I don't consciously contribute in any way shape or form, but - if the MT spends money from club funds, then I do by default. I have the choice to leave the club if I don't like the way the MT spends the money.

Luckily, as I've said on numerous occasions - I'm more than happy with the way the club is run, with how my £20 is spent etc. and I'm not complaining, but if it is still a DSC series, with DSC funding, then surely the views of DSC members need to be heard.

that is the truck ( I think, - well it must be as that was the only cost), spend was 2005 shown in 2006 at the 2005 AGM which takes place in 2006!!

BUT we should not be getting into a divide over this IMO. It is not "your" series; it is "our" series. As I said above the cost of the truck was put down as DD, - but as Chair I saw it as an opportunity for the wider club, - there really should be no them and us. This is a club activity, all members are given a chance to take part either as a rider or a spectator, - (and as a mere spectator the series last year gave myself and family a lot of entertainment). This club was started as a way of bringing people together that have an interest in the many areas of Ducati ownership, - not so as to divide people into trackday-ers, rideout-ers, desmoDue-ers and SwissBank-ers.

Here's my take on the DD expense thing:

Assuming there IS a DD expenditaure in club funds...
The ordinary members (is there any other kind?) do contribute a part of their membership fee to DD. But that's just in the same way as every member contributes to every other expenditure, whether they make use of the benefits of the purchase or not.
I pay my £20 a year and leave it up to the MT do do what they feel best with that money - it's not for me to say others can't enjoy a service just because I don't want to. If I weren't happy to have part of my membership fee spent on a particular activity then I'd either keep my money or raise my concern at the agm.

Make sense?

yup ...

Lets not make a mountain out of a molehill again.

Apologies for being the person to point this out but Ian and Chris have just contradicted each other. Chris, you explained that DUK provided the trophies so what trophies did the club pay for?

As I said at the AGM, and have reiterated since, the money spent on bringing the DUK truck to Brands last year was a potential boon for the club and I'm in favour of spending money in a marketing capacity for the club - not just for DD as a whole but for the wider membership. The issue was the fact that we were told that no club funds were spent on DD only to find the item in the accounts attributed to DD.

That's my take anyway.

I think he means dinner dance trophies, and there were race shirts for the "Does your boss know" awards. :-)

This is the bit that I don't recall, and it seems that Ian wasn't aware of this either by his post above. Sorry Ian, I don't mean to pick on you or the decision I'm just trying to point out what appears to be a lack of clarity/communications on this.

When I asked the question at the AGM Chris you told me that the money in the accounts attributed to DD was for the DUK truck - nothing else. You didn't mention the stickers etc and I recall being told by either yourself or Monty at the start of last season that all the stickers were supplied by the sponsors themselves - why would we pay sponsors to ride with their stickers?!

Sure does Nick.

Benefits of the DSC are down to the individual to use or not, as is the decision to be a member or not.

I enjoy the benefit of the DSC putting on a race series for me to participate in.

IMHO, there is no cost to become involved in the DD series that is levied by the DSC, you pay your money and enjoy the ride.

On balance I'd like to think everyone gets a pretty good deal, DSC, DUK, DD racers, New Era etc...

Some chunks of wisdom in this thread....

The DD trophies handed out I can understand being attributed to DD. But not the posting etc awards, they should have been allocated to something other than the race series.

But that's a minor accounting issue. I guess the major point is not necessarily that the money has been spent. It's that people aren't aware of where their money is being spent and take issue with being told that money isn't being spent on something only to find it in the accounts later.

But hey, I've done this to death and I'm not trying to wake a slumbering beast.

But you've hit the nail on the head - I'm happy with the way my £20 is spent, but I don't expect to find people saying that I shouldn't have an opinion (if I wanted one) on a race series organised by the club because none of the money i contribute is being spent on it - when plainly it is.