www.TheSixAppealWheelGroup.org

Happy New Year

21st December 2009

So 2009 is almost at an end and we look forward to the coming year.

It’s a good job we can’t see the future but it’s sometimes nice to look back over events in our lives – whether good or bad.

I very much hope that most of those events for you personally were good?

The start of 2009 was a huge life style change for me. First in January I relocated back to my old home town of Gloucester after almost 10 years living in the North West. The hardest part for me was leaving my four children in Birkenhead. My youngest was most upset at my leaving but over the last few months we have seen each other and time heals though not cures a situation.

Also in February the MSN group site’s were closed and a migration was made to the ‘Multiply’ site. This was a complete disaster as I was unable to operate this site due to it formatting in HTML which I could not understand. I had in the previous months as a back up started a site on the freewebs site suggested by a member of the group.

In February I spent a whole weekend transferring items from Multiply to Freewebs and found it very easy to use as I did with the original MSN site. So in mid February I advised member to transfer to this site which quite a few did and it has now grown to almost 100 members since February (far faster than the original msn site which took two years to reach 100!)

Favourable comments were sent to me on the site and it has proved very well visited and popular. We ‘lost’ quite a few of the old site members but over time, many have found us and rejoined.

The site offered many new applications including video postings and a web shop. Together with a blog and forum application these have proved very useful and is used by members often.

The group has also aquired two appliances for restoration and display. The first was from the Falkland Islands – a very rare four door Commando and the second, also a Commando formally from Newcastle airport which was donated by Meggitt (ex Dunlop) in Coventry. The Falklands appliance is under the custodianship of Assistant Group Manager John Carter and the Newcastle Commando is with Group Historian Clive Westwood and awaiting restoration. Both were located by me whilst browsing the internet and John Carter took it forward to a satisfactory conclusion on both. Pictures appear in the album site and stories for both on the main site.

The album site has increased immensely due to the collections of several members who have requested albums to display their pictures in. The total now stands at 9,500 pictures of all types, mostly airfield appliances. More pictures are added each week. Thank you to all those who have made this one, if not the largest, pictures sites anywhere for these vehicles. Thanks to Daniel for maintaining the site and updating it.

A meeting is planned in January 2010 to see where we as a group go from here. An agenda will be put together to discuss matters for the future. We have had several articles in the Land Rover magazines and future articles are planned which have given us an even more exposure to the public and has encouraged more people to join the group. When more details are available I will keep you all posted.

Finally, I would like to express my thanks to those who have helped the group through the year and who have given me encouragement to improve the group as a whole. I thank all those who display their pictures in the albums for many to enjoy and look forward to more in 2010. I would also like to thank those who have taken on the ‘custodianship’ of the two vehicles. They have dug deep and and put their time into these projects.

It just leaves me to say a Healthy New Year to you all!

Walt

Group Manager/Originator

www.TheSixAppealWheelGroup.org