Guide to Committee Members

Q: How many years have you been on the committee, and what was your first post?
A: This is my second year on the committee, but my first as magazine editor.

Q: So what does being Mag. Ed. involve?
A: It seems to involve writing a fair proportion of the magazine! The first thing I did when I took the job on was to buy a computer. The second thing was to plan the magazine so there was a fixed set of pages which would appear every month - this one is an example. So each month there are 13 "fixed" pages and 11 "floating" ones which will usually be one- or two-page articles on various topics. Richard and I write all the fixed ones... and on bad months we write all the floating ones too. I don't think I realised how big a job it would be when I took it on. But then again, the job has expanded as I've become more of a perfectionist. For example, I will condense down various letters and notices onto the Notice Board which could have been run as full pages in their own right.

Q: So how do you get people to write articles?
A: I occasionally get to see other car clubs' magazines and they are always full of appeals from the Editor for more articles. I've tried to avoid doing this for two reasons - firstly it makes rather boring reading, and secondly it doesn't seem to have any effect whatsoever. I've found it's much more successful to corner individual people at club night and ask them to write articles for me. Some people have been very reluctant to do it but have then turned out brilliant articles. One magazine article is required as an endorsement for the club championships. I try to talk to people first and then we can discuss the content and maybe put a different slant on the article - for example, talk about a type of motorsport rather than a single event. I'm also building up a trusty band of regular contributors. Sue Smith usually does a Bird's Eye, Ian Harden often writes (under the pseudonym of Max E Green among others). Tim Hines has recently taken over doing The Last Word. And of course Rick always put in the Thoughts Of Chairman Rick. Some people have taken over the job of reporting their particular area of motorsport - The Mudpluggers are Colin and Michael Weeks reporting on trials, and completely unprompted Gavin Edmiston has become a regular Karting correspondent. I'd like to encourage this as much as possible, because I've always been worried that my bias towards stage rallying would make the magazine boring for competitors in other areas. I'm now trying to get someone to take over the Competitors Roundup, preferably one of the regular competitors... (hint hint) Now that I have got more regular contributors the job is getting a lot easier. (Please note this if you are volunteering to be the Mag Ed for next year!)

Q: What would you like to improve on the magazine?
A: I'd really like to get more pictures in. There are limitations with photocopying and reducing colour prints but they can be scanned in on the computer and then print out quite nicely. I'd also like more researched articles - I did one on seat belts early on and I've got lots more ideas about this type of article, but it's difficult to make the time to write these. I do think they would be interesting articles for other people to research and write.

Q: How did you get involved in motorsport?
A: I used to ride a motorbike until I met Richard in 1989 and he convinced me that stage rallying was safer. I co-drove for him for about four years and then started co-driving for other drivers too.

Q: Do you compete now?
A: Yes, I'm registered for three championships this year including the Open, but work pressures are making the large pace-noted events harder to do.

Q: What was your worst event?
A: My third DNF in a row on the RAC has made me feel I am doomed never to finish it. Still, every year it gets shorter, so some time soon I might get to the end before breaking down.

Q: And your best event?
A: Doing the Pirelli with Nigel Cannell two years ago when it still required high-speed reading from the maps and winning our class. There was one junction which looked straight on and so we took it flat out - and it had a massive off-centre yump on it. We seemed to be in the air for miles but landed ok - but there were no photographers there. We actually won our class - the prize was a Pirelli Calendar! Oh yes, and a couple of weeks ago I did a single-venue with Roger Binyon at RAF Abingdon and we won the whole thing! We were smiling so much the tops of our heads nearly fell off.