For those who were not present at the AGM, both Tony Moss and Michael Horsley announced that they would stand down from their posts at next year's AGM. They both have certainly "done their bit" and can take credit, along with the late David Johnson, for turning around the fortunes of the club. However, as they are currently the club's only officers we could be facing a crisis if nobody is prepared to step forward and help with running the club.
There is no hard and fast rule that says we have to have a fixed committee with rigidly defined roles. True, if you look at the club's constitution on the website -
http://midasownersclub.co.uk/constitution/ - you will see a list of up to six club officers, but below that you will see the rules for Annual General Meetings and Special General Meetings which have the power to re-write the constitution and reshape the club as the members see fit. The committee positions listed are ones that have arisen historically, going forward we need to ask what positions are really necessary.
Looking back at the club's history (see my articles in the last two issues of the joint magazine) the club was started by Colin Spencer and he ran it single handed for the first couple of years. I'm not suggesting that just one person should run the club now. Quite the reverse, I think the duties need to be shared more widely. As Kelvin suggests we could have regional representatives who share out most of the club secretary's duties. Richard Streets has effectively started to do that for the Midlands by organizing some club events in that area. Like most of us, Richard has a very busy life and couldn't take on a bigger role in the club, but if he is able to organize club stands at two or three events each year then I for one think that is a very valuable contribution. It sounds like Kelvin is volunteering to do the same for the Wessex region and perhaps he could take on the organization of one of the events in the South West scheduled for later this year.
So yes, most of the Club Secretary duties could be shared, but the club still needs someone to co-ordinate all the regional reps and it also needs a Treasurer. As Michael said at the AGM, the duties of the Treasurer are not onerous. He just keeps an eye on the clubs finances and writes out a few cheques each year. Michael has also taken on some of the duties of the membership secretary, which is logical since all the subscriptions have to be paid into the club's account. That is one aspect that could be separated again if someone were to take on the membership secretary role, but so far no one has stepped forward.
And I think that is the main issue here. If we can't find some way of replacing Tony and Michael, then the club will simply cease to exist.