David Beadle - The Rover P6 Club

The Rover p6 Club’s nomination for the award of Club Hero is David Beadle, our Club Secretary.  The administration of a Car Club of moderate size is, of necessity, an unsung and unremarked task. In the modern legislative environment, it is also a large task, comparable to that administering the compliance and operation of a medium-sized business. It requires a professional approach with a very large time input.  Some Clubs have reacted to this need by transforming themselves into Limited Companies and paying for the services of such a person. Our Club has always felt that this is against the most basic ethos of an association of members seeking to enjoy their hobby and seeking support for a long obsolete car model. It is also a fact that single-model Car Clubs, such as our own, have a natural upper limit to the possible number of members dictated by the surviving population of the car – there is a limit to feasible disposable funds.  Our Club therefore persevered through several Club Secretaries who found themselves limited by the requirements of demanding jobs and by the declining time input of advancing years.  Cue the COVID pandemic and the Club found itself in difficulty. We were unable to deliver the number of services that members were paying for, shows were clearly not possible, material to populate the Club magazine dried up and volunteer input at the Committee level started to fall away.  By a combination of appeals for help and a little arm twisting, David Beadle stepped forward to help in October 2021  David Beadle is a then recently retired Motor Industry Professional aged 60. He had worked at the Gaydon design office of Jaguar Land-Rover. His own Rover P6 3500 having been brought up to a fine standard, he found himself short of a challenge. And what a challenge!  Below is the detail of some of his accomplishments. None are easily remarked on by Members, they see only the finished outcome!  Many other individuals are seen directly by the membership through organising Shows, Local Events, the Club Magazine, Technical Development and Help, etc…. David has provided the bedrock on which all of those can be delivered.  Is it WORKING…….???? You Bet!   The Club Membership has climbed and is stable against a background of many other Clubs succumbing to falling membership as age and the universality of Social Media takes its toll.  Our nomination of David Beadle is therefore the bedrock on which a successful Club is being built and maintained.