CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE
News
will be an exciting year as the ‘Re-Engineering Brooklands’ project is completed. The Finishing Straight will be formally opened on Saturday 17th June and the whole project should be completed by the autumn. We are intending to host a special event for members, but I am sure you will understand that a precise date and details will be determined by the progress of the later stages of the project. Probably the biggest threat to the timetable is the always unpredictable English weather and looking back over the 2016 season I am reminded of the quip that ‘there’s a technical term for a sunny warm day which follows two rainy days – it’s called Monday!’ As far as the shorter-term is concerned, we are all keeping our fingers crossed that the weather is kind to us on New Year’s Day – in terms of numbers attending our biggest event of the year.
W
e are now well into winter and Brooklands looks very different as the
frost lies heavy on the last few frames of the Hangar, waiting to be whisked away for restoration and eventual relocation. Although the winter is traditionally a quieter time for both the Museum and the Brooklands Trust Members, the lead up to the festive season has a few high- lights, such as our Annual Dinner and the Christmas Lunch. This year the dinner was a great success, although we were obviously disappointed that our President, Sir Stirling Moss, was unwell and unable to be with us – the first dinner he has missed since 2009. Members will be delighted to hear that he made a good recovery and was feeling much better on the following Monday.
Although 2016 has been a very successful year for the BTM, with an increasing membership and a record number of talks and events, rather than look back I prefer to look forward to 2017, which
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I am aware that my illustrious predecessor, Philip Strickland, always used to produce rousing editions of the ‘Chairman’s message’ and that my efforts must appear rather anodyne in comparison, so I was both delighted and surprised at the response to my call in the last Bulletin to let me have your views on a digital strategy for the BTM, including the Bulletin. As always, your views are very welcome and will help your Committee navigate a way through the digital minefield, hopefully not alienating too many analogue members along the way.
For those of you who have yet to complete sending your present lists to Father Christmas, might I suggest that you include a good camera, as we will be holding a photographic competition during 2017 with winning entries appearing in the Bulletin. Tim Morris has kindly ‘volunteered’ to run the competition (Tim might respond that he has ‘been volunteered’) – full details in the next edition.
We are hoping that this Bulletin will drop
through your letterbox before Christmas, so all that remains is for me to wish you, on behalf of the entire Committee, a happy, healthy and harmonious Christmas and a very happy New Year. If ‘Brexit’ and ‘Trump’ have been the two big events of 2016, perhaps we should have a competition to decide which two events will occupy that space in 2017!
Neil Bailey
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