South East England 4x4 Response

South East England 4x4 Response
AGM 9th June 2010
Chairman’s Report

Firstly I would like to thank you all for attending tonight’s AGM and for your continued support and encouragement throughout the last 12 months, without you the members this group could not function as well as it does.

I would like to state how sad the we were to receive Dave Clark’s intention to resign from the committee, we understand that this is due to Dave’s continued bad health, Dave brought a little bit of sanity and calm to the committee due to his older years and attended many meetings on behalf of the group, Dave was also very active during the winter responding to many callouts, we would like to wish Dave a speedy recovery and a return to full health.

I have been proud to have represented South East England 4x4 Response in my capacity as Chairman during the past 12 months and I thank my fellow Committee and Management Team members for all their hard work. I would also like to thank their wives and partners without whose encouragement and support this group would not be where it is today! I feel that I must point out the enormous commitment both in time and financially of the committee members in fulfilling their roles.

The year started a little uncertain with the previous committee becoming disjointed and losing interest in the group and with the previous Chairman’s stated intention to stand down from the position the future did not look promising, that said I would like to extend our thanks to both Mark Marsh and Dan Stern for the previous good work and laying the initial foundations for the group from which we could build upon. Being the only remaining active committee member of the group I called the AGM for July 2009 and was extremely surprised and encouraged by the number of you who turned up at Mickey’s Diner showing your support and interest in the group.

We started the year without a single paid up member of the group and worked tirelessly to get the administration and bank account in place so that we were able to proceed to take membership money from prospective members, we were finally in the position to accept memberships in November 2009 where at the first meeting we signed up approx 30 members! Subsequent recruitment evenings saw our membership grow to 75 members very quickly and when finally the battle over West Sussex was concluded we welcomed the members of the now defunct WS4x4RT.

Our membership currently stands at 108 fully paid up members, which is an astonishing result since we have only been accepting memberships for about 8 months. We are now the second largest response group in the UK, we are the fastest growing response group in the UK and we are the most active response group in the UK! I do expect that we will lose a few members when the renewal is due mainly from people who have decided that the group is not for them but I also predict that the membership has not finished growing yet, and we still welcome new members into the group as should we get similar weather to last winter we would need a lot more members to cope due to our expected increased workload.

Our resources were initially put to the test during the Snow fall in December where I am proud to state that 98% of our members responded to the call for help in one way or another, thankfully this bout of adverse weather did not last too long as the group was still trying to find its feet and implement procedures.
Our second test was the extended period of snow fall during January where I think that our group responded to our tasks admirably, we received in the region of 600 requests for help and we accounted for 25% of the text messages put out through SMS responder throughout the UK. We have received nothing but praise from our user services whom are all very keen to work with us again and to sign formal agreements with the group. This period of weather saw the implementation of our fuel allowance from KCC which has paved the way for similar agreements with other user services.

The third time the group was called to action was during February when a heavy snow fall in the East of Kent saw us responding to requests for help from various hospitals and other user services, although not as extended as the previous periods our services were still greatly received by those who used us.
Due to the growth of the group and the inclusion of East & West Sussex the committee decided that they could not cope with all of the work between just five members, it was therefore decided to set up a Management Team so that we could delegate duties to members who were keen to get more involved, I am pleased to inform you that so far this initiative has been a great success and one that we would like to improve on further.

We have now appointed a Merchandise manager, so we are looking forward to being able to provide members we a more speedy response to their requests for clothing and other merchandise, we have a lot of ideas for new items to add to the catalogue where the group makes a small profit on each item, this should bolster the groups funds which should enable us to pay members their fuel expenses more promptly and may enable us in subsequent years to reduce the membership fees. We have also been very busy negotiating discounts and benefits for the members with various suppliers which should hopefully benefit all members.

The group has now put in a formal request to take Essex under our wing as at present no 4x4 Response group exists in the region, talks have been ongoing with Thames Gateway 4x4 Response to take them into our group as they are no longer members of the National group.
We are now full members of the KVSEG in Kent and are about to be made full members of Surrey County Councils equivalent, we are still pressing forward forging links and relationships with other user services including those in East & West Sussex but this seems to be a slow process as Government bodies never seem to do anything in a hurry!

We have in the past few months attended various shows to both recruit new members and to forge relationships with other groups and services, the result of one of these is that we have formed a partnership with Invicta Land Rover Club to run a 4x4 show at next years Kent County Fare which could raise a lot of funds for the group. Other groups that have supported us during the past 12 months and I feel are worthy of mention and The Kent Off Road Club and the Four Wheel Drive Club.

We also recently attended a training weekend with KSAR and SARDA Meridian where we formed a good relationship with the 2 groups and the exchange of ideas and working practices has helped us in the development of our own procedures and working practices. We are negotiating a formal agreement with these groups that could see us being called out to assist with missing persons searches throughout the year and not restricted to adverse weather.

In conclusion the last 12 months have been fantastic for the group and I look forward to the next 12 months being even more exciting! The committee and management team have many ideas and projects and I think renewing your membership for another twelve months will not disappoint!

It must always be remembered that the Committee and Management Team members are all volunteers who take no remuneration for their time or expenses! I am also pleased to report that our general administration costs are below 1% of the group’s total income.