Membership: Numbers are well
up on recent years, 322 compared with 300 last year, and former members are
rejoining the Club.
Team Tiger: Has had four very important race wins during this season's
AMOC Anglo - American series. Chris Beighton's victories were the first in a
national circuit race for 15 years and he thoroughly knocked backed the competition
in doing so. Chris well and truly deserves his accolades! Five Tigers went on
a "trip of a lifetime" to the historic Sebring Circuit in Florida
much to the Americans' amazement at seeing so many Tigers competing on this
very difficult circuit. Also, whilst restrictive technical regulations reduced
our 12th Manx Classic entry to four cars, Tigers still won several class awards
in the Isle of Man.
All of the members of Team Tiger deserve a big pat on the back.
Rallying: Is seeing even more members and Tigers entering domestic and
European classic events this year and certain members continue to achieve excellent
results in the competitive classics, including Jayne Wignall & Fred Bent
who were class and record third time gold medal winners in The Classic Malts
and Jayne with Kevin Savage getting a 5th overall and a class win on the Classic
Marathon; not forgetting that Jayne's team - 'Terrific Tigers' won the STAR
Rally at the ARCC Millennium Rally.
TIGERS2000: Saw 90 Tigers and over 100 members forming the largest Tiger
gathering in one place for over 10 years and a turnout of 28% of the STOC membership.
The impact of row upon row of top quality Sunbeam Tigers was unprecedented in
the UK. Garrad family members, Rootes family members, Rootes senior employees,
works team drivers and even hardened representatives of the classic car media
were of one accord - mightily impressed. It was great to have Laura, Lewis and
Norma Garrad, Peter and Shirley Proctor and Rosemary Smith as our guests at
the Members' Dinner, which also became an occasion for nostalgic Tiger tales
later in the evening once Ray Martin and Ray Murray got going! And as this issue
of 'Cats Whiskers' goes to press I hear the overall ARCC Rally won the Classic
& Sports Car annual award for "Best Club Show/Event of the Millennium
Year". Altogether, the TIGERS2000 National gave everyone something else
to really remember this Millennium year by.
Promotion: Coverage of the Tiger in the classic car media has been exceptional
this year, all articles being well researched and welcome. The main pieces were:
- Top Gear: April. John Dandy's Tiger
- Sports Car International: May. " A Tiger's Tale" - Le Mans test
car 7734 KV
- Classic and Sports Car: June. "Tiger Fleet"- Members and their Tigers.
- Thoroughbred & Classic Car: Oct. "Earning its Stripes"- Frank
Dugdale's MK2
- Classic & Sports Car: Nov. "Rootes Rockers"- ARCC + T2K Rally…and
to come>>>
- Classic & Sports Car: February 2001. Untitled - MK2 Tiger v S3Cobra.
International Classic Car Show: Sunbeam Tigers were exhibited again for
the first time in several years and whilst our stand was low key this year,
it was clear that members and many others were pleased to see the Club back
at the NEC.
Communications: Members are getting regular Newsletters and the website
is now attracting international interest and helping to lift the profile of
the Tiger and the Club. Cats Whiskers No 56, published last November was the
first to be put together by the new Editorial team. No 57 came out in July and
had a record content. This magazine, No 58, is another bumper issue. All of
this is entirely due to members almost overwhelming the Editor with a tremendous
supply of articles.
By changing printers for No 57 we obtained a 20% reduction in printing costs
with no reduction in quality and I would like to thank Tony Williams for this.
Regalia and Spares: Club facilities have been looked at with a view making
sure they remain interesting to members and also to boosting their contribution
to Club funds. The range of Regalia is being extended with many new items, which
will be seen in a Club brochure shortly, and Spares is again having certain
repro items made. Both have experienced a very large increase in turnover this
past year and are beginning to produce healthy income once more for the Club.
We have not, however, been able to keep to our earlier plans and promises without some extra costs. The Treasurer reported at the recent AGM that the Club has incurred a trading loss this year. Including one off adjustments following thorough inventories and revaluations of the Spares and Regalia stocks, offset by the recouping of advertising arrears, the Club's deficit this year was about £2,800. Looked at over the past two years the net deficit falls to £700. The main causes of this are publication and postage costs, which are much larger this year with more magazines and newsletters being mailed at the Royal Mail's higher prices.
As a particular result of this increase in communication costs, it was proposed and agreed at the AGM that membership fees should rise by 10% to UK £25 and Overseas by 20% to £30. I am sorry that overseas members have to be charged proportionately more this time. As I say this is entirely due to a very rapid increase in the price of overseas postage. The new fees come into effect from November 2000. Full copies of the reports, accounts and minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Club on the 18th November 2000 will be in the next Newsletter.
The Committee members of the Club
for 2001 can be seen on page 1 and I would like to welcome Martin Pester as
the new Treasurer and thank Daff Richardson for moving on to become Secretary.
Daff steps into Robin Howard 'shoes' who held the position for several years
and was pretty good at keeping the Committee on the straight and narrow. Thanks
Robin.
I must at this point raise some other important issues for the Club, which the
Committee is addressing right now. One of these needs you to put pen to paper.
1.Constitution of the Club
Following press reports about successful damages claims against car clubs for
negligence at public events, the Committee is reviewing the Club's constitution.
Our objective is to ensure that were any claim on STOC to be successful then
the financial liability of the Club and its members would be capped. This will
require the Club to be re-established as either a limited company, or in some
similar way limit the liability of the Club's Committee members and individual
members to a maximum nominal sum.
It was proposed and agreed at the AGM that the Committee should develop a new constitution and rules for the Club, as appropriate, for presentation at an extraordinary meeting next year.
2. Spares Fund
In reviewing the status of the Spares Fund it has become clear that the Club
has an incomplete record of the contributions of individual members. Consequently
it is now difficult for the Club to establish what each member has donated over
the years. As a first consequence of this the Committee asked the Membership
secretary to stop collecting contributions. Therefore the Spares Fund is frozen.
In addition, the fund benefits from the historic contributions of a large number
of past members who have not reclaimed their contributions and can no longer
be traced.
Its original purpose was to allow the Club to obtain NOS stock in the days before
spares were remanufactured and before latter day commercial spares suppliers
got underway. Even though it is not intended to alter the Club's present Spares
operation the Committee believes the Spares Fund has largely outlived its purpose
and that there is a strong case for reorganizing it.
It was therefore proposed and agreed that the Committee should take the following action:
- Through this issue of the Club
magazine and the next Newsletter, call upon all current
members to advise the Membership Secretary of what each of you believe you have
contributed to the Spares Fund by letting Brian Postle know the number and date
of each
receipt issued to you.
- The total of these claims, once
agreed, should be set aside in a separate bank account
and in future be used to directly fund purchases of Regalia as well as Spares.
- Any necessary legal notices shall
be published so as to permit the residual amount of
'orphan funds' to be withdrawn from the Spares Fund and for this amount be used
in other
ways of lasting benefit the Club.
So could you please let Brian know
what you believe you have paid into the Spares fund by 31st January 2000. You
may wish to gift your contributions to the Club once and for all. If you do
please inform Brian or send an e-mail to: stoc@sunbeamtiger.co.uk
It is anticipated this matter will also be presented at the extraordinary meeting.
Looking forward to 2001.
It is too soon to get a fix on the details of all of the social and competition events in next year's calendar but the main 2001 Club events being worked on are:
April 28: Team Tiger is putting together
with SAOC a Tiger and Alpine circuit race at Brands Hatch. It will be a part
of AMOC's opening meeting of the 2001 series. The Spring Meeting will be held
that day and maybe over the weekend. Keith Hampson writes more on page 23.
June 15 -17: 'Tiger at Le Mans'. Possible Club trip to the Le Mans 24 Hrs. See
page 23.
July 8: National Rally and AGM
August 18 -19: ARCC Rootes Rally
September: IOM Manx Classic
November 17-18: The International Classic Car Show
November 25: Annual Dinner and prize giving.
That's more than enough from me but
before I finish I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all the members
of your Committee and the many volunteers who help the Club at social and competition
events for their contribution, enthusiasm and passion.
Finally, for my part, I will be going back to work in December after several
months' full time "employment" with the Sunbeam Tiger Owners Club!
But let's together build on this year's success and ensure our Club remains
firmly on the classic car map - and a have lot of fun doing so!
I am looking forward to next year.
Happy Tigering and Happy Christmas
Graham Vickery