Hi everyone. With the merger between the LMC and DMR, I thought it might be an idea to post a history of the DMR as some of you are probably wondering who we are, and why Matt was so keen to ensure that the DMR name lives on.

 
I formed the club 6 years ago now. I had owned a Mini since 2001 and attended my first show, Stanford, as a visitor in 2003. There wasn't much around then for the BMW Mini. The online community 'Mini2' was growing, and Mini2mini was one of the few clubs around which welcomed the new car.
On the way home from that show the idea of a car club dedicated to the new Mini started taking shape in my head, but for whatever reason, I didn't do anything about it.
 
In the summer of 2004 the 'Italian Job' film came out and some of you will remember the dealer sponsored previews for Mini owners across the UK. Well, here in Doncaster we had 110 cars attend ours. It was this event that made me realise that perhaps there was a market for a car club after all.
I met the marketing manager for my local dealer at this event and went to see her again afterwards to try and get a mailing list. She couldn't provide this for legal reasons, but the Convertible was due for launch and she offered to put a flyer or letter in with the promotional material they sent out to customers.
 
I had 47 replies confirming membership in the first two weeks and so the Doncaster Mini Register was born. Our first event was on August 1st 2004. We met here in Doncaster, a kind of formal meeting to explain what the club was all about, namely to make the most of the cars we all owned. I asked for help with certain things that I couldn't do, web site etc. I would like to take the opportunity of thanking Steven Parker ( Gadget ) for all his help in keeping us online over the past six years.
And then we had a run to the Humber Bridge for photo's and a spot of lunch. Our first event had been a great success.


 

 
Our first show was Mini's 45th birthday event at Silverstone. I think I remember there was a single row of stands for the BMW Mini at this one. Mini2 had a number of cars there as well as us. It was the first time we saw Russ Swift, the stunt driver, in action. And we all had a great day. The Doncaster Mini Register name was now known across the Mini Community.

 
In 2005 it soon became clear that some of those that joined originally didn't really know what to expect. I think they thought it was a club run by the dealership and not independently and, for whatever reason, some of them left. But left behind were the hardcore Mini fanatics, those who wanted to get the most from their cars, and enjoy them. Membership got smaller for a while, but the club became better for it.
We attended lots of National events this year, the original Heartbeat Run, the Cotswolds Run, Himley Hall, Stanford, Mini in the Park etc. But we did a few of our own too. I knew what I wanted a run to be, the photo opportunities in special locations, the chance to look good in front of the public etc. Just a need to do something different.


2006 saw us focus more on our own events as well as attending the regular events fixed on the calendar. We tweaked the Heartbeat Run to make it a weekend event. I always felt that ending a run in Scarborough miles from home of most of those attending wasn't quite right. So we did a proper run to Scarborough on Saturday, staying overnight, and then drove the Heartbeat route in reverse on Sunday. It proved a success and so I started to focus on more of our own runs.

 

 

2007 was our best year. Our runs were known as some of the best on the calendar and we had huge numbers on our stand at the shows. I started to think of ways to stay interesting. Some of us were growing tired of the regular events, they were always the same year in year out. I felt they were getting stale and needed variety to maintain interest.

For example, we changed the Saturday part of our Heartbeat weekend to take in photo's at the Elvington aircraft museum near York. It was the first year of the 'Modern Mini' awards. We were voted best club in mainland UK coming second to the Mini club of Ireland. And I was the first recipient of the prestigious 'Spirit of Ownership' award given to those who represent what the Mini is all about. We parked our cars in a random manner on our show stands so that they didn't look like a car park creating better photo's.


 

 

 
It was to the end of this year that I lost my focus on the club. Circumstances in my personal life meant that I didn't have the time to run the club as I had previously. I gained custody of my two children and as you will all appreciate, they had to come first. I formed a small committee of die hard members in the hope that they could take the club forward. But it wasn't to be. Some left and formed other clubs. But 2008 was the quietest year for the club with no events of our own taking place and only a handful of cars attending national stuff. Rumours that the DMR  had died weren't quite true, but they weren't far off either.

 

In 2009 I tried to spark the interest again by organising our famous 'Heartbeat Weekend'. But, where in previous years we might have had 20 to 30 cars turn out, Saturday saw just 7 and Sunday just 4. Very disappointing but a sign of where the club was at that point, and also the effects of the recession too.

Around that time our forum crashed. Problems with the servers meant we lost everything. We discussed things and decided to start again but it hasn't been the same and 2009 was an even quieter year than 2008 had been.





 
And so here we are in 2010 and thanks to Matt and the merger with the LMC the future looks a bit brighter. I am hoping this is the fresh start that the DMR needs to get it back on it's feet and only time will tell if is the success we all want it to be. Good luck everyone.