The Veteran Vespa Club AGM
For the last 12 years or so, the club’s AGM has been held in its spiritual home, Leamington Spa. This year it was all change, with a bit of Disco...
The town hall in Leamington Spa was the location of the Vespa Club of Britain’s AGM and it was from a meeting back in 1963 that there was a discussion about organising a run from London to Brighton, specifically for the old Vespa models. This resulted in the first run being held in April 1964 and the subsequent formation of the Veteran Vespa Club.
Unfortunately, after many happy times spent in the Warwickshire town (and due to circumstances beyond our control) the VVC needed to find another location. So it was decided that now was the right time to look at a fresh town to find something suitable, interesting, but yet still within the same band of the country, thus making the AGM as accessible as possible for all members.
Our Rosie was duly tasked with finding us a place and eventually, after several false starts, decided upon the Worcester Whitehouse Hotel, which had everything we required and more – plus it was located within the city centre.
BOOK EARLY
This is a very important weekend in the VVC calendar and along with the business side of things, it’s always a good excuse for a social get-together outside of the normal club riding season. As this was the first event in
Worcester and Dez Askill’s classic scooter business, Disco Dez Scooters, is only a short distance away, an afternoon trip for tea and cake at the shop was planned. This was a little treat for the members who’d arrived early on the Friday and it gave them a chance to socialise and relax before the meeting on the Saturday.
Dez did us proud and warmly welcomed us into his wonderful shop where he very kindly and quickly promoted me to head waiter/ cup and bottle washer. An awfully pleasant afternoon was had by all, before we headed back into Worcester. The evening’s social began with a drink in the bar, followed by a group meal and social evening at the hotel for the 26 early arrivals.
SATURDAY: 1PM
After a hearty full English breakfast and a gentle morning stroll, it was time for the meeting to begin. There were about 40 or so members in attendance and it was encouraging to see many faces who had not attended previously or hadn’t been seen at an annual meeting for a while. The meeting was very productive and a lot of business was attended to in an open and friendly manner with a lot of positive feedback and input from the attending members.
There are some great events planned for this year already, and as next year will be the 60th anniversary of the club, it is going to be a very busy and special year indeed, with some additions to our usual format being thrown in as yet another little treat for the members.
GALA EVENING
The meeting finished at about 4.30pm and gave members enough time to relax and enjoy the fantastic facilities that the Whitehouse Hotel had to offer, before meeting at 7pm for the gala evening meal.
As is traditional, this evening is where the awards for service to the club in the last 12 months are acknowledged, with the presentation of the Margaret Farquhar ladies’ salver going this year to Kath Blackburn, and the president’s salver being awarded to Alan Springall – both worthy recipients with their hard-working and enthusiastic approach to the club’s activities.
This year’s Lifetime Achievement Trophy for service to the club, the VVC Hall of Fame Award, went to yet another worthy recipient – founding member of the VVC and an allround fun and much-loved character, Peter Guppy. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, Pete was unable to attend, which was on one hand a bit of a shame, but on the other, did save me a bob or two as I’d offered to buy him dinner as he had planned to arrive early on the Thursday. Every cloud has a silver lining as they say!
So, if you have a strong interest in the classic geared Vespa scooters and fancy trying out the gentle side of scootering, with a feel of bygone days in the company of other likeminded enthusiasts, then check out the club website (www.veteranvespaclub.com); here you’ll find out how to join and get involved with one of the finest clubs for the encouragement and support of the preservation, restoration and use of classic Vespa models.
Ride safe; luv and peace.