SODEM Road Run 2018

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by Adrian white

and the gathering at the Agm @ Diss (not pre posted - pity- may have got a new member or two).

cheers Ade

The AGM at Diss was the East Anglian Traction Engine Society. It was not a planned gathering of engines. As a member of the committee I was aware an engine or two may attend but that was it. The Burrell was a surprise to most.

Also as our AGM it is mainly a members event, the club spent money on food and made a donation to the museum for opening. We wouldn't turn non-members away but I'm sure you can understand that if many people came along it would present financial and logistical challenges (catering numbers for instance).

The date of the AGM was set in January, and has been advertised on our website, club magazine, and facebook since. Quite heavily on facebook in the week approaching the event and in all three club magazines/newsletters issued this year.

We have advertised it through all of our official channels. As a Society we co-fund a free to enter event in the village of Keddington in July and our popular Crank Up in May (Entry fee £5). Also pub do's and road runs as and when someone has an idea to run one - those are free to enter but club funded.

We welcome new members, and as I've said I doubt we'd have turned non-members away from the AGM but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. To widely advertise what is essentially a private members event is not a good idea (for the reasons mentioned above).

It isn't expensive to become a member and join us at our AGMs and take part in all the other events we run to which the general public are most welcome. We are also now working on a charitable giving policy to enable museums and charities across the East of England to apply for grants for restoration work and the like. We are a fairly active club.

I apologise if this is a bit long but I do find it frustrating that we've been identified here as potentially being at fault and possibly loosing out on new members when in actual fact we've well advertised a members event to our members and provide numerous other events, often FOC to the wider steam community.