A small group of the Oxford section made the trip to Durham for the AGM: Rob Allin, Geoff Clough, Andy Lawson, Catherine and Steve Moxey. Here are the happy comrades, Geoff and Rob, at the Burford Little Chef, preparing themselves for the long haul to Durham,  the journey was about 280 miles.

After some unpleasant roadworks on the A1M the team arrived at Durham and stayed at the Kingslodge, a very nice hotel, in the heart of Durham.

The hotel was near to the railway and we walked under this fantastic viaduct to get to the footpath along the river Wear which leads past Durham Cathedral. The view from the path of Durham Cathedral is very picturesque.

The BMW Club AGM was held at Durham University, the Calman centre in the Science Campus. The Calman centre is the cylindrical multicoloured building in the the background. Refreshments were served on the top floor where the balcony provided good views of Durham.

The AGM was held in a lecture style auditorium which actually proved to be very good. The acoustics were excellent and despite microphone problems people could be easily heard. In a normal room those at the back are rather lost. Here is Dick Boyd conferring with Jim Lepley and Dave Cooper before the start of the meeting!

The actual business of the AGM was quite well ordered and some of the old chestnuts were duly served to the membership! The regular debate on accountants was aired (perhaps a waste of time we should just leave it to Jim Lepley the Treasurer to sort it out). By the way Jim appears to be doing an excellent job as Treasurer and his report and VAT adjustments were very well received by the meeting.

The club has made a loss in the last financial year due to a fall in membership and the general economic conditions. Financially the club is still in a very strong position and the Treasurer and President indicated that they will take action to ensure that this is not jeopardised. The main strategy for the club is to start growing the membership. In 2011 there are some good signs that recruitment is increasing, for example the K1600 launch events with BMW dealers.

There was a brief debate on the A4 versus A5 journal question and a straw poll showed that the room was split 50:50 over the issue. This will be decided by a full poll of the members. The editor of the Triumph Owners Club magazine was a guest and spoke eloquently about the success the Triumph Owners have had in moving their magazine to A4.

The election of club officers proceeded very smoothly and all officers were returned with large, almost unanimous majorities, which is good as the last thing the club needs now is internal squabbling, more focus on doing and recruiting is the order of the day.

Controversy is never far away at a BMW Club AGM and this year the grist to the mill was provided by the Scottish Section! There was a proposal to create a new Strathcylde Scottish section mostly from Scottish members living in Glasgow. This provided some very lively debate but there was very little substance to the argument it mostly seemed to be a Scottish Section dispute raised to national level. A Welshman from London even suggested we should think about a Welsh Section!

The meeting finished with an overview of the forthcoming 60th Anniversary Rally at the Fire Service College, due on the late August Bank Holiday. Mike Warrilow and his earthy assistant Graham Parker gave the presentation which was very humorous although the spell checker had obviously not, as yet, been located by the presenters! The event does look to be very good and the AGM was told that the club has invested £25,000 with the Fire Service College for the facilities over the weekend so we can all expect the blue ribbon treatment!

Mark Dutton the National Social Secretary was much in evidence and he is doing some good work to support the sections. Rob and Geoff managed to return with two stand up displays for forthcoming events and the new feather banners look to be very good value. We also had a good discussion with Richard Tavener, chairman of the Southern Section about events.

After the exertions of the AGM the team returned ,via Durham Cathedral, to the Kingslodge Hotel for a very good dinner and with the sun shining again on Sunday the trip home was most pleasant, using the A19 to bypass the A1M this time!