The Secretary's Report
Cranmog AGM January 2021.
We currently have 320 individual members registered using our system of Cranmog registration, this includes 12 overseas members. We had 13 new members join in 2020.
We do not circulate our Membership list to members as per the MSCC policy.
The last year has certainly been very different from previous years due to the Covid pandemic.
We usually organise and attend several events throughout the year in our area and also attend other events elsewhere. Fortunately, before the country went into lockdown in March, we managed to hold our annual ‘Flagship’ event in January, the CranMog Birthday Party and once again, I would like to thank all those involved in the organisation of it. We are also very fortunate to have our own band who perform for us and I would like to thank them for their time and efforts on behalf of CranMog. Very sadly, due to the restrictions the CranMog Birthday will not be taking place in January 2021. We hope to perhaps have something later on in the year.
A large number of our members also attended the Allon White Breakfast on 1st February where we had a talk about the delights of freshy brewed coffee. Sadly, apart from a couple of very socially outside meet ups in July of less than 12 of us, the South Coast Slalom event in September ably organised and following strict Covid guidelines by Stephen and Moyra Isherwood, and Delapre Classics on the Lawn on 6th September, organised by John Winn with a good CranMog attendance, there were no other organised CranMog events in 2020.
The CranMog monthly noggins stopped in March 2020 and have yet to be re started.
We were meeting on the 2nd Wednesday every month at The Chequers Pub, in Houghton Conquest. Attendance averaged 40-50 members, occasionally more.
When we are finally able to meet up again and resume our monthly noggins, we will have to find a new venue. The Chequers Pub has unfortunately been closed permanently. We will start to make enquiries about a new venue once restrictions have been lifted. I would welcome any ideas from anyone. We are looking for a venue that is happy to give us a dedicated room or area where we can comfortably sit up to 40-50 people and have the option to dine. It would also be good if they could provide a few plates of sandwiches and chips later in the evening for those not dining.
Every member of Cranmog, the MSCC or guests are very welcome to come to our meetings.
In order for us to continue to have some form of ‘face to face’ meetings we started meeting using Zoom, courtesy of the MSCC Zoom account. As it was occasionally difficult for us to book a time slot due to it already being in use by other Centres it was decided to purchase our own CranMog Zoom account at a cost of £148 for 12 months. This gives us the ability to have Zoom meetings for longer than the 40 minutes allowed on the free accounts. We are obviously saving the cost of £50 per month that we had been paying for the monthly sandwiches at meetings. This account is also available to be used by members at any time. If you wish to use it please email me and I will set up a meeting for you. It has been used by a few of our members which is pleasing.
Our monthly Zoom meetings take place at 8pm on the 2nd Wednesday of the month. They start at 8pm and usually last for about 1 hour or so. We also have other meetings, either on another evening or morning or afternoon for perhaps a 30minute chat and catch up.
I think they have been a great success: at the monthly noggins we can have up to 30 plus shared screens and at the other times fewer but usually at least 5 or 6 shared screens and it is a great opportunity to stay in touch with each other and also see members who do normally attend our noggins as they do not live locally. I am very grateful to those who join me and are happy to participate in my sometimes ‘daft’ ideas. We have had simple quizzes, shared memories of past trips, cocktail evenings, a cheese and wine event and even managed to have our yearly Christmas Carol concert via Zoom! Many thanks to Karen Moody for sorting out the accompanying music and lyrics. Perhaps not quite as tuneful as usual but still very enjoyable! Our Zoom meetings will continue for the foreseeable future.
All of our communication to members is via email or our website. Our events are also published in our Centre report in Miscellany. We do not have a newsletter but encourage members to submit a report on events either to Miscellany or our website www.cranmog.org. I circulate the monthly ‘Matters to Discuss’ for our meetings a few days beforehand to all members, this would usually have given everyone a chance to see what we have been doing and what we are about to do.
As we have not been involved in any CranMog activities I began to send out emails to members on a regular basis, usually on a Sunday so they have been named ‘Sunday Sermons’ just as a way of keeping in touch with you all. I tried to keep them light hearted and hopefully a little bit amusing.
Thank you very much to all who email me back to thank me. It is also lovely to hear from you as well. I try to reply but sometimes I can’t quite manage to reply back to you. I read them all though and very much appreciate them.
If you also notice that you have not received any emails from me for sometime please contact me and I will check my distribution list. I have occasional problems with my distribution list on my computer.
As a Centre we have other general occasional costs, they could be sending cards/flowers to members who have been poorly, have a special birthday/anniversary or sadly have died. However, please remember I can only send our best wishes if I have been informed about the occasion. We also buy small gifts to thank those who have organised some of our events or to thank club officers who have retired from their officer posts. I estimate a budget of between £250 - £300 would cover this.
I haven’t given the full details of our expenditure, merely an idea of the kind of thing that your membership fee goes towards.
For any trips/events organised by members on behalf of the Centre we use the Cranmog bank account to hold deposits paid in and to make payments. This saves any member from having to pay for anything out of their own funds and also protects our members.
We pay a fee for the running of the website and we provide Regalia for members which makes a very small income for the centre. I have attached the list of our current Regalia items should anyone be interested.
As a club we have very few assets; 2 Cranmog sail flags and 2 ‘event’ tents/gazebos.
We currently have £2589 in our bank account.
We have a large membership. Subscription for membership previously has been at £4 per member. We suspended payment of the subscription in 2019/2020 as we had sufficient funds. New members still paid £4 to join. That payment was suspended once the Covid restrictions were introduced and we have not been able to operate in our usual way. Sadly, I have not yet met several of our new members who have joined this year. I hope to be able to meet you all later in the year.
As we still have over £2000 in our account, I would like to make the proposal at the AGM that the subscription for 2021/2022 is waived once again for current members. I would also propose that it is also waived for new members due to our necessary lack of activity!
Membership will still be up for renewal in April. This April I will ask everyone to register again for their CranMog membership, hopefully electronically. This will ensure that the membership list is kept up to date. I am also of the opinion that as we no longer circulate a membership list, I do not need to keep the addresses of members. When you initially join the MSCC you give your address to enable you to receive posted copies of Miscellany and probably for bank/payment details. The MSCC Membership Secretary then passes on your address details to the local Centre Secretary so that they can then be invited to join their local Centre. I think as far as membership details are concerned, email addresses, telephone numbers and MSCC Membership numbers will be all that is required. However, if someone does not have an email address then for contact purposes a telephone number will suffice. If you have a reason that you think we should still record addresses please let me know. For the very rare times I need an address I can always contact the MSCC Membership Secretary.
The MSCC want all Centre Secretaries to use a generic club email address, this reduces the risk of a breach of GDPR. I had not done so earlier as I was hoping to handover to a new person taking over from me and it could then be set up by them. Obviously, that has not taken place so I will now set it up over the coming months. The advantage of course is that once it has been set up it can then be handed over to a new Centre Secretary when they take over the role at some point in the future.
The email address will be cranmog.sec@morgansportscarclub.com It is already working but any emails sent to that address at the moment are automatically forwarded to my current email address.
I need to work out how to set it up along with the email distribution list, if anyone would like to volunteer to assist with that, I would be very grateful. You know how much I dislike playing around on the computer. It would also be useful as someone else would be able to use the email address and circulation list when I am not available.
As you are aware Janet, David and I were planning to stand down from our posts at the AGM this year. However, we felt that it would be very difficult for new people to step in and take on the roles with the current situation and so we have all volunteered to stay on for another year. I am very grateful to Janet and David for agreeing to do this.
However, we do need people from the membership to come forward to take over the roles of Treasurer and Webmaster in 2022 or earlier if it was possible.
We will also need a new Centre Secretary. I am not expecting the person who volunteers to assist me to then follow on as the Centre Secretary. However, if we do not have a new Centre Secretary, the centre will cease to exist and I will not be carrying on for ever! We could look at limiting the tenure for the roles to see if that helps, but personally I don’t feel it will make any difference.
We still have a vacancy for the position of Event Coordinator again this year. It has not been a problem, particularly this year for obvious reasons! It is managed between me and David Robinson, our Cranmog webmaster. Monica Robinson also assists with the Events Calendar on our website.
Once restrictions are lifted and we are able to do so, if you wish to arrange any events please contact one of us to discuss the possible dates. I would also like to encourage more members to become involved in arranging events. You do not have to be an expert but if you have any ideas about things that you would like to do and that you think others would also enjoy please think about arranging it. If you want any advice you are more than welcome to speak to me (not that I am an expert, of course!).
It would be very good if more of us would come forward and offer to organise new events.
It does not have to be onerous and it could just be arranging a visit to somewhere or a drive out for lunch.
Don’t forget I am also your representative at the MSCC NCM’s. If you want any matter raised or information please contact me.
I would like to thank all of you for your support of Cranmog over the past very difficult year. I think it is a great Centre. Thank you as well to the Officers of the club, without their efforts we would not have a Centre.
Philip Bell our President, Haydn Lightfoot the Chairman, Janet Winn, our Treasurer, John Winn, our Regalia Officer, David Robinson , our Webmaster and Vanessa Barham. I would also like to thank Trisha White who has helped to maintain the Membership list and Monica Robinson for her help with the Events Calendar.
I took over the role as the CranMog Centre Secretary in January 2012 and I have enjoyed my stint very much. Once again, I am willing to stand as the Centre Secretary for one more year. However, I will not be putting myself forward for re-election in January 2022. This, I hope, will give the Centre time to make arrangements to find a new volunteer willing to take on the role. It is not that arduous and if anyone feels that this is something they would like to do I would be very happy to explain the role in more detail. It is time for someone with new ideas and enthusiasms to take over.
Finally, I’d like to wish you all a Happy New Year and let’s hope we have a much better 2021.
Michele Chapman
We currently have 320 individual members registered using our system of Cranmog registration, this includes 12 overseas members. We had 13 new members join in 2020.
We do not circulate our Membership list to members as per the MSCC policy.
The last year has certainly been very different from previous years due to the Covid pandemic.
We usually organise and attend several events throughout the year in our area and also attend other events elsewhere. Fortunately, before the country went into lockdown in March, we managed to hold our annual ‘Flagship’ event in January, the CranMog Birthday Party and once again, I would like to thank all those involved in the organisation of it. We are also very fortunate to have our own band who perform for us and I would like to thank them for their time and efforts on behalf of CranMog. Very sadly, due to the restrictions the CranMog Birthday will not be taking place in January 2021. We hope to perhaps have something later on in the year.
A large number of our members also attended the Allon White Breakfast on 1st February where we had a talk about the delights of freshy brewed coffee. Sadly, apart from a couple of very socially outside meet ups in July of less than 12 of us, the South Coast Slalom event in September ably organised and following strict Covid guidelines by Stephen and Moyra Isherwood, and Delapre Classics on the Lawn on 6th September, organised by John Winn with a good CranMog attendance, there were no other organised CranMog events in 2020.
The CranMog monthly noggins stopped in March 2020 and have yet to be re started.
We were meeting on the 2nd Wednesday every month at The Chequers Pub, in Houghton Conquest. Attendance averaged 40-50 members, occasionally more.
When we are finally able to meet up again and resume our monthly noggins, we will have to find a new venue. The Chequers Pub has unfortunately been closed permanently. We will start to make enquiries about a new venue once restrictions have been lifted. I would welcome any ideas from anyone. We are looking for a venue that is happy to give us a dedicated room or area where we can comfortably sit up to 40-50 people and have the option to dine. It would also be good if they could provide a few plates of sandwiches and chips later in the evening for those not dining.
Every member of Cranmog, the MSCC or guests are very welcome to come to our meetings.
In order for us to continue to have some form of ‘face to face’ meetings we started meeting using Zoom, courtesy of the MSCC Zoom account. As it was occasionally difficult for us to book a time slot due to it already being in use by other Centres it was decided to purchase our own CranMog Zoom account at a cost of £148 for 12 months. This gives us the ability to have Zoom meetings for longer than the 40 minutes allowed on the free accounts. We are obviously saving the cost of £50 per month that we had been paying for the monthly sandwiches at meetings. This account is also available to be used by members at any time. If you wish to use it please email me and I will set up a meeting for you. It has been used by a few of our members which is pleasing.
Our monthly Zoom meetings take place at 8pm on the 2nd Wednesday of the month. They start at 8pm and usually last for about 1 hour or so. We also have other meetings, either on another evening or morning or afternoon for perhaps a 30minute chat and catch up.
I think they have been a great success: at the monthly noggins we can have up to 30 plus shared screens and at the other times fewer but usually at least 5 or 6 shared screens and it is a great opportunity to stay in touch with each other and also see members who do normally attend our noggins as they do not live locally. I am very grateful to those who join me and are happy to participate in my sometimes ‘daft’ ideas. We have had simple quizzes, shared memories of past trips, cocktail evenings, a cheese and wine event and even managed to have our yearly Christmas Carol concert via Zoom! Many thanks to Karen Moody for sorting out the accompanying music and lyrics. Perhaps not quite as tuneful as usual but still very enjoyable! Our Zoom meetings will continue for the foreseeable future.
All of our communication to members is via email or our website. Our events are also published in our Centre report in Miscellany. We do not have a newsletter but encourage members to submit a report on events either to Miscellany or our website www.cranmog.org. I circulate the monthly ‘Matters to Discuss’ for our meetings a few days beforehand to all members, this would usually have given everyone a chance to see what we have been doing and what we are about to do.
As we have not been involved in any CranMog activities I began to send out emails to members on a regular basis, usually on a Sunday so they have been named ‘Sunday Sermons’ just as a way of keeping in touch with you all. I tried to keep them light hearted and hopefully a little bit amusing.
Thank you very much to all who email me back to thank me. It is also lovely to hear from you as well. I try to reply but sometimes I can’t quite manage to reply back to you. I read them all though and very much appreciate them.
If you also notice that you have not received any emails from me for sometime please contact me and I will check my distribution list. I have occasional problems with my distribution list on my computer.
As a Centre we have other general occasional costs, they could be sending cards/flowers to members who have been poorly, have a special birthday/anniversary or sadly have died. However, please remember I can only send our best wishes if I have been informed about the occasion. We also buy small gifts to thank those who have organised some of our events or to thank club officers who have retired from their officer posts. I estimate a budget of between £250 - £300 would cover this.
I haven’t given the full details of our expenditure, merely an idea of the kind of thing that your membership fee goes towards.
For any trips/events organised by members on behalf of the Centre we use the Cranmog bank account to hold deposits paid in and to make payments. This saves any member from having to pay for anything out of their own funds and also protects our members.
We pay a fee for the running of the website and we provide Regalia for members which makes a very small income for the centre. I have attached the list of our current Regalia items should anyone be interested.
As a club we have very few assets; 2 Cranmog sail flags and 2 ‘event’ tents/gazebos.
We currently have £2589 in our bank account.
We have a large membership. Subscription for membership previously has been at £4 per member. We suspended payment of the subscription in 2019/2020 as we had sufficient funds. New members still paid £4 to join. That payment was suspended once the Covid restrictions were introduced and we have not been able to operate in our usual way. Sadly, I have not yet met several of our new members who have joined this year. I hope to be able to meet you all later in the year.
As we still have over £2000 in our account, I would like to make the proposal at the AGM that the subscription for 2021/2022 is waived once again for current members. I would also propose that it is also waived for new members due to our necessary lack of activity!
Membership will still be up for renewal in April. This April I will ask everyone to register again for their CranMog membership, hopefully electronically. This will ensure that the membership list is kept up to date. I am also of the opinion that as we no longer circulate a membership list, I do not need to keep the addresses of members. When you initially join the MSCC you give your address to enable you to receive posted copies of Miscellany and probably for bank/payment details. The MSCC Membership Secretary then passes on your address details to the local Centre Secretary so that they can then be invited to join their local Centre. I think as far as membership details are concerned, email addresses, telephone numbers and MSCC Membership numbers will be all that is required. However, if someone does not have an email address then for contact purposes a telephone number will suffice. If you have a reason that you think we should still record addresses please let me know. For the very rare times I need an address I can always contact the MSCC Membership Secretary.
The MSCC want all Centre Secretaries to use a generic club email address, this reduces the risk of a breach of GDPR. I had not done so earlier as I was hoping to handover to a new person taking over from me and it could then be set up by them. Obviously, that has not taken place so I will now set it up over the coming months. The advantage of course is that once it has been set up it can then be handed over to a new Centre Secretary when they take over the role at some point in the future.
The email address will be cranmog.sec@morgansportscarclub.com It is already working but any emails sent to that address at the moment are automatically forwarded to my current email address.
I need to work out how to set it up along with the email distribution list, if anyone would like to volunteer to assist with that, I would be very grateful. You know how much I dislike playing around on the computer. It would also be useful as someone else would be able to use the email address and circulation list when I am not available.
As you are aware Janet, David and I were planning to stand down from our posts at the AGM this year. However, we felt that it would be very difficult for new people to step in and take on the roles with the current situation and so we have all volunteered to stay on for another year. I am very grateful to Janet and David for agreeing to do this.
However, we do need people from the membership to come forward to take over the roles of Treasurer and Webmaster in 2022 or earlier if it was possible.
We will also need a new Centre Secretary. I am not expecting the person who volunteers to assist me to then follow on as the Centre Secretary. However, if we do not have a new Centre Secretary, the centre will cease to exist and I will not be carrying on for ever! We could look at limiting the tenure for the roles to see if that helps, but personally I don’t feel it will make any difference.
We still have a vacancy for the position of Event Coordinator again this year. It has not been a problem, particularly this year for obvious reasons! It is managed between me and David Robinson, our Cranmog webmaster. Monica Robinson also assists with the Events Calendar on our website.
Once restrictions are lifted and we are able to do so, if you wish to arrange any events please contact one of us to discuss the possible dates. I would also like to encourage more members to become involved in arranging events. You do not have to be an expert but if you have any ideas about things that you would like to do and that you think others would also enjoy please think about arranging it. If you want any advice you are more than welcome to speak to me (not that I am an expert, of course!).
It would be very good if more of us would come forward and offer to organise new events.
It does not have to be onerous and it could just be arranging a visit to somewhere or a drive out for lunch.
Don’t forget I am also your representative at the MSCC NCM’s. If you want any matter raised or information please contact me.
I would like to thank all of you for your support of Cranmog over the past very difficult year. I think it is a great Centre. Thank you as well to the Officers of the club, without their efforts we would not have a Centre.
Philip Bell our President, Haydn Lightfoot the Chairman, Janet Winn, our Treasurer, John Winn, our Regalia Officer, David Robinson , our Webmaster and Vanessa Barham. I would also like to thank Trisha White who has helped to maintain the Membership list and Monica Robinson for her help with the Events Calendar.
I took over the role as the CranMog Centre Secretary in January 2012 and I have enjoyed my stint very much. Once again, I am willing to stand as the Centre Secretary for one more year. However, I will not be putting myself forward for re-election in January 2022. This, I hope, will give the Centre time to make arrangements to find a new volunteer willing to take on the role. It is not that arduous and if anyone feels that this is something they would like to do I would be very happy to explain the role in more detail. It is time for someone with new ideas and enthusiasms to take over.
Finally, I’d like to wish you all a Happy New Year and let’s hope we have a much better 2021.
Michele Chapman