Chairmas Report May/June 2018

By Steve Rowland

Dear Members

We have had a few interesting things happen since the last newsletter. There was a very good turnout at the last of the years club nights, where John Peters showed I believe up to 130 photos of past rallies, mainly from the 1990’s. Unfortunately I could not attend due to work commitments, but as the club now has a Epidiascope (allows a paper image to be projected onto a screen) that was kindly obtained through Jon Foster, I can see this being repeated. This success has given thought to having one winter evening meet, where members would have a 15 minute slot to show a small selection of their most interesting photo’s/ memorabilia, hopefully people will sign up and it should prove to be a very interesting evening.

Next came our Spring Bring and Buy, once again at Hassocks Garden Centre on 25th March. It was a good day weather wise but fewer members again and most bringing an engine to run as part of the Gas Up rather than odds and ends to sell. Last year I decided only to collect £3 from each seller as the turn out was lower, and we decided this year that there would be no charge. It is a great venue, so our thoughts are not to completely stop the event, but to make it an early gas up and if people wish to display their goods to sell they are more than welcome. The club has made a small donation to the Garden Centre’s nominated charity for their kindness of letting us use the site and I must admit we are able to get a great Breakfast on the day.

We also had a wonderful visit to the Harris Fun Fair yard but I won’t spoil it and let John Peters expand on this later.

One thing that has provoked a lot of conversations, certainly within the committee, is the new Data Protection Act that is going to come into force.

The area that SEAMS as a club is looking into is in regards to holding members addresses and telephone numbers. There is a website that we have been reviewing and I must say I have printed what must be nearly 300 pages of information! As we are not holding, what I would call massively important things like personal details or bank information, we intend on the next renewal notice to add a section which will conclude with a tick box, that will  request that each member to tick this to give the club permission to hold their address. It will mean that any member that fails to tick, will no longer receive the SEAMS club newsletter. We also, as a safe guard only intend to hold these details on a portable device and will not be stored directly on a PC.

I know a lot of the people that I have seen this year have had to listen to me talking about my Land Rover rebuild, this is taking shape but may have some restrictions on my attendance once the new rolling chassis needs a body.

As I write we are nearly in May, so hopefully we will soon be seeing you around the Rally fields.