Drew to step down from Chairman at the next AGM

Dear all,

I wanted to take a moment to inform you all in advance that I will be stepping down from the chairmanship of the Mk1 Golf Owners' Club from the next AGM at Gaydon in August.

The reasons are mostly to do with pressure of work and increasing family commitments. I started a new job as a consultant last October and as work has increased I'm finding myself away from home and out of email contact a lot more often than before. My two young sons are growing up (now 3 and 6) and take most of weekend time and unfortunately the club is becoming a poor relation in terms of the time I can devote to it.

I've been chairman for almost 3 years, which is a fairly normal stint of time for this type of role (although I could make it over 6 years if you count the original 'Campaign Register' we started back in early 2001!)

To reassure you, I've no intention of disappearing from the scene, infact, I hope to visit more shows as my kids grow up and are able to come along with me. I've no intention of selling my infamous old Campaign and will be on hand and on the website as much as possible to help with any transition and advice.

Over the years I've had some amazing 'Mk1 Moments'. Personally, getting mk1s into the magazines, and onto the television was a lot of fun (favourite moments for me were my Mk1 trouncing a Mk4 Golf GTI in a rather staged sprint for Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson, winning a 'topdog' shoot out against an Ford XR3 with Penny Mallory, and finding that Mike Brewer can barely fit inside a mk1 on Wheeler Dealers…). I even got called up by BBC Wales once to comment on the launch of the Mk5.

Best of all was the feeling of elation at the first ever Campaign Register meet when I'd shelled out ?200 pounds of my own money to hire the Gaydon showground to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Campaign, having been told by various magazines it was a pointless exercise, there was nothing particularly special about the car and no one would turn up…. followed by 70+ campaigns arriving within the space of about half an hour and virtually filling the car park. 2004 was a good year.

Of course, a lot of owners of Golf cabriolets, non injected Golfs also turned up to see what the fuss was about - complaining there was no club that would accept their cars for what they were, thus was the Mk1 Golf Owners' Club born, just for the mk1, with an emphasis on preserving them for what they are, the best little hatchback in the world, ever.

Seeing Quentin Wilson wandering around our Gaydon show in 2005 was quite cool too. He told us we're we providing an important service and wished us the best of luck.

We had a few downsides too. Our website got hacked repeatedly by a group of Turkish hackers who had decided that (obvious in hindsight :wink that the Mk1 Golf was the epitome of western decadence and needed to be obliterated in the cause of fundamentalism. We've lost an untold number of gazebos over the years as well. Why is it always windy at Gaydon?

Over the years I've been privileged to meet a number of Mk1 owners and ex Mk1 owners; from students struggling to keep the car on the road, to a millionaire rebuilding every last bolt on the first ever Mk1 Golf C he owned. I've meet people who owned the Mk1 from new. I've seen classic original cars with astonishingly low mileage, to daily drivers with distances covered you could measure in astronomical terms and modified cars which scare the living daylights out of supercar owners. All mk1s, all great cars. When you ask them "Why the mk1?" the answer is almost always the same, "There's just something about this car…"

Seeing the website grow by a factor of ten in 3 years has also been exciting, and I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that we're now one of the biggest specialist VW websites on the internet.

I've always felt our success was down to a few simple things: keeping focused on our subject, upholding good manners and responsibility, and doing things one step at a time.

There are dozens of people I would like to thank for their input over my time 'in office' and it would take me days to write it all up. I've put together a short short short list, so please don't be offended if you're not on this, as I have really appreciated everybody's input into the site. I might be able to take credit for the original idea, but the Club is what it is because of the membership, not because of my contribution. So, YOU as you're reading this, THANKS!

Andy Day (HairyArse!): My staunchest supporter throughout. Andy has been instrumental in keeping the club going and does an enormous number of things behind the scenes, particularly with the merchandising and events.

Rewth: For stepping so ably into the membership position and churning out the membership applications. Took on a huge job and dealt with it superbly.

Rob and Steven: For doing the tedious number crunching and paperwork stuff.

Rajan (Dubboy) : For just knowing everything there is to know about mk1s

Richard (Crazyquiff): Being on hand and helping out at all the shows and being a great support at all the AGMs.

Paul, Phil and Chris : The Website team (now minus Chris unfortunately). Who have *totally* updated the entire site over the last few months onto new software. It's a testament to their abilities that you probably haven't even noticed there was much of a switch over. Hopefully no more Turkish hackers will be bothering us.

All the moderators: A job without much thanks most of the time, but crucial to the success of the site and keeping it a clean and pleasant place to discuss the important matters of life (yes, mk1s!)

The editing team: Moving all those useful posts into the archive where they can be searched. Probably one of the most useful long term services the club can provide.

All those who managed to get to Gaydon, but particular those in 2006 despite torrential rain, high winds and freezing weather (August!) and managed to camp it out, have a disco and a good time despite everything!

I'm hoping that will continue and than an 'injection of fresh blood' (4 star of course!) will drive forward some new ideas and help the club branch out into new directions. We've got a good stockpile of cash that the club can invest into new ideas; making Gaydon bigger, starting a magazine or newsletter; buying a cache of spare parts etc and I'd like to see an enthusiastic new person (with some available time!) stepping into this and taking us on to the next stage.

There's still plenty of time until the AGM, so please start thinking about who might be a good candidate for the chairman. Could be an existing committee member, or an enthusiastic contributor from the site.

My very best regards,

Drew.

Well done Drew, I salute you!   This place is a top place to be, a proper forum for proper mk1's. I spent more time here than any other VW forum i use.Well done.

(even if i did get moderated :wink:  :wink: )

Thanks Drew!!

:clap: You've done an excellent job Drew, If it wasn't for the club I'm sure there wouldn't be as many Mk1's on the road as there are now and expect many owners would have let they're car fall into the rusty scrapyard heaven that so many have gone to.

Think he deserve a proper "send off" at the Next Annual meet  :y:

I have to say this site is the definitive site for advice relating to MK Is and someone will always have answer to any questions you might raise.

Hope you can get your two boys interested in the future and start bringing them to shows.

Cheers

I've not been on here long but finding this site was one of the main reasons that I decided to take the plunge and getting another Mk1 (even though it is a floppy top)

So a big thanks from a Newbie. :notworthy:

Congrats on starting a legend Drew, glad to hear you wont be going totally and i wish the site and its members all the best for 2007.

I think the dub scene is going from strength to strength and i think this will be a excellent year for all VW fans, both watercooled and aircooled.

Pricie   :clap:

A great big thank you, I know the efforts it takes behind the scenes to run a successful club like this one. You've created a truly significant and useful resource which has no doubt saved many cars from the grave and increased the awareness and status of Mk1 Golfs greatly. Good luck in the future and its good to see you will be keeping your Mk1 interests alive. Hopefully someone can keep this thing running just as well as you!

Thanks for the starting this site/club, without it, I and many others would be up a creek without a paddle.

Best wishes to you Drew , and thanks also to the all the staff who keep this club chundering along  :mrgreen: .

Drew
This site is awesome :clap: and as a visitor to other forums I find it such a relief to find a forum where ppl actually post.

If you feel that for whatever reasons you must step down :notworthy: then I am sure everyone will be very disappointed but I am sure that whoever from the committee steps up to fill the post you leave will be as well supported and will carry on raising the profile of all our much loved mk1s

 :google: Rules for leading me here, my new spiritual home

Craig

 a big thankyou drew for all your hard work, you have managed to pull together a great organisation for all to reap the benefits, finding somebody to step into the role of chairman will be a big task. there are a lot of  key members on this forum, each of which all have their own qualities, characters, & faults  but all contribute to make this a  really decent club.  i hope this continues and doesn't  go down the route of other car clubs which become corrupt and very clicky .  fingers crossed the club will grow and flourish , well done mate,  good job done. who knows might be one of yours sons running the club one day…….. :clap:  :clap:  :clap:

i could be interested in the vacancy. what's the salary like drew?

Sod the salary, I want the company car!

dannyboyblue said

Sod the salary, I want the company car!

:clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap: …trust you Danny…

Heartfelt thanks Drew, you have done a superb job over the years, and have been an inspiration to all members, and a true ambassador for the Mk1 and The Club. It will be difficult to find someone to step into your shoes….

8O BLIMEY Some Eulogy that! RIP DREW :cry:  :wink:

Seriously tho….. Thankyou Drew i would never have bought my second if i didnt know about this place, im sure others will agree too. well inspired.

Good luck in the future.  :notworthy:  :notworthy:  :notworthy:


Thanks :mrgreen:

wooders said

i could be interested in the vacancy. what's the salary like drew?

Salary? There was supposed to be a salary?  8O Damn, missed a trick there!  

Cheers,

Drew.

seconded

cheers drew,
i doubt my car would still be alive were it not for this site tbh (tho some might prefer it that way :wink: )
so
thanks for having the guts to trust your instincts and biggin up the mk1 as it should be.

best wishes
dave

ABSOLUTE LEGEND!!!
 :notworthy:

thanks for a very good site it has inspired me to fix my two campains all the best with the job and the kids  :clap: