Chairman’s Report 2025

Yet again, we have had another successful year of well supported events and I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all the marshals. They work tirelessly and voluntarily to provide weekend and holiday breaks for us all to enjoy and might I add at a reasonable cost, which I am sure you will all agree is most welcome.

Our event programme has included 17 events hosted by the Norfolk Centre as well as others hosted by centres within the Anglia Division. Amongst those we hosted, was one new venue – The Norfolk Broads at Ludham as well as the return of The Glebe House School Holiday Rally in Hunstanton. Both rallies also had marshals that were new to the role and did an excellent job, so much so, they are returning next year. Whilst I am on the subject of new marshals, if more members volunteered to marshal events, we could significantly expand our calendar and offer a greater variety of activities. By each of us giving just one weekend, we could increase our capacity, benefitting all members with a fuller, more extensive event schedule. A strong core of volunteer marshals is what makes these events possible and creates a more vibrant, active community for everyone.

Following on from our project last year, of setting up a new website because the old one had become unworkable and also following requests for online bookings,we now have the website up and running. Unfortunately, not offering the full service we currently want it to. However, Ian, our Rally Secretary is relentlessly addressing these problems around his full time and busy work schedule. What you may not be aware of is Ian is having to learn to set up the back pages for the events with the facility of offering online booking and payments from tutorial videos. Not an easy task and if we have a member that has experience of WordPress and thinks they can assist, their help would be most appreciated. Ian is doing an excellent job and how he has maintained his patience, I do not know! Can I also again, say thank you to the marshals for persevering with us, we will get there!

Moving on from the marshals, I would also like to show my appreciation and personally thank all of my committee members for their hard work and commitment. I think you will agree with me how valued and important each of their roles are to the running of the Norfolk Centre.

Finally, and after showing my appreciation to my committee, it is the committee going forward that I need to seriously talk about. For 2025 going into 2026, my existing committee have put their names forward to stand again to enable the Norfolk Centre to host rallies for another year. However, I know that some of us may be looking to retire from our positions at next year’s AGM. This will definitely leave the Norfolk Centre in a very vulnerable position and at great risk of the Centre going into hibernation. It was only in 2022, that we celebrated 50 years of the Norfolk Centre and I would like to think there are still many more years to follow. Whilst I appreciate, that many of you have generously given your time to support the Centre over these past 50 plus years, for the Norfolk Centre to continue, we do need to share this message. It is an opportunity to give back, contribute to something you enjoy and allow you to actively help shape the future of the Norfolk Centre. Our meetings are held monthly via Zoom video calls and you will be supported in your role. We are a friendly team that works together to ensure our centre runs smoothly, drawing up our diverse experiences and knowledge to handle the Centre’s operations. We are actively seeking passionate and dedicated volunteers to join our team, helping us to share the workload and to enable the Centre to continue. If you are interested, please come and speak to me.

I would like to finish my report by thanking everyone who joined us at our events this year and to also thank you for all your donations and funds raised to support this year’s chosen charity – The Big C. I know they will appreciate your efforts very much.

Finally, we can’t wait to see you on the rally field in 2026, your support means so much to the Norfolk Centre.

On that note, here ends my report.

Graham Sewell

Chairman

CAMC Norfolk Centre

Sunday 5th October 2025