MINUTES OF WESTERN REGION COMMITTEE MEETING
12 FEBRUARY 2006
Attending: Bill Pugsley, Regional Chairman; Di Williams, Ad Hoc; Eddie Garnier, Notavon Rep; Trace, Swindon Rep; George (the Troll) Legg, MP/MEP & WRAG Editor; Anne, Admin.
Robbie, FoD Rep; Donna, Glos Rep; Paul, Regional Events & Memberships; Val, Products; Kath, Treasurer; Stuart, Website; Derwen, NC Liaison; Andy M, IT & Communications.
October – These will have to wait for some input from Derwen. Anne has lost the email which contained his corrections. Apologies.
December – Some minor corrections. Ratified. Once electronically corrected, these will be sent to Spider for publication on the web-site.
January – pre Regional AGM Meeting. Ratified for publication. Ditto for the web-site.
Regional AGM Minutes – these were ratified for publication – ditto for the web-site.
As a result of Item 5 of the AGM Minutes:
Kath is asked to implement this before the April meeting. Di is asked to contact Kath by phone at the end of February as a reminder to get this set up.
Both the above came about because of the obvious large expenditure due out of the account over the next months and that it was essential people were not out of pocket more than a few days.
As a result of Item 8 of the AGM Minutes/Agenda:
Bill & Di informed the meeting that they felt they could take on the Reps post as a joint role. A lengthy discussion ensued whereby, using the Constitution as guidance, Anne informed the meeting that, in order for this to happen, an EGM must be called.
In order for an EGM to be called, 25 signatures were required calling for the EGM. A provisional date of 4th May was set on the proviso that Group Reps would go back to their Groups to obtain the required signatures and details
Anne reminded the meeting that the purpose of an EGM was that only the items on the published Agenda for which an EGM is called were discussed and voted on. Therefore, the EGM should all be over with in 15 minutes.
A mail-out must be done and the EGM advertised in the edition prior to the date of the EGM. So, if the EGM for 4th May were to take place, the advert must go into the April edition of The Road – copy deadline 10th March.
ACTION: Anne to prepare document for circulation to Officers for obtaining necessary signatories & accompanying details.
ACTION: All Reps/Officers to complete document & forward to Anne for processing asap.
Trollkin:
George attended a meeting set up to discuss the accident statistics of North Somerset. This is a valuable exercise for us to have input into. During the meeting attendees were given information on specific roads (A38 & A369) where there was a relatively high volume of accidents.
Although present statistics are very informative the problem with obtaining more indepth stats is the length of form necessary for police to complete. It was suggested that Troll contact Elaine to see if she would like sight of the Stats.
Signage in the County for Think Bike.
Next meeting in the Autumn.
Yellow Cards – now available on the website. Anyone using this facility it is important these are printed out in yellow for them to have the hard hitting impact when lading in the ‘in’ tray of the relevant officer dealing with complaints.
On the political from it is a bit quiet at present.
5. Group Reps Reports
Bristol – Ed
MAG Awareness Day in May
Group AGM?
Swindon – Trace
Trace asked why donations should be sent to Region.
Anne reiterated that it was as Jane Chisholm had explained at our AGM – that this provides an adequate paper trail.
Also, the meeting was reminded that, whilst the Region may have a lot of money at the moment, it was the Regional Committee who had agreed to hang onto these funds, instead of forwarding on to Central, in order to purchase our own Regional Show Stand.
The meeting was also reminded that many times in the past it had been the Regional Account which had helped out local Groups financially.
Trace asked for Kath’s address and to whom he should make the cheque payable.
ACTION: Anne to email with details
Many from Swindon had attended the Fred Hill Run (Chievely/Oxford). They had also gone on a Club visit to The Pinkertons where they were well received.
Note: Salisbury MAG Spring Surprise Bike Show – Sunday 2nd April – same venue as last years AGC.
Mid-Wilts – Trace
Trace had observed their AGM which had elected Paul McCullough for another year as Rep. However, because Paul’s work took him away from home a lot, they had elected Taff as Deputy Rep.
Mid Wilts had received an invite to have a stand at the Vulcan Riders on the 13th May.
SHOWS
Concerns were expressed about the number of shows it was planned to exhibit at and that ‘burn-out’ is likely to occur big-time.
It was decided that:
Bill/Di had observed and, in Derwen’s absence, provided the following report:
N.C. Committee Meeting of 11th February 2006.
First bit of good news we now have 10,003 members.
Main Point taken from Trevors report –
According to the Highways Agency, wire rope barriers should not be fitted from new anywhere. Any current wire rope barriers should be replaced with other types of barrier when up for renewal. We need to be aware of any wire rope barriers in our area and make sure all active members are aware of them and any work done to them. Feedback is needed to NC on anything regarding them.
There is also a campaign to get two stroke riders to use synthetic oil in their machines because of emissions. There is a leaflet available on line for Reps to give to any two stroke riders within their group or to hand out to other riders.
Questions posed by our region at our AGM for the Board / NC.
1 Should joint membership people receive 2 copies of everything or just 1 to save money? Could we ask the membership what they want?
A. NC thought this was a good idea and one member of NC has a PC package that can do this, which he is happy to hand over. However, when it comes to invites to AGM etc. every member must receive their own invite, therefore when Regional Officers request labels for a mailshot they must let Central know what they want them for as this will dictate which list they are sent.
2 Could e:mail invitations to Regional AGM’s replace snail mail to save money.
A This has previously been discussed by NC and the answer is no because a, people are continually changing their e:mail addresses and it would be almost impossible to update, and b, a personal letter promotes communication and good practice.
3 Could we have an update on the relationship between MAG and Image products, financial and the service provided to MAG groups? (This was on the Board Agenda and answered by Justine).
A Image provide the least risk to MAG (funds). MAG has no monetary interest in Image, they just give us a percentage of any profit on any products sold on a yearly basis. Over the years MAG has lost a lot of money on products, due to bad business practice where goods have not come back from people requesting them etc. Most MAG members want regional products and Rally products not MAG products this is generally done from a regional level. ( Di - I know personally that my MAG t-shirts etc are all regional not main MAG products).It is consider by NC that any money paid to MAG from Image is a bonus.
4 Could we have an update on what is happening to the membership list, when will the database changes be happening?
A The changes are ongoing and the list is fairly close to up-to-date. There was great concern when I (Di) said that Paul was receiving lists that said don’t do anything with this information for two months, as all lists can be acted upon immediately. We need to look at what information Paul is receiving as NC say there should be no problems with the lists.
5 Money from memberships, where does it go, and what is the financial split?
A Justine does a bi-monthly report to the NC, which Der should have a copy of from each NC meeting. This explains where all MAG monies go and the current state of the finances, to do a proper breakdown she will have to have the audited accounts which are done in April. However, she did this exercise last year and the outcome was that it costs £10.00 to service each member (this includes everything including the cost of The Road please see question 7).
6 What percentage of money from membership fee goes into producing The Road?
A 22.55% See Question 7
7 What is the cost of producing The Road? What is the breakdown including the cost of contractors and fees?
A Expenditure Income
Printing £5121.00
Delivery £185.25
Contractor £4000.00
Insurance £106.00
Front cover £120.00
Bureau work £200.00
Ad commission £868.00
Advertising £3400.00
MAG charged £7920.00
Postage to members £3000.00
Therefore Cost to MAG is £10920.00
-£3400.00
£7520.00
This amount is current and expected to go down by approximately £200.00 because of items that will cost less for future editions.
£7520.00 times 6 editions divided by 10,000 members equals £4.51 per member per year.
Justine assures me that the cost of The Road was not allowed to be any more than the cost of StreetBiker.
( Di - Justine was very impressive on her control of every MAG penny on every question she was asked.).
8 Can we establish the grass root principles of MAG as recently done for FEMA? Does The Road reflect this, is The Road still a recruitment tool?
A The grass roots principles of MAG are the same as they ever were. FEMA is currently having problems with the resignation of the General Secretary after Trevor and Elaine expressed no confidence in him and everyone else seeming to support their view. FEMA also currently have no Campaign Officer.
For recruitment tools we currently have old issues of The Road now becoming available. There is going to be a reprint of What has MAG Done For You which will be in A4 format. There is also the very useful Secure Parking Booklet produced by The Foundation for all bikers. If you know the information in this booklet is incorrect, please let them know. As all the information was gathered from the local Council in each area if they got it wrong maybe you need to question your local Council. So in actual fact we now have 3 items we can approach people with.
9 There is a concern about the lack of useful lobbying information in The Road. A request was made for more bare facts and lobbying letters as a tool to help individuals approach MP’s rather than great lengthy reports. Our group felt that more guidance was needed on political issues. We expressed concern that this had been promised after the first issue but had still not happened.
A Lobbying information is in the current issue. Ian apologizes to Aine as he was the one who promised but Trevor did not get his report in on time for the last issue due to pressures and commitments of his current workload.
There were several concerns over the current issue of The Road expressed by NC. It was decided by NC that in future Trevors Report will feature in The Road closer to the front of the magazine.
The reason the Craig and Dave trip across the Sahara features over 9 pages is a, to promote funding for Simon Millwards Indonesian Health Care Project, and b, BMW advertising revenue for MAG.
10 How was the RAMS meeting lost?
A The original point of the RAMS meeting was that it grew from other meetings and at one point the Reps felt bullied and intimidated by a certain person on the Board. This situation does not exist any more. Item 7 on the NC Agenda is normally where all regional Reps give a report to the whole NC regarding situations etc within their areas. Ian Moore apologized as he had used the wrong template for this meeting and the item was missing from this Agenda and he expressly stated that if at any time NC wanted the Board members to leave the room there would be no problem with that. So if NC wish to discuss something without the Board being present this is within their rights. If a Rep has a problem it does help to have as much input as possible. Sol had a problem regarding Bikes in Buslanes in London and felt he had reached a brick wall he asked the NC for ideas and several came back at him, so it is not necessary for RAMS meetings any longer as in effect NC was going over things twice.
11 There was an impression that NC was being driven by The Board whose sole purpose was to deal with the business matters of MAG. This refers to our proposals:-
Proposal 1 While Western Region agrees pricing of a magazine is a commercial and therefore Board issue, when did NC approve policy change to make The Road chargeable in the first place.
Answer All MAG magazines have been chargeable, they have all had printed on them a price and the words where sold. So there has been no policy change. An Agreement was presented to NC who agreed to give Dave Elrick a mandate to make the magazine more commercial if possible. This is why the current issue of The Road costs £1.99. Currently we made £140.00 from the first issue and £80.00 from the second but there is more money to come in from the second issue. This is extra funds that MAG would not have got from StreetBiker etc.
Proposal 2 Covered in Item 10.
During the course of the meeting there was a very interesting presentation from a pilot/master yachtsman/ROSPA bike instructor (Sorry I didn’t get his name).
Regarding SMIDSY accidents he explained how our eyes work and why drivers actually don’t see us. For a start we are only one third of the width of a car, and the eyes in a quick glance only see sideways motion. There is a formula that is provable that half the distance is twice the size. So if something is coming at you in a straight line starting at 4 miles away from you it has doubled its size at two miles and doubled that size at 1 mile and doubled that’s size at half a mile, this means that things only get very large when they are very close. Which is why drivers get the impression that bikes are going half the speed they actually are. Because we are one third the width of a car our sideways growth is not so obvious to a driver at a quick glance. To improve our width within the drivers sight we need to zig zag so he actually registers that he has seen us, OK he /she may sit there laughing like crazy at us but that is better than pulling out and killing us. Bill and I are happy to discuss this presentation with anyone interested, and NC decided to look into it as well.
NEC Stand – We will not be having a stand at the NEC Bike Show this year.
Bill and I are happy to discuss the reasons behind this.
Two Reps are standing down at their next AGM and there is a new junior at Central – Claire.
Excerpts from The Road are now online but NC agreed that they are to be delayed for 1 month because of revenue gained from sales of current issue.
Donations to the Foundation over the last year are £37842.00. Present balance is £25000.00.
The Chair for the AGC will be Archie so as not to give an unfair advantage to Jane who is standing against Ian. A minute taker will be available at AGC. The votes for Chairperson will be a paper vote counted by the tellers.
Di - I would like to state that I personally found the NC meeting to be well run with lots of input from all the reps. Everyone was concerned about our concerns and that they were all answered as fully as possible. Because we had so many questions the meeting overran to 6.00pm and everyone who could stayed for the extra hour, (items discussed in this last hour were the ones at the end of the Agenda as ours were brought forward and discussed by the whole NC).
Bill Pugsley/Dianne Williams
No Stand at NEC
This was discussed
In the past there had been ‘a gentleman’s agreement’ and/or negotiation between MAG’s
CEO and MCIA for the price of MAG exhibiting at the NEC.
However, MCIA would no longer apply these rules and:
[the NC’s decision on this was absolutely not and our Region re-iterated NFW]. There was a sizeable fee for this (possibly £5k), however, it was not the fee payable that was the issue but that a Riders Rights Group should be expected to become a member of the Motorcycle Industry Association! Authors note: quite right too, damn silly idea (very polite version)
It was felt that whilst the MAG should be seen at the NEC, there was no way this would happen under the MCIA new ruling and there were already steps afoot for MAG’s presence at other major Shows.
Membership Forms and ‘What has MAG done for you?’
Bill had received an assurance from Ian Moore, National Chairman, that both the above would be available well before the deadline date for Bristol’s MAG Awareness Day. Both were in re-print and update.
BikeSafe
We were asked if we would like to put on our own stand at this event or have the National Stand. It was agreed on the National Stand with its people all logo’d up. This agreement coincided with what the NC wanted.
Any Other Business
Anne prepared a hand-written document requesting an EGM which was handed round for those present to sign. 6 signatures were obtained.
Meeting close @ 5.25