Minutes of the committee meeting of the Deux Chevaux Club of Great Britain
(2CVGB) Limited held online Sunday 2nd February from 11.00am GMT
Attending: Vanessa Harrison, James Duffell, John Thompson, Colette Clapham-Dickenson, Dave Crane, Sean Sowley, Chris Farnham, Jean Sowley, Liz Rogers, Mark Dunmore, Carl Baker, Nigel Herring, Gary Dicks and Richard Harrison (joint National
meeting representatives)
N.B. Referred to subsequently as Vanessa, James, John, Col, Dave, Sean, Chris, Jean, Liz, Mark, Carl, Nigel, Gary and Richard respectively
Item
- Apologies for absence
Apologies were received from Dot Moran. Liz had advised she would join as soon as she
could.
Vanessa also welcomed Mark “Bean” Dunn to the meeting, as well as prospective new
Editor Tim Sidaway, plus John Mellor and David Eden as observers. - Approval of the minutes of the meeting held on 1st December 2024
Proposed: James
Seconded: Col
Carried unanimously - Correspondence
Col had received an email from Derek Reynolds who was concerned that 2CVGB may be
thinking of closing the forum on the website.
Dave will formulate a reply to Derek confirming that the club has no intention of closing
the forum. - Reports. The reports can be found in the relevant folder in the club’s Google Drive.
Henceforth, no-one will be asked to read or summarise their reports. It will be assumed
that everyone has read the reports, so discussions can be limited to questions about the
contents.
4.1 Chair
No questions
4.2 Secretary
There were no questions, but James proposed that once the minutes have been drafted
they are uploaded to the relevant Google Drive folder and a link circulated with a call for
amendments, with a deadline of three weeks. If no amendments have been received by
the deadline, the minutes are taken as approved. If there are amendments, they can be
incorporated and a fresh draft uploaded and the link circulated with a similar deadline.
Proposed: James
Seconded: Col
Carried unanimously
4.3 Treasurer
No questions
4.4 MemSec
No questions.
Col discussed the setup of regional groups and the need for postcodes to identify local
groups’ areas, so the organiser could be given the names of new members that fall within
their area.
Action: Liz to ask local groups to provide Col with the postcodes in their catchment area.
4.5 Editor
No questions
4.6 DVLA Liaison
No questions
4.7 Local Groups
No questions
Liz proposed that a new group called the Slow Horses, covering the Brackley, Bicester &
Buckingham area is accepted.
Proposed: Liz
Seconded: Dave
Carried unanimously
4.8 Registers Co-ordinator
Dave asked whether Mark had communicated to all registrars that they’d be moving to
new email addresses and Mark confirmed they were aware. Dave will contact them in turn
to migrate them.
Action: Dave to migrate registrars onto new emails.
Action: Mark to report back if a new Ami registrar has been found.
4.9 Equipment
No questions
4.10 Club Shop
No questions
4.11 Communications
No questions
Action: Chris to hold a meeting with the rest of the social media team (Simon Sobey,
John Winters and Anna Halfpenny), now that he manages that team. Among issues to
discuss would be the acceptance procedure for new members to the official Facebook
group.
Action: Chris to seek committee approval for the process and who among the social
media team should have access to Crossmember.
Action: Chris to email committee members to see who would like to be added as admins
for the official WhatsApp group.
4.12 Web
No questions
Action: Mark to liaise with Dot to create a generic form for registers (for use in 2CVGB
News) as well as updated ones for each register
Action: Dot to provide Dave with the new forms for the web site
Action: Dave to investigate scanning the club handbook so that we have more of the
handbook available to members while the new pages are being developed.
Action: Dave will remove areas of the forum that are duplicated on the official website
(e.g. the secretary’s area and the Tin Snail area), so that the forum can concentrate on
providing timeless guidance for mechanical advice, for example. Dave and Chris will
discuss a process so the social media team can direct people from Facebook to the
forum for technical advice.
4.13 Advertising
Dot was not present at the meeting and had advised that there was nothing to report.
4.14 NEC Shows
No questions
Action: Vanessa to coordinate an offline meeting with Carl, John, Sean and James
regarding NEC show budgets and evaluation of similar events.
4.15 Risk & Compliance
No questions
Action: Nigel to book the venue for the first aid training for the national.
- Matters arising from previous committee meeting not covered in the reports
There were none. - National 2025
Action: Dave to send the boxes of books destined for the 2024 national goody bags to be
sent to Mark for potential use at 2025 Registers Day
Action: James to co-ordinate volunteers to man a membership stand/tent at the National.
Action: John to provide a solution for taking card payments at the National (Club Shop
and for membership subscriptions)
Action: Col to provide a list of members as close to the event as possible, for use on the
gate. - Registers 2025
Action: Mark to provide an update for the committee at the next meeting. - National camp briefing document
Action: Everyone to email James comments and suggestions on the draft available in the
shared drive.
Action: James to collate feedback and circulate a revised document for discussion at the
next committee meeting. - Archive
The archive is currently not accessible to members and no-one knows what is contained
in the archive, yet the club is paying for its storage.
Action: Sean to obtain information from the FBHVC about their digital archiving
partnership – cost and accessibility. - Ruskington storage unit
Action: John to check the termination clause in the Ruskington lease, in view of the likely
substantial increase in terms at the end of the current lease.Action:
Vanessa to contact Julian Kettleborough about potentially managing the
Ruskington storage project (i.e. identifying what is scrap, what can be sold cheaply and
what it is vital to retain).
- Membership fee/cost savings
John raised the issue of dwindling club finances:
November – £144,000
End of December – £141,000
End of January – £136,000
Currently – £133,000.
There was some discussion about ways to encourage new members and retaining them
once they’d joined. Items discussed included restricting events to members only,
differential pricing for events to make it financially punitive to attend as a non-member,
understanding why people do not renew their membership (Col had some anecdotal
evidence, but it’s not collected in a systematic manner).
Local groups have been asked for information to put on the official website about their
group, pictures and write-ups of past events etc, but very few have contributed.
It is hoped that the forthcoming members’ survey will provide more material to help with
recruitment of more members. - Proposals for 2CVGB News
There was discussion about ways of reducing the cost to the club of the magazine, while
recognising that it is currently the only direct communication the club has with its
members. In view of Dot’s absence, it was agreed to hold it over until the next meeting.
Action: Tim Sidaway and Dot to present options for consideration at the next committee
meeting. - SPOG
There was much discussion, in which it became clear that the broader membership was
probably not aware of what SPOG (and the club’s parts company) is, why it was formed
and what its current purpose is.
Additionally, there is no requirement for the £2 levy to be voted on by members each year.
Once the initial vote was taken, that was the only requirement.
Action: James to coordinate a small group (including David Eden, Mark “Bean” Dunn, Liz
and Jim Rogers, and Dot) to create a document outlining the purpose and current state of
SPOG, together with proposed future strategy options for discussion by the committee. - Any Other Business
14.1 Co-option of Tim Sidaway as 2CVGB News Editor
Proposed: James
Seconded: Dave
Carried unanimously
14.2 Co-option of James Duffell as Secretary
Proposed: Col
Seconded: Liz
Carried unanimously - Dates of future committee meetings
30th March
8th June
3rd August
28th September
Action: James to update the website and magazine with a 10 AM start time for future