Apologies: none
Chairman’s report – Paul Evans
As Chair of the West Country RC Truckers Club I would like to welcome you all to the 2026 Annual General Meeting and the Club’s sixth season.
When Rob, Allan, Stu and myself set the Club up in 2021, we chose to set the Club up as a Company limited by guarantee with legally binding Articles of Incorporation to ensure the Club has accountability to its Members, and to provide transparency around the running of the Club and its finances and the election of Officers. Therefore the October meet encompasses our AGM, whilst an important occasion, we always endeavour to keep this interruption of the day’s driving as short as possible.
Looking back on the 2025/26 season, all our meets were well attended by both drivers and spectators alike, and we also welcomed several new members to the Club as well.
w additions, after a lot of requests last season to re-introduce a bridge, Pete Gisborne & Allan Shilitto built us a new bridge, and over the summer they have also introduced a new curved section.
We also carried out our annual track maintenance over the summer, where we replaced parts of the layout that had become life expired or damaged, or simply needed a clean and remarking.
The Tyre Bay has also had a bit of a facelift and update thanks again to Pete Gisborne.
Thanks to Stu, we now have gone mobile with Lin’s Baps, which had its first outing at Devon Truck Show, and further enhancements over the summer break.
If anyone has any suggestions of other things they would like to see on the layout, please speak to one of the Committee, and we can see what we can do!
With the demise of Cornwall Truck Show, we had a big hole in our show calendar this year, and despite our best efforts we could not finalise details for potential replacements.
Devon Truck Show presented us with a number of challenges again this year, which were outside the control of the Club, and not only cause the show set up crew major headaches, also result in disappointment and shortfalls in expectations of members attending, for which we can only apologise, but hopefully those who attended had an enjoyable weekend.
I would also like to thank our ‘shadow’ show team, who attend a number of smaller shows, such as car shows, and steam fairs giving the Club a greater exposure than the ‘core’ truck shows.
At this moment in time the show calendar for 2027 has not been finalised, but we are working hard to firm things up and make an announcement as soon as we can.
Our Membership model has been an ongoing topic of conversation over the years, and we have received feedback comments both for and against it.
Why do we have a Membership fee?
Our membership fee is there to ensure we have funds to further invent in the future of the Club, to allow people to have the confidence to join a Club that will reinvest in updating, and maintaining its assets and to provide a degree of financial stability and resilience in the current financial climate, to allow members to have a say in the running of the Club, by listening to and acting on their ideas for keeping the layout up to date and interesting to use.
The Committee have had a number of discussions over it and can see both ‘pros and cons’ of the model, however we feel it should be the members who have the final say as to whether we continue with Membership fees or introduce an alternative and introduce a loyalty discount scheme with effect from September 2027.
To facilitate this potential change we will be issuing a ballot form to all adults who were Full Members in Membership year 2025/26 in the coming months, and we encourage all members to vote for the option of their choice so we can move this issue forward in accordance with the members wishes.
Now I would like to say a few thank-you’s to various people without whom we could not function as a Club;
To Mandie, both as Treasurer and running the Reception Desk at meets.
To Lin, Claire and Jenny for running the Tuck Shop, cooking the sausage baps, keeping us all in teas, coffees and biscuits, and finally for the extra effort and stress with the Christmas buffet.
To Pete and his amazing set up and teardown teams, who pull off miracles in getting the layout down, and yards in place usually in record time on a Sunday morning!
To our everyone who helps set up and teardown at Devon Truck Show.
To our former Committee Member Duncan Perryman for his support and valued input over the last three years.
To my fellow Director’s for the endless support and numerous tasks they carry out behind the scenes.
Finally, thanks to each and every one of you all, especially those who have been with us on the journey since we started the Club, for your continued support of the Club and we hope we continue to be one of the best RC Truck Clubs in the UK.
Just a quick reminder of who is responsible for the different roles and tasks within the Club.
Paul Evans – Chair, Club Secretary, and Company Secretary
Stu Loud – Vice Chair, Health & Safety, Welfare,
Mandie Granger- Ball – Treasurer
Rob Briggs –Membership Secretary, and Logistics.
Allan Shilletto – Construction and Layout planning and IT Support
Pete Gisborne - Layout Manager, and Yard Allocation
We also have a new Committee Member;
Martin Moore -
We welcome Martin to the Committee and the input and suggestions Maritn is bringing to the club.
Finally, please don’t forget, it’s your Club and we hope you will continue to enjoy the monthly meets to run your trucks and socialise with friends, and our updated website and Facebook page has further information and updates about the Club.
Mandie will now give the Treasurer’s report.
Treasurer’s Report 2025/26 - Mandie Granger Ball
Hi everyone, I’m Mandie and I took over the role of Treasurer in May 2025.
The Club is run for the benefit of our members, as a ‘not for profit’ organisation. The Directors of the Club receive no reimbursement or dividends from the Club.
Our accounts will be audited by Cobbold & Co, Bristol early next year to enable the Club to submit figures to Companies House and pay any Corporation Tax due by April 2027.
The Club finances have remained stable year ending 31st August 2026.
Member numbers and driver visits both remain strong with an increase in new memberships already this season.
The income from the Tuck Shop has vastly improved thanks to Lin’s hot sausage baps.
The Club has made several large purchases to improve the layout and the running of the club in the last financial year. This has included purchasing new tablets, one for the front desk and one for tuck. This has proved a great success enabling members to purchase from the tuck shop by card and hugely simplifying the club accounting. We also purchased new racking as the school have allowed us at no additional charge to have more storage space which is a great help to the club and significantly improves our logistical resilience.
In view of the Chair’s reference to the Membership Fee model, the Committee decided to maintain Membership fees at their current level with no increase for 2026/27 which will ensure after covering all our costs, there will be some funds left for future reinvestment in the Club. Our aim being to develop the Club and layout further and provide for financial resilience the Club will retain a small surplus.
We try and keep all costs and fees within the Club’s budget to provide both value for money and to continue to develop the Club.
Additional fund raising was carried out in 2025/2026 which was a great success. The Directors and Committee donated the raffle prizes for the Christmas raffle with Rob, our retiring Chair donating a magnificent prize and the Club funding a Christmas Hamper. We are aiming to do this do a similar Christmas raffle again this year.
Fund raisers help to support future upcoming events, for example the Devon Truck Show. I addition to fees to attend these events, the Club also subsidises attendance for these shows, from our general funds, with the biggest cost being the hire of the van! The Club made a very small profit this year from event. Attending shows gives us good publicity and great fun for everyone that attends even if it doesn’t always go according to plan and has the full support from the Directors and Committee for our participation.
Now on to the figures…
Audited accounts to year end 31st August 2025, these are available on Companies house document.
£ £
Turnover 6585
Other Income 20
Cost of raw materials and consumables 410
Staff costs 510
Depreciation and other mounts written off assets 1278
Other Charges 4,899
Surplus/(Deficit) for the year (492)
The following figures represent an unaudited Summary of the finances for the year ending 31st August 2026 and will be subject an inspection by our accountant and any Corporation Tax due to HMRC.
£ £
Turnover 6918
Cost of raw materials and consumables 6246
Depreciation and other amounts written off assets 829
Surplus/(Deficit) for the year (157)
Appointment & Re-election of Officers
None
Any Other Business
None
Meeting Closed at 12:50Hrs, Sunday 11th October 2026