Post by Admin on Jan 29, 2016 12:21:38 GMT
North Birmingham CTC
February Newsletter
Hello All
There has been a Change of date for the club holiday to Brittany.
New Dates are:- Monday 8 August to Monday 15 August 2016.
Please contact Ian Bolton for details boltoni2000@yahoo.com or 0121 384 5647.
The Rides list is as previously issued for Feb. However the club is desperately needing a few leaders to help out on Sunday Rides. Please its not too daunting, we need you.
Reminder:- The Club Jumble sale is March 5th
Methodist Hall, Station Road, Erdington, 10:00 am till 1:00 pm.
Details from Alison Readman amreadman@googlemail.com
Tel :- 01543 419722
I'm trialing a new forum page for messages, socials, impromtu rides, etc
northbrum.boards.net/ click on the link to join up and join in.
“Round the Wrekin” Sportive on May 22nd 2016 with Hugh Porter.
3 Routes 100 miles, 64 miles and 24miles www.roundthewrekin.co.uk
White Horse Weekend - 8th - 10th April 2016
The booking site is now up and ready to use for this year's White Horse Weekend based in Yatton Keynell, near Chippenham.
www.riderhq.com/events/69262/white-horse-weekend-0
The Club Review Next meeting 16th Feb at 8:00pm at the Clubroom Shenstone
On Tuesday 19th Januuary Mike Eades gave a presentation looking at the pros and cons of being a members group, an independent group and an affiliated CTC Group. A copy of the presentation has been forwarded to the web administrator for loading onto the committee section of the club web site.
The conclusion of the presentation, which is supported by the committee, is "Being a CTC Members Group offers no significant benefits above those available as an Affiliated Group, but it imposes a number of restrictions, as set out in the presentation and the Policy Handbook. Being an affiliated group would provide more flexibility in membership to assist in the clubs growth, would retain the same level of insurance cover for both riders and organisers, would enable the club to retain all funds raised and to spend such funds in any way it wished and would remove the other restrictions imposed by the policy handbook. Your individual CTC membership and the benefits this brings would be unaffected."
The members at the presentation unanimously agreed that the independent group option should be dropped and any future vote should be to remain a members group or become a CTC affiliated group.
Mike will lead a further workshop on Tuesday 16th February to discuss the aims and objectives of the club and how the club should communicate with it's members.
At its meeting in February the committee will set a date for a vote on how the club should move forward.
CHANGE – A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE by John Bedford
For those newer members it may be of interest to see what progress has been made since I joined nbctc about 32 years ago, though I make no claim to many of the changes. In those days there was only a Saturday afternoon ride and a Sunday all-day ride. The Saturday ride always started from The Yenton. What an awful place to start, but ‘We’ve always started here’ was the reply if change was suggested! The Runs Secretary devised the programme for both Saturday and Sunday. There were also some informal mid-week rides supported by retired members that were not publicised, but which were eventually incorporated as official club rides on the Rides List. There were occasional YHA weekends away, with its own Weekend Secretary. We had a clubroom meeting at Shenstone every Tuesday, which was very well supported. The recently instigated Tuesday evening Pub meetings have not been a success. There were more regular committee meetings than now, but they were more like a social occasion and not at all business like. Some of the riders were not CTC members, which lead to controversy within the Club. Joint rides with other CTC clubs were introduced. Members did support the Birthday Rides, the New Forest Rides and Meriden etc. Nbctc introduced the first Audax at the Meriden Memorial weekend.
The Club funds were topped up by collecting 5p from the riders on each Saturday ride. Consequently there was little money in the coffers. The Rides List was financed by advertising, but eventually this source ceased and fresh advertisers weren’t found, such that new sources of income (Cycle Jumble & Audax) were very welcome. These were also valuable recruitment events. Whilst we had a Christmas Lunch there were no other social occasions as far as I can recollect.
The defunct Northern News was revived and I edited about 180 issues every 6 weeks. This was a useful means of informing members of events and issues before emails and websites were common. As computer technology improved coloured photos were added to illustrate a steady stream of touring articles.
Articles were written for the local papers, posters put in libraries and leaflets distributed to increase the membership. As a consequence a steady growth in membership took place, such that new rides were added over the years, so instead of 2 rides a week we now have 16 graded rides a week, three of which have been added recently. Further growth is being hampered by a lack of leaders on some days. Perhaps we need to consider Leader Training. First Aid courses have also been held recently. There have also been other changes: for instance, at one time we had a strong Family Section, but as the kids got older they found other interests. At least they have experienced club riding and may return to cycling one day. As we grew, the concept of Day Organisers was introduced with the aim of providing a democratic organisation where decisions can be made as near to the action as possible, rather than remotely or centrally.
One major campaigning initiative stands out. There were problems crossing from Little Hay towards Weeford. This originally meant riding along the A38 and taking a right hand turn, a very unsafe manoeuvre. Firstly, pressure was put on the relevant authority, leading to a crossing and cycle-way being established. Further site meetings lead to the new bridge which has been welcomed by all local cyclists.
Nbctc has now been established for 96 years and has undergone development and changes over the years to meet various situations. One thing I have learnt over the years is that it is very easy to talk about change, but it is not at all easy to find somebody to lead or undertake that change, most particularly in a voluntary organisation such as ours.