Item

Discussion Point

Action

1.

Start

Time

1-15

Eddie Garnier, NotAvon Rep. George, our Troll, MP/MEP & WRAGman. Bev Chapman, joint Glos Rep.

Introductions were made around the table for the sake of Steve Peake

2.

Matters of correctness – Committee deemed Minutes ready for publication.

8. Sack Truck for the new Regional MAG Stand.

It was felt beneficial to purchase a sack truck. Bill to purchase along with restraining straps.

Bill P

7.

Report from Den.

Rally grossed 500+ attending with 70% being new people.

Profit was £5k (amazing, applause). Accounts were complete and signed off within a week of the event.

Copy of Accounts given to WR Treasurer. Copy being sent to National Treasurer as per Constitution as event grossed 500 attendees.

The issue of the amount of cars attending this year is to be addressed for future years.

From next Easter the Rally will be called The Slippit Inn Rally.

Glos presented a cheque for £2,500 to the WR Treasurer.

Denny explained that as initial outlay for this years Rally had been financed out of the pockets of 3 people, they were keeping £2500 back to pay for outlay for future years. This was applauded by committee.

Denny thanked everyone outside of the Glos MAG Groups who helped make the Rally a success.

5.

Organised MAG stand at BIKESAFE – the last at Cheltenham for the foreseeable future – which was a very successful weekend.

23 new memberships taken.

Details given to an 800+ member club who have since become affiliated.

Excellent pitch. Excellent weekend.

Public Liability Insurance for the weekend had been paid by Den. Despite the fact that Glos MAG were organising the stand to avoid the cost of having to bring the National stand down, MAG Central office had insisted Glos MAG foot the bill for this!

Committee not very impressed by this and have reimbursed Den from Regional Funds.

13^th June Bikers Night – at the Ship, Brimscombe where Donna’s Wake was held. If you’re going and fancy walking up the hill to visit Donna’s Grave and see the new headstone etc. that would be good.

Bev & Nick’s Wedding this weekend (16^th) – everyone invited. Camping, live band, catering, marquees, etc.

22^nd July – Pet Food Run to Wildlife Centre

21st July – Calne

18^th July – Stand at Castle Combe

15^th September – stand at NCC event, Lysley Arms

Recently held a Bike Awareness Day at Fizz Bar, Chippenham and have decided to get a Group Banner made up to make themselves more obvious.

Awareness Day at Totally Triumph in Taunton – not a brilliant day. One Taunton rider had expressed an interest in forming a MAG Group but contact with Bill to this end never reached fruition.

Gearing up for Bikefest and GWR

Marshalls required for GWR. Band booked. Exploring local Breweries.

Bikefest is all up together. Bill & Di will not be there, having won tickets to the Jesters Rally at Krissie fund raiser.

Ride-out this Wednesday to Priddy.

Moved Group AGM to November in order for end of year figures to be in time for the Regional AGM.

March’s Group AGM produced an excellent Committee.

Group has moved back to Cromwells and prospective new Landlord has great ideas for regular ‘theme meetings’ etc. Watch this space.

Group is dieing on its feet with between 2-6 attending. Active members have either moved or had babies.

No group activity.

Moving to Minster Level for next meeting – Tues 19^th June.

AGM – mid August

Advert will go into the Road. Committee suggested a mail-out would be advantageous to help flagging numbers. Steve P suggested a brightly coloured post card be sent with brief wording as he had tried this with his last Region and had a lot of success with it. This avoids the time of folding and inserting into envelopes and possibly postage with the latest hike in postal charges. Steve to send format to Trace.

Steve

3-4 on a regular basis. Robbie has arranged that the meeting directly after WR committee meeting is designated as a Business Meeting where he can feed back to the Group.

General lethargy throughout the Group.

John Thomson, ex MAG Director, has moved into the area and is attending meetings.

Mayors Arms very busy on a Thursday with non MAG members coming along – it seems to be recognised as a Thursday night meeting up point for bikers.

Boat Inn – 9/10 June

Group very active

No Bike Show this year but Bristol MAG no show Party is on the evening of 18^th August at the Saracens Rugby Club – camping, bands, BBQ, raffle. Please support as this will be Bristol’s main fund raiser this year.

4.

Andy has contacted all the Clubs affiliated to MAG in our Region around the time of their renewal.

Disappointing nil response, however, on liaising with Fergus this appears to be the norm and they usually just renew on time.

Andy will be speaking to those who don’t choose to renew.

On the subject of Public Liability cover and the Lysley A4 Riders – Andy had been liaising and had advised them that, as MAG were so expensive compared with BMF on the cost of PL to their affiliated clubs that the Lysley A4 Riders become affiliated to BMF.

A short discussion ensued on ‘how’ the BMF managed to keep cost of their PL so low and assumed they subsidising it substantially.

Denny requested a list of the Glos area Clubs. Andy to send to Den.

Andy K

Not a lot to report. Steve Peake taking over in a months time.

Post meeting note: Anne would like to propose a vote of thanks to Stuart for all his work over the years. He just happened to come along as a ‘rookie’ to a Regional AGM and volunteered to take on the post which he has done superbly since. Thanks for all your hard work, mate, & being a good friend. Steve’s a great guy to be handing all your work over to. Sincere good luck with the studies you’re undertaking.

Anyone wishing to set up for pre-book ticket sales on-line. SP can help. The Slippit Inn Rally will be having on-line ticket sales. There is a small charge to the purchaser but this will be absorbed within the pre-book price.

Denny left at 2-15

Balance, including the donation from the Ded Duk, stands at £6107.15p.

Keeping MAG stand diary.

Trace to forward the latest list of memberships which have expired.

Andy M – Communications and WR Committee Chairman

Nothing to report.

6.

Murray – Mid Lincs Regional Rep and Sheila, Yorkshire Rep had both resigned. Murray due to work commitments – those who knew his work & profile expressed great loss to the NC.

Financial Report: MAG very solvent.

National Demo: Eddie Lowe not very happy as no help has been offered for organising the Demo.

On the back of this discussion, a request had been made for issuing Guidelines for Demo’s etc., for Directions on returning to sites.

Due to there being no lesser charge than Death by Dangerous Driving and circumstances resulting in a driver who got away scot-free after being involved in an accident which resulted in the death of a rider, the South Wales Rep requested a Statement be made to the relevant bodies and CPS.

With the Law standing as it is with no lesser charge, it is often that the CPS, not having a lesser charge to run with & realising they may not win a case, will often not prosecute.

Geoff had some feedback onto this, himself being a JP.

Sol is looking at the legal issues and will report back with a view to pursuing the viability of getting the Law changed.

Manchester – including bikes in Congestion Charging. This has been reported in the media, however is unproven as Manchester has not even reached the Consultation stage.

Before UK Government Consultation period MAG is liaising with various bodies. Suggestions for how things might be implemented in UK include: obtaining a moped licence at 16; after passing one category of test within the DLD being assessed for the next higher category rather than having to take a test.

MAG is launching a new leaflet in conjunction with Kill Spills.

FEMA would appear to be well and truly back on track as a Riders Rights organisation and amongst other things will be asking for 82dbls as opposed to 80. Active on research.

It would be good to have this somewhere in the UK given that 2008 is the 10^th anniversary of FEMA and the 20^th anniversary of the FEM.

Daytime Running Lights

Everyone is still talking about this.

Suggestions made that an extra light to the head light may be fitted, specifically for the purpose of DRL.

Campaigns Manager – contract has been renewed for another year.

This is on the back of the belief by the new Campaigns Manager that we can double membership in a year.

Trace presented us with a new leaflet which had been produced with a new MAG logo.

A highly volatile discussion ensued: 1) on the design – the fact it included two helmets – why safety gear, why not a bike etc - SP. It was felt by some present that this flouted MAG’s stance on the helmet law upon which MAG was founded; the top projection of the letter ‘G’ going through the front of a helmet in extremely bad taste; bland; belittled the stance that Fred Hill (died in prison for his beliefs against the Helmet Law) & those stalwarts who had served time had taken for their beliefs against the helmet law; AG had been told about the change of logo etc., before the meeting & had, had time to reflect on it – whilst she felt that a logo might be unimportant and it was what MAG did that mattered – her two main concerns were i) had this decision been made according to MAG’s constitution and ii) the amount of money - £15k seemed absolutely extortionate.

WR committee was, in the main, extremely concerned about the cost and what MAG was getting for its money; had the Board complied with accepted Business Practice in acquiring 3 quotes etc., from different suppliers? Was Creo, Yorkshire the only company approached? If so, why?

Trace explained that the NC had agreed at the pre AGC meeting on April 14^th to go with a re-branding at a cost of £15k.

Why was this re-branding/re-launch not mentioned at the AGC? Particularly in view of the fact it had only been agreed at an NC some 30 minutes prior to the start of the AGC.

Trace explained that he had not been present at the following meeting where the new logo had been approved.

This was an extra meeting which had been called regarding the Foundation. He had not seen an Agenda for this meeting & certainly not one which included that the new Logo re-launch would be an Agenda item. He had, subsequently, tried to obtain Minutes of the Meeting and was told there were none.

The discussion on this subject was lengthy included many valid points and concluded there were questions about how this whole thing had been handled which needed answering and whether it had, indeed, been conducted Constitutionally.

It was decided that the WR committee members would circulate an email between them for discussion and subsequent agreement by appending name and membership number. WR committee members were to ask for a Report from the National Chairman and Chairman of the Board on the complete Life-Cycle of this project to include all quotes, proposals, board minutes, nc minutes together with a breakdown of what MAG is getting for the £15k it is spending with Creo.

Anne to draft from notes taken at this meeting & send to Committee Chairman. Once Andy M happy with wording this to be circulated to WR committee members.

Committee to approve or otherwise prior to being sent to National Chairman.

Request for this Report to be based on:

1. All but one committee member present disliked the new logo.
2. WR committee feel that the process of arriving at the Supplier & accepting the Suppliers quote may not have complied with MAG’s constitution
3. Was good business practice followed insofar as obtaining 3 quotes from different suppliers.

Anne

Andy M

ALL

August meeting – Trace requested a list of major events for 2008 which would be covered by Western Region.

GP Safe Campsite – Licence meeting is only 3 days before the GP is scheduled to take place.

Public Liability Guidelines – being put together by Trevor Baird.

Hit ‘n Run – MAG to set up a possible reward scheme running along the same lines as the bike theft reward scheme.

MAG Plan – to be split into two. 1 = internal procedures. 2 = MAG goals.

Corporate Membership - pack not yet finalised.

Register of Interests (as agreed at AGC) – procedures are now underway for all MAG National Officers, Employees and Contractors. Any member can request sight of these at any time.

8.

Steve P felt it was the worst Chaired meeting ever. A discussion ensued whereby it was felt that some guidance be given to the vice-Chair regarding Procedures, particularly the difference between friendly & non-friendly amendments.

Had any members of the Press been present it was felt MAG would have been slated on its mishandling of proper procedures alone.

9.

Troll’s PC Problems: Taff had been trying to solve Troll’s computer problems over the past weeks and requester that a new ‘router’ be purchased to improve computer functions for Troll.

This was unanimously agreed. Taff would purchase and charge to WR.

Bill had brought with him 2 PC’s for Taff to build one good one out of for Troll’s use. Mention was made that Troll’s work for MAG – both regionally and nationally was far too precious for him not to have IT which didn’t perform correctly.

Taff/Kath

Anti-slip Manhole Covers: Spider expressed his severe concerns that, though he had emailed the Campaigns Manager stating that this had been voted on at AGC 2002 to become a National Campaign – he had received no feedback. Anne had, at the end of the Campaign Manager’s report to AGC, asked for his assurance that, as nothing had been done with this in 5 years by MAG Nationally, this would now be taken forward as a Campaign. The CM (DS) had assured AG that this had passed this onto Tony Sharp, who is the deputy president of the Institute of Highways Incorporated Engineers , IHIE. IHIE inform DfT on road engineering issues, signs etc.

Both Spider and AG feel that, as agreed at the 2002 AGC, this should be executed as any ordinary campaign with Groups/Regions lobbying/liaising etc. with their local Councils and referring them to the relevant person in Bristol City Council who implemented Anti-slip Manhole Covers in the new development of Bristol City Centre.

However, AG felt that it was up to the relevant Bristol MAG members who had liaised with Bristol City Council to put together guidelines to help Regions/Groups. AG felt that if this was not done a) nothing further would happen and b) we couldn’t moan if it didn’t.

AG passed onto Spider Rich Stiling’s mobile number for him to contact etc.

AG happy to put together if given notes, guidance etc.

Stuart/Andy

Anne

AG wished it to be noted that there is some damage to the big Rally marquees which may need rectifying after GWR. Bill to make a note when these are put up at the beginning of the Rally. Damage, so far as she remembered, was restricted to the end pieces.

Di happy to stitch if that is what is required.

Committee will review after GWR

Bill

Di

All

Meeting close at 1645

August 12^th. October 14^th. December 9^th.