THE MOTORCARAVANNERS’ CLUB - NENE VALLEY GROUP

MINUTES OF THE 41ST AGM HELD 25TH OCTOBER 2025 AT PRINCE WILLIAM SCHOOL, OUNDLE

At 14.oo the Chairman, Paul Betts welcomed all those present and thanked them for attending. He then asked the Secretary, Peter Moore, to formally convene the 41st Annual General Meeting of the Nene Valley Group of the Motor Caravanners’ Club. A minutes silence was held to remember absent friends. Apologies had been received from Peter & Sandra Holland, Mark & Carol Blomfield, Tony & Mo Brookes, Ann Dalrymple. Members present had been given copies of the minutes of the 2024 AGM Minutes prior to the meeting and were asked by the Chairman if these were a true record. Those present a last years AGM were then asked to vote to accept them as a true record. Ths was Proposed by Tony Daniels, Seconded by Lynn Tabard, and approved unanimously. There were no matters arising from the minutes.

Chairmans Report

Can I start by introducing your committee members with whom it has been my pleasure to work with over the last twelve months. Peter, our secretary who quietly beavers away in the background, keeping us all on the straight and narrow and who helps with the web site, articles for the magazine, posting out of the programmes and minutes any committee meetings of importance and handles the AGM notices and necessary reports. Also he and Diane have stepped in at various meets to give a hand. Margaret, our treasurer who makes sure we are viable as a group, collects the money at each meet, does the banking, produces the accounts and as we all know, has supported John tremendously in recent months in his role as sites Officer and bookings. Thank you Margaret. John, our sites and bookings officer who unfortunately will stand down this year due to his declining health. John I personally thank you on behalf of the group for your help and support over the last year. It has always been a pleasure to be with you. Pat, my wife, my aide memoir, who has organised the raffles, does the newsletter for the magazine and web site and has now taken over from John as bookings officer. I would also like to thank Kathleen for her work in keeping the web site up to date and collating the menus for the Christmas Dinner and together with Tony, sourced and arranged our catering arrangements for our Christmas Dinner. I mustn’t forget Tony our President whose continued support both to me and to the group is very much appreciated. Tony can be relied on for his wisdom and help whenever needed which includes organising the handling the printing of our rally programme, plus any help when we are struggling. Mick, for doing the bonus ball as and when required plus his invaluable help in parking up. You, the members for your unfailing support to me and for stewarding our meets or just helping, whether asked to or not. We must have one of the smallest committees in the MCC and believe me, at times it is hard work but our efforts are showing some fruition for we work well together and we seem to be able to offer a group that is welcoming and friendly to our visitors, so they come again. My tenure started off with a bit of an upset when we learned that Chiltern Group had made a proposal that we relinquished two of our allocated post codes in the south of our allocated area in return for a sterile camping area in Bedfordshire that was of no benefit to us in the Nene Valley whatsoever. You, the members voted unanimously against this and we put a good case forward to Council of Management and I am glad to say, they supported our opposition to the change. Thank you all for your support on this matter. At least the episode stirred three vans to attend the National should we have needed to defend our position again but I’m glad this was not necessary and I took the opportunity whilst there to express our disappointment over how the matter had been handled to the Chiltern chair and sites Officer, but at the same time I hoped our good relations would continue between the two groups. Whilst at the National, the highlight was being awarded the Best Group Recruitment and Retention Shield together with Yorkshire Group. We kept the Shield for the first six months and together with Margaret and John, we recently attended Yorkshire Groups AGM where we presented the Shield to them. Hence it is not here. Being awarded this Shield is not the hard work of the committee - it is you, the members who make this group one that people want to be with or to transfer to, so keep that Nene Valley welcome going

 

Secretarys Report

At the current time we have 66 motorhomes in the group which equates to 123 individual members. Last year we had 68 vans representing 125 members. As usual those leaving the group were replaced by new members recruited mainly at shows plus existing members who choose to transfer into the Nene Group.

Peter Moore – Secretary

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Treasurers Report

You can see from the accounts that this has been a successful financial year for our group.  This is in part due to visitors from other groups but in the main due to the well attended holiday rallies. We need to have that income so that the winter rallies do not attract many members can continue to take place. We also, as I am sure you are aware, heavily subsidise the Christmas Rally. Being a small group it is not often that we can provide professional entertainment at a rally but Christmas is one such rally.

We have, occasionally had a loss of income due to non-arrivals so we decided, in this year, we needed to ask for the full cost of one rally in advance as we had to commit to the payment. This does skew the accounts to a degree as the deposits are in this year but the payment out is in next year. You will see however that we have also made payments out for the 2025 Christmas Rally and 2026 rally.

During this year we have started to receive sight fees from members by BACs. This is helpful when payment in advance is required but you may not be attending a rally and therefore unable to pay in person. It remains the norm to pay in cash for the rally that you are present at. We continue not to have a cash machine as it would be an additional cost for the group which would have to be passed to you.

We are lucky to use some sights with low fees but overall site fees are increasing and the aim is to keep the money you pay as low as possible whilst keeping the group in a stable financial position.

I would to invite any questions you may have.      

Margaret Harris – Treasurer

There were no questions on the accounts which had been circulated prior to the meeting so the Chairman asked for a vote to accept the accounts, this was Proposed by Tony Parkes, Seconded by Alan Lawrence, and approved unanimously.

Election of the Committee

Prior to the meeting the secretary had received completed nomination forms from the following candidates

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Pat Betts, Paul Betts, Margaret Harris, Peter Moore

 

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There were no additional volunteers for the committee from the floor so the Chairman read out the names of the candidates and these were approved on block unanimously.

Election of the Honorary Independent Accounts Certifier

The Treasurer Proposed that Maureen Brookes be the Accounts Certifier. This was seconded by Jane Rappitt and approved unanimously.

Review of supplementary Document

The chairman explained the purpose and scope of this document. A review by the committee in October 2025 established that no changes to the document were required at this time.

The Chairman closed the meeting at 14.45

 

THE MOTORCARAVANNERS’ CLUB - NENE VALLEY GROUP

MINUTES OF MEMBERS MEETING  HELD 25th OCTOBER  2025 AT PRINCE WILLIAM SCHOOL, OUNDLE

 

The chairman opened the members meeting and invited questions or comments from the members. There were none initially forthcoming so Pat Betts took the opportunity to thank the members for all the support they had given to the raffles that she had organised to support group funds and for the many generous donations of prizes.

Given the limited space at many rally sites it was agreed that we would retain the current booking system at all rallies including the collection of phone numbers to allow members to be contacted should a rally need to be cancelled.

Margaret then gave members details of the rallies that were booked for 2026 of the facilities that they could expect to find. The list of rallies will appear on the website and will only run if a steward is available. The rally book was available for members to select which rally they wish to steward,

 

Tony Parkes said he was sorry to see such a small committee as he recognised how hard each committee member must be working to maintain such a successful group. On behalf of all the members he thanked the committee for the past year and wished them every success in the future.