Don Howarth has been good enough to respond to the call out to assist someone with the navigation trial. The assistance Don has offered is the access to a number of pre-made routes that Don has been on with the Vintage Car Club (plus possibly other clubs too – but I didn’t press him on that so it may only be speculation) and to give those routes to anyone that will organise the Navigation Trial. However as yet no-one has responded to my email asking for a volunteer to organise one…to put some perspective on this I don’t want to do it. I would like to compete. I have set at least two – but I suspect three up myself in the past. Last time Don Hadfield did it and I have competed on an earlier one of his too. I know John and Jeanette Grant have set them in the past as have Greg Winkley and Don Howarth, and Nick Watson in Taumaranui and there may be others in the club that as I write this I have forgotten or simply forgotten who organised the routes for a couple of runs up in Northland. In short a volunteer is still wanted and we have a support crew to assist anyone new to the task – see if you can step up to the challenge!
On a more sombre note I feel compelled, embarrassed and a bit miffed to report that somehow we have lost part of the club stock, circa a dozen shirts. I won’t go into the facts in any great depth – partly because they are a bit cloudy, i.e. it is a mystery how they disappeared, but in both short form, which is very close to the long form, this is what we know.
- Don Howarth was the Club Shop holder and took the shop to our last AGM held at Southern Autos last year, to hand over the boxes it was contained in as he had resigned from the position.
- As we rushed out of the show-room it was thought that they hurriedly got loaded into my car, however I only bought 1 of the 2 boxes home to my place.
- Other boxes (containing trophies, remains of the afternoon tea etc) got loaded in other peoples’ cars rather rapidly as well.
- The box has sat in my garage doing nothing all year, nobody has approached or even looked like approaching me to purchase anything.
- In preparation for the Annual Accounts Steve Cornwall our Treasurer sent me a list of the stock as per last year’s accounts. It was at this point that it was discovered that we are short a number of shirts. All other stock (pens, stickers and 404 postcards are accounted for).
- I called Don to seek direction in case I was overlooking something. It was at this point I learned that there should have been two boxes, not just the one I have.
- Since then Don, Jeanette Grant (her car was one of those that things got loaded into rapidly) and myself have all searched our garages, underneath the house, on the sun porch, the spare bedroom, storage spaces in ceilings as appropriate to each of our individual houses in case the missing box has been inadvertently put there, all to no avail except I know that at least two of us three have discovered items we had either forgotten about or not seen for some time that we personally owned!
- At the time of writing I have one more lead to follow up but frankly have little hope of a positive outcome.
- Other possible outcomes include that the box was put in someone else’s vehicle as we left the AGM in a bit of a rush and those of us at the centre of the mystery are unaware of who has it. Therefore can I ask that if you were at the AGM last year and have ended up with the box please let me know.
From a realistic point of view you (as members) can expect to see a write down of stock in the club financials this year. However in many ways it is also possibly a realistic outcome, whether the items are lost or not, as many of the shirts were/are old and outdated. In particular, there are/were a number of shirts that date from the early 2000s that came out for the WRC 307. In reality, who other than a particularly keen rally fan, would want a “new” shirt of a 15year old rally car? It is realistic to suggest that even the club shirts aren’t that popular with the Auckland Peugeot Car Club logo, most of us that are likely to want one already have one, while the rest of you who don’t have one probably don’t want one anyway! Certainly since last year’s AGM there have been no enquiries made of the club shop. The question must be asked does our club stock have any value anyway other than its typical use of one shirt being a giveaway at the AGM raffle?
I am going to leave it at that, you have been warned about our missing stock and the financial implications, I do not foresee them being found, but do hold a minor amount of hope. If you just happen to know where the missing box is we would love to know. I admit possibly one of the reasons for no enquiries is a lack of knowledge of what the club shop has, in next month’s Ramble, or possibly as a separate article I will let you know what we actually have – with or without the missing shirts.
That’s it for now, I know I will be seeing some of you at the upcoming dinner (as I write this, gone as you read it most likely!) with Citroen and I hope a good number of you make it to our AGM at the Auckland Vintage Car Club rooms – 39 Fairfax Ave, Penrose – 1pm on August 30th.
Nga mihi nui,
Brent
PS– Have you returned your 2019 trophy yet?
BD