an opinion, come down and let us know. Anyhow, back to 2004. The Oakington Stages ran without a hitch, and I even managed to keep warm all day, videoing the split junction from the comfort of my car! Thanks to the sterling work by the MCAC team, and several crews who helped clear up the tyres, the venue was clear by 7.00pm – an all-time record! Many thanks to everyone who helped set up/marshal/take down. Roll on the Bomb-Along! One final quick plug. On Sunday 28th March it’s the annual Breakfast Autotest at Bovingdon Airfield. This is a co-promoted event with Harrow CC, and if you have, or can ‘aquire’, a spare set of tyres for your road car, it really is a good laugh. The tests are much more open than the very fine event held at the Uxbridge Autoshow (mainly because they have half a runway, not ¼ of a field!), and the organisation is always slick. If you can’t compete, please come and help. If you are competing, does anyone want a second driver?? 
Important – PLEASE TAKE NOTEThe editorial deadline for the next issue is the first Wednesday in May. E-mail me at: chris-keys@fsmail.net 
MCAC Online Shop We have adopted an online shop using the address www.buy.at/MCAC. This is a gateway shop, where members clicking on to this address will find a page of online vendors who will donate a commission for all subsequent sales made through the website. This commission will then be passed to the Linda Jackson Centre at Mount Vernon Hospital. Among the vendors are some big names :- Marks and Spencer, Comet, Oddbins, Virgin, Co-op Electricals, Blackwell`s Books, CD-wow, Travelselect & N4Sports Chairmans CornerBy Tom RyanNow that the days are getting longer, the daffodils are breaking out and the sun is making an occasional appearance it’s time to start thinking about ….the AGM. This year the event will take on a special significance because, as you will read elsewhere, next year is a special year in the life of the Club and it is those Council members who are elected at this next AGM who will serve through MCAC’s Centenary Year and will be responsible for the proper celebration of this important milestone. Preparations are already well under way but there is room on Council for several more new faces who have the ideas and enthusiasm to contribute to this great project. One or two of the major portfolios are likely to change this year so it is a chance to put your name forward and help to create the sort of Club that you want to be part of. Please get a couple of your friends to nominate and second you and hand the paper in to any Council member any time between now and mid-April. The annual Prize Giving evening this year was a pretty low-key event held at the Club House at the end of January. It took the form of a splendid buffet supper, cooked and served by John and the Club House staff, followed by the usual presentation of our spectacular array of trophies. I have two comments on the event. Firstly, this was the second year that we have experimented with a more casual evening as a change from the Dinner & Dance format of the last 98 years. This style of event was tried in response to complaints from some quarters about the cost and formality of the traditional D & D. However, when you study the numbers and the names of those who attended both the function last year at the Wycombe Ski Centre and this year at the Club House we find that numbers actually declined rather than increased and that pretty much the exact same members showed up as used to come regularly to the old style evenings. So where were all those complainers who wanted ‘something different’? Next year, of course, we will revert to the formal style for the Centenary Dinner but after that we will need to look again at the whole subject. The second topic associated with the Awards Presentation concerns the actual awards themselves. It was very disappointing this year to see how few of the award winners turned up to collect their trophies. It seems to me that if you are prepared to go to the trouble of competing throughout the year to win one of the beautiful silver cups and shields which the Club puts up then turning up to collect the thing is the least you can do. The Council, and especially the Awards Officer (well-done John!) goes to great lengths to have the trophies cleaned, engraved and accompanied by appropriate miniatures ready for the ceremony and it is dispiriting to see over half of the pots left at the end of the evening – and then be faced with the task of trying to get them to the winners by some means. There was a definite sentiment at the subsequent Council meeting to introduce a rule that if you don’t come to collect your trophy the Club will not provide any miniatures so you will not have any lasting memento of your successes. No firm decision was taken yet but please bear this in mind when next you should collect an annual award. Finally to end on a more upbeat note, a few words about a more successful aspect of the Clubs operations. If you have not logged on to the Club’s web-site recently (www.mcac.co.uk) you may be unaware of the great job that Malcolm Farmer has done to get the site revamped and regularly updated. He has put in a great deal of work to add interesting items, latest news and up-to-date results. After the Oakington Stages in February he was able to use a new Mobile Connect GPRS link direct from the results room at Oakington to have the results uploaded to the site so they were available for all even before most people had left the rally venue. You can’t get slicker than that… Well done Malcolm and the rest of the results team which produced the results for him to post. Pete’s Patch - The Championship Report With one MCAC event and one claim for a non-MCAC event, the tables are a little sparse at the moment. The Oakington Stages were run on a fairly nice day (well at least it not did not rain) but the wind created a wind chill which would not have been out of place in the Arctic. To all of the marshals and officials who turned out to assist with the running of this event, I thank you so much. I was quite worried during the week preceding the event, Wednesday came and I had about sixty five names of volunteers to come and help. No problems on the day though, a total of One hundred and forty seven people turned up to help in one capacity or another, with only a few people who had said that they would come not turning up. I will say if you are coming, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, let the chief marshal know in plenty of time. To the drivers in the Oakington Stages may I remind you that I only know of the drivers and co-drivers for automatic inclusion in the tables. They are good enough to come and ensure that you have a car to rally in so don’t forget your service crews. If I am not told they were there, I will not allocate them points. I did see a few club members servicing but feel that it would be unfair to those that I did not see if I were to allocate points to them automatically. So service crews, ask your driver if he/she has claimed for you or claim for them anyway (hint – I have not received any claims forms for servicing on the Oakington Stages yet). Dragging ourselves into the twenty first century, the tables can now be viewed in their entirety on the website (www.mcac.co.uk) thanks to a few late nights by Malc Farmer who has taken on the mantle of ensuring that the website is both current and informative. Well done Malc. If you have not visited it recently, do it now. For those without web access, or those who cannot be bothered to log on, I shall try to have a set of the latest tables available on club nights. Claims forms will also be available. At a recent Council meeting, a rule change was agreed in respect of the championship tables. From this year, Organisers have been extracted from the marshals table and put into a table of their own. This was because an organiser is awarded 10 points for organising whereas a marshal is only awarded 2 points for marshalling. Obviously, ‘ordinary’ marshals would not stand much chance of gaining silverware if they had to do five events for every one that an organiser does just to keep up. The current tables do not mean a great deal at present as there have only been claims for two events. With most of the tables blank, leaders in those with claimants are:- Stage Rally Driver:
Stage Rally Co-Driver:
Marshalling: Current leaders with 4 points each (as they received points for both setting up and marshalling on the Oakington Stages) are Gus Morrison, Mike Cawthra and Ray Cleghorn. Servicing: With only 1 event claimed for, John Gibson’s service crew (on the Red Kite) of Martin Lush, Martin Sherlock, Martin Moane, Guy Anderson, Chris Keys, Peter Cook and Dave Johnson are all leading the servicing table. (There is an amusing tale regarding loading the trailer for the Red Kite, a few beers in the direction of John or any of the crew should amuse you greatly!) Best MCAC
When you look at the tables, you may notice that a few changes have been made in the layout for this year. The most striking is that there are two extra columns on the left hand side of the page. These are headed ‘Magazine Article’ and ‘Marshalling’. The rules state that to claim a pot you must have done both of these, so you will be able to check whether you are eligible or not yet. To assist you further, those without a ‘yes’ in both columns will notice that their details are not as dark as others. This indicates that you have not yet become eligible to receive a pot. I would also remind you that to receive a ‘Best MCAC’ award, you have to write (or arrange for someone else to write) an article about the event concerned. One further thing to say about the Oakington Stages is to thank Rob Brook who managed to secure about 600 bars of chocolate from his employers (Cadburys) to be included in the marshals packs. Claims for dental charges will be considered (and rejected) at the next council meeting. That’s it for now, Keep those claims coming in. Perhaps we can also get enough magazine articles to keep Chris Keys happy (although I somehow doubt it). (You never know! – Ed) See you next time Directory: mag mag -> Essay writing guidelines mag -> 1 Background: The 20th Century Rock’n’Roll 1951-57 mag -> The Implications of Islam for Advertising Messages: The Middle Eastern Context mag -> A cumulative Table of Contents for the magazine antiques 1980 1989 January 1980 mag -> House Party! Magic rout 76ers in final regular-season game at Amway mag -> Twice Mardy Fish has competed in the Atlanta Tennis Championships. Twice he has made it to the finals. Twice he has battled rising star John Isner in the atc finals mag -> Mark e magill mag -> Magna Library 3d printing Guidelines and Frequently Asked Questions mag -> MarianBartsc h Download 161.17 Kb. Share with your friends:
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