At the end of the informal discussion following the AGM last Monday, David Swinton, our Honorary President and one of the founding Directors of the Club, passed on his thanks to everyone for all for their work for the Club.
Over 50 years of Motorsport.
Marshals today would find it hard to believe just how much the sport and the job have changed.
Way back in the early 70’s, Mike Gascoigne and I decided that we needed a Marshal’s Club in Scotland. The objects were to provide training and to provide a Rescue Unit for Scottish events. Over 50 years later I like to think we did a good job.
Over the years so much has changed and, looking back, I do wonder how we and the competitors survived.
Communication is the big change. Imagine you are running a Stage. You have no idea how many cars are still running, but you set them off at one-minute intervals. The finish team have no idea how many have started and simply record their time. Sometimes a driver will tell you that they have seen a car off, and help is needed. The only way for the finish to pass a message to the start is for someone to drive to the start, but this could be a drive of 30 minutes. Once the information is received at the start someone needs to find a phone and call for an ambulance and then call rally HQ to say the stage is on hold until the closing car arrives and takes the decision to abandon the stage. All this information requires to be sent to HQ via the pay phone. No mobile phones. No radios. No Rescue Unit.
Running the Club had similar problems. There were only two ways to communicate with the members; by post or by phoning individual members. To help members trying to contact the Club we installed a Telephone Answering Machine. The device, that could only be rented, was the size of a printer and very heavy. They were not well known and initially, many people didn’t like speaking to them. For each event we were providing marshals to, we sent out an availability form with the option of sending a positive response in the post or braving the machine. Once we knew who was attending, we would send out the joining instructions. Thankfully in those days a first class stamp was affordable and most letters arrived the day after posting.
Listening to the AGM and knowing just how much has changed I felt delighted and proud of all the hard work Mike, and I put into the Club has born fruit. The current management are dealing superbly with the task of keeping our Club up to date and relevant. I remain proud of what we started and proud of what it has become.
David Swinton