The 2006 Year for the Thames Valley Section of the Austin Healey Club was eventful with the resignation of both the Chairman and his lady wife, our section's Treasurer, as Nigel had been assigned to Perth. Some members wondered if the section's fund were to go with the pair of them -but as your new Treasurer observed, the credit balance of our section was not that high that it justified such a trip down under!

Our sincere thanks go out to both of them for their long and great efforts for the Club. All the committee members , who were assigned in to fill the gaps that the two of them left, will confirm that their departure was our increased workload on behalf of the club. At our AGM for the Thames Valley section those of us , who had taken on " acting" roles to fill the holes that Nigel and Liz left on the committee, were elected as "full" positional members of your committee ( for which I thank all of them) and so the future of the Thames Valley Austin Healey section will be assured for this coming year.However there are two positions that were not filled at the AGM, in that we still need/are looking for the Newsletter Editor and the Director , who represents your Thames Valley section at the National club committee level - as you read this - please do consider joining us and becoming involved in the future of your club! These vacancies arise with the resignation of Alan Cross from last year's committee as Alan felt he was about to "go under" with all his involvements in his workday together with running other activities and more importantly paying enough attention to his new wife. I must thank Alan for his dedication to the section, the club and to his support to me as I tried to find out my way around the role of "acting" chairman, that I had slipped into with Nigel's resignation. I wish Alan all success in his future involvements and my advice is that he must look after his new wife!!

I am pleased to welcome two new members to our committee, and it gave me pleasure to see that others in the club were keen to support the club's efforts and its future by their willingness to be elected to the committee. The two new General Members of your committee are Rowan Diviani and Dennis Horner, to both of whom we extend a warm welcome and may they both enjoy themselves at our meetings and the friendship of the committee and its events. I will always think of Rowan as the son who has already bought a 3000 Austin Healey on the pretext that it will be given to his Father- but he has not yet said when this will be or for how long he intends to carry on testing the car! Whilst for Dennis , my recollection is of his young son sitting in his push chair at our summer pub gathering, firmly holding onto Dennis's Austin Healey's car keys , as though the son was saying to Father - " I'll drive home - you had too much to drink"!

Finally - talking of Events and our involvements and activities for next 2007 year, your Committee plans to meet early in the New Year to attempt to fix Events and Dates so all members of the Thames Valley section can plan forward and book the times for their support to next year's activities - So please do support your new committee's efforts and make the turn-out at the events for next year, more substantial and rewarding. To this end, I would welcome all of your ideas for Events/Happenings for next year - if there has been/is anything that you have wanted your club to do/plan - then please give us/me your ideas/thoughts, as we are looking for new ideas that we have not done before or were so good that they can be repeated.

Have a Very Good Christmas Time, Look after your Healey cars in the winter months ahead and Lets all see each other in the New Year

Best Wishes

Brian White. Chairman - Austin Healey Club - Thames Valley Section. "