Reports from Club Officers
The AGM of the Lea-Francis Owners' Club will take place on Saturday 4 September 2021, at 5pm at The Holt Hotel, Steeple Aston, OX25 5QQ
As per the previous few years, in order to keep the business of the AGM short and allow members time to meet, chat and enjoy the Club dinner, most of the officers' reports will not be presented at the AGM but made available to members through other means. Unfortunately, this year, the timescales have prevented the inclusion of the reports in the LeaFlet and therefore the decision has been made to place them on the website.
The reports are set out below.
Membership Secretary’s Report – Rod Holt
At the time of writing, I’m delighted to report that the membership is up by ten members on last year, but this figure may well be increased by the time the AGM is held on 4th September.
We have recruited 17 new members since 1st September last year and 7 members have re-joined. Of the 14 members who have left, two members have sadly died, Peter Cobb (1711) and John Fox (1789). Our sympathies go out to their families. Three members have sold their cars, one member discovered that his tractor is not a Unihorse after all, two have simply resigned and six have allowed their memberships to lapse, despite repeated reminders!
If you are thinking of selling your LeaF, I would urge you to recommend and encourage the new owner to become a member and, if not, let us know the name of the new owner, the place where they live and date of sale. so that we can the ownership records of your car up to date!
We currently have members in 21 countries around the world, including the UK and Channel Isles. 78% of the membership is based in the UK. Please also see, or download, the 2021 AGM Membership Analysis file for the membership breakdown.
Colin Poynter has recently added value to your membership, by adding to the Members’ Area of the www.LFOC.org website, further years of back copies of The LeaFlet magazine. Just another 100 back issues, or so, to add! When used in conjunction with the Index of LeaFlet Contents file and the Guide to Index of LeaFlet Contents (both viewable on the website) you are able to find pictures, articles or letters about your vehicle, by searching either by registration or chassis number. And, similarly, I am creating a further index file to make it easier to find articles on the maintenance of pre and post-war vehicles.
You should have received the 2021 List of Member and their Vehicles with your copy of the June LeaFlet. If not, please let me know. I would remind you to pay particular attention to the final paragraph on the inside front cover. No current or previous Lists of Members should be handed over to a new owner of a LeaF product unless he is a current and paid-up member of the L-F.O.C. Any breach is likely to cause us to have to abandon lists in the future.
After a long absence, the Radnor Arms lunchtime socials just south of Salisbury, are restarting this month, as are the Cat & Custard Pot gatherings. Needless to say, I am still looking for volunteers to organise local social meetings in their own localities, whether just over the summer months, or perhaps quarterly or, even just once-a-year! I will be happy to email members in your area, say within 50 to 60 miles of your chosen venue, and will send reminders one week before each meeting is to take place. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Finally, if you have any ideas for adding further value to being a member of the LFOC, I would love to hear from you.
Regalia Report – Colin Daw
The Regalia department has had a very quiet year. This is due mainly to the effects of the Coronavirus of course.
Stock level is about the same as last year. You could say that we have been ‘ticking over’ with a few postal orders.
I hope to have a busy time at Broughton Castle and great sales coming up to Christmas.
Competition Secretary’s Report – Tom Baston
As you know and like many events of the last 18 months the 2020 annual rally was cancelled due to the Covid-19 crisis and the 2021 event postponed for September. If you are reading this at the AGM at the Holt Hotel then it has gone ahead!
The 2020 and 2021 Autumn Tours scheduled in the Eifel area of Germany between Bonn and Koblenz where also cancelled. Peter Baston and Horst Meinert are hoping to run this in 2022.
Assuming restrictions remain lifted many events will be back again in 2022 and back to some sort of normality.
Safeguarding Officer’s Report – Tom Baston
You will be pleased to hear there is nothing to report; the year has passed with no safeguarding incidents.
Spares Secretary’s Report – Peter Baston
Just over 12 months since my last AGM report during which time I have seen a large increase in requests for spares availability and in the most for the post war cars.
In general, we have succeeded in locating spares with members or outside sourcing. The club members are very resourceful and help each other very generously in many cases.
Repairs, modifications and restorations have featured very much in my weekly contribution to members and the club, and it has been rewarding to hear of cars now back being enjoyed as they were intended.
It has been interesting to note the number of past members returning to the club, maybe the addition of a good website and forum where help can be readily accessed has prompted this.
The sharing of information is vitally important to the survival of our special cars and our excellent website gives us the opportunity to store this information in a way that was not readily accessible in the past.
Some of the previous written hard copy information has already been uploaded to the website under ‘files and downloads’. Access this information and make notes for the LeaFlet when an update to the content can be made or a new issue with a part of the car is found. Age related stresses in the mechanical parts are becoming more apparent especially now in the post war production. Nothing is insurmountable but sharing information is paramount to the survival of the cars.
Happy LeaFing
Pre 1937 Registrar – Colin Poynter
Since the last AGM I have assisted two members retrieve the original registration marks for their cars from the DVLA and secured an age-related registration for another car, which never had a UK registration have spent most of its life in Australia.
As time allows, I continue to update the register with information from the company build sheets and sales ledgers and have been greatly assisted in this task by Rod Holt. This year it has not been possible to spend time in local authority record offices, so updating records from those sources has taken a break for some time.
Editor – Colin Poynter
There were the usual six LeaFlets in 2020, with an additional Lock-Down Special in May 2020.
The content of the magazine is dependent on its contributors and I am extremely grateful to those within and without the Club who have provided some really excellent material over the previous twelve months.
It seem appropriate to thank Quorum Print Services, who print and mail the magazine for us, for their work over the previous year. Despite all the challenges that lock-down has presented they have managed to print every copy in timely manner and maintained the high quality we come to expect. As one would expect, I do from time to time seek quotes from other printers and can assure members that Quorum are not just competitive, but, to date, no other company has been able to come close to the price the LeaFlet currently costs the Club to print and distribute.
Some members now receive the LeaFlet in digital format and I am grateful to Rod Holt for distributing the digital edition to those that have requested it. While I am thanking Rod, I should mention that he and I have been busy scanning past copies of the LeaFlet and the majority of these are now on the website in an area accessible only to members. It is hoped that by next year every LeaFlet produced since the Clubs founding in 1953 will be available for members to download.
Web Editor – Colin Poynter
The now not so new Club website continues to develop.
As mentioned above a growing number of past editions of the LeaFlet are available to download on a member only area of the website.
The use of the online forum has increased recently, and I would encourage more members to make use of this facility. The sharing of knowledge and experience on the forum improves as more of us use it and can share what we know.
The Club’s Twitter account feed is displayed on the front page of the website and the account has driven some traffic to the website, so seems like a beneficial thing to have. If you have a Twitter account, please follow ours account @LeaFrancisClub Having more follows pleases the algorithms and helps improve the visibility of the Club and Lea-Francis on the internet. A Google search for Lea-Francis currently presents the LFOC website in the top five results.
I have plans for further developments of the website and the addition of more historic data, files and articles and this work will be done as time permits.
I am aware not everybody is happy with the website and/or the forum, so if you have constructive suggestions as to how it can be improved please let me know.