Bill P. Chairman; Di, Ad Hoc; Troll MP MEP and Regional Newsletter; Eddie, Not Avon; Spider, Web; Kath, Treasurer; Donna P, Glos Rep; Paul S, Regional Events; Alan J, Mid Wilts Trace, Swindon Rep; Judge, Observer.
1. Apologies from Aine, Robbie, Brian, Andy W, Derwen, Val, and Paul McCulloch.
2. Minutes of last meeting - Got wrong minutes.
3. Matters Arising - to be discussed with NC Report.
Bill -Nothing to report
George - Broadband running well but computer keeps shutting down. E-mail connection is very quiet. 614 labels received so membership up this year. Will be busier with 3rd directive.
Paul - Membership information from central is rubbish it’s out of date by a month and too difficult to action.
Stuart - Bristol website now up so looking at Western website. Want to ask Andy to create website for Not Avon as they have more members than Bristol.
Kath - Balance same as last meeting £3500.78, waiting for any donations for end of year and account statements to be sent from individual groups. (Comment from Bill, we need local account information and Products before January)
Di - Nothing to report.
Andy - Nothing to report.
Now have possible permanent home at The Lamb at Iron Acton, landlord friendly. Yate speed bumps are giving problems but Council agrees they are wrongly placed. Bike Safe in South Glos. Want more rider information but 2 of the accidents are driver fault.
We are doing well and socially it’s great. Working towards Duk Dik. One of the new members is Environmental Agency worker who is going to prove useful. Website is getting lots of hits. Santa Run for Barnardos was really good and very well organized, refreshments etc., will need more marshals for next year. The run made you feel really good and would also be good for MAG to have a larger presence. Party is 18th February, £6.00 approx. per ticket with real ales bands etc. We need a small PA system for the region.
Successful Xmas Party. AGM on 4th, Trace to adjudicate. Possibility of getting walkie-talkies for runs -? are they legal? Do we need a license? Legality of use of radio waves?
Meeting has moved to 1st and 3rd Tuesday because the skittle alley is always free on these days. Membership is steady. Made £34.00 profit from party sent to Central.
Soup Run raised £120.00. Halloween Party was good with great
costumes.
Will be concentrating on Mobile Phone campaign next year. Need to
get public informed of fines and dangers. Van/lorry £2500.00 fine. Car
£1000.00 fine. In Gloucester, 690 people have been prosecuted.
We also produced a letter re. change of format Streetbiker to Road, everyone
liked the format but complained the were no campaigns mentioned. The Road is the
only contact for any member that does not attend meetings.
Streetbiker was
really useful at shows and events to approach the public with, we now have
nothing like that. If the Board decided we should sell them should this not
have been a NC decision as it’s a policy action? If we are not happy with the
Road should we not be writing to NC expressing our views? We write to MP’s so
why not NC? Also is there not a conflict of interest as we seem to get mainly
Muchys views expressed. Bill gave Muchy a cd with pics etc. of the GWR but
there is no sign of anything in The Road.
Proposed - Andy M
Seconded - Trace
No votes against.
While Western
Region agrees pricing of a magazine is a commercial and therefore a Board issue
when did NC approve policy change to make The Road chargeable in the first
place?
Our Rep is indisposed with family problems. Garage Daze event raised over £300.00 for Freewheelers, the next event will be in May and others to come. Please support.
Membership hopefully will be 10,000 by Xmas. If an event is held for the Foundation some money must go to the Foundation, this gives tax breaks as it’s a charity, but there must be a papertrail.
Riders rights were concentrated on at The Bike Show. NC needs to know if
there are any mentions of anything to do with motorcycling mentioned in the
media, so that they can reply if necessary. The 3rd Directive has been delayed
by burocracy because no country can afford to change all driving licenses. GB,
Austria and Finland are not interested so that takes care of the next three
years, even if it was implemented there would be a 5 year delay.
Trace asked
who we target regarding the Directive as MP’s and MEP’s just give the party line
and we need to know the best way to target letters. Stuart sys we write to the
Parties not MP’s. MP’s only get 1 minute to talk in Parliament but we need to
make sure our MEP’s know where we are coming from. Sol was very pro-active
saying that training etc. has to be the same throughout Europe.
Trevor said
GAGEM is now meaningless, it used to be a useful talking shop but now you have
to talk to each government department.
Network has examples of insurance
policy change without notification, several people have been caught out. No
responses.
FEMA now has a mission statement re. core business, riders
rights.
Road hazard cards have been re-designed and are on the web where they
can be filled in and emailed.
Foundation has produced 6 copies of secure bike
parking places. They want to publish it with sponsorship and give it away. Good
idea but all details from Swindon Council were incorrect.
Membership could be
paid by standing order at £2.00 per month but don’t expect it to
happen.
Public Liability Insurance: Yorkshire want to withdraw PLI from
affiliated clubs because we could be sued. This should be looked at before
April or MAG could lose its PLI. PLI risk assessment forms are going direct to
the insurers instead.
There is a training weekend in Leeds the possibly one
down south. Leeds has 30 places but there appears to be 20 instructors, so how
many are having training. There is a problem filling in risk assessment forms,
needs to be sorted by training.
The Simon Millward Run is now an official
annual event at the end of April.
Someone is trialling a local web group
forum where each group has a site for sending messages to others. Its like the
local e-mail list but completely closed. New membership forms are appearing
soon.
Trace - The Reps don’t seem to say anything.
Bill - Could the Reps
raise anything?
Trace - Any other business is the last 15 minutes, they have
to get something on the Agenda before it can be raised.
Stuart - If there is
no RAMS meeting there is no reason for the Reps to challenge the Board.
Andy
- RAMS was an informal arrangement but it was useful.
Trace - Anything the
Reps raise has to go through Jane Chisholm.
Question to NC.
Proposed
Andy
Seconded Stuart
Vote none against
Under what authority was the
RAMS meeting closed down?
Decided 12.00 April 16th at Duk Dik but will go off site.
7B Anyone is to let Aine know if they are not re-standing.
8 Regional Award to go to Richard for the Bike Show, he’s turning up to give a talk on manhole covers so will be there.
9 W&NES Rep nothing reported.
George - has anyone got any items for January issue of WRAG?
Paul - Have we got costings for the MAG stand?
Donna - We need to buy our
own Regional stand.
Action - Paul to get costings.
Geoff - Councils local Transport Plans have to be in by the end of march to the Government, they are out to public consultation at the moment so get on to your councils.
Bill - We need a good quality regional MAG stand, needs to be mentioned at
AGM to get members votes.
Trace - Size of stand is important.
Di & Bill to sort with landlord refreshments for AGM (Hot tomato Soup and sandwiches etc between £2.00 and £2.50 per person)
Meeting closed at 4.55pm.
Saturday, 18-Feb-2006 17:36:08 GMT