There are just two weeks to go before the Western Group AGM, again kindly hosted by Mitsubishi at its Cirencester head office, right in the heart of Western Group territory.
The AGM means that we will see a small but significant committee change. After several years of sterling work, honorary secretary Glen Smale will be resting his writing implements and preparing to pass on the quill to his successor.
As Robin Roberts reminded us last year, the honorary secretary is one of the Group’s most important jobs – we cannot continue to function if we don’t have one. Glen (below) kindly stayed on last year when no other members put their name forward for the post. I know how grateful the committee and group are to him for doing so.
There are no other committee changes for this AGM, but just to set the group thinking, both the Chairman and Vice Chairman’s terms of office will end at the 2015 AGM. It’s not too early to be thinking about filling those roles. Both Robin and I would be happy to talk to anyone who might be interested.
One of the chairman’s roles is representing the Group at the Association of Motoring Writers Groups’ meetings. AMWG has been asked to consider admitting another writers’ group to its membership and its something that we shall be discussing at the forthcoming group meeting. The approach has come from Guild Chairman Guy Loveridge, on behalf of the Society of Automotive Historians. Guy’s logic is that SAH members are as interested in what is happening currently as they are in the oldest cars on the road. The organisation has a website and publishes a quarterly magazine. I noted this from the website opening page, “The Society’s membership also includes corporations, museums and other institutions that support the preservation of our motoring heritage for future generations to appreciate.”
It’s my understanding that the regional motoring writers groups, which make up AMWG, were set up partly at the request of MIPAA to help guarantee launch coverage, so some feedback from MIPAA would be helpful and I have asked MIPAA chairman and former Western Group member Mike Orford for feedback, which he is currently gathering. Should an organization not made up solely of journalists be represented on AMWG? Plenty of food for thought before the meeting.
John Kendall | Chairman WGMW
