Membership & Money Matters

I KNOW THAT IT’S MENTIONED ELSEWHERE in this edition, but before I launch into a report about my main SLOC responsibilities I must write a few words about the NEC Classic Car show from last month.

Our four car display was an excellent representation of the Lotus Sunbeam “family” (that was the official theme of the show) & the cars were a real credit to the members who allowed us to borrow them from Thursday morning to Sunday evening. I helped set up on the Thursday, & manned the stand on Sunday through to breakdown, so enjoyed talking to both members & other visitors, & there were a lot of both. I even learned that we had one visiting member from Ireland who drove professionally for the Bentley Works Team in the FIA GT class. Having worked myself filming endurance races of these cars in the pit lane at Susuka, Japan, & elsewhere, we swapped a few stories. He’s restoring a Lotus, & we were able to help him with advice & encouragement, & hopefully a few parts in the future as well.

The show was also a success on both the membership & financial fronts. Seven new members joined up at the show, & we took over £1300 in sales etc (both of these are records for any show / event we’ve attended) So, a warm welcome to all these new members, plus others who’ve joined since the last mag was published.

We did lose a few members recently who didn’t renew from the July list, but as I type this, full membership still stands at a very healthy 355, & with joint / family members the total is 533.

I will be posting the January renewal letters to arrive at about the same time as this mag will be delivered, so if this applies to you then please respond promptly (so that I don’t have to spend time & club money sending out reminders) Thanks very much.

On the overall money front I have been advised by our magazine printers that their costs have increased very significantly in recent months, & whilst they will try to absorb some of this by reducing their profits, we can expect a fairly substantial increase in this expenditure (probably starting with this issue) With postage, the four magazine issues cost around £5000 pa, which is the clubs’ largest single cost item, & represents just over £14.00 per paying member (or nearly half of the £30 membership fee) We have received quotes from a number of other printers over the years, but as our current one does not charge us VAT, no others have come anywhere near what we pay at the present.

The committee will be discussing this matter very soon.

Closing by wishing you all & your families a good Christmas & New year, & hoping to meet at a Club event in 2023.

As always, thanks for your ongoing support, it is much appreciated.

Dave Merlane