DOC-UK 2023 meet up?

[Guinney1971]

Anymore thoughts on this?

If it is going to be a Lotus event, I'll need those with connections to Lotus
to get in touch with them to sort it all out, as I have no idea who to deal with
there.

Best wishes

[Chris P]

Here is some info online..   https://www.lotuscars.com/en-GB/factory-tours

Having organised it twice before, I think I've done my bit...I'm winding down nowadays........

[Brian morgan]

Hi All  
 Sorry been off the scene for a while . Hope to have more time this year to spend out in the D. Embarrassed to say it was pictured in November Practical classics as a Barn Find, dust is the best protecter  .  at least 1 lucky photographer  bagged £50.
 If you are interested in a Malvern meet happy to find out more . In September you have the Morgan Factory two hill climb venues that do some open events, Barton court does car meets , Autumn show 22-24 and i think Malvern Wells   village fete. There are a lot of hotels but maybe not so many large budget ones as it is a tourist area.

[Guinney1971]

I'm sure something will be settled on and organised in due course, Chris W is somewhat out of
action at the moment, but if we can be given a few weeks for Chris to be up and about again, and
for us to have a proper discussion, then I'm sure we'll be putting an event up on here in due course.
Really grateful to everyone who has made suggestions too, local knowledge is always very important!

[Rich Hanlon]

I'm happy to help if it's Morgan/ Malvern, as I have been before, no ideas re Lotus though I've never been.

[Rich Hanlon]

Any further thoughts anyone?

Got my car out of hibernation on Sunday and it's got me thinking of all things Delorean related all over again.

[theningiachicken]

Id be up for a trip to either, with or without 5222 if she wants to behave

[Guinney1971]

Hi All,

Sorry, nothing has been organised yet.  I feel somewhat in limbo, as I don't have a functioning De - plus
also it seems that every year, the annual meet is left to me (and previously Chris Parnham, Chris Williams 
and Mary Hooper too) to sort out, and if I/we don't put all the effort into organising something, then nothing 
happens, bar some grumbles about not having a meet.  

I think a decision has to be made soon though as to where people want to go, and then hotels, etc,
can be looked into, as time is getting on, and hotels will be getting booked up.

To recap, a decision was made, probably 15yrs ago now, after going to the same place in Norfolk year after year, to 
move the annual event round the country, to make it accessible to more people, and also offer a change of 
scenery.  This however takes a lot of planning and research, looking at maps, trying to find places of interest, 
hotels that don't cost a fortune, etc.  

If someone wants to now grasp the metaphorical nettle, and make a decision, I'm still happy to help out, but it
would be useful if someone who is more likely to attend, takes on organising the event.  I do enjoy attending, 
don't get me wrong, and I will attend if I can, but its not the same attending a De meet in a Cavalier lol.

Going forwards, it would be nice to see more of the Membership getting involved in doing something rather then 
leaving it to a few of us to do everything year after year - those of us on the Committee are all volunteers, with 
our own lives, families and jobs too - so it would be nice to have some help and input from other members, especially 
newer ones with maybe fresh ideas and thoughts - I've been volunteering in/been a member of this Club since 2001, and 
I've been Treasurer since 2007.  I'm of course happy to stay on as Treasurer, its a role I enjoy and I've built up a 
rapport with various suppliers, etc, but maybe at this years AGM we need to look into having a permanent Events 
Secretary so that we don't have this situation year after year.

[Dan Willis]

I think you've hit the nail on the head there with your last sentence, Claire.

I'd be happy (as many would, I'm sure) to assist in arranging something. I rarely have a D for events but tend to go for the people, which I rarely see. That all said, I'm not sure how to navigate the needs and musts of what the club would have to uphold, be it insurances, or whatever for an event at something like Lotus. Maybe nothing? No idea.

Otherwise, the Lotus thing looks doable. The price isn't too painful (it was similar last time but included more I believe), but we did also hit Dunsfold as well. What sort of month would we be aiming for?

[Rich Hanlon]

Hi Claire, yep quite understood, and please don't take my question as a grumble! But obviously I don't know what offline discussions are had. As mentioned previously I'm quite happy to help out as I did a small towards last year's event - but obviously can't do anything until we have a decision about where we're going! :-)

And I'm not sure how we arrive at that decision either!
I would echo the idea that events get moved around the country on order to increase access to different members so sometimes they're local and other times further afield and to experience different areas and (ideally transport-related) attractions! Personally I like the Lake District myself.

I'm also conscious that traffic on this forum seems lower than it has been in different times so am wondering if things like group emails or a DOC WhatsApp chat might reach a wider audience and engage a more rapid reaction time.

[Guinney1971]

Rich, I wasn't aiming at you, don't worry, and your help and support over many years has been much
appreciated, thank you - Its just frustrating when someone, as has happened in the
past says "oh there's *** happening at *** on *** we can make it a Club Event", and I'm like "yes,
great, lets make it happen", and then that's the last I hear of it. Then another year goes by with no main
event, and I feel like I've let everyone down again by not being seen to organise a Club Event.

Dan, thanks for the input - the Club has its own Public Liability Insurance that I sort out each year, which
covers events like the NEC and any potential events like Lotus.

I think, maybe revisit this thread, and just plump for something? It might be too late this year to realistically
sort something with Lotus, so perhaps the idea of going to Malvern I think it was? could be explored further.

As I said, if someone with the contacts and knowledge of the area in question wants to pick up the mantle and
start sorting something, I'm happy to assist where possible.

I think the idea of a Club WhatsApp certainly warrants discussion at the AGM to see if this is something that the
Membership would be in approval of. I'm not sure if there are GDPR issues with setting up WhatsApp groups on
such a large scale, and also how, and by whom, such a group would be administered.

[Rich Hanlon]

I believe one can set up invites to a WhatsApp, then individuals can choose whether or not they wish to join. So we could theoretically set up a small initial group then invite others to it.

---

Ps - and obviously make full use of the FB account to publicise events too as I know you already do.

[Guinney1971]

Can I just say a big thank you to Rich Hanlon who has taken this task on for this year.

He's looking into the Malvern location, and I'll leave it to him to start a new thread for the
event once things are finalised.

[theningiachicken]

I agree Claire and Rich Hanlon, a club whatsapp would be great since recently a couple of FB groups have set up messenger chats for each page (if that's something we could also consider).

and definitely, a specific position for events organising would relieve stress and make it a smoother process when organising stuff.

I'll do what I can to help as I've said before.

Would it be worth Claire having a "council meeting" as such to try and figure out a potential rework of some aspects to make things like events organising easier and spread some weight out across a few extra bodies? because various discussions I've had since the NEC with others is we could do with a little refresh and shake things up a little to try and build some more engagement.

[Guinney1971]

(20 Mar 2023, 16:09)theningiachicken Wrote: I agree Claire and Rich Hanlon, a club whatsapp would be great since recently a couple of FB groups have set up messenger chats for each page (if that's something we could also consider).

and definitely, a specific position for events organising would relieve stress and make it a smoother process when organising stuff.

I'll do what I can to help as I've said before.

Would it be worth Claire having a "council meeting" as such to try and figure out a potential rework of some aspects to make things like events organising easier and spread some weight out across a few extra bodies? because various discussions I've had since the NEC with others is we could do with a little refresh and shake things up a little to try and build some more engagement.

that's a good idea Will - many moons ago (actually if I remember, I was still pregnant with Kezia,
and she's 13 now!), we had a Committee Meeting at our old house, and we had a really good chat
and covered a lot of areas.

I'm happy to do something similar again, be it at someone's house or a pub one day, so that anyone
interested in putting forward ideas, suggestions, etc, can have a say and we can have a good refresh.

We have had a new website designed, and 'ready to go' for a while, but we've had an issue linking the 
Club Shop to the new website, which is why its been delayed.  Rich Hutchinson isn't available at the
moment, so it'll be a while before he can talk to Kevin about where we go with the website.

At the end of the day, the younger members, like yourself, are the future of the Club, and its great to see
enthusiastic people like you wanting to get involved and help out.