Here is the newsletter from the December Business meeting and Section A G M.

The December Business meeting and Section A G M were held on Thursday 29th November.

We heard the sad news that Fred Naisbitt died earlier this week and that his funeral will be on Tuesday 4th December at the Darlington Crematorium at 11.45 a.m. Fred was a regular at section meetings and runs, and our sympathies and condolences go to his family.

Recent events reported were:

• Trail Bike weekend held in the Lake District and enjoyed by all who were active on bike and in bar.
• Quiz organised by Dennis and Brian which was well attended by South Durham members and other sections. All enjoyed the pie and peas supper.
• Trial at Braidleees won by Rob Green, followed by Dave Heddon and Joe Morgan. 18 riders took part.

Events for the diary include:

• Trail bikes ride on North Yorks Moors. Meet at Yarm on Sunday 2nd December at 0900 hrs.
• Anniversary Social Run on December 9th. Meet at Cricket Club at l0.30. a.m.
• Section Christmas Party on 13th December. Tickets from Brian Smith until 6th December and from David or Martin Porteous thereafter. We’ll be delighted to see you with your wife, partner etc. for socialising and fun.
• Trial at Hindlethwaite on 16th December.
• Social Run to High Force on Boxing Day. Meet at Darlington Market Place at 10.30 hrs.
• Trial at Swainby on 2nd January 2008.
• Reminder that tickets are available for the Presentation of Awards Dinner and Dance on January 19th at Walworth Castle. We look forward to welcoming Club President Harry Wiles and his wife Fran.

We are in the early stages of planning a trip of several days next year to Holland to meet with our twinned friends from the VETERAAN MOTERAN CLUB. Expressions of interest to Brian Smith please.

At the A G M, reports were read and adopted from the Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. General comments from these reports were:

• The success of the road runs, social runs and social events. Thanks were given to all organisers and their teams.
• The recognition that we must encourage active participation in section meetings and activities.
• The welcome response from other local V M C C. sections and motorcycle clubs to our invitations to join us in social activities. These will continue in future.
• The section balance sheet showed a small surplus this year despite support being given to promotional activities. The ongoing surplus continues to be healthy.

Wilf Banks resigned from committee after some 8 years. Thanks were expressed for Wilf’s sterling work and the hope that he will continue his support for the Touring Week.

Wilf was replaced on committee by Viv Tubby. We look forward to working with Viv in the future. Viv is a regular on club runs of the South Durham and other sections. His flat tank Rudge is a delight to see and he has previously restored a B31 and Truimph T100 . His latest project is a Greeves Roadster.

A vote of thanks was proposed by Martin Porteous and seconded by Dennis Marwood.

Finally, on behalf of the committee, can I wish you all a happy Christmas and a particularly prosperous New Year when we hope that we’ll see you even more often.