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Meetings are the first Wednesday monthly at The Moorland Links, 8pm start.So if you live in Plymouth or surrounding area, just come along and make some new friends.
Meet in the Gun Room (Bar)before the meeting.
About TVMGOC
Well it all started back in 1982. Following publicity in the local press several hundred people came to Strathmore Hotel and Alan Davis of Tamar Valley Motoring Centre was the first club secretary, and the club met at the Holland Inn with a membership of about 30.
Alan stayed as the club secretary for about 18 months and has continued to sponsor us ever since. Then a member called Lawrence Miller continued the job but I do not know how long for. The next secretary was Tony Savage and the club moved to the Notter Bridge Inn, taking over their newly built conservatory. I (Keith) got the job back in 1997, after Tony could not continue. I had never run a club before and only had an MG for about 9 months. It was a steep learning curve but a lot of fun.
With a lot of help from Hilary and the membership, which had reduced in numbers to a dedicated few, we got the club back on it's feet, with a membership of over 50. The only thing was that the Notter Bridge was getting too small. We had taken over the bar and the conservatory.
It was time to find a new venue, not an easy thing to do. After about a year the Mayflower Inn, in Ernesettle was found not by me or Hilary, but the club Chair and the Social secretary. After the meeting in January 1999, we moved, there was plenty of room, and we had grown to a big club of over 100 members. It was good to have a large committee to help run the club at this time, with all the shows and Sunday lunchs that we were going to. I remember a show one year at Powderham when the club had over 21 MGs on the club stand, and a Sunday lunch for over 50 members. A lot of hard work but good fun! It was time for me to give up the secretary job, as some of the old members did not like it at the Mayflower, and I could see a move would not improve the club so me and the committee fell out.
The club moved to the Mill at Avonwick on the A38, with a new secretary, Hilary, and Ken Vest as the clubs Chairman, Ray Wilson as the Treasurer, and Richard Huddy also on the committee. The night of the meeting was changed to the second Tuesday of the month so some of the membership could go to the MG car club meeting. I was just a member, but helped Hilary with the clubs Newsletters.
We lost a lot of our membership as they did not like the Mill, and at one meeting there were only 4 members there so it was time to move again. We could not go back to the Mayflower as the South West Mini club was there now on the same night. So where can we go? It's not easy to find a suitable pub in a reasonably central location, we plotted all the members addresses on a map and stuck a pin in the middle, very close to Shaugh Prior.
The move to the White Thorn, was on the February meeting of 2002, and back to the first Wednesday of the month. A lot of the old members came back, and the club was a lot stronger and with new members joining. Hilary was still doing the secretary's job and enjoying it, but after a new landlord and some new rules, the membership did not like it there. So the club moves again, this time only 2 miles up the road to the Moorland Hotel, where we are now. Mitch Ford joined the committee and Graham Hayman was the new Treasurer in 2004. It was a bad year for me and I could not make it to a lot of the shows but nice to read all the reports, there were some ups and downs in the club but I think the membership are happy with it now?
After the 2005 AGM the club got a new secretary, Mo Dickerson, I was asked to stay on as the club Chairman, to help the new committee out. I am still the Chairman and now the committee is up to 5 members with Graham Slope as Vice-Chairman, John Hunt as Social secretary and Hugh Baker. The club is doing well with a lot of new members, I am sorry that I do not know all the names, I soon will.
Updated - In 2007 the club celebrated it's Silver Jubilee with a run and a black tie dinner. Our special guest was Mr Roche Bentley (the founder of MGOC). Early in 2007 we were told that the Moorland Hotel was closing for refurbishment and we would have to find a new meeting venue. There were a lot of good ideas but in the end the committee looked at the Moorland Links Hotel, (www.forestdale.com) and it had all the things needed, with a nice car park, and a good size meeting room, and it would be a lot easier to get to. The club was growing with new members joining all the time, it was a good year for the shows, and events. So the club was seen out there.
At the 2008 AGM, we got a new secretary, Hilary, Mo became the Vice Chair and with a new club members rep Alan Colville. Grahame stood down so the committee was back to seven
members again. This was not Hilary's first time as the club secretary , so she knows the job and that was good. The weather in 2008 was not too good for the show season, with a lot of them called off, so the club did some visits to the lovely houses in the Devon and Cornwall. That was well-supported, and we got some new members this way. The club had its first Christmas dinner at the Moorland Links, it was one of the best Christmas Dinners for the club with a lot of the membership being there.
Now we are at the 2009 AGM, and all of the old committee was voted back in, I asked the committee and the membership for a club run this year as we had not had one for 2008. Hilary, Mo and Clive stepped up for the job to run it. It was not one of the easiest jobs but they did a great job and we had a club run on the 7th June, with a lot of MGs. They opened it up to all Classic cars and we had a very good selection of cars on the run. It was good to see all the cars at the start, Saltram house, and at the end Moorland Links for a nice cream tea (we do live in Devon). The Club has been out and about this year with a weekend in the Isle of Man, and a weekend in Jersey, and all the big and small shows, and now we are coming to the end of the show season it's time for the members to sort out the Sunday Lunches.
The club will be looking for a new Secretary in 2010 and I will be standing down as Chairman at the AGM. It's time for me to put up my feet and just be a member of the club, it's been a long time coming for me but I will be leaving the club with a lot more members and a very good membership too so if you are thinking of joining the club just come along to one of the meetings and I bet you will have a good time, with your MG.
Keith Medland (Club Chairman) | |
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