Members News Archive

Sadly, as many of you will know, Terry Milsom passed away on the 10^th February.

His funeral will take place at 1.45pm on the 3^rd March.  Unfortunately, due to Covid-19, we’re very limited with the number of mourners who can attend.  Therefore we’ve organised a ‘live webcast’ of the actual funeral service for as many people as possible to attend.

Please find below the link to access this service:

Funeral Service for Terry Milsom
Service Date	3rd March 2021 at 1:45pm
Service Chapel	Chapel – West Wiltshire Crematorium
Website	https://www.obitus.com/
Username	Nope9528
Password	349219
Webcast:	Webcast
You can login to our website at any time to view a test connection (and we strongly recommend you do this) but you’ll only be able to view the Live Webcast approx. 5 mins before the service start time.

We’ve also created a memorial page (https://terrymilsom.muchloved.com) for Terry.  This will enable those that wish, to add tributes to him as follows:

• Make a donation – we’re supporting Bath Cancer Unit Support Group and The Forever Friends Appeal (Royal United Hospital Bath).  Any donations in lieu of floral tributes would be welcome
• Light a candle – light a candle for Terry and leave a message. You can choose from a variety of candles & colours. Your candle will appear in the candles gallery
• Add a gift – choose a virtual gift to add to Terry’s gifts gallery. There are lots of different gifts to choose from and you can add a message to display with your gift
• Add a story – contribute to Terry’s life story and add a memory or anecdote. You can also upload pictures, videos and music to accompany your story
• Send a thought – Send a thought to Terry’s thoughts gallery.

We hope that you find using our memorial page a positive experience and that it becomes a place of comfort and inspiration for you to visit whenever you wish.

Please feel free to pass this on to any family or friends of Terry’s who you feel would also wish to contribute to his memory.

As soon as we are able, we’re planning to arrange a formal memorial service for Terry.  This will allow us all the chance to celebrate Terry’s life, altogether, in the way that he would have wanted.  A full church service with bell ringing, choral music and a good celebratory wake to follow.  Much more like Terry.

Finally, we would like to thank you all for your kind words of support, flowers and cards.

Bless you all,

Sandra, Martyn, Steven & Families

I have been advised that the service will also be made available for viewing from 3 days after the live service for a period of 28 days. Webmaster

Welcome to the new Members’ Area of the website.

This new area is styled like the Public Area launched a few month ago. As with the Public Area it is now also more mobile friendly. Everything you had available on the old site, and was being used by members, is still available for you. The difference is that most sections have been restyled, and where necessary had the code modified to work in a new Content Management System (CMS).

I have tried to make it easy to find what you want without relying on a single menu, and I’ve added more explanatory and help text where I thought it would help. It remains to be seen whether or not I succeeded!

Some features are available directly from the two main web pages, others via the main top menu and some by both methods. If you are not used to navigating websites on mobile devices, please note that the menus are accessed via the ‘hamburger’ icon (3 short lines) at the top-left of the screen.

Now the transfer of the whole site is complete it allows me to upgrade some of the system software to improve performance and security. It also enables adding new facilities in the future with a lot less work involved.

Happy browsing, Webmaster

It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of long-standing member Terry Milsom from Trowbridge, Wiltshire. Terry passed away yesterday, 10^th February, and will be sadly missed.

Terry and his wife Sandra joined the Club back in 1992 and have always been very active in the club by attending and organising many rallies over the years; some very popular ones such as Brean have been repeated many times over. I’m sure many members will have lots of happy memories of time spent with Terry and Sandra and will no doubt have had a good laugh at Terry’s many jokes for which he has always been well known.

As well as enjoying and supporting the social side of the club, Terry, supported by Sandra, have served the Club well during their membership. Terry was the ACM for Area 7 1998 – 2003 and also looked after Area 8 for a year during that time. He became Chairman in 2008 and held that position for 5 years.

Our thoughts are with Sandra and all the family at this sad time.

Please respect the family’s privacy at this difficult time. Due to government restrictions a webcast of the funeral is to be arranged and I will publish details here as soon as they are available.

John Brailsford, President

Reluctantly, due to the current, and foreseeable, Covid situation and timescale, we have, very reluctantly, cancelled the Loire rally scheduled for September. We did not take this decision lightly, but feel it is the best solution now, before any further expenses are unnecessarily incurred.
We are proposing to run the rally in 2023, and will publicise this once further details are available.
We are extremely disappointed about this, and hope you will understand our reasoning.
Alan & Carol Druce, Marshals

The committee members extend their sincere thanks to all members that took time to share views and comment ahead of the recent committee meeting to inform the decisions made. A further thank you also to those members who have recently renewed with the Club.

Your SOC committee met on Saturday 30th January to discuss a number of items and made the following decisions:

The planned 2021 AGM will move from May to October.  This was a unanimous decision. Exact dates and options for how it will be held will be discussed at the February committee meeting.

The planned 50th celebration rally that was to coincide with the 2021 AGM will move from this year to next year. Whilst this is a sad decision to make, it was viewed unanimously as the right one.  The birthday rallies over the summer months are planned to continue, subject to national guidance.

The reduced renewal fee for members will be extended until the end of February 2021. It was recognised that not all had understood the messaging about renewals and this was evidenced by ACMs. Again this was a unanimous decision.

Rallies due to be held up to and including the 31st March are cancelled following a majority vote. The Committee spent some time discussing the various options and implications bearing in mind the current rules; the closure of schools until March, the decisions already made by other clubs, vaccinations and the likely continuation of restrictions. Rallies commencing from 1st April will be reviewed in due course, taking into account any Government restrictions in place at that time.

The next meeting of the committee is the 27th February 2021.

Jacqueline Barnes, Chair

Val Rowe has organised a live webcast for those who would like to join John’s funeral online. Details are given below. Please note that this webcast is time specific so can’t be viewed afterwards.

You may visit the Obitus site at any time using the link below to test your connection, and on the day you may login to the service from 5 mins before the start. I suggest you make a note of the details below prior to visiting the site to avoid having to switch screens.

Service order for John Smith Rowe

Service Date      04-Feb-21 at 12:15
Service Chapel  Chapel – West Wiltshire Crem
Website              https://www.obitus.com/
Username          Xeqa5059
Password           727752
Webcast:            Live Webcast

John Brailsford, President

After a successful ten years as the central hub of the online Swift community, following a review, Swift have taken the tough decision to close down Swift Talk. It will remain open until February 5th to allow users time to download any content they may require in the future.
I will replace links to Swift Talk on this website with a direct link to the FAQs section of the Swift Group main website. The FAQs are a good starting point for owners needing advice regarding Swift Products.
To stay involved with the Swift community, you can follow their official social media channels (Facebook @swiftleisuregroup | Twitter @swiftgroup | Instagram @swiftleisuregroup). Webmaster

Thank you so much all of you who have sent cards or letters with your sympathy about my loss of John. To you all I am most grateful, it has meant a lot to read how well he was seen and how much he meant to you all.

This lock down has meant that we cannot have the usual funeral so on 4th February at 12.15 we will be at the West Wiltshire Crematorium, Semington near Trowbridge, and there will be just twelve of us as some family are shielding. No hugs, no singing, no food, no drink, not very Swift like either.

We are hoping to make up for it with I hope, a memorial service when we can all sing our heads off and pay tributes to John.
If you have any memories of our jolly times or difficulties on rallies, whether we have run them or not, I would love to hear from you so I have them ready for that day and can put them together for an enjoyable occasion.
Email them any time valrowe@btinternet.com Val Rowe

The minutes of the November 24th Committee Meeting are now online. See ‘Minutes of Meetings’ section on the ‘General Info’ page. Webmaster

It is with great sadness that I inform you of the passing of long-standing member, friend and former SOC President John Rowe who passed away today. He will be sadly missed.

John and his wife Val joined the Club back in 1987 and very quickly became regular ralliers. I’m sure many members will have lots of happy memories of time spent with John and Val on rallies; they celebrated their 500th rally at our Elm Cottage rally in November 2019. Apart from attending over 500 rallies they have marshalled on numerous rallies both in the UK and abroad which were always well attended.

John has served the Club well over the years and made a major contribution to its development. He served as our ACCEO representative for 24 years, Rally Book Editor for 5 years, Rally Secretary for 4 years and proudly represented the Club as President for 18 years.

Our thoughts are with Val and the family at this sad time. John Brailsford, President