There was a good turn out for the club AGM on Wednesday evening. Thanks to all those who braved the weather to attend.
Desi welcomed everyone, and opened the meeting with a debate on the objectives of the club, as suggested in a recent article. The conclusions were –
- Club runs, the Tour of Strangford Sportive and our club race program are our most popular activities with members, and we should continue to develop and grow them;
- We have a long history of promoting excellent open races, and we should continue with our current events (Tour of Ards, Champions of Champions 25 and the Town Centre races);
- Seven or eight members expressed interested in riding open road races. There was also a feeling that we should do more to encourage females. We will try to develop these two areas next year;
- Growing our underage membership, and resurrecting an Ards CC stage race were also identified as things we’d like to do in the future, but are not priorities in the short term.
Desi then presented his Chairman’s Report. He reflected on a great year for the club, and mentioned the Giro, the growing turnouts at club races and the success of the club runs as particular highlights.
Desi (chairman), Lindsay (secretary), Melissa (assistant secretary), Gwen (treasurer), Dany (PRO) Maggie (Social sec), Marie and John A. all stood down. The meeting thanked them for all their hard work – the recent growth in the club is in no small way thanks to their efforts.
The following people were elected –
- President – Billy Kirk
- Chairman – John Carty
- Secretary – Gareth Murray
- Assistant secretary – Graham Brown
- Treasurer – Con Russell
- Public Relations Officer – no-one was elected to this position on the committee, but Dany, James and Alastair all offered to continue to help out.
- Child Protection Officer – David McNally
- Social Secretary – Paul McMinn (non-committee)
- Other Committee Members – Darren Colville, Paul Cunningham, Bernard McCluskey
Non-committee positions –
- Time keepers – Ron Martin, Bobby Magreechan, Dany Blondeel, Paul Robinson
- Auditor – Richard Hanna
- First Aid Officer – to be confirmed.
Dany, Richard, Desi and Alastair offered to continue supporting where needed but could not commit to a position on the committee.
It was agreed that we should try to get more members vetted and trained in child protection – David will investigate this. We should also try to train more first aiders, to cover club races and club runs – Con offered to look into this. Watch out for more information on both of these in the New Year.
It was agreed to keep membership fees fixed at £15 for Seniors, £5 for Under 18 and anyone in full time education, and £1 for non cycling members. Club race entry fees were also unchanged at £2 for seniors (£3 for visitors) and 50p for Under 18 and fte (£2 for visitors).
Next up was a discussion on whether the club should register with the NI Charities Commission as a Community Amateur Sports Club or as a Charity. The issue wasn’t clear, and the incoming committee were urged to seek guidance from Cycling Ulster.
Thanks to some sterling work in the background, Richard was able to confirm our open event dates for 2015. These are Tour of Ards (Sat. 14/3), Champion of Champions 25 (Sun. 17/5), Town Centre Races (Wed 17/6) and the Tour of Strangford (Sun 13/9).
The club race calendar was also discussed. It will be largely the same as this year, but the committee were asked to consider safety changes to the Orlock road race circuit (to use Stockbridge Road, and to finish at the brow of Orlock hill), to consider a different 10mile course, and to consider adding a 6th road race to the calendar (while bearing in mind that the Tuesday evening club runs are also popular, so we don’t want to lose any of them!)
Thanks again to everyone for their positive input, and for reading this far. Good luck to the new committee in 2015 – may the wind be on your backs!