George (Troll), Political. Stuart (Spider), website. Eddie, NotAvon & Bristol (temporary). Bill, Committee Chairman. Di, Memberships. Taff, mid-Wilts. Andy, mid-Wilts. Kath, Treasurer. Geoff, observing. Trace, Regional Rep. Anne, Admin.
Paul Sysum; Val Squire; Andy M; Irish Paul; Robbie – after meeting.
Anne asked if anyone had heard anything from Robbie or if he was OK?
All correct.
Public Liability Insurance – been increased to £5 million.
Action Trace to ask Justine (Nat Treasurer) exact terms of cover i.e. ‘what’.
Eddie – asking Sian if she will be contact on email for Bristol
Action item still outstanding
Membership Database – 2 excel files en route to Di for lapsed members from Feb & March from Trace.Action Trace and Di
Spider – number of hits on website is normally 3-4000 per month. In April escalated to 11,000. Assumed this was due to Donna’s demise.
Bill – not much to report. Working on GWR etc.
Di – is a Lady in Waiting to begin her role as Membership Sec once these first 2 lists (as aforementioned) are received.
Kath – balance is £4865.82. Clarified by Trace that each Region only allowed to keep £1k unless National Treasurer is notified. Bill confirmed that he had spoken to Justine at AGC and that Justine was aware of the funds we held due to pending purchase of a MAG stand. She was fine with this.
Anne felt this was now an appropriate time to discuss the MAG Stand purchase for our Region.
Trace informed us we were not allowed to hang onto the one at present in the Region from Central and that this had to be returned. Very important to get this sorted as soon as possible so we have a decent MAG stand for Calne on 22nd July. Action Trace to find out where this had to be returned to and when.
A lengthy discussion ensued and it was decided that Anne contact Paul to see if he were still happy to go ahead with this purchase on behalf of the Region. Action Anne
If Paul felt he didn’t want to do this – who would? In the absence of anyone else volunteering.
Action Anne to get marquee sorted.
3x3 MAG stands fully logo’d purchased last year by Central cost £3k each from instantmarquees.co.uk
It was felt this price was excessive.
Post meeting note:The most recent marquees which Central have purchased did not cost £3k. I emailed Janet to see the costing after going onto instantmarquees website to see the prices. One 3x3 and one 6x3 all extras of logos, side canopies, skirts etc., cost £3446.82. I will contact Paul and get back to you. I am sure that if we use the same firm we can get all the required logo’s from Central unless we wish to have Western Region included – I will carry this subject on, on email. The basic cost of a 3x3 canopy and frame is circa £450.00 and the sides circa £240.
A discussion then ensued as to what we had been remitted to spend by our Regional AGM = £2k. What would happen if the item cost more? It was generally felt that if we had no other choice and cost exceeded that remit we would have to go ahead and purchase. It was essential a decent stand be purchased for use within the Region at the events where we exhibit.
Driving Licence Directive (DLD) is rumbling on.
Brum Demo – very important as National demo on the Driving Licence Directive. A discussion ensued and it was generally felt that this was the wrong location and the wrong day (a weekend) to have a national demo on something so important. That it should be in London, Brussels or Strasbourg to ‘hit’ those who could actually rally to our cause.
EU paper to restrict engine size and to which MCN & BMF had made a hasty reaction. NC had been assured by Trevor Baird & Elaine that FEMA were aware and keeping tabs on this.
Boat Inn Run 10th June – good evening – about 15 attended.
Griff Jordan Simmonds Very active & well know rider in Bristol died from cancer and his funeral had been the previous Thursday (8th)
Mobile Phones Project Sian is designing some cards for reporting incidences.
Group visiting Gloucester Soon – ride planned
Ride-Outs Ongoing.
BSH Had published an article on the Anti Skid manholes being piloted in Bristol but there was no mention of Rich Stiling who incepted the plan and who worked hard on it throughout to fruition. Eddie to rectify this by contacting BSH.Action Eddie
MCN publishing MAG events in the back of their publication.
1st Tuesday of the month at The Lamb, Iron Action.
Vulcan Riders been in touch and happy to provide some marshalls for Bristol Bike Show
Good turnout.
Hope to put on a MAG stand (once we have it) one evening at the Lysley Arms, where there is a bike meet every Monday.
Calne Bike Show Taff had made a few enquiries but received no response. He will pursue this week. Action Taff. He will be on holiday for the weekend of Calne but to pass full details onto Bill/Anne/Val so we can ensure stand actually happens.
Action Taff (initially) Bill/Anne/Val
Wild Life Sanctuary Run Date to be advised. Action Taff
Good turnout each week.
Group off to Farmyard.
Pleased to say Julie mending well after he accident.
29 July Pinkertons Bike Show.
Swindon MAG AGM on 4th July – Trace standing down as Rep.
AGM is 6th July. Trace standing as Rep. It was decided to go this route to take the strain off someone who was prepared to stand but to whom spiteful remarks had been made. Trace, taking over the Reps post would prevent this from happening.
20-30 people at each meeting.
Throttle & Bottle on 23 June – taking MAG stand.
3 or 4 from Glos MAG had visited for the evening & worried about low attendance.
Group is bumbling along with good turnout each week and very keen members.
Bristol visited for a skittles match.
Events pending:
Rock n Roll nite 22nd July
Bikefest 5th August
GWR 8-10 September
Beach Enduro 21/22 September – Marshalls needed
Trace mentioned Concern with Groups seemingly in decline throughout the Country except for Yorkshire and Western.
NC discussed, post their pre AGC meeting the “reduced fee” issue (defeated at AGC). Someone is to check the membership database to decipher the demographics of membership.
Fergus confirmed as vice-Chair
Working group set up to determine the role of Campaigns Officer which would then be a paid position to ease Trevor Baird’s workload
Finance – Insurance costs have gone up and possible tax bill pending. The Alliance & Leicester account which was set up to accommodate those members still paying by standing order a much reduced fee is to be closed.
Club packs now available
Trace has requested a list of affiliated local and national clubs and also a list of those clubs which Fergus is targeting.
NETWORK – Archie requesting more Regional Stuff for each edition.
FEMA website – has issued statistics which show that motorcycle accidents are falling – it was commented that this was hard to comprehend as those in GB seem to have escalated.
Scouse had attended NC and plans to change the MAG website soon well under way. He will be emailing 6 website addresses which he wants people to look at for us to feed back on what we would like the MAG stand to look like and function – FYP, BMF, Herts Riders, Yorkshire, NETWORK, MAG Foundation. An RSS feed is to be included within the site.
URL’s for official MAG Posters to be emailed out so we can just download and take to our local Prontoprint for printing/laminating.
BRUM DEMO – all participants should be aware that if they decide to ride without a helmet or have small illegal number plates on their machines the Police intend to prosecute.
AGC – Behaviour at Meetings; personal remarks. NC was in favour of an imminent Rule Change which at next AGC would become a Constitutional Change as follows: “Anyone who uses abusive, inflammatory and threatening conduct shall be ejected from the meeting and may be reported to the NC”.
Brum Demo is the last chance to put our point across for the DLD (see our comments on Demo aforementioned) & influence things.
There is a Labour MEP working with MAG/FEMA for amendments for DLD.
MEP RIDE – is now not a ride, just a meal sponsored by HD.
[Committee comment – WRC hoped that the Ride would be reinstated at some time in the future because the whole concept, as introduced by Simon Milward, was that MEPs would experience the delights of riding on the back of a motorcycle and thus be influenced in their attitude towards riding and riders] [Personal comment by the author of these Minutes – ‘just a meal’ – corporate bullsh*t].
Legislation & Reform Bill – Amendments have now been made to ensure the Parliamentary influence remains. [All that hard work with my MP was worth it then].
The Road – 11,000 copies are ordered as opposed to 15,000 copies which were ordered of Streetbiker at the same cost to MAG. We had hitherto been told that The Road costs no more to MAG than Streetbiker did. A discussion ensued whereby it became obvious to all present that, whilst MAG is spending the same money, it is getting around 22% less for that money than it did with SB!!!
There are now 3 more proof readers from the NC.
High Occupancy Lane of M65 – being monitored
Upper Rissington - Some difference of opinion between Parish Council and Social Club so its cancelled. [Real shame because it had great potential].
Calne – see item 5 – mid Wilts above
Bikefest 5th August - in hand.
Bristol Bike Show – need plenty of Marshalls. Rich is gradually stepping down from doing this and passing bits over to various people. We need to have as many Marshalls as possible to support these people and keep this show in the control of bikers.
Bath and West 2007 – Roy Hills will book this but our Region will help him with a decent stand and representation on the stand.
UPDATE ON GWR – Site = sorted. Electricity = TBA. Water = sorted. Local Brewery = sorted. Licensee = Troll. Date had to be changed – it is now 8-10 September.
Marshalling - A discussion ensued over Marshalling etc. GWR requires at least 16 people to share Marshalling – each person doing 10 hours each over the weekend.
Taking on board what HM’s conversation with Bill some months prior and what some other Rallies do, it is felt by Bill (who is organising the marshalling) there should be some small reward for Marshalling i.e. a small meal whilst on duty/whatever – as a token of thanks.
Whilst this was well received Anne felt that Marshalls be required to do a “set minimum” before they qualify for such a token and this can be monitored by the Chief Marshall.
It was generally felt that the Marshalling should be well organised with an adequate de-briefing session etc., as there was nothing more frustrating than turning up to Marshall, not having been debriefed & not knowing what the format is in the case of an emergency.
Action – Bill to take care of this
Catering – It was generally felt that this should be kept, if possible, to the local area. Anne to Contact Dave, NABD for details of the chuck wagon at the 5th non-urban Rally recently held at Redhill and pass details on to both George and Bill. Though the food wagon used by the Duk Dik was good it was felt it was a) rather a long way to come and b) good to support local facilities etc., and this was a local firm from Somerset.
Action Anne
Meeting closed at 17.10
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Maintained by Steve Peake
Monday, 16-Oct-2006 22:03:48 BST