MGoT 3rd Annual General Meeting

Chairmans' Report

Déjà vu again!

Last AGM I wrote the following:

“Looking back at my Chairman’s report from the 2005 AGM it seems that much of that report would hold good for this year. We are still

unsure how much we can grow – though the newsletter mailing list has grown from 600 to around 850 now.
struggling to find a way of organising events that minimises the impact on the committee’s time and resources – though we’ve finally made a leap forward with our on-line booking system.
in need of more help both on the committee and at events – though we’ve gained two new committee members.
indebted to Lotus on Track and other clubs for sharing events and lowering the financial risk of our track days.”

Incredibly all of the above is valid for yet another year - with some small updates. The membership is bigger and our partner relationships are more extensive as you’ll hear in our Secretary’s report. We now have online payments as well as online bookings to the great relief of our hard-working Treasurer.

Nevertheless, it still takes a significant effort to run a calendar of around ten track days a year. The need for help both at events and on the committee is ever present. I’m indebted to everyone who has helped make MGoT work – original committee members, new committee members and the growing band of support we have from club members that help out on the day.

What does 2008 hold?

Having an AGM in April is out of synch with the track day season, which really follows a calendar year. We’ve already organised all of the 2007 events and we’re sold out several events ahead. So, if we are to look forward it has to be to 2008.

There are challenges …

These relate to our very ‘raison d'etre’. We’re a club – run for MG enthusiast, by MG enthusiasts. As such we aim to keep our prices keen and maintain a friendly and safe approach to our events. Three challenges spring to mind.

1. Keeping prices reasonable

Given the inexorable rise in circuit hire fees this is increasingly difficult.

Weekend and summer prices are often out of our reach given the £150 pricing threshold that we’ve held to over the last year or two. Whether members can afford and are willing to stretch beyond that price threshold is something we’ll have to explore.

2. Getting convenient dates

This is also problematic because we sit at the bottom of the pecking order below racing and commercial track day organisers. Even if we can pay the price we can’t be sure to get the dates we want.

3. Running events as a club

Our ‘legal’ status as a branch of the MG Car Club has served us well over the last couple of seasons. There are many changes within the MGCC that may impact MGoT going forward, but as you’ll hear in our Secretary’s report our working relationship with the club remains strong.

Circuits are demanding more and more from track day organisers, both contractually and logistically. Although we’ve had some recognition of our club status from circuit owners in the past it’s clear that we’ll increasingly have to fulfil the same obligations as their commercial clients.

… but there are also ambitions

Despite the challenges we remain keen to develop MGoT.

We’d like to grow our calendar – not necessarily the number of actual events, but the number of MGoT ‘owned’ events.

We’d like to continue to grow our partner relationships with other clubs, sharing events with like-minded enthusiasts of compatible marques like Triumph, Austin Healey, Mini etc.

We’d like to develop our website further – to continue to take some of the strain off committee members.

But, most of all, we’d like to continue to have fun and enjoy our MGs on Track. That’s why we started MGoT and as long the fun remains so will we.

David Livingstone
Chairman, MGoT
20th April 2007

Related Links:
» 2007 AGM Minutes
» 2007 AGM Secretary's Report
» 2007 AGM Treasurer's Report