What we do at "TOPO"

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Perhaps you are wondering what occupies their time and below we have identified some salient activities that keep them busy, either directly or in support of volunteer members without who the Club could not function the way it does. 

Events

The Club has a very active membership involved in a large number of competitive and social events including:

  • Race days – over 1000 entries, thousands of spectators
  • UK and overseas tours – over 300 participants on the public roads
  • Speed Hill Climbs and Sprints – 1000 entries, thousands of spectators
  • Navigational Rallies – 250 entries using public roads
  • Trials – 1200 competitors
  • Driving Tests – hundreds of competitors and spectators
  • Over 600 ‘pub meets’ involving thousands of people

Membership

  • Currently standing in excess of 6,000 and increasing slightly year on year.
  • 13,000 cars recorded on the VSCC database
  • 4,500 cars formally classified
  • 3,000 cars currently registered for competitions
  • >Maybe 20,000 cars in total...
  • Many members have more than one, and often several, interesting and significant cars

Public Relations & Publications

The outward face of the Club is ensconced within our own range of publications and the media generally including:

  • The Bulletin – members only (edited out of the office)
  • The Newsletter – members only
  • Advertising in other media
  • The Club’s own website
  • Letters and mailshots
  • Leaflets and posters
  • Telephone and email 

Office Management

Most staff spend most of their working day in the Club’s own offices. Self governance and office procedures are a vital part of the Club’s existence and covers subjects such as:

  • Written Procedures
  • Buildings Management
  • Office equipment, including information systems
  • Rental property
  • Company Law
  • Health and Safety in the Office and at Events

Finance

Again this is part of self governance and is a vital area of work if the Club is to satisfy its statutory obligations for financial management and its moral obligations to a membership society. This includes:

  • Budgets
  • Management accounting, forecasts and audit
  • Ledger Receipts and payments
  • VAT and Inland Revenue
  • Insurance

The Permanent Staff are responsible for all of this. Within the work identified above a high degree of specialist knowledge is required such that all legislative, regulatory and ethical obligations are covered. This can range from carrying out a Risk Assessment for every event that we run, through obtaining Route Authorisation for all events using the public highway, personnel administration, paying the right amount of VAT for goods and services, keeping the plumbing in good order and the like.

We estimate that we answer some 43,000 emails and telephone calls per annum, that we receive approximately 12,000 items of mail, accept and process some 3,000 competition entries and post about 6,000 individual ledger entries on the Club’s accounts.