It is now six months since the last Newsletter, for which I apologise. A lot has happened during that time, the AGM and a couple of Directors’ meetings – plus I was a bit hors de combat for a few weeks. Anyway, the main good news is that your website is now ready for viewing! A few routine things firstly – –
Annual General Meeting – This was our third AGM since our incorporation. I was informed that this was uneventful as usual with a large turnout of members – 14 in all! We regretfully had to accept Alan Carlaw’s resignation as Treasurer as he wished to make way for “younger Directors”! Apart from Alan, all the other Board members were re-elected en masse. Jimmy McInnes remained as Chairman, Bob Bailiie as Vice-Chairman and Stuart Parker as Secretary. Bob Baillie agreed to become Treasurer. The other Ordinary Directors were Kenny Allen, Mike How, Adele Paterson, Duncan Paterson and Andy Watson. Hugh MacKinnon was elected as a Director to the Board.
The Association’s gratitude was minuted for Alan Carlaw’s years of service. Chairman Jimmy extended his personal thanks to Alan. He proposed that position of Honorary Vice-President is conferred on Alan. This was agreed unanimously.
Membership – Our membership now stands at 281, we have gained 4 new members but sadly lost two.
Tom MacMillan – Glenrothes Alastair Muir – Houston, Renfrewshire
Bob Gillespie – Drymen, Glasgow Margaret Lowrey (nee Mackenzie) – Winslow, Bucks.
Death of a Member – The members who have died were:
Alan Stewart, Kelvinside, Glasgow, died 17th November 2009
Roy Alexander, Balerno, Midlothian who died last October. Roy had only joined VSMA last March!
Highland Run – to Grantown-on-Spey on 7th & 8th May. Just let you know that entries for this event CLOSE ON 10TH APRIL. If you still wish to enter please contact Bob Baillie at 01290 550 696(Home), 07721 755 917 (Mobile) or email: Bobbaillie287@btinternet.com (this is Bob’s new email address).
Knockhill Scottish Speedfair & Classic Festival, 26th-27th June, 9 to 5 daily, Unfortunately, we will NOT be there as usual in the Media Centre – all the usual stalwarts will, unfortunately, be on holiday over that weekend. I have extracted some information from the Knockhill website (http://www.knockhill.com) for those who might wish to attend.
The 2010 Scottish SpeedFair and Classic Festival will bring a new mix of classic and historic content to continue the growth of the popular event. From the action on the track, off track, race cars, show cars, motorbikes, rally cars and even a stunt bi-plane, the variety will ensure a great day out for all. We will also be hosting the biggest ever collection of Ferraris at the 2010 Scottish Speedfair and Classic Festival.Here are just a few of the highlights confirmed so far. Bookmark this page and keep an eye on our latest news pages as we will be adding more and more content.Everybodyës dream car, the Ferrari, will be out on track with the visiting round of the Pirelli Ferrari Formula classic championship, catering for Ferraris built prior to 1990. Along with the open class for 355 Challenge cars and modified Ferraris, fireworks are guaranteed! Alongside the racing Ferraris, the Scottish Speedfair and Classic Festival will be the gathering point for hundreds of Ferrari Owners. Indeed this gathering promises to be the biggest ever collection of Ferraris ever seen in Scotland! If you are an avid fan of this famous marque – don’t miss monumental occasion!The first running of the Scottish Formula Ford Festival and Sir Jackie Stewart Trophy ó See some of the UKës top single seater racers battle for arguably the most prestigious trophy in British Formula Ford. We will also host two rounds of the visiting Irish Formula Ford championship. Wheel to wheel racing guaranteed!Scottish Classic Sports & Saloons ó a great variety of sports cars, from Lotus to Astons, MGs to Morgans, competing for top honours.New for this year will be an impressive display of hundreds of Classic Ford Escorts, courtesy of the îold Skool Escortsï club a fantastic display of hundreds of these iconic cars including Colin McRaeës and Ari Vatanenës escort rally cars. Not only on display but also put through there paces out on track.Returning after five years will be the visiting round of the Historic Formula Juniors. The category celebrated its 50th season in 2008, the Formula Junior Championship is booming, with the huge worldwide interest in the category for 1100cc single-seater racing cars. Although Formula Junior only existed from 1958 to 1963, it continues to be one of the most popular of all historic racing categories. Jim Clark, John Surtees and Jochen Rindt were amongst the GP Stars who began their careers in FJ.Two days of non-stop action will also see the MG Equipe GT championship taking to the track with two exciting races along with the new Ginetta Teen cup. A new series for drivers aged between 16 and 19 years old promises to be very entertaining!
VSMA Website –
At long last, your website is ready for viewing. The address of the site is:
https://www.vsma.org.uk
When you enter the site you will find two main areas – The Public Area (which anyone can view) and the Private Area (only open to members of VSMA). To enter the latter area you will require a User Name and a Password. Can I please ask that you do NOT divulge either to anyone as the information contained in the Private area is CONFIDENTIAL!! This area is much larger and contains information regarding members (you included) – addresses, telephone numbers, etc., as well as information on their motorsport career.
Your User Name is the name you are usually known by, e.g. “Stuart Parker” or Jimmy McInnes (without the inverted commas).
Your initial Password is “20aMsV01” again without the inverted commas, and please note the password is case sensitive.
The first thing you should do on entering the private area is to read “How to Use Site” which gives you important information on navigating the site. THEN CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD TO SOMETHING ONLY YOU WILL REMEMBER. I can’t stress this enough!
There are over 600 images on the site (cars, events, people, etc) ó potentially we could have 999 per member! If you hover your mouse over an image and the pointing-arrow changes to a pointing-hand, that image will enlarge by left-clicking the image. You can then further enlarge and examine details of the image. Remember always to Close the enlarged image by clicking either of the Close buttons at the top or bottom of the image page.
I have tried to ensure that the information (text and images) in both the Public and the Private areas is as accurate as possible, but there are bound to be errors and omissions. If you come upon anything, no matter how trivial and especially in your own page, that you feel requires change, I would be grateful if you would send amendments to the Administrator. If you have more information or photographs you would like to add to your own page please send them in using the ‘Upload an Itemï or îUpload a fileï facilities in the Private area. I should point out that the larger the image the better it is for the website.
Finally, I do hope that you will enjoy the site and look at it fairly regularly. Updates will happen hopefully on a regular basis. Future Newsletters, etc will be also published on the site.
That’s all for now.