A.G.M. 2010 Election Results

Details

Published on Tuesday, 16 February 2010 12:17

Following a well attended and successful Annual General Meeting on Saturday 13th February, the members of the Committee standing for re-election,

Andrew Morgan (Chairman), Mike Fuller (Secretary) and Dave Paskell (Press and Publicity), were all voted in for a further 2 year term of Office. The vacant Committee position of Sales Officer was also filled, and Rob Duker now holds this role. Rob will be taking a handover of stock and sales procedures etc in the coming weeks. When he has settled in, one of the first tasks we will tackle is an expansion of the profile of our Sales stock on the website, and we would also like to see our Suppliers booklet updated later on this year as well.

Also at the A.G.M. Adam Conner was confirmed as our new Events Officer.

The Committee were pleased the Association membership showed overwhelming backing for the future direction of the Routemaster Association. The following paragraphs outline our policy on the major issues in more detail"

SPARES POLICY
In the last few weeks the Committee of the RMOOA have underlined their commitment to furthering the long term cause of Routemaster ownership, by acquiring 2 significant hauls of RM / RML spare parts. The first cache of parts was acquired following the concern expressed by many members that this particular group of items were to be auctioned to the highest bidder on e-bay, if not sold promptly. These items are mostly unused and consist of items such as head gaskets (AEC and Leyland 0600 engines), rear hub seals, new gearbox mountings etc etc. The second group consists of about one and a half tons of parts (over 200 individual items in total). These parts are mostly suitable for reconditioning, having been removed from buses in service. Typical of these parts are steering rams, wheel cylinders, compressors, quill drives etc etc.

There has been some debate about the Association’s commitment to acquiring spares for the long term, following the involvement of our former Sales Officer in the distribution of the first of the spares hauls mentioned above. The Committee would like to underline that the Association has a long term commitment to making available spares vital to the continuing roadworthiness of our member’s vehicles. We intend to do this by acquiring new & second hand parts, deemed of significant use to Routemaster owners, for the long-term benefit of our members. Where significant shortages of certain parts exists, we will, if there is satisfactory demand, authorise the manufacture of small batches of these parts. We will always offer these parts from whichever source, at prices that do not seek to make significant profit for the Association.

We will also continue to identify sources of supply, informing members where they can currently go to acquire parts themselves. We will encourage these existing suppliers to keep all Routemaster product lines available. The location of these suppliers will be found in our “Suppliers List” publication. This publication will be updated on a regular basis. We will also publish information on obtaining various parts as we receive it, either as announcements on our website, or in our quarterly magazine.

At the A.G.M. on February 13th 2010, an Association member of long standing, and with a well respected background in Routemaster ownership, Rob Duker, was elected to the Committee post of Sales Officer.

WEBSITE POLICY

The RMOOA Website will continue to be our 24/7 window for the Routemaster world. At our Committee meeting in January, the current Committee have underlined their commitment to developing the website for the coming decade. The Sales pages will be expanded, and Association publications will appear on a separate page. There will be more photos of the various parts we offer to the membership, including the recent acquisitions as we catalogue them.

We will also be looking to the membership for someone suitable to examine the possibility of adding an interactive section within the website, with the added potential of offering sales direct from our website. This task would hopefully appeal to someone with the appropriate skills, possibly as result of their recent experience in the workplace.

Pages that have not been updated for some time will be expanded. This will include the members vehicles pages, where we will be requesting members to send us a picture of their Routemaster, together with a few words about their bus. More information on when and how to do this will appear on the website following the A.G.M.

EVENTS POLICY
The Committee are actively seeking to address the recent lack of RMOOA involvement in Events for our members to attend, with or without their vehicles. 2011 and 2012 offer the prospect of some significant 50th Routemaster Anniversaries; the introduction of the first batch of RMLs, the final replacement of the Trolleybus by the Routemaster, and the 100th anniversary of the formation of AEC to name a few. Active participation in events commemorating these anniversaries, is being followed up with other organisations at present.

2010 does not seem to present so many attractive propositions, nonetheless the committee would very much like to see some event, rally or road run, either solely RMOOA or jointly organised, for our members to attend before the end of the year. To this end, in the last week, 2 possibilities have been actively pursued by Committee members and ruled out, but there are other events that we will continue to examine for suitable Routemaster involvement in 2010. Watch the website for announcements.

At the 2010 A.G.M. Adam Conner, was confirmed as the new Events Officer, a non-Committee position. The A.G.M. also revealed that 2 other people had come forward with offers of assistance in running events in areas other than the Southeast of England. We will be following up their offers to see how we can best utilise their expertise. Adam works for Reading Buses and has experience in organising road runs and the annual Reading buses open day at Great Knollys St. garage. He started as a conductor on RMs in Glasgow, before moving south to become an RM driver with Reading Mainline.

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